A growth plan · Richmond, VA

You already built
a membership
business.

~200 members × $150/mo. Dues already out-earn events about 2 to 1. Here's the plan to reach 500, then 1,000.

A plan from your team · Built on your numbers

Black Iris · The Full Picture
MONTHLY · EST.

Events revenue~$15,000

Bar & kitchen (net)smaller · unclear

the line with the most upside

Membership dues~$30,000

200 members × $150 / morecurring

Bigger lineMembers

recurring · high-margin · compounding

01 · The upside

The room is already full. The growth is turning them into members.

Hundreds of the right people come through every month, events, Art Walk, the bar
Same $150 a month, more members. The goal roughly triples the base.

Today

200

members

Monthly dues~$30K

Annual dues~$360K

The goal

500

members · +300

Added / month+$45K

Added / year+$540K

Initiations+$150K

The stretch

1,000

members · +800

Added / month+$120K

Added / year+$1.44M

Initiations+$400K

02 · The pilot · start here

Start small, warm, and easy to try.

At tab close, the bartender offers membership
Waive the $500 signup, discount month one, tonight's tab comes off it
Run 60 days, watch the real conversion rate together

~$2,800member LTV

~$200cost to acquire

~14:1LTV : CAC · vs 3:1 healthy

Target 3% of tabs join · ~4–5 members / month from the bar · near-zero cost

Black Iris · Tab #0421
CLOSE-OUT · WED 9:47 PM

2× Old Fashioned24.00

Cigar, house select22.00

Kitchen, small plate9.00

Tab total55.00

member offer tonight

Signup fee500.00

Waived0.00

First month (–50%)-75.00

Tonight's tab applied-55.00

Due to join$20

then $150 / month · cancel anytime

03 · The plan · what we do, and when

I

Bar close-out welcome

Offer membership at tab close, the perfect moment.The pilot

II

Bartenders as a sales force

Commission split at signup and month three, so pay rewards members who stay.

III

Frictionless signup

60-second mobile signup. Let the space speak, not the signage.

IV

Members' reservation platform

Turns the quiet 9–5 space, 10,000 sq ft, into a bookable product.

V

Outreach & targeted ads

High-fit Richmond list, pro photography, Instagram & Facebook ads.

VI

Corporate seat packages

Annual seat blocks as perks. One call lands ten members.

VII

Members bring members

A free month for referring a friend who stays three months, so we only reward referrals that stick, and members give the tours themselves.

Phase 0

Weeks 1–8

Measure & prove

Phase 1

Months 2–4

Build the engine

Phase 2

Months 4–9

Reposition & scale

Phase 3

Months 9+

Compound toward 1,000

04 · The repositioning

Not a rebrand. A sharper answer to who it's for.

Name, mark, arts identity, voice all stay
From a room you visit to a network you belong to
67% of members report a business deal came from membership

Where it started

"A cigar lounge and social club, a cool space to drink, smoke, and hang out."

Where it's going

"Richmond's home base for builders and creatives: a curated network, plus the space to work, meet, host, and belong."

05 · What we're asking

Let us run with this.

The autonomy to lead membership growth. The first step is small and easy to try:

Pull the real Phase-0 numbers from Stripe & PassFactory, together.
A 60-day green light on the bar close-out pilot + bartender commission.
Let us tidy up the signup flow and the room.

If it lands, we scale into the full plan, owning it and reporting back. Same club, same vibe, more of the right members.

Let's run the 60-day pilot.

Black Iris Social Club · 321 West Broad St, Richmond VA · a plan from your team

Figures are the owners' rough estimates; conversion, churn & CAC are modeled from cited benchmarks and labeled as projections. Phase 0 replaces them with real data before any spend. Full math & sources in the strategy docs.