As someone who spent a lot of years doing business consulting for both mature and startup companies I will tell you there are a lot of challenges to what you want to do.
1) Land use plan: You need a lot of land to run a range and a lot more if you want to shoot at long distances. In addition you cannot just build a berm and start banging away. The direction you shoot most likely bullets can cross over someones land. You are going to need some permission for this to happen, they OWN the space above their land and unless you range is completely indoors then you need some kind of an agreement.
2) Financial plan: I saw you said you have what you need and are now going into the building phase. Do you have a business cost and pro forma model. If not then you will never get this off the ground. You need to run the numbers before you do anything, that will tell you whether or not this is a viable business or a charity.
3) Operations plan: How will this operate, daily, weekly, open/closed, how many lanes, where is the Opns shack, will it be a store or just a check in/check out with only a few things for sale like targets, ear protection etc or will it be a full service shop with other gear offered. How does all this operate? which brings us to...
4) Personnel plan: How many folks to run this based upon your ops plan. Full time and part time, cost and benefits. What happens when 2 people call in sick, do you have to shut down or ???
5) Liability exposure: I STRONGLY suggest you contact a company and get some quotes on insurance costs, I think you will be shocked. You would be wise to contact a lawyer now about liability exposure, asset protection (yours) and how you protect yourself in the event of a legal challenge.
I am just skimming the surface, but you have a solid 90 days of work ahead of you before you decide upon the height of the berm. I have written many business plans, some as long as 300+ pages for both myself and my clients. What the plan will tell you is will it make money and what problems I might encounter. If you don't build a plan you will most likely fail even if you are able to get it off the ground.
I wish you luck and hope you are successful...
Thank you for the informative post. I would like to go point by point to address your concerns.
1) I am looking at between 10-15 Acres. I have calculated that the pistol range will occupy about 3.5 acres and the rifle ranges up to 12 acres. I have land available locally, out in the country, at around 5500 an acre. 7500 max. I have never heard of people owning the space above their land but I will have to look into that. I assumed it was public space hence why planes can fly over properties.
2) Financial plan - I have a spreadsheet and a financial plan. I am a commercial construction project manager for my day job. I can whip out a spreadsheet with formulas in no time at all. I am experienced in multifaceted projects with many different types of costs. I have a cost model, a revenue model, and a profit model. Also a start up cost model.
3) Operations plan - this is where I go with what i know which is what everyone else here locally knows and that is the range in the next county over. They have always had a low overhead operation and it has worked out fine. I remember before they had a key card reader at the gate everyone just had the combo to the gate padlock. My operations plan is to be open during daylight hours to the public 7 days a week with maybe 1 weekend a month off for repairs and maintenance and clean up.
4) Personnel plan - Like I said previously, I only go from what I know, and what I know is already a low cost, low overhead plan. It has been working for the other range, which I am a member, for decades. Now in the boom they have hired some help on weekends but the weekdays there is not a single worker on the property. So my personnel needs would be minimal. I plan to contract out things like mowing grass, misc. construction, etc. I have numbers in my operating costs for these tasks.
5) Liability - I am already in contracts with insurance brokers. The broker I spoke with the most said the aspects of my plan I mentioned such as CCTV, waivers at the gate, security cameras, and free/discounts for LEO are all positive in underwriters eyes. Also as far as asset protection, there are some options. For instance, create 3 LLCs, one owns the land, one operates the range, and another is a holding company for profits. None of my personal assets would be exposed and the range is split up into 3 different entities with only the operational entity being liable for any wrongs at the range. Then the assets in question are like the software and security system.
Please don't misunderstand my level of competence. I know it takes work. It takes investigation. Research. Legwork. Not to mention capital. Did I mention I have zero capital? Haha. Its true. But I think capital could be raised in exchange for memberships and discounts. A lot of people want a place to shoot out here thats close by and not a county over. A $10k donation is nothing for an oil company. When I started discussing the height of the berm I was discussing general construction techniques, as this affects cost, which affects the initial investment in the range. The general numbers are identified, I was asking for input on construction designs to narrow down the cost and get into the details. I have estimating software that believe it or not will tell me how much that berm will cost at 8' vs 10'.
Thank you for your response and any follow up to my points is greatly appreciated. I am welcoming all advice. I want an honest discussion with no surprises coming my way in the future (there will always be surprises, but I want as few as possible).