[SplatterHillPB]

Hey Guys and Girls,
I'm thinking about making my field BYOP... The idea is that it will attract more people and in turn I will sell even more paint because more people will be playing the at the field. Any ideas on this?
Thanks so much.
-Kevin
www.SplatterHill.com

[somainevent]

I would agree, but it is up to you. Try doing a BYOB month, september only or october only and see how it goes.

[Commander_Cool]

Ummm,... I am not a field owner, but I am a business student and relatively intelligent. I think you will lose money by doing this, unless you increase the the admission price, and charge a fee for using outside paint (this sort of negates the incentive people have to play there due to decreased cost of playing).

You would be better off selling a mid priced paint (65-85 dollars a case) and a low priced paint (25-60 dollars a case), and having your field, FPO. The reason is the increase in players (and current regular players) will buy their paint online or ar "big box" retailers since they can sell as a lower price (because they buy in larger volumes, or have lower overhead). This means you won't be getting money from new players for paint, and old players or those who play infrequently might play more, but buy paint from elsewhere (which still means a decrease in profits for you).

By offering inexpensive paint people will have the financial incentive to play at your field more often, but you will be the one selling the paint, not someone else (internet or big box retailer).

Actually by offering lower priced paint you might increase your profits... (increase the # of cases you sell even at a lower dollar amount or smaller mark-up % = more $$, and increased volume = less cost per case). Additionally you might end up undercutting other local FPO field, if you offer cheap paint, that they might not be able to compete with (or at least might take time to implement such a policy).

[theskater101388]

we do byop at our field there is just a 5 dollar charge, our entry is 25 bux though on top of that too so we still come out with decent money even if they btop, we get a lot of people coming to us saying they had left over paint from somewhere else and couldnt use it at their closer field because it was fpo, so it def. does attract business. depending on what your entry fee is you could even charge like 10 bux if they want to do byop, that way it will basically come out to the same price if they were to buy your paint or if they were to buy cheaper paint and then have the 10 dollar charge on top of that. granted you wont be getting the profit if you sold them a case, atleast you get something for them byop'ing, and will attract new customers.

[DbDBlackJack]

You could do a BYOP annual membership.

Set up a 5 or 10 dollar fee and waive it if they buy some FPO paint. Lets say they buy 500 rnds, you waive the fee.

Other than doing a BYOP month, try having a BYOP day, one day a week... see how that goes.

GL to you.

[Fiszaj]

Before making such a big change, begin with small steps. If you believe there are players in your area who could come out to play on a weekday, introduce a BYO paint day on a wednesday or do it on the first sunday of the month. Advertise is as much as possible together with your paint pricing. Look at the numbers, look at your paint prices, run a poll with the customers but treat that data as secondary. Know your competition and your surroundings. Think everything over a couple times.

Alternatively, introduce a BYO paint fee, and repeat the steps above.

[generalee72]

I have always preferred BYOP fields, due to the fact that alot of FPO fields (that I ever visited) overcharged for the paint they were selling. That was always my contention with FPO. I understood the business "need" for FPO and I have always preferred to support the field I play at but being forced to pay $60 for a case of midnight just made me feel dirty on the inside........

As an aspiring field owner I too have researched the issue of FPO or BOYP. I would prefer to open a BYOP field, because thats what like in a field, but I haven't yet committed to either one. In my contemplation of which to do I did come to one thing that I think you should keep in mind. Do one or the other, I wouldn't try to do FPO with a fee or charge for BYOP, just due to the tracking of who did or didn't pay the fee.

My plan will prob. be to run the field as FPO, then have a "Tourny" day or night, that it will be regular fees but BYOP. With any luck it should keep a good # of people happy, and hopefully it will consolidate all of the "Tourny" players together so the are less active with walkon groups.

[[Pba]-[Baller]]

Dont my field charges 80 a case lmao.

[Venom 13]

We have been a BYOP field since our start in 1995. We have never charged any extra for outside paint. You will make up your paint money with more admissions and better word of mouth advertising. Since there are far less BYOP fields it gets around the area quickly. In the last two years we stopped allowing the "bucket paint" b/c it damaged the finish on bunkers and the airball fields. We also slightly lowered our paint prices so people would be more likely to buy our paint anyway. Give people the choice...it will work out, resulting in more players/money.
-Matt

[generalee72]

Side note: the last field I worked at did have a FPO policy for rental guns.

If people are renting and shooting $20/case [bucket] paint in them, most of the time they will place blame on the equipment for being bad instead of the crap paint they bought. You don't want [new/rental] people walking away dissatisfied with the experience due to a mistake they made and don't know about.

[eforcegtid00d]

Try running 1-2 BYOP days a week. After a month or two, get a calculator out and determine if you are making more money with the BYOP program than the normal FPO policy.

Keep in mind that at $20-$25 entry for BYOP and air, the only people that truly benefit from it are those that shoot more than a case per outing or have paint sponsors. That is, assuming your paint is reasonably priced.

[JoeBaller18]

do a BYOP on a tuesday or something to try to bring more ppl in on a useually quite day. but overall if u buy the paint for 50 then sell it at the ur field for 60 u make 10 bucks for every case some1 buys

[stray traffic]

I don't have a problem with FPO if their is decent paint from $30-$40 a case, though I have yet to find a field that offered at competitive prices, so I'll continue to search out BYOP fields.

[Reddawg]

I'm thinking of it too. (10 year FPO)
If you are only making $10 on a case of Paint and $10 on entry including air.
(We fill 1 tank all day per player)
You gross $20 - cost of air or CO2 (not much per player)
If you charge $15 BYOP you make less on players that would buy a case you make about the same on players buying less then a case.
But might bring more players so it might be better.
I have teams we somewhat sponsor and have practice and charge $10 BYOP
It did bring players in.
It's a hard to know the outcome.
Right know we are thinking of a 1 day per month to see what happens.

[SnareTan]

Some insurance companies require you to be FPO, you might want to check into that before you switch. Assuming your average customer plays paintball once or twice a year, I don't think they'll really care if they get charged more for paint at your field then they would at walmart. The only people that would complain would be the whiners. I like the idea of opening a BYOP during the week to try to get more people to come to the field.


Tan

[Venom 13]

Originally Posted by generalee72

Side note: the last field I worked at did have a FPO policy for rental guns.

If people are renting and shooting $20/case [bucket] paint in them, most of the time they will place blame on the equipment for being bad instead of the crap paint they bought. You don't want [new/rental] people walking away dissatisfied with the experience due to a mistake they made and don't know about.

I forgot to mention that aswell. We are FPO on our rental gun. Everything else is BYOP.

[Tom?]

Yeah my field is really cheap and thats why I play there, for the average baller we can't pay 50+ for a case and 30 for entry, my field charges 7 for field fee and 6 for all day air byop. FPO is only a good idea when you sell paint for an affordable price.

[WhiteRiverPaintball]

I'm going to add some totally contrary points of view here:

#1 - BYOP only works for tourney oriented fields. This doesn't mean that FPO doesnt work for tourney oriented fields as well, but that's the only place I've seen it "work" long-term and be "semi-viable".

#2 - In line with the statement above, there are very, very few fields who make a "profit" doing tourney only paintball.

#3 - When you switch to BYOP, it is very damn hard to switch back should you ever decide to.

#4 - When you are BYOP, you lose a large portion of control in regards to your safety and quality of paintball experience. This doesn't mean that people WILL get hurt, but rather that people are more apt to get hurt or be dissatisfied.

#5 - There are 3 types of players:
a - newbie
b - regular
c - tourney
The players are more profitable at the top and less at the bottom. Tourney players do 90% of the talking in this sport (hence all of the posts advocating BYOP) and compose roughly 5% of the players in this sport.

#6 - Tourney players play 20 times as much as the average player per year, translating into far more player days per player (days played every year by one player).

But, you make far less profit from each tourney player each time they play compared to newbies and regulars.

THE POINT:

BYOP is a bad business decision when it is offered to newbie and reuglar players. It CAN be a good decision when offered to tourney players.

The long and short is this - BYOP fields make far less profit per player and have less control over safety and quality of play. Profit is important in this business if paintball is to grow as a sport.

Less profit = less fields = less exposure, marketing, and paintball games played.

Of course, there are extremes within the realm of fields "raping" their customers on price, but that's why we live in a freely competetive economy where one business can charge less/more than the next.

But, eventually, price cutting/byop for the sake of cost can go too far and all were doing is cutting our own throats.

[Tom?]

Well my field is very woodsball oriented, they only have 1 speedball field(xball) but I would rather go to that place the the nice field trauma practices down the street, I don't want to spend 50 on x-ball bronze that says pbc on it.

[Venom 13]

[quote=WhiteRiverPaintball;39652598]I'm going to add some totally contrary points of view here:

#1 - BYOP only works for tourney oriented fields. This doesn't mean that FPO doesnt work for tourney oriented fields as well, but that's the only place I've seen it "work" long-term and be "semi-viable".

#2 - In line with the statement above, there are very, very few fields who make a "profit" doing tourney only paintball.

#3 - When you switch to BYOP, it is very damn hard to switch back should you ever decide to.

#4 - When you are BYOP, you lose a large portion of control in regards to your safety and quality of paintball experience. This doesn't mean that people WILL get hurt, but rather that people are more apt to get hurt or be dissatisfied.QUOTE]

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I disagree with #1 : We are about a 60% rec-player and 40% tournament player facility. It depends on the time of the year, but that is roughly the numbers. In winter we see the rec-ballers at all time highs 75%. Our BYOP policy works well with the format all throughout the year. The first-time participants usually know nothing about paintball and don't even consider bringing in outside paint. Plus, they have none of their own equipment, so they use ours which puts them in the FPO in our rental markers. No exceptions.

I agree with #2: Rec-ballers are your bread and butter.

I agree with #3: If you plan on going to BYOP, you will have very disgruntalled customers when the switch happens. They will use the fact that they "didn't know, could it slide this once...now we'll have to cancel the outing and go home. " Avoid that by making sure you plan to stick with BYOP...have a game plan.

I disagree with #4: Refs are there to enforce the rules regarding masks. If anything th paint will be old and soft resulting in the customer's marker malfunctioning while our rentals fire great. The customer may end up buying your paint after all. Note: We don't alow bucket paint, managers and refs are on constant watch for that paint. Also, any paint brought in, must be examined...random checks happen throughout the day.

These are just my opinions for the thread starter, just to give some balance.

-Matt

[Paint and Air]

Originally Posted by eforcegtid00d

Try running 1-2 BYOP days a week. After a month or two, get a calculator out and determine if you are making more money with the BYOP program than the normal FPO policy.

Keep in mind that at $20-$25 entry for BYOP and air, the only people that truly benefit from it are those that shoot more than a case per outing or have paint sponsors. That is, assuming your paint is reasonably priced.

QFT