Bowling is a sport enjoyed by millions of people around the world. Like many businesses in recent years, bowling alleys have been affected by our nation’s economic downturn. It is imperative that small town bowling alley owners and managers properly promote themselves and update their services to remain profitable. It is not enough for a bowling alley to only offer bowling. Instead, they must begin to think of themselves as centers of family fun if they want to keep up and increase profits. In this article, I’ll offer some suggestions on what small-town bowling alleys can do to attract customers and maintain positive relationships with them. None of the individual recommendations will dramatically increase a bowling alley’s revenue. However, a combination of all of them should generate significant growth when operating at an optimal level.
1. Sell your lanes
If a center has 15 lanes, then there should be 15 local business signs hanging over the lanes (preferably at the end of the lane). You would be surprised how many companies are willing to do this annually for a small investment. Here’s how to do this: Call the institution you bank with, your accountant, real estate agent, food distributor, and any other businesses the bowling alley routinely works with. Tell them that you will give them a year of advertising for a fixed price of $ 1,000. Of that $ 1,000, you buy the signage and get the rest. The reason the signage is purchased at that rate is so that the owner can decide the dimensions of the sign. If all 15 lanes have a sign on them, then a center will raise $ 15,000 before you buy the signs. All this for doing nothing more than providing the people you work with on a daily basis with a place to advertise.
You can also do something on a smaller scale with the Ball Sweeper. Ball sweepers are at the end of each lane and sweep the pins after each roll.
2. Arcades and awards
In an effort to make the bowling alley a center of family fun, arcade rooms, redeemable prizes, and birthday party packages for kids are needed. Children can burn tokens very quickly, so including video game tokens in the package is money for the center. If a bowling alley does not have video games or redeemable prize machines at its center, they should get them quickly. The more you can pack in the center, the more money the bowling alley will receive. But where can a center go to get video games to put at its center? Video game dealers can provide games, redeemable prize machines, jukeboxes, and even ATMs to bowling alleys with virtually no cost and no maintenance. Once a week, a dealer representative counts the money at the machines, token dealer and / or ATMs. Once the money is counted, they divide it in half with the bowling alley! For little cost and almost no hassle, the business can attract many people with video games for children to play after bowling or during a party. Also, the games and machines are changed every few months to add excitement and attract potential players. As a result, the bowling alley receives a substantial amount of cash with little effort.
3. Nightlife and birthday parties for adults
Alcoholic beverages and bowling go hand in hand. It’s rare to see league bowlers not having a beer or two while they’re rolling. However, why can’t the bowling alley offer a nightlife to adults? This is especially relevant in small towns where there may be a lack of fun after dark. If space is available, bring a DJ and clear a spot for a small dance floor and the crowd will come. Offer to host adult birthday parties in the evening and offer drink specials to partygoers. In addition, adults like to play video games, especially if they are with their friends and have a good time. To ensure responsible drinking is respected, the owner and manager may need to provide security to ensure safety and the ability to properly handle a noisy situation. If this measure is applied, the center will attract the right crowd night after night.
Doing these three things is relatively inexpensive, requires little work, and is ultimately very profitable. Incorporating one of these things into a bowling alley that is currently not doing any of the three will increase revenue. If one center can fold them all together, there is great potential for higher profits.