Taking club private question

[wingnut]

Ok, here's our situation. We have been roaming around for a while using anyplace that will allow us to have 'free' access to a fencing area as long as we teach.

My question is this. For those of you who decided to open up your own fencing club:

• What is the general population in your town/city?
• How many members did you have before you went on your own?
• How much capital was required at startup?
• And how do you advertise and recruit new fencers?

Also, I've been hearing a lot about 'grants'. Does anyone have any experience in using a grant to get started, and where would I find information on this?

Thanks!

[jfarmer]

First thing to do is do a search here on f.net for the numerous threads that have addressed some of your points.

For grant information, wander through the usfencing.org site and you will find the information about applying for grants for clubs. For grants from other sources, Google is your friend...

A fair amount of the information you're asking for about population sizes, etc. can be found through the US census.

As for number of members, by definition, a new club starts with 0 members. You can't count on all of the merry band you currently have to decide to make the jump into a formal club whither it's a non-profit or a for-profit salle.

[TBean]

While the USFA may make grants to for-profit clubs, most other grant-making entities will not. You will need to check that carefully or do the paperwork to become a non-profit.

You may check in your area if the city you live has something along the concepts of "enterprise zones" where they are trying to get businesses to start-up. For placing a business in that area you get breaks on taxes, often better rates on loans etc.