Looking for a Partner in Business

[Silkdashocker]

Originally Posted by CTMountaineer

Will they be replacing the WV Power? If not, will the market support two minor league teams? Good luck with the endeavor!

Who said anything about minor leagues, CT? Our plan is to jump straight into Major League Baseball, and compete for the NL East pennant our very first season.
We already have a field at SAHS, and will just do some expansion to the seats. Thinking of just throwing up a few temporary aluminum seats down the foul poles to bring capacity up to 3k. If we sell out every game we will at least be keeping up with the Pirates in attendance.
I'm in negotiations with Network WV for a tv deal, and WQBE is looking to broadcast our 81 game home slate to listeners here in the Kanawha Valley.
Mastadon Nation is upon you!

[BrianJonesJones]

I'm looking for about a dozen young ladies that would like to work at my "Dancer Bar".
They can earn $1.00 at a time while i make a killing off of drinks.

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by Silkdashocker

Who said anything about minor leagues, CT? Our plan is to jump straight into Major League Baseball, and compete for the NL East pennant our very first season.
We already have a field at SAHS, and will just do some expansion to the seats. Thinking of just throwing up a few temporary aluminum seats down the foul poles to bring capacity up to 3k. If we sell out every game we will at least be keeping up with the Pirates in attendance.
I'm in negotiations with Network WV for a tv deal, and WQBE is looking to broadcast our 81 game home slate to listeners here in the Kanawha Valley.
Mastadon Nation is upon you!

The Pirates have always had attendance issues, but they have a huge tv audience, are in a large market, and a long established fixture in the major leagues. I know the family that owns the Pirates franchise (they are from Wheeling), and they are incredibly rich, owning several newspapers in West Virginia, New York, and elsewhere as well as 7 Springs Resort. They seem to be doing fine with the Pirates due to tv and novelty sales revenue.

You have a really tough job ahead of you in establishing such a program in a small town market, but you are certainly a bright and talented young man, so who knows? I just know I went to a Charleston Charlies game once (I was in Charleston for a few days on business and there wasn't anything else to do) and there were like 15 fans there... no kidding.

[BrianJonesJones]

If Pittsburgh is such a large market, why dont they have an NBA team?

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by BrianJonesJones

If Pittsburgh is such a large market, why dont they have an NBA team?

Probably better said Pittsburgh is a medium market ... 3 million or so counting surrounding areas in West Virginia, Ohio, and Maryland. I don't know... the Steelers get great support there as do the Penguins, and the Pirates seem to be doing okay although their attendance has always been problematic.
But the 'Burgh market is not large compared with most of the other major league cities. It is, however, about 10 to 15 times larger than the Charleston market.

[Silkdashocker]

Originally Posted by CTMountaineer

Probably better said Pittsburgh is a medium market ... 3 million or so counting surrounding areas in West Virginia, Ohio, and Maryland. I don't know... the Steelers get great support there as do the Penguins, and the Pirates seem to be doing okay although their attendance has always been problematic.
But the 'Burgh market is not large compared with most of the other major league cities. It is, however, about 10 to 15 times larger than the Charleston market.

With all due respect CT, and you know i think your the greatest. But if you counted Charleston's surrounding areas of Ohio, KY in it's MSA, then it would be about 1/3 of Pitt'sburgh's market. There are still over 200k people in Kanahwa County alone, and if you added Putnam, Jackson, Huntington, Ashland, Ironton, Portsmouth, Beckley, Madison, Logan,Parkersburg, and Marrietta into Charleston's metro area like you did for a similar sized area for Pittsburgh, you'd have probably 1 million folks in that figure.

Charleston is a small market, but it's in the top 100 media markets in the USA, i believe Hun/Chas is ranked 65th in media market size. Pittsburg is ranked #23 respectively. Huntington-Charleston is suprisingly ranked ahead of some metro area's you would think to have more households.

DMA Rankings - US TV Households by Market

[harborlady]

Originally Posted by Hopeful22

Just a update. I want to thank everyone who has remarked here. Like I said when there is a will there is a way. We have decide to just buy several acres of ground and open a outdoor flea market for now and than add a building on it next year. We have the backing for the property and this week we are going out to look at several properties. I will udate date this when the market will open. Should be March or April.

I'm hoping you'll take this criticism with the intended spirit to prevent hitting a pot hole. Not all of us are naysayers who know nothing about business or are just hoping to see someone fail out of retarded jealousy (or whatever).

I think it's a very good idea to scale back your plans. Part of the problem you have in this moment is that you have no track record or established biz. You won't be getting a loan and if you ask while you're unqualified in what amounts to be a very small world (banks and credit agencies are close kin in a small world) they're likely to keep denying you before you even fill out the forms.

Three run gave sound advice about small biz admin. assistance. Honestly, they totally suck. About the most useless organization I pay for in government taxes. The only good they do is make people wise as to how they're presenting themselves to the banking community, and particularly, how to write a business plan with professional demeanor. Think of it as coaching. Practical advice from them? Never happen! Keep your expectations of them low and you'll be OK.

Think in terms of selling them on the idea of starting this business and have answers in your hand. Expect they will be hyper critical. Have an answer to every criticism. This is training wheels for courting investors down the road. It's also a resource you can consult about how to handle book keeping & taxes or establish what kind of company structure you'll have (LLC, partnerships, publicly held or private ownership etc).

Start small and keep your eye on steady growth. Too many small biz people get crushed when they stretch themselves too thin financially. Dreams not materializing fast enough overriding sensible attitudes toward money is a very tempting trap. Problems aren't solved by throwing more money at it kind of thing.

My advice to you, before talking about money, is to do your homework about your customers. Even if your customers will be vendors, they have customers too... be VERY certain you understand them and focus on making sure the right products are on hand to satisfy an already established demand. Easier to go about biz that way than to push a rock uphill selling people on things they don' need, or worse, require an education to want ($$$$$ advertising).

You have the option now while not committed to babysitting a business to attend adult ed courses- or even better- community college courses in business administration. You're more likely to get the practical assessment advice from a professor who befriends you in school than you will anywhere else. Outside those walls in the larger biz community you're a competitor and there's little incentive for them to help you, only to sell YOU products and services that you don't need or want. Your business could be your term paper kind of thing. See?

Given one wish to apply to all people, I would wish everyone would be able to learn from mistakes small on paper or from others before having to walk the whole road the hard way. I hope I've helped. Good luck.

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by Silkdashocker

With all due respect CT, and you know i think your the greatest. But if you counted Charleston's surrounding areas of Ohio, KY in it's MSA, then it would be about 1/3 of Pitt'sburgh's market. There are still over 200k people in Kanahwa County alone, and if you added Putnam, Jackson, Huntington, Ashland, Ironton, Portsmouth, Beckley, Madison, Logan,Parkersburg, and Marrietta into Charleston's metro area like you did for a similar sized area for Pittsburgh, you'd have probably 1 million folks in that figure.

Charleston is a small market, but it's in the top 100 media markets in the USA, i believe Hun/Chas is ranked 65th in media market size. Pittsburg is ranked #23 respectively. Huntington-Charleston is suprisingly ranked ahead of some metro area's you would think to have more households.

DMA Rankings - US TV Households by Market

Silk, ... I don't doubt that if you count Huntington, Ashland, KY, and Southeast Ohio as being in the Charleston area it would be 1/3 as big as Pittsburgh. And, as to those other areas you would think larger, remember many of them actually are right up against other large population centers, so who belongs to what center can become very blurred indeed. How would you differentiate, for example, whether many Maryland towns should be lumped with DC or Baltimore or New Jersey towns with NYC or Newark? The result is rather arbitrary disignations. Hartford, CT is certainly counted as its own area although in reality many people there work in New York City.

I hope you are right, that the Charleston area would support a major league team. I was just playing Devil's advocate. There is definitely no major league or (top level) professional sports team anywhere even remotely close to that region, so who knows? You might want to talk with the Nutting family in Wheeling for advice (Pittsburgh Pirates). They are very nice people and approachable, I would think, for advice. Good luck with the endeavor. If you pull this off, does that mean I can stop by and visit with you and HerdGirl for a couple cold ones at the owner's VIP lounge?

[Silkdashocker]

lol, CT, you know i'm just joking about an MLB franchise in SA don't ya?

I told HerdGirl i was talking to you on here, she said to tell you hi. She doesn't think an MLB team would work here either, and shot down my pipe dream.

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by Silkdashocker

lol, CT, you know i'm just joking about an MLB franchise in SA don't ya?

I told HerdGirl i was talking to you on here, she said to tell you hi. She doesn't think an MLB team would work here either, and shot down my pipe dream.

To tell you the truth, I don't think you could start up a new franchise in Pittsburgh and get it to work. Like much of West Virginia, they have experienced job and population loss. It's just that they have been established for so long there their following is substantial enough to keep them going. That, and there is an almost unbelievable amount of "old money" in all those steel towns up there, from Pittsburgh to Youngstown to Steubenville to Wheeling. Investments in ancillary businesses, advertising, and television make it work there.