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So my friends and I are planning on opening a new gaming store in a little town in MO. We think it's a good area for one (gaming stores are nonexistent out here), especially since there are another 5 towns all within a half hour around us that we can advertise to (we live out in the country). We've all been searching online for possible items to sell, and decided to have a majority of tabletop gaming supplies with game tables set up where we can hold tournaments on the weekends. We're also looking into painting/customizing miniatures and seeing if selling those would be a good idea.
However, with the plight of the economy, we've been having doubts as far as the success of the store. Is it a pipe dream for a bunch of gaming geeks? I'm just looking for advice if there's anything we may have overlooked, besides the risk of opening a store. Any help would be awesomely appreciated!
Depends on if there is a market for games in your area. All the advertising in the world isnt going to help you if no one in your area wants a dedicated gaming store to buy boardgames and minutures.
Do you have a couple million dollars? If not, can you get it? If not, you're probably up shit creek without a paddle. Think of the costs involved. Storefront, pay (you still have to pay yourself, honestly, you can't not get paid just to start a business unless you've got people to mooch off of), merchandise, stock, software/hardware, etc -- these are all costs you've gotta consider.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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EshTending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles.Portland, ORRegistered Userregular
Yeah, this sounds like a bad idea. Gaming stores are hard enough to keep open in populous areas.
So my friends and I are planning on opening a new gaming store in a little town in MO. We think it's a good area for one (gaming stores are nonexistent out here), especially since there are another 5 towns all within a half hour around us that we can advertise to (we live out in the country). We've all been searching online for possible items to sell, and decided to have a majority of tabletop gaming supplies with game tables set up where we can hold tournaments on the weekends. We're also looking into painting/customizing miniatures and seeing if selling those would be a good idea.
You're thinking of the business slightly backwards. Having a seed idea is good -- "I want to sell something I like." However, you're getting caught up in the "what" and not paying any attention to the "who." You have your group of friends and it sounds like you're currently looking to fill the store with things that you and your friends would buy, with the idea that you can enjoy your hobby for less money somehow. Similarly, it sounds like you have unpainted miniatures and you want them painted.
Who within your town and your immediate neighborhood would you be selling these items and services to?
For example, if you live in Manhattan, and you want to sell pet services, you should ignore the dog you have and cater to the little dogs that are all over the place. Similarly, if you live in the Ozarks, getting little pet beds and cute sweaters is stupid because there's more big dogs. This is just normal market analysis. So who would you be selling to? People who are at the same level as you and your friends? People who are getting into gaming? Who would be playing in the tournaments? Are there enough people in the area to cover your rent and inventory?
If you only sold amongst yourselves, would you consider it worthwhile?
I managed a game store for awhile a few years back. Until it closed.
The numbers were horrific back then and have not become any better. Game stores have been dropping like flies in the face of online retail and a shift toward social video gaming. The customer base has shrunk and the experience that one could once get at a store has been transplanted to the online world.
I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but it simply isn't a sound or wise investment.
If you are interested in making gaming into a career (which is damn near impossible), you're better off as a side business. If you're a GT-level painter, you can sell for a bunch. If you're interested in the social/tournament scene, a lot of formerly game-store-housed groups are renting our VFWs and such for a day and running tournaments from there for a fraction of the overhead.
I watched a store go from "booming" to "dead" in the span of the last 10 years, and have seen this repeat over and over again. The stores which have survived do so for very specific purposes like location (Cambridge, MA), cult-like customers or, most commonly, by making the majority of their sales over the internet.
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LibrarianThe face of liberal fascismRegistered Userregular
You say you want to do this with your frineds. How many people are you?
Keep in mind that you all will have to live from the money you make, just imagine how much stuff you will have to sell each and every day to keep going
Gaming stored have a crazy amount of tire kickers. And a problem is that most of your customers are geeks. Geeks that are willing to troll the internet/ebay to get your products for cheap.
PSN: Canadian_llama
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LibrarianThe face of liberal fascismRegistered Userregular
Also the kind of geeks that will linger around the store for hours and hours and tell you the stories of their lvl 22 mage they have been playing in that D&D campaign with the cool custom made rules their GM has come up with and that one time......
I would say that your first priority should be figuring out exactly how viable it would be to open a game store in your area. You need to do market research of people with disposable income and find out if there are enough people in the area to support such a venture. Hit the streets and start talking to people. Make sure to dress professionally and be polite. See if people would in fact support your venture.
To be honest, though, I doubt you'd succeed. I live in a decent city (about 800,000 population) with two good sized universities in it, and there are only two tabletop gaming stores in the entire area. Others occasionally open and are closed down within two years. So, a population of 800,000 can support two stores. That's bad news for you.
PSN|AspectVoid
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amateurhourOne day I'll be professionalhourThe woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered Userregular
edited August 2011
You'd be a lot better off focusing less on selling games and competing with gamestop and more on opening a console play/lan center kind of place. I'm not saying it's a gold mine or anything, but you'd have a better chance of making money that way. There's a lot of kids that need somewhere to be for a few hours on the weekends or after school and having a place where they could play games and arcade machines would help that. It's a LOT more of a hassle though keeping the peace in an environment like that.
There's a game store here that does that. They still sell games and stuff, but they've got everything from the NES to the PS3 and a lan center than can be rented by the hour or for lock ins and that's the bulk of their business.
edit: I just realized you're talking more about tabletop stuff, in which case I agree with all of the other posters up here that it's a bad idea. We've got one of those here too. It's in the worst run down mall in the worst part of town, no one goes there and by now they're probably closed, as I haven't seen anything update on their website in a long time.
First of all, thank you everyone who replied. I appreciate the feedback and wake up call to reality. I wanted to make sure to stay grounded and take the rose-colored glasses off.
The lan sounds like a great idea. We were kicking that idea around, especially with providing a decent hangout for the kids for a few hours. Even if it's listening to that guy who leveled his Paladin and that one time he did that one thing even though he was the only one left in the party...but I digress. There used to be a skatepark on the edge of town, but that got closed down last year...
For starters, we're going to try an online store and see if we can get any business that way. It seems like a good place to start, anyhow.
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EshTending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles.Portland, ORRegistered Userregular
First of all, thank you everyone who replied. I appreciate the feedback and wake up call to reality. I wanted to make sure to stay grounded and take the rose-colored glasses off.
The lan sounds like a great idea. We were kicking that idea around, especially with providing a decent hangout for the kids for a few hours. Even if it's listening to that guy who leveled his Paladin and that one time he did that one thing even though he was the only one left in the party...but I digress. There used to be a skatepark on the edge of town, but that got closed down last year...
For starters, we're going to try an online store and see if we can get any business that way. It seems like a good place to start, anyhow.
How is your online store going to compete with say...Amazon?
How is your online store going to compete with say...Amazon?
It really isn't even a 1-to-1 for niche hobby. More like "How will you compete with TheWarStore?"
And the answer is to SEO the crap out of it and provide reasonable prices with good painting/model building. Alternately, as a no-pressure side business.
In fact, I think that treating it as a side-business is best. Keep it a "hobby that happens to make a little money". If you can make that jump, go for it. If you can't, don't let it be the focus.
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EshTending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles.Portland, ORRegistered Userregular
How is your online store going to compete with say...Amazon?
It really isn't even a 1-to-1 for niche hobby. More like "How will you compete with TheWarStore?"
And the answer is to SEO the crap out of it and provide reasonable prices with good painting/model building. Alternately, as a no-pressure side business.
In fact, I think that treating it as a side-business is best. Keep it a "hobby that happens to make a little money". If you can make that jump, go for it. If you can't, don't let it be the focus.
I can't think of anything except miniatures that I can't get on Amazon. We have a great local gaming store here in Portland (Guardian Games), and I want to support them, but when I can get most any boxed set or game for 20-30% cheaper with free 2 day shipping, I just find it REALLY hard to spend money there. When I go in to play games there sometimes, I try to buy some dice or a book or something, but going out of my way to shop there? Not when they're charging full retail.
Also, what's going to make someone trust these guys over an established business? The whole thing just sounds like a bad idea including the LAN/gaming area. I don't even remember the last time I saw one of those. We have Ground Kontrol here in Portland, but that's a whole other beast and they're not going to be able to pull that off.
Esh makes some pretty good points, mostly that everything except minis will be cheaper elsewhere (and the minis will be, as well, but for less consumers).
What I can say is that the business that made the stores that I know who are still in business stay in business is generally a used minis, RPG Book and hobby section. If you can keep that well stocked and with a good turn around you'll be fine. Often that means refusing trade-ins in a very conservative way. You can't compete, so take it to their level: be the local "walk out of the store with in in hand" place that is basically the same as Amazon pricing.
How big is your small town? If it is Jeff city or Osage Beach, or a college town, or something of that kind of size you might be able to get along. Jeff city and Osage Beach get all kinds of business because that is where people from the surrounding towns go to shop.
For example, I live in St. Cloud, MN. We top out at 60k people in the city proper, however there are 5 "towns" around here that are basically the same place. The whole metro area comes in around 150-200k I would guess. Plus we get all kinds of business from all the towns in a large radius around here because we are far enough away from the two major metro areas to be much closer to all of central Minnesota. This makes the shopping base enormous. Hundreds of thousands of people.
With this we only support two proper game stores, which are run by the owners who basically live there because they are there all the time. Do you live in an area like that or with similar desirable properties?
If you do decide to open, remember that one of the main reasons these stores bring in business is events. Tournaments, game nights, that kind of thing.
and I wonder about my neighbors even though I don't have them
but they're listening to every word I say
I don't want to discourage you because for all we know you might make mint. Essentially this becomes a problem when more people get involved and want a cut. The business might operate fine as a DBA with only you working there and taking money. It might fail if friend B wants a cut because he put money into it.
You need to work that part out with your friends first. How exactly are you going to split money? Who works there? Are they willing to take a hit on the income they pull from it just to be an investor? Meaning you work there full time, you take 50% of the profit. The rest just take 10%. Profit and income are two things too, gotta pay the bills and you first, even if you just pay yourself a meek wage. Who controls the finances? You don't want to give bank access to the one guy in your group who gets high all day, either.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
I don't want to discourage you because for all we know you might make mint. Essentially this becomes a problem when more people get involved and want a cut. The business might operate fine as a DBA with only you working there and taking money. It might fail if friend B wants a cut because he put money into it.
I can tell a story about three great friends who, about 10 years ago in their late twenties, opened a gaming store. They all were co-owners, and had a wealthy investor front the start-up capital. The first month they were in business, one of the owners tried to purchase a life-sized Space Marine statue for the store and almost bankrupted the whole operation if he hadn't been firmly stopped. Later on, another of the partners had a very, very strong disagreement with the others about the direction and focus of the store. After about five years it had become so bad that one partner raised the cash to buy the other two out. What began as a really close and tight friendship-business-partnership devolved into a nasty buy-out process after which, to my understanding, they pretty much stopped speaking to each other. This store was pretty successful, too, so it wasn't an income/profit issue, even.
This is what I'm worried about as well TCO, I've seen a similar situation.
He might be able to pull this off, but it seems like there's no plan yet either.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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Descendant XSkyrim is my god now.Outpost 31Registered Userregular
edited August 2011
A friend of mine runs a game store in my small city. The only other shop in town is run by a massive douchebag who charges at least 10% over MSRP because he can and never puts anything on sale. It's in the only mall in town, so the location is fantastic.
My friend's shop is a hole-in-the-wall above a sewing store in an area of town frequented by vagrants. It's about 13 feet wide and 75 feet long. Most of the store is filled with gaming tables, with the stock (mostly minis) on the walls. There are no other shelves.
My friend runs the shop alone. There are two reasons why he is able to stay in business.
A) He has a webstore that sells minis that he sculpts and casts himself for next to nothing that he makes the bulk of his money from.
2) Everyone hates the other store and shop at my friend's store unless he doesn't have what they need.
His business has boomed now that he's selling Magic cards. He can barely keep them in stock because he's the cheapest place in town and runs events the way they're supposed to be run. He also worked for the aforementioned douchebag, so he knows the business and knows how to get around the guy. If the other store wasn't so faceless and run by a nicer person who didn't overcharge, my friend would be screwed. He's in a terrible location and unless you know where the store is you are going to miss it. But over the three years he's been in business he's built up a loyal customer base because he's friendly and is into what he sells.
I don't really know where I'm going with this, so I'll just end by saying one thing. My mom once owned her own business and it sucked the life out of her over the twenty-odd years that she owned it before it went tits up. Take that as you will.
Descendant X on
Garry: I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time I'd rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!
His business has boomed now that he's selling Magic cards. He can barely keep them in stock because he's the cheapest place in town and runs events the way they're supposed to be run. He also worked for the aforementioned douchebag, so he knows the business and knows how to get around the guy. If the other store wasn't so faceless and run by a nicer person who didn't overcharge, my friend would be screwed. He's in a terrible location and unless you know where the store is you are going to miss it. But over the three years he's been in business he's built up a loyal customer base because he's friendly and is into what he sells.
I will say that in the retail gaming world, M:tG is a cash cow. A store will generally pull more for Magic events (which are weekly or even more frequently) than other events. Cards are cheapish for a hobby, individually, and there's a certain mob mentality in which everyone starts buying cards and trading and looking for that power-card. If you start a store, ensure that Magic is a top priority. Our old eobd counts were always significantly higher on days when we ran Magic events than otherwise.
Yeah it takes a special kind of person to be an entrepenuer. Long hours, long involvement. It has parallels with raising a human being. Sometimes you succeed and turn into a well rounded person and can stand on their own two legs, sometimes you struggle for long time, but it pays off, and sometimes it turns to drugs and tells you to go fuck yourself.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
Every time I see a thread like this my first question is: what is your business plan? Pipedreams are easy, but being able to show that you've put serious thought into how you're going to do this is a step in the right direction.
In addition to what's already been said, everyone's situation is different and you have to figure out whether it will be worth it for you. Ask yourself some tough questions and set specific goals. How much money do you want to make? How long are you willing to try it for? What would you consider to be a "success?"
Also, considering that you're located in a smaller town, it might sense to complement your business with an online presence. It's pretty cheap to get started with an online store and it gives you the entire nation as your market.
In addition to what's already been said, everyone's situation is different and you have to figure out whether it will be worth it for you. Ask yourself some tough questions and set specific goals. How much money do you want to make? How long are you willing to try it for? What would you consider to be a "success?"
Also, considering that you're located in a smaller town, it might sense to complement your business with an online presence. It's pretty cheap to get started with an online store and it gives you the entire nation as your market.
But from the sounds of things he doesn't have a business plan nor seed money. Plus, if he's selling merchandise, he needs to establish a distribution strategy.
I strongly advise you against this for right now. If you're serious about it - develop a business plan. This will in turn allow you to petition a bank for a loan. From there, if all seems clear, you can take the plunge.
I will say that in the retail gaming world, M:tG is a cash cow. A store will generally pull more for Magic events (which are weekly or even more frequently) than other events. Cards are cheapish for a hobby, individually, and there's a certain mob mentality in which everyone starts buying cards and trading and looking for that power-card. If you start a store, ensure that Magic is a top priority. Our old eobd counts were always significantly higher on days when we ran Magic events than otherwise.
YES. I live in KY and some of the rural stores that should have closed down long ago always seem to stay in the black thanks to Magic. If there are no other gaming stores in the area, sell cheaper than Wal-Mart, run fair FNM tournaments (I say fair because I know some small stores are really stingy with prize pools), maybe even a saturday tournament, and most small stores I have seen can stay afloat purely on Magic alone. Throw in some Pokemon for the kids, and watch trends in the area. Women asking for twilight? sell the shit out of it. Twilight may be gay, but money isnt. Green Lantern movie coming out next month? Looks terrible? Pick up a small amount of GL merch anyway. see if it sells. If it does, get moar!
In an area without a FLGS there is certainly potential for one to be successful, but you cant just stock it with stuff you and your friends like, you have to cater to what the people in your area will buy.
Back in the late 90's early 00's my FLGS was stocking NASCAR merch. Not normal gaming store items, but this was KY, so NASCAR is pretty srs bsness here. Then Dale Earnhardt died. My friends and I were in the store the next day messing around with Magic while the owner was frantically marking all the NASCAR stuff up 500-2000%. And there was a stream of people in there all day buying out almost his entire stock.
I hit people with pillow wrapped baseball bats. Sure the blow is softer, but its still a bat.
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MizouraMoon pies and starry skiesRegistered Userregular
Are you thinking more of a gaming workshop type place or gaming shop? Honestly, draw up a business plan, talk to the chamber in your town (or area) and get stats on businesses. There are polls done all the time that are meant to help existing and new businesses. The city I'm in has a huge failure rate. Only 2 or 3 out of 100 businesses will last a year... Those who make it, are the ones who take the time to enter the market SMART and equipped with all the info they need (and $$ too).
If you're thinking of more of a game shop, why don't you start online. Start up capital is far less and you can build a name for yourself. Then once you've established a larger clientele and good rep, think about opening the store in your town.
In my experience I know a number of game stores which have stayed in business (can't say how well without a look at their books) by focusing on Magic and pretty much nothing else. We're talking hole-in-the-wall, poor location places. A tournament or event is a 4ish hour or more commitment and if someone is gung-ho on it, that's their weekend plans, right there. You can get people in the store with an itch to buy for many hours at a time.
Magic is really where it's at. Forget anything else. As a former TCG player who once played with a nats level L5R, WoW TCG and WoW Minis player, this is truth. TCG has the highest profit margin and most loyal customer base.
And forget about the small stuff. If you go through with this remember to be conservative and allow special orders (most important part of a niche hobby), because stocking everything will kill your line.
Lastly, here, if you're able to create a following, you often get to direct the secondary-game market. What that means is that you need to support the main lines (at the time I'd guess Warhammer, Magic and Iron Kingdoms - I've been out of the game for awhile, so I don't know what's popular now, exactly) and then find what you think will benefit your store's community the most. In an example, a game like Uncharted Seas is cheap to buy into (~$30-50 for a full force, if basic), so you'll see customers picking it up to paint and play as a second to their main game. I remember when my store in western Mass started pushing Uncharted Seas and everyone got a force, because it was dirt, dirt cheap and a well-made beer&pretzels game. Why not, right? We're mostly obsessive collectors and impulse buyers, so keep that in mind.
I think you need to do a feasibility study before you go ahead with this venture. Basically it's researching and pretending you are truly setting the business up. This below is actually a very very basic skeleton on what it should entail.
It begins with a mission statement on what you want to do: Start a profitable Gaming store in your area
Your PEST Analysis:
Political : The State of MO isn't gonna outlaw Geek activities soon... so as long as the local fundamentalist doesn't burn down your store in a witch hunt you'll be fine.
Economical: The economy is in a downtown. Fortunately for you, your demographic group has the highest disposal income and TCG sale is relatively unaffected by the economy.
Social: In 5 years will TCG and your other merchandise be out of style? Will a new TCG take the place of MTG? How is your current demographics in the area? Is there enough potential customers to support the sale of your store? What TCG is big around the circle of your potential customers, what are they willing to buy and how much are they willing to spend?
Technological: I can't say there's much innovation in terms of owning a game store, but having a website and a emailing list can certain help you to advertise your store and announce events and tournaments. Last time I've play magic you can actually register online and keep track of your win/lose record and be ranked, can your store provide access to that?
Then your 5 forces:
Your supplier: The wizard that lives on the coast... He's big and mean and you probably lucky that he's shipping you stuff to sell, nevermind a discount. Can you ask for stuff like cardboard cutouts, posters, cross-promotion stuff for your store? How and how soon can your supplier send stuff over to your store?
your competitor: are there a game store around the area already, and what are they like? If someone was to open a game store right after seeing yours thrive, what would be your competitive advantage over theirs (what would make people want to come and buy at your store vs someone else?)
your substitute: Are there stuff that's more popular then TCG, tabletop games, and role-playing games around the area? What if people want to send time doing something else instead of geeking out?
yourself: how much time can you dedicate to the store? How much capital you have to start a business? do you have experience handling cash, accounting, inventory, check & balance, and running a business in general? Do you like people enough to handle demanding customers, and savoy enough to deal with problems in the store?
Your customers: Again how many people are interested the stuff you are selling at your store? What do they particularly look for when they walk into your store and can you provide them with it?
Finally there's the number crunching... There's fixed cost and variable cost:
Startup cost: burglar alarm, security cameras, and iron bars across store windows / Shelf display cases, a website, cash register, cost of furnishing the place, business registration, etc
Fixed cost: Rent, water & electricity, internet access, phone, your wage, wages for people that you need to hire, alarm monitoring fee, etc...
Variable cost: your inventory.
you need to have solid numbers and they from there you need to calculate how much you need to sell in order to cover your cost and break even.
I would strongly advise you visit some gaming stores, talk to people and see how things generally run before you start your own. You can have a general idea on how things are instead of feeling it around in the blind.
I feel that selling miniatures can also be profitable; d&d players also use them when they play and like other things you are selling, they really have a long shelf life.
Food and drinks is also a great idea. I was in a store where they ban outside drinks and then sell their own. The profit margins on those are pretty big as well.
Don't stock up on inventory just because they are "cool"... a $300 Master Chief figurine, while it looks cool and add to the atmosphere, isn't going to sell any time soon and that's just dead money sitting there. There's other ways to enhance your store like posters, cardboard cutouts can also have the same effect and it's more cost effective. A game store that I walked into have a dragon made out of chicken wire and magic cards!
Which I'm used to walking into a gaming store fill with clutter and having to dig for what I was looking for, having a bright and clean store is a refreshing change and a more welcoming sight. Also stores that have either 1) young geeky staff that we can relate to, or 2) friendly staff tend to last longer then most. Game stores that chase away customer because they loiter around isn't going to last very long.
Finally and most important... the key to a successful business is always location, location, location!!!
P.S. if you want to thank me... please find me a D&D 3.5 PHB, much appreciate.
Nylonathetep on
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EshTending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles.Portland, ORRegistered Userregular
Which just goes to show why Amazon trumps the brick and mortar in this arena.
The cost of shipping sucks thou, but thanks.
A few more things to add...
Your business registration: Are you going to register it as a corporation, or a solo proprietorship? The major difference between these two is that as a corporation, your business is a separate entity so if it goes bankrupt you'll still be okay. Any income that you want to pocket will get double taxed thou. A solo proprietorship means if someone sues the store or if your store goes bankrupt, they can go after your house, your car, and everything you own.
If you are looking to take out a loan for the company you'll need to show the bank something, amongst all other things, a feasibility study so they decide if they will approve the loan. Seeing it's bad times for your economy they might also require you to co-sign the loan with someone, or secure the loan vs your house or any other things you own. Chances are you'll need a loan if not just for the free cash flow because businesses are rarely profitable in the first year and you'll need cash to support your losses as you continue it's operation.
Ask around if the government offer any aid in small business, you might be surprised.
I'm not sure how the taxation works in the states, but in Canada you can claim some of your expenses against your store. Say for example you say you use 10% of your car for your company, you can accrual 10% of your gas, lease, and maintenance as expense for your company, likewise if you use your house as storage or office space.
Which just goes to show why Amazon trumps the brick and mortar in this arena.
The cost of shipping sucks thou, but thanks.[/quote]
The point isn't cost, even, but sheer availability. 3.5 Core Books are a hot commodity, for some reason, and tend to sell at a damn good price for the last edition of a game. You'll be hard pressed finding a FLGS who can either reliably keep them in stock or get copies at all. The few I've seen for sale used in an actual store go for close to that $30-40+ range if not more, specifically because that's how, about, they're priced on a market (internet sellers) which are able to actually keep them in stock for the most part.
It really demonstrates the difficulty in brick and mortar to even keep up with the online retailers.
When you factor in the huge debt, poor national performance stats for game stores, the clear-as-day track of store closings and difficulty in competing with large online retailers you'll be looking at pretty dismal situation. I'd think that obtaining any sort of study or survey showing the economic viability to the point where it would allow for a loan is pretty much out of the question (I work in personal/home finance)-- the tightened credit restrictions and poor market conditions make it a shot in the dark.
Maybe I'm cynical for my time working at a local store and chatting up various store owners, but the hurdles simply, in my opinion, in no way justify the costs even as a gamble.
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EshTending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles.Portland, ORRegistered Userregular
Man, I just ordered Fluxx online after calling around town and only finding one store who carried it. The woman on the phone was an ass. They only had the Pirates version and not the newest main set. I have no idea what they were charging, but I get free two day shipping on Amazon. Problem solved.
Brick and mortars are going to survive, if at all, on providing stuff I can't get on Amazon. A giant pile of comic books to consider, tournaments and other social aspects, etc.
Like other posters have suggested, I would recommend starting with trying to sell painted miniatures on the web as a side business. You could also offer custom work or branch out to other products like modding nerf guns.
Before going whole hog into the store, I would recommend testing the waters in your area by starting a gaming club. Maybe host a tournament at a rented space. That will give you a better indication of your potential customer base.
Like other posters have suggested, I would recommend starting with trying to sell painted miniatures on the web as a side business. You could also offer custom work or branch out to other products like modding nerf guns.
Before going whole hog into the store, I would recommend testing the waters in your area by starting a gaming club. Maybe host a tournament at a rented space. That will give you a better indication of your potential customer base.
Absolutely. Start small.
Establish a name for yourselves in the community. Build relationships. And talk to other small business owners, if possible. Before you ever get into the overhead nightmare that is brick and mortar, do these small events and projects to see how it goes.
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I don't think smaller towns are a great market for a gaming store. A more densely populated urban area or a college town would be a better bet.
Rigorous Scholarship
http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business/thinking-about-starting
All of it, very carefully.
If you still think it's a good idea after reading all of that, then draft up a business plan and get going on it.
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
You're thinking of the business slightly backwards. Having a seed idea is good -- "I want to sell something I like." However, you're getting caught up in the "what" and not paying any attention to the "who." You have your group of friends and it sounds like you're currently looking to fill the store with things that you and your friends would buy, with the idea that you can enjoy your hobby for less money somehow. Similarly, it sounds like you have unpainted miniatures and you want them painted.
Who within your town and your immediate neighborhood would you be selling these items and services to?
For example, if you live in Manhattan, and you want to sell pet services, you should ignore the dog you have and cater to the little dogs that are all over the place. Similarly, if you live in the Ozarks, getting little pet beds and cute sweaters is stupid because there's more big dogs. This is just normal market analysis. So who would you be selling to? People who are at the same level as you and your friends? People who are getting into gaming? Who would be playing in the tournaments? Are there enough people in the area to cover your rent and inventory?
If you only sold amongst yourselves, would you consider it worthwhile?
If you're still determined, you need your first two years' operating costs as cash on hand before you start. Can you do that?
The numbers were horrific back then and have not become any better. Game stores have been dropping like flies in the face of online retail and a shift toward social video gaming. The customer base has shrunk and the experience that one could once get at a store has been transplanted to the online world.
I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but it simply isn't a sound or wise investment.
If you are interested in making gaming into a career (which is damn near impossible), you're better off as a side business. If you're a GT-level painter, you can sell for a bunch. If you're interested in the social/tournament scene, a lot of formerly game-store-housed groups are renting our VFWs and such for a day and running tournaments from there for a fraction of the overhead.
I watched a store go from "booming" to "dead" in the span of the last 10 years, and have seen this repeat over and over again. The stores which have survived do so for very specific purposes like location (Cambridge, MA), cult-like customers or, most commonly, by making the majority of their sales over the internet.
Keep in mind that you all will have to live from the money you make, just imagine how much stuff you will have to sell each and every day to keep going
To be honest, though, I doubt you'd succeed. I live in a decent city (about 800,000 population) with two good sized universities in it, and there are only two tabletop gaming stores in the entire area. Others occasionally open and are closed down within two years. So, a population of 800,000 can support two stores. That's bad news for you.
There's a game store here that does that. They still sell games and stuff, but they've got everything from the NES to the PS3 and a lan center than can be rented by the hour or for lock ins and that's the bulk of their business.
edit: I just realized you're talking more about tabletop stuff, in which case I agree with all of the other posters up here that it's a bad idea. We've got one of those here too. It's in the worst run down mall in the worst part of town, no one goes there and by now they're probably closed, as I haven't seen anything update on their website in a long time.
The lan sounds like a great idea. We were kicking that idea around, especially with providing a decent hangout for the kids for a few hours. Even if it's listening to that guy who leveled his Paladin and that one time he did that one thing even though he was the only one left in the party...but I digress. There used to be a skatepark on the edge of town, but that got closed down last year...
For starters, we're going to try an online store and see if we can get any business that way. It seems like a good place to start, anyhow.
How is your online store going to compete with say...Amazon?
It really isn't even a 1-to-1 for niche hobby. More like "How will you compete with TheWarStore?"
And the answer is to SEO the crap out of it and provide reasonable prices with good painting/model building. Alternately, as a no-pressure side business.
In fact, I think that treating it as a side-business is best. Keep it a "hobby that happens to make a little money". If you can make that jump, go for it. If you can't, don't let it be the focus.
I can't think of anything except miniatures that I can't get on Amazon. We have a great local gaming store here in Portland (Guardian Games), and I want to support them, but when I can get most any boxed set or game for 20-30% cheaper with free 2 day shipping, I just find it REALLY hard to spend money there. When I go in to play games there sometimes, I try to buy some dice or a book or something, but going out of my way to shop there? Not when they're charging full retail.
Also, what's going to make someone trust these guys over an established business? The whole thing just sounds like a bad idea including the LAN/gaming area. I don't even remember the last time I saw one of those. We have Ground Kontrol here in Portland, but that's a whole other beast and they're not going to be able to pull that off.
What I can say is that the business that made the stores that I know who are still in business stay in business is generally a used minis, RPG Book and hobby section. If you can keep that well stocked and with a good turn around you'll be fine. Often that means refusing trade-ins in a very conservative way. You can't compete, so take it to their level: be the local "walk out of the store with in in hand" place that is basically the same as Amazon pricing.
I still think it's an uphill, difficult battle.
For example, I live in St. Cloud, MN. We top out at 60k people in the city proper, however there are 5 "towns" around here that are basically the same place. The whole metro area comes in around 150-200k I would guess. Plus we get all kinds of business from all the towns in a large radius around here because we are far enough away from the two major metro areas to be much closer to all of central Minnesota. This makes the shopping base enormous. Hundreds of thousands of people.
With this we only support two proper game stores, which are run by the owners who basically live there because they are there all the time. Do you live in an area like that or with similar desirable properties?
If you do decide to open, remember that one of the main reasons these stores bring in business is events. Tournaments, game nights, that kind of thing.
but they're listening to every word I say
You need to work that part out with your friends first. How exactly are you going to split money? Who works there? Are they willing to take a hit on the income they pull from it just to be an investor? Meaning you work there full time, you take 50% of the profit. The rest just take 10%. Profit and income are two things too, gotta pay the bills and you first, even if you just pay yourself a meek wage. Who controls the finances? You don't want to give bank access to the one guy in your group who gets high all day, either.
I can tell a story about three great friends who, about 10 years ago in their late twenties, opened a gaming store. They all were co-owners, and had a wealthy investor front the start-up capital. The first month they were in business, one of the owners tried to purchase a life-sized Space Marine statue for the store and almost bankrupted the whole operation if he hadn't been firmly stopped. Later on, another of the partners had a very, very strong disagreement with the others about the direction and focus of the store. After about five years it had become so bad that one partner raised the cash to buy the other two out. What began as a really close and tight friendship-business-partnership devolved into a nasty buy-out process after which, to my understanding, they pretty much stopped speaking to each other. This store was pretty successful, too, so it wasn't an income/profit issue, even.
He might be able to pull this off, but it seems like there's no plan yet either.
My friend's shop is a hole-in-the-wall above a sewing store in an area of town frequented by vagrants. It's about 13 feet wide and 75 feet long. Most of the store is filled with gaming tables, with the stock (mostly minis) on the walls. There are no other shelves.
My friend runs the shop alone. There are two reasons why he is able to stay in business.
A) He has a webstore that sells minis that he sculpts and casts himself for next to nothing that he makes the bulk of his money from.
2) Everyone hates the other store and shop at my friend's store unless he doesn't have what they need.
His business has boomed now that he's selling Magic cards. He can barely keep them in stock because he's the cheapest place in town and runs events the way they're supposed to be run. He also worked for the aforementioned douchebag, so he knows the business and knows how to get around the guy. If the other store wasn't so faceless and run by a nicer person who didn't overcharge, my friend would be screwed. He's in a terrible location and unless you know where the store is you are going to miss it. But over the three years he's been in business he's built up a loyal customer base because he's friendly and is into what he sells.
I don't really know where I'm going with this, so I'll just end by saying one thing. My mom once owned her own business and it sucked the life out of her over the twenty-odd years that she owned it before it went tits up. Take that as you will.
I will say that in the retail gaming world, M:tG is a cash cow. A store will generally pull more for Magic events (which are weekly or even more frequently) than other events. Cards are cheapish for a hobby, individually, and there's a certain mob mentality in which everyone starts buying cards and trading and looking for that power-card. If you start a store, ensure that Magic is a top priority. Our old eobd counts were always significantly higher on days when we ran Magic events than otherwise.
Also, considering that you're located in a smaller town, it might sense to complement your business with an online presence. It's pretty cheap to get started with an online store and it gives you the entire nation as your market.
But from the sounds of things he doesn't have a business plan nor seed money. Plus, if he's selling merchandise, he needs to establish a distribution strategy.
I strongly advise you against this for right now. If you're serious about it - develop a business plan. This will in turn allow you to petition a bank for a loan. From there, if all seems clear, you can take the plunge.
YES. I live in KY and some of the rural stores that should have closed down long ago always seem to stay in the black thanks to Magic. If there are no other gaming stores in the area, sell cheaper than Wal-Mart, run fair FNM tournaments (I say fair because I know some small stores are really stingy with prize pools), maybe even a saturday tournament, and most small stores I have seen can stay afloat purely on Magic alone. Throw in some Pokemon for the kids, and watch trends in the area. Women asking for twilight? sell the shit out of it. Twilight may be gay, but money isnt. Green Lantern movie coming out next month? Looks terrible? Pick up a small amount of GL merch anyway. see if it sells. If it does, get moar!
In an area without a FLGS there is certainly potential for one to be successful, but you cant just stock it with stuff you and your friends like, you have to cater to what the people in your area will buy.
Back in the late 90's early 00's my FLGS was stocking NASCAR merch. Not normal gaming store items, but this was KY, so NASCAR is pretty srs bsness here. Then Dale Earnhardt died. My friends and I were in the store the next day messing around with Magic while the owner was frantically marking all the NASCAR stuff up 500-2000%. And there was a stream of people in there all day buying out almost his entire stock.
If you're thinking of more of a game shop, why don't you start online. Start up capital is far less and you can build a name for yourself. Then once you've established a larger clientele and good rep, think about opening the store in your town.
In my experience I know a number of game stores which have stayed in business (can't say how well without a look at their books) by focusing on Magic and pretty much nothing else. We're talking hole-in-the-wall, poor location places. A tournament or event is a 4ish hour or more commitment and if someone is gung-ho on it, that's their weekend plans, right there. You can get people in the store with an itch to buy for many hours at a time.
Magic is really where it's at. Forget anything else. As a former TCG player who once played with a nats level L5R, WoW TCG and WoW Minis player, this is truth. TCG has the highest profit margin and most loyal customer base.
And forget about the small stuff. If you go through with this remember to be conservative and allow special orders (most important part of a niche hobby), because stocking everything will kill your line.
Lastly, here, if you're able to create a following, you often get to direct the secondary-game market. What that means is that you need to support the main lines (at the time I'd guess Warhammer, Magic and Iron Kingdoms - I've been out of the game for awhile, so I don't know what's popular now, exactly) and then find what you think will benefit your store's community the most. In an example, a game like Uncharted Seas is cheap to buy into (~$30-50 for a full force, if basic), so you'll see customers picking it up to paint and play as a second to their main game. I remember when my store in western Mass started pushing Uncharted Seas and everyone got a force, because it was dirt, dirt cheap and a well-made beer&pretzels game. Why not, right? We're mostly obsessive collectors and impulse buyers, so keep that in mind.
The worst thing is to overextend.
It begins with a mission statement on what you want to do: Start a profitable Gaming store in your area
Your PEST Analysis:
Political : The State of MO isn't gonna outlaw Geek activities soon... so as long as the local fundamentalist doesn't burn down your store in a witch hunt you'll be fine.
Economical: The economy is in a downtown. Fortunately for you, your demographic group has the highest disposal income and TCG sale is relatively unaffected by the economy.
Social: In 5 years will TCG and your other merchandise be out of style? Will a new TCG take the place of MTG? How is your current demographics in the area? Is there enough potential customers to support the sale of your store? What TCG is big around the circle of your potential customers, what are they willing to buy and how much are they willing to spend?
Technological: I can't say there's much innovation in terms of owning a game store, but having a website and a emailing list can certain help you to advertise your store and announce events and tournaments. Last time I've play magic you can actually register online and keep track of your win/lose record and be ranked, can your store provide access to that?
Then your 5 forces:
Your supplier: The wizard that lives on the coast... He's big and mean and you probably lucky that he's shipping you stuff to sell, nevermind a discount. Can you ask for stuff like cardboard cutouts, posters, cross-promotion stuff for your store? How and how soon can your supplier send stuff over to your store?
your competitor: are there a game store around the area already, and what are they like? If someone was to open a game store right after seeing yours thrive, what would be your competitive advantage over theirs (what would make people want to come and buy at your store vs someone else?)
your substitute: Are there stuff that's more popular then TCG, tabletop games, and role-playing games around the area? What if people want to send time doing something else instead of geeking out?
yourself: how much time can you dedicate to the store? How much capital you have to start a business? do you have experience handling cash, accounting, inventory, check & balance, and running a business in general? Do you like people enough to handle demanding customers, and savoy enough to deal with problems in the store?
Your customers: Again how many people are interested the stuff you are selling at your store? What do they particularly look for when they walk into your store and can you provide them with it?
Finally there's the number crunching... There's fixed cost and variable cost:
Startup cost: burglar alarm, security cameras, and iron bars across store windows / Shelf display cases, a website, cash register, cost of furnishing the place, business registration, etc
Fixed cost: Rent, water & electricity, internet access, phone, your wage, wages for people that you need to hire, alarm monitoring fee, etc...
Variable cost: your inventory.
you need to have solid numbers and they from there you need to calculate how much you need to sell in order to cover your cost and break even.
I would strongly advise you visit some gaming stores, talk to people and see how things generally run before you start your own. You can have a general idea on how things are instead of feeling it around in the blind.
I feel that selling miniatures can also be profitable; d&d players also use them when they play and like other things you are selling, they really have a long shelf life.
Food and drinks is also a great idea. I was in a store where they ban outside drinks and then sell their own. The profit margins on those are pretty big as well.
Don't stock up on inventory just because they are "cool"... a $300 Master Chief figurine, while it looks cool and add to the atmosphere, isn't going to sell any time soon and that's just dead money sitting there. There's other ways to enhance your store like posters, cardboard cutouts can also have the same effect and it's more cost effective. A game store that I walked into have a dragon made out of chicken wire and magic cards!
Which I'm used to walking into a gaming store fill with clutter and having to dig for what I was looking for, having a bright and clean store is a refreshing change and a more welcoming sight. Also stores that have either 1) young geeky staff that we can relate to, or 2) friendly staff tend to last longer then most. Game stores that chase away customer because they loiter around isn't going to last very long.
Finally and most important... the key to a successful business is always location, location, location!!!
P.S. if you want to thank me... please find me a D&D 3.5 PHB, much appreciate.
http://www.amazon.com/Revised-Players-Handbook-Dungeons-Rulebook/dp/0786928867/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313805243&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Players-Handbook-Rulebook/dp/0786915501/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313805243&sr=8-2
Which just goes to show why Amazon trumps the brick and mortar in this arena.
The cost of shipping sucks thou, but thanks.
A few more things to add...
Your business registration: Are you going to register it as a corporation, or a solo proprietorship? The major difference between these two is that as a corporation, your business is a separate entity so if it goes bankrupt you'll still be okay. Any income that you want to pocket will get double taxed thou. A solo proprietorship means if someone sues the store or if your store goes bankrupt, they can go after your house, your car, and everything you own.
If you are looking to take out a loan for the company you'll need to show the bank something, amongst all other things, a feasibility study so they decide if they will approve the loan. Seeing it's bad times for your economy they might also require you to co-sign the loan with someone, or secure the loan vs your house or any other things you own. Chances are you'll need a loan if not just for the free cash flow because businesses are rarely profitable in the first year and you'll need cash to support your losses as you continue it's operation.
Ask around if the government offer any aid in small business, you might be surprised.
I'm not sure how the taxation works in the states, but in Canada you can claim some of your expenses against your store. Say for example you say you use 10% of your car for your company, you can accrual 10% of your gas, lease, and maintenance as expense for your company, likewise if you use your house as storage or office space.
The cost of shipping sucks thou, but thanks.[/quote]
The point isn't cost, even, but sheer availability. 3.5 Core Books are a hot commodity, for some reason, and tend to sell at a damn good price for the last edition of a game. You'll be hard pressed finding a FLGS who can either reliably keep them in stock or get copies at all. The few I've seen for sale used in an actual store go for close to that $30-40+ range if not more, specifically because that's how, about, they're priced on a market (internet sellers) which are able to actually keep them in stock for the most part.
It really demonstrates the difficulty in brick and mortar to even keep up with the online retailers.
When you factor in the huge debt, poor national performance stats for game stores, the clear-as-day track of store closings and difficulty in competing with large online retailers you'll be looking at pretty dismal situation. I'd think that obtaining any sort of study or survey showing the economic viability to the point where it would allow for a loan is pretty much out of the question (I work in personal/home finance)-- the tightened credit restrictions and poor market conditions make it a shot in the dark.
Maybe I'm cynical for my time working at a local store and chatting up various store owners, but the hurdles simply, in my opinion, in no way justify the costs even as a gamble.
$3.99 is too much? What?
Brick and mortars are going to survive, if at all, on providing stuff I can't get on Amazon. A giant pile of comic books to consider, tournaments and other social aspects, etc.
Before going whole hog into the store, I would recommend testing the waters in your area by starting a gaming club. Maybe host a tournament at a rented space. That will give you a better indication of your potential customer base.
Absolutely. Start small.
Establish a name for yourselves in the community. Build relationships. And talk to other small business owners, if possible. Before you ever get into the overhead nightmare that is brick and mortar, do these small events and projects to see how it goes.
Warframe: TheBaconDwarf