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What kind of business should I open?
DamianAlamous
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So me and a friend have played around with the idea of opening our own business for some time now, but have never really been serious about it. This is mainly due to the lack of any sort of funds. Till now.
Long story short, his parents came into a large amount of money. This amount is in the millions. And they have agreed to give us approximately $200,000 to start our business.
Now here is the question. What kind of business should we open? We would prefer it be something technology or game related. We've played with the idea of indie game store or gaming LAN/internet cafe type setup, or perhaps a custom computer shop.
We are looking for something enjoyable, but also profitable. We are in the Houston area, so we have a lot of people in the area.
Any ideas or suggestions? Perhaps prior experience?
Long story short, his parents came into a large amount of money. This amount is in the millions. And they have agreed to give us approximately $200,000 to start our business.
Now here is the question. What kind of business should we open? We would prefer it be something technology or game related. We've played with the idea of indie game store or gaming LAN/internet cafe type setup, or perhaps a custom computer shop.
We are looking for something enjoyable, but also profitable. We are in the Houston area, so we have a lot of people in the area.
Any ideas or suggestions? Perhaps prior experience?
"If automobiles had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside." --Robert Cringley
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EDIT: All this of course is assuming that you know what your doing, of course.
Once I win the lottery and can afford to lose gobs of money.
Have you read the last couple of comics? Check out the Olympus thread 5 or 6 threads down. You seem to have shown up right on time. Niiice.
This may be a problem in a few years if you decide to open a Lan or Internet Cafe. You will have to have a strong hook to bring people to your place rather than the hundreds of other resturants around the city that will soon turn into Cafe's as well.
I wouldn't go that route.
Oh Lord it's graizur
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If they go for it, you know you might be on to something. Then tell them to go away and start the business with your own money.
I like this idea, except that publishing games is the real reason everyone doesn't do this.
So open a small publishing house instead?
Yea, but how many small devs make good games these days that aren't already contracted with someone big already?
Seriously, just find a financial adviser and save the money until you're 100% sure you know what you want to do. Starting a business is a huge, huge deal. If neither of you are business majors or have any business ownership experience, perhaps taking some courses or reading some books on starting a business (accounting, bookkeeping, advertising, creating a solid business plan, market research, licenses that must be obtained to open a storefront, partnership contracts so you and your friend don't sue each other when you wind up hating each other, which will happen, by the way, patent and trademark filing, incorporating your company as a separate entity so your ass doesn't get sued to oblivion when an angry customer has a good lawyer, finding a good lawyer to represent you, and more!)
Owning and operating your own business requires passion and an obscene amount of time and money. It's a trip, but it's not for everybody. If you're not even sure what you want to do, then it's a recipe for disaster. I hope you're not expected to pay back this $200,000.
I am a business student at Durham University, and I have a proposition for you.
Getting the capital can sometimes be the easiest thing in the world- so's blowing it all away. Look, I'd love to give you an idea to start your own business, but you need to do your research. Heavily. In a lot of markets and start dreaming of some of your own. The thing that's the driving force in a lot of successful businesses is vision and determination.
That's what I would do if I had an extra $200,000 to start a business. Grab a couple of my friends so that we could keep salaries low while we're getting started and start making cheap fun games for low requirement PC systems or something like XBLA.
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I second this. Not because I'm trying to be a jerk, either. You obviously have no idea what to do with the money; on the other hand there are millions of people out there with numerous ideas but no capital.
To me it sounds like a massive waste of $200k. I mean, rich people can spend the money they earn however they want (and they oft-times do, colorfully), and I'm no class warrior, but if you're out to spend $200k for the sake of spending it, do the right thing, and give it away to charity or something. Or, should you not want that, how about doing your own venture capital? There's lots of lawyers involved, and it's tedious and either feast or famine on your returns, but I hear it's a nice way to earn a living.
But yeah, "Good with computers" + Communications major = armageddon.
I don't know about veritcal, but how's about some horizontal alignment? :winky:
If you insist on opening a business, pick a business that you're absolutely, positively passionate about, or it'll eat you alive. And then do your research. Do a SHITTON of research. You could have an absolutely fantastic idea, but it might turn out that someone's done that already, or the population of your city doesn't really care about what you're doing, or any of a number of things.
You mentioned opening a game store. Keep in mind that, as much as it sucks, EBStop has a stranglehold on the business. The ONLY way a game store can survive nowadays is if it does something (preferably multiple things) that EBStop can't. You'd have to offer lower prices/better trade-in values, impeccably clean, well-organized shelves, fantastic customer service, maybe game tournaments, etc. And all that, while cool, will eat into profits.
Here I should mention that you should NOT open a business that offers a crusade for grumpy internet people. "My game store will never, ever gut new games!" Yeah, that's great, but the majority of people (i.e. folks who don't post here) don't give a shit, and all your effort won't inherently translate into $. Making something cool for enthusiasts is one thing, but you've got to offer things that appeal to as wide an audience as possible.
A LAN center is also a bad idea. Stop and think: what could you possibly offer that someone couldn't get by not paying an hourly fee and just dragging their rig to a LAN party, or just playing in their own home? You'd have to create a virtual playground to get people out there, and again, that takes a lot of effort and money. The failure rate for LAN gaming businesses is pretty damn high.
Long story short, if you're not willing to sink tons and tons of money, work long, hard, shitty hours, and be willing to deal with the fact that you might fail anyway, don't open a business. Think mutual funds.
Just giving you some caution.
I highly suggest you talk with a financial planner and after having an idea your interested, have them help you write up a business plan etc.
Anyone can start a business, but very few get past the first year.
You should wait until inspiration strikes... Wait for the "Eureka!" moment, and then start your business. In the meantime, put the $200,000 into mutual funds and protected investments, so when the time is right, you'll have even more money to get going with.
OR, you could give it to me so I could get started on my dream, and I'll let you in on a significant cut of the profits!
My second one is still going strong, 2 years later. But I'm still cautious, due to lessons learned from my first endeavor (in case you're curious, they are similar in concept, very different in tactic and business model). I have a tremendous amount invested, and I'm letting the business grow organically and stably rather than quick and loose, which was what brought down the first try.
Go slow, be CERTAIN what you want to do, and know EXACTLY how to go about doing it... And even then, be cautious and don't play fast-and-loose. It may seem like a good plan, and IF it miraculously works out, you'll seem a genius, by 99% of people who do this fail miserably and painfully.