Opening a gaming store
My wife and I own a game store in Salem, Or. called Borderlands Games. We have had this store for almost 9 years now. So we must be doing some things right. Here is the advice I would give your friend if she is really serious:
1. Determine a need for her goods and services in the city she is looking to establish herself.
2. Location. Location. Location. Find a good location that is easy for people to find and has lots of potential for new customers to find her. Visablility is key.
3. Write a business plan. This is a must. A business plan is a blueprint that has worked through the worst and best case scenarios, giving her a complete persepctive for finding any holes in her goal of opening a store. If she doesn;t know how to write one , then a book she should go buy immediately is 'The Successful Business Plan' by Rhonda Abrams. Have her do the exercises at the end of each chapter for her business.
4. Prepare for a financial risk (at LEAST 30k-40k startup), long hours(60+ a week), and lots of hard work (almost all your self unless you want to raise your finanical risk). She should be familair with employement laws, all taxes and fees to consider, and she should find herself a good accountant. A good accountant should be able to explain taxes and bookkeeping in a manner that is clear and makes sense, and come tax time saves her more money then he costs her - in turn paying for himself.
5. Research your products. Plan them out well, and keep personal bias out of the way. Not everyone likes the same things, so carry as many quality products that you can while keeping low overhead and your store fully stocked. Most customers are impulse buying and would hate to wait for their item they wish to purchase (otherwise they would go online, right?)
6. (/rant) Tax the internet businesses to level the playing field with brick and mortar stroes before it ruins the economy (/endrant) Seriousily though, she needs to prepare for discounting, sales, competitors etc. Customer service is critical, and a business needs to LOVE its customers as they keep it alive. Game stores rely on this even more than other stores because (a) they are a small market to begin with and (b) games are best when people can gather and share them. The best advice I was given years ago was to avoid price wars, and regular discounts. Over the years, we have done that (only doing special, frequent buying programs, etc) and we have seen deep discounting stores come and go, three of them we bought out.
Tell her to keep this in mind: You have rent, employees, utilities, taxes, office expenses and then inventory. Inventory is going to be 50-60% of your sales with perfect turnover (which is impossible), and with risks like new products it goes down even more. You have to plan for products to sit a bit. Then on top of that, all those other expenses. My wife and I manage and we love the games, but you won't get rich for sure. Its hard work, you got to know the games and finding time to play them is hard. Becareful not to spread yourself to thin.
Bottomline, don't discount everything...its a bad idea. Figure out customer appreciation, sales, specials and other promotions instead. Over discounting just destroys your ability to pay bills and make a living. It will eventually put you out of business. Once you give anything permament to your customers its hard to take it back, so play it safe and smart.
Any rate, I hope that helps. If you have more questions or if she does feel free to ask. That goes for anyone else reading the thread. I can;t promise i can answer all of them, but I will answer what I can.
Good luck to her,
Nate Jones
Borderlands Games
(removethisantispam)borderlandsgames@yahoo.com
(503)485-2554
Salem, Or.
