Business plan for the Quasar Lazar Family Fun Entertainment Center

Business Plan Recreation and Leisure

Business image

The following pages focus on providing an overview on starting up a new family entertainment center, called the Quasar Lazar Family Fun Entertainment Center, which will be referred to as the Lazar Tag Facility.

In order to best understand how the new family entertainment center will be positioned, one must first be presented the general image. The Lazar Tag Facility will incorporate all activities and products offered by family entertainment centers in general. Also, the new facility aims at slightly developing this range of activities, by conducting significant research and development projects in order to find out what other activities customers would like to have at the Lazar Tag Facility.

However, given the fact that family entertainment centers' customers are usually characterized by traditionalism, the Lazar Tag Facility will introduce new special activities and offers during an extended period of time, so that customers will not be confused by the new offer.

Regarding the financial aspect, the prices of Lazar Tag Facility's products and services will be medium, and in some cases medium to high. This way, customers will expect and receive high quality products and services for the fees they are charged. This will help create a differentiated image of Lazar Tag Facility in the mind of customers. This will further lead to creating customer loyalty, which will be extremely important in certain cases.

2. Legal form of the new business

When starting up a new business, one must carefully decided the legal form of the business, as this will significantly affect the course of the business' activity and its owners. In this case there are three possible variant of legal form: limited liability company (LLC), limited liability partnership (LLP), and location-based entertainment (LBE).

In the case of the Lazar Tag facility it is recommended to register the new business as a limited liability company. A limited liability company, or an LLC, is one of the most flexible legal forms. The LLC is particularly suitable for small businesses. In this case, business owners have limited liability for the actions and debt of the business (Wikipedia, 2008). In other words, "a limited liability company (LLC) is an entity formed under state law by filing articles of organization as an LLC. Unlike a partnership, none of the members of an LLC are personally liable for its debts. An LLC may be classified for Federal income tax purposes as if it were a sole proprietorship (referred to as an entity disregarded as separate from its owner), a partnership, or a corporation (IRS, 2008).

3. Marketing

Geographical area

The Lazar Tag Facility will be located in the City of Flagstaff, the county seat of Coconino County, Arizona. Flagstaff was named No. 2 on the Best Places to Live list in 2005 by Men's Journal, and it was included in the 10 Great Towns That Will Make You Feel Young list by National Geographic (Wikipedia, 2008).

Regarding the industry of Flagstaff, the tourism sector is very developed, due to the Grand Canyon National Park, Oak Creek Canyon, and other landscapes. The demographics percentage increase for Coconino County in the past few decades was the following: in 1950: 50.8%, in 1960: 137.7%, in 1970: 43.4%, in 1980: 33%, in 1990: 32%, and in 2000: 15.3% (Wikipedia, 2008).

The continuous economic development, the city flourishing tourism activity, and the city increasing demographics represent ideal present conditions and future opportunities for starting up a family entertainment center in Flagstaff.

Competitive advantage

In this case, the competitive advantage of the new family entertainment center consists in the balance between price and quality, and product diversification. As mentioned above, the Lazar Tag Facility's products and services' prices will range between medium in most cases to high in the case of special services.

The quality of the products and services provided by the Lazar Tag Facility is expected to be high, so that customers will be completely satisfied and will come back in many occasions. Also mentioned above, one must take into consideration the diversification of products and services that the Lazar Tag Facility is preparing for its customers. At this family entertainment center customers will find services that other centers do not provide.

4. Industry profile

In the United States, the recreation and leisure industry has tremendously developed and diversified over the past few decades. The same trend characterizes the amusement industry across the world. The history of this industry speaks clearly on this industry's future: between the 1920s and the 1960s, recreation and leisure parks basically consisted in "small entertainment facilities, which offered limited amusement attractions, rides or recreational activities, were developed in areas usually in close proximity to themed amusement parks and regional resort areas" (Hix, 2006).

After this, small amusement facility operators began to understand that these activities were not enough to keep people coming and to attract even more customers. As a consequence, these operators started combine several amusement elements into one facility. As a result, the following attractions were included in these facilities: miniature golf, go-karts, and arcade games.

The strategy turned out to be extremely successful, and these new facilities became to be considered distinct market segments within the amusement industry worldwide. The number of customers is continuously increasing ever since, and so does the number of hours spent by each visitor each time they visit their favorite amusement park.

However, miniature gold, go-karts, and arcade games are not enough in order to attract new customers nowadays. The latest amusement consists in the laser tag. This is currently an industry niche, but the number of laser tag facilities increases significantly, and quite soon, the laser tag will be a respected market segment within the amusement park industry.

5. Attracting customers

One of the most important and also one of the most difficult actions that must be taken by any start-up company in the beginning of the business consists in attracting customers. The entire success of the future business relies on attracting a large base of customers from the beginning. Afterwards, this basis can be expanded, and the initial customers can become loyal customers for a very long period of time.

In our case, the Lazar Tag Facility will focus on its competitive advantage for attracting the initial customers. As mentioned above, the facility's competitive advantage consists in a good balance between price and quality for the provided products and services and the diversity of the offer.

Pricing

As mentioned above, the Lazar Tag Facility's services will not be cheap. The price will range from medium for most products and services to high for special offers. In order to provide high quality products and services for its customers, the center must invest important amounts of money into this business. As a consequence, the fees charged for the center's services will be medium to high. However, in order to attract as much customers as possible from the beginning, the center will be forced into providing its potential customers certain discounts, bonuses, and various promotions for certain services.

6. Selling to customers

The new Lazar Tag Facility will only employ customer-oriented personnel in order to provide its potential customers a quality experience in all areas. Given the fact that the new center addresses all group ages, the center's personnel will have a significant impact on customers' first impression. Customers' behavior towards the Lazar Tag Facility will depend on this first impression. In accordance to this, they will decide if they will come back to this center in case they are satisfied with the quality of the provided service or if they will choose another amusement center for spending their leisure and recreation time. Also, if the customers are not satisfied from the beginning, they will spread the word to their friends, neighbors, and other people. As a consequence, the center will be confronted with a very difficult task in trying to change customers' perception on the center.

7. Customer service policies

The Lazar Tag Facility will treat each customer, no matter his age, with respect, as any valued customer deserves. All customers' needs will be satisfied as fast as possible and with the best quality that the center is determined to provide.

Also, all requests and complaints reported from customers will be seriously treated in the best time frame possible. Also, the phone service is available 24 hours a day. All customer phone complaints will be treated correspondingly.

8. Advertising

Advertising is one of the most important parts of the marketing mix for any company. For a start-up company, advertising is even more important. Given the fact that the Lazar Tag Facility intends to address customers of all ages, the advertising campaign must comprise as much and diversified channels as possible.

Therefore, the center will be advertised through: coupons and handouts, flyers and posters, radio spots, TV ads, and others. Coupons and handouts can be addressed to adults, which my respond better to such kind of advertising. Flyers and posters can be addressed to teenagers, as they can be placed near school, near shops for teenagers, bus stations, and other locations. Also, radio spots and TV ads can be addressed to children and teenagers, given the increased amount of time that these age groups seem to spend in front of the TV. This way, the Lazar Tag Facility can address all targets of customers.

Reference list:

1. Limited Liability Company (2008). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved September 30, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_liability_company.

2. Limited Liability Company (2008). Internal Revenue Service, United States Department of Treasury. Retrieved September 30, 2008 from http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq12-1.html.

3. Flagstaff, Arizona (2008). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved September 30, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagstaff,_Arizona.

4. Hix, Steven (2006). Family Entertainment Center Industry Trends and the Economy. The Miniature Golf Association, United States. Retrieved September 30, 2008 from http://www.mgaus.org/trends%20economy.htm.

5. Family Entertainment Center (2008). White Hutchinson, Leisure & Learning Group. Retrieved September 30, 2008 from http://www.whitehutchinson.com/leisure/familyctr.shtml.