May 8, 2017

Meet Michael Abner of Quicktime Go Kart Raceway

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Abner.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I worked in the oil and gas industry for 30 years. My wife worked in the healthcare industry for 25 years. When the United States economy declined in 2010 we both lost are jobs within two months of each other. At the age of 50 we faced several challenges founding new jobs in a decreasing work force and younger workers with lower salary expectations. We had to use our 401 K funds to manage our house hold expenses while pursuing new career opportunities. In 2011 I started as a professor of business at DeVry University Keller School of business. In 2015 the school announced that it was closing its Houston location. It was at this point in our life that my wife realized that we needed to go into business for ourselves. We both had obtained MBA’s s degrees (Mike also has a JD) so we realized we needed to start are own business.

We prayed for God’s direction on starting our business. Once day while researching business options we found both interesting, profitable and fun our grandchildren asked if we would take them out for some fun. We began searching for places near our home that were reasonable in price. We did not find any place that met our needs. It was at that moment we realized that many other people might be looking for family centered places for outings. We spent numerous months researching the market and decided that we would open QuickTime Go Kart Raceway and Family Event Center in the heart of Houston Urban growing neighborhood.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The first challenge was getting finances to start the business. I was out of work from teaching. Despite having a strong well developed business plan no bank would give us a loan. We had to use our savings to finance the business 100 percent. The second challenge was finding a place that had space for a family event center and grounds to build the go kart raceway. Turning an adult daycare center into a family event center was no easy task. Converting a wooded field into a go kart track proved to a difficult task.

Start-up cost was 25% more than we budget and for the second time in five years we had to dip back into the 401 K plan to get the required funds to open the business.

We purchases 7 go karts only to learn that the go karts we purchased were for indoor tracks and we were an outdoor go kart track. We took a huge lost selling them and having to rebuy the proper go karts.

The final challenge was getting customers. Thanks to help of our daughter Nicole who developed a marketing plan for us and a social media footprint customers quickly found us on social media.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a business that is welcoming to people of all cultures and economic back grounds. We are a minority owned business that reinvests into the local community. We opened on May 31, 2016 as a go kart family event center to provide fun for the entire family. We specialize in children parties designing the each event to me the needs of the child.

What were you like growing up?
My wife and I bought grew up in the inner city blue collar families whose parents that believe in God, family, and hard work. I was an outgoing child interested in sports and competition. This later earned me a full basketball scholarship to American University in Washington D.C. My Estelle, was a studious hard working caring person who loved people especially children which earned her an academic scholarship to American University where we met. Our similar values of God, Family and helping people let to marriage. We both serve on the missionary’s team at Lilly Grove Missionary Baptist Church. We have made 12 trips to Haiti in recent years.

Pricing:

Adult go kart pricing $7.50 for 5 laps
Children go kart pricing $6.25 for 5 laps
Child birthday parties $175 for 10 guest, hot dogs, drink and go kart rides
Rental space for events (i.e. baby showers/team celbrations church lockin ) $100 per hour

Contact Info: