The Future of Gun Clubs...
There was a recent thread on Trapshooters.com about all the gun clubs which have closed in recent years. I was somwhat amazed at the number. Many, of course, closed due to urban sprawl. Others just seemed to fade away...sometimes not that they are not being used...they simply lost money and closed.
I talk with all kinds of gun club owners and managers every day as part of my job here at Target Shotguns, Inc. We sell a lot of different equipment to them and service a lot of their equipment. During my discussions with them I ask some questions like "How many targets do you buy every year?" and " What is your target loss percentage?". Inevitably, the most successful club managers can almost tell me to the target how many they buy, how many they throw from each discipline and what their loss percentage (targets not paid for..) is. The clubs that are on the fence financially are also almost always on the "honor" system or have no idea what inventory management is all about.
As an example, a modest sized club throwing 375,000 targets a year having tight controls and making money will have a target loss in the 6% range. Amazingly they are still not being paid for 22,500 targets! However if those targets are budgeted for in the cost of a round of trap, skeet, sporting clays or 5 Stand, the clubs are in fact getting paid for them...just indirectly as a cost of doing business added to the shooting fee.
Take the same club with NO target management (inventory control) and the unpaid target average will typically jump to about 17%! Now we are talking about 63,750 (That's right! sixty three thousand, seven hundred fifty!!) unpaid targets. 41,250 more unpaid targets than the club throwing the same number of targets with a target management system in place. With an average price of a target at $.10 each....that means the club paid out over $4000.00 more for targets AND, more importantly, did not receive another $4000 in revenue for the club! Now, I don't know about your club, but I'll guarantee you that mine could use another $8000 in the bank at the end of the year! Thats a new PatTrap, 1/2 the cost of building a new field, 3 new Sporting machines, a complete 5 stand management system or even one heck of a Christmas Party!
The point being that in today's world, gun clubs have to be managed like a real business. ( You don't think WalMart or KMart have loose cost and inventory controls...) Keeping the doors open on small clubs is the key to surviveability of both the clubs and the shotgun sports in general.
We offer a complete integrated RFID card pay system called TARGET MANAGER. It allows your club members to pre-pay for their shooting. Your club has a record of the transaction on a computer log with the easy to use software we provide. Your guests can be issued a pre-loaded card in exchange for their car keys or driver license and they can settle up when you read the card after they shoot.
Members and guests swipe their card on the reader at the shooting venue they choose and the appropriate number of targets and a couple extras are deducted from their card and loaded into the Target Manager on the field. When they are through, the "extra" targets that are not used will disappear in a few minutes after shooting stops and all the "paid for" targets are used up. The system will not allow more than 8 - 10 targets as extras in the "bank".
Sporting Clays shooters simply put their card in the slot on the Target Manager and shoot the station. As each target is thrown, one target is deducted from the card. Of course pairs will deduct 2.
If your club is loosing targets or would like a simple fun way to increase profits, give us a call or send us an email. Check out EZPull and Target Manager on this website. We're here to help and we can make your club profitable again!
Shoot well!
Bob