Looking for advice on starting a store & initial inventory

[FitzTheRuke]

When I owned my store, I was able to live a middle class life, and my wife didn't have to work. I was very lucky however in that the first year I bought my store, Pokemon TCG came out in the US, and I had contacts in Japan, and I was able to gross a very surprising amount of money, enough I was able to buy a modest home in a medium area in Los Angeles. I was also privileged to buy an already existing business on an owner's loan with a bit of down from my folks.

BUT! don't let the nay-sayers get you down. There are 4 things that imho will lead you to success:
1. Location (mentioned above)
2. Focus on your customers and their wants. Ask them what they want, but also pay attention to what they actually do - it's a real thing that people say one thing and do another. But like Fitz said above - pay attention to what they are asking about.
3. make sure you pay attention to your cash flow (mentioned already also)
4. Figure out every single free and dirt cheap way to get your name out there. Dont' be afraid to abandon a marketing method that's not working; and if possible, avoid long-term subscriptions/contracts. Except for maybe your domain name.

Good luck, and feel free to DM me if you have specific questions...

I concur, and I have a similar story. I started by buying a run-down comic store. It wasn't worth what I paid for it, but you couldn't beat my financing (A small loan from my father and then I paid the former owner monthly, intrest-free.)

I started a little earlier than Eyes did, and I'm still going, but otherwise pretty similar. I have made a solidly decent middle-class income. I own my own house. My wife is a student (and raised our kids). My kids have education money saved. We do fine.

It can be done!

 

[deadites89]

It's probably an expense that will pay off long term. Short term It's a gamble. It won't bring immediate money (which you should shoot for as much as possible), but it will probably help word of mouth ("Did you see the tables that they have at xyz?")

So I think your tables are a fine idea - you just can't do too much of that sort of stuff. Prioritize.

If you want, I could recommend some perennial board games that I would expect you to turn over regularly, but many of them are obvious. Also - your customer base will always have some trends that might differ from mine. Pay attention to what they are asking about.

Did you ever mention where you are?

 

[deadites89]

I'm around northern indiana in a decent size city close to Notre Dame! Also at this point I will not say no to any advice you may have on products.

It's probably an expense that will pay off long term. Short term It's a gamble. It won't bring immediate money (which you should shoot for as much as possible), but it will probably help word of mouth ("Did you see the tables that they have at xyz?")

So I think your tables are a fine idea - you just can't do too much of that sort of stuff. Prioritize.

If you want, I could recommend some perennial board games that I would expect you to turn over regularly, but many of them are obvious. Also - your customer base will always have some trends that might differ from mine. Pay attention to what they are asking about.

Did you ever mention where you are?

 

[deadites89]

When I owned my store, I was able to live a middle class life, and my wife didn't have to work. I was very lucky however in that the first year I bought my store, Pokemon TCG came out in the US, and I had contacts in Japan, and I was able to gross a very surprising amount of money, enough I was able to buy a modest home in a medium area in Los Angeles. I was also privileged to buy an already existing business on an owner's loan with a bit of down from my folks.

BUT! don't let the nay-sayers get you down. There are 4 things that imho will lead you to success:
1. Location (mentioned above)
2. Focus on your customers and their wants. Ask them what they want, but also pay attention to what they actually do - it's a real thing that people say one thing and do another. But like Fitz said above - pay attention to what they are asking about.
3. make sure you pay attention to your cash flow (mentioned already also)
4. Figure out every single free and dirt cheap way to get your name out there. Dont' be afraid to abandon a marketing method that's not working; and if possible, avoid long-term subscriptions/contracts. Except for maybe your domain name.

Good luck, and feel free to DM me if you have specific questions...

Thanks for this! And you will most likely hear from me at some point in this crazy journey!

 

[thirdkingdom]

I would suggest stocking up on some zines. They've got a relatively low price point and are eye-catching. Plus, you can get a simple spinner rack and display a bunch of titles at once. We sell far more zines and indie labels than WotC product. One of our best selling titles is Goblin Errands.

 

[Thondor]

Distributor of indie rpgs in Canada and the UK here (Compose Dream Games). Figured I'd chime in.
I also did my masters in retail geography and studied comic and game stores for my thesis, that was just over a decade ago, and Canada is a different market. Grain of salt.

As Compose Dream Games we do 40% off for FLGS. In Canada we offset that a bit with a cheap flat shipping rate for retailers, because as Fitz said, it can get pretty costly. (UK shipping tends to be more reasonable, but then distances are far less.)
We do ship to the USA and internationally, but you may be better off working with Indie Press Revolution, Studio2Publishing and others. That being said sometimes like now, the exchange rate is strongly in your favour so ordering from us makes more sense.

Zines can be very strong as long as you display them on a spinner so folks can see the covers. They are easy impulse pick ups, lots of folks will look for something new every month, and you can add new ones regularly for low cost.

Map drawing and solo play are quite popular in general and in indie zines. One of our perennial titles that lots of boardgame cafe's pick up (one for the store, one for the retail shelf) is The Quiet Year. This ain't a zine, it is a set. Something in a similar format like For The Queen tends to be good too.

Get some OSR titles -- don't think you necessarily have to have core book(s) for these. People will run them will rules they've had for decades.

Location:
Game stores are destination shops. Meaning people mostly plan to make a trip to see you, convenient location and traffic is less important than many other businesses. Because you are also a cafe, that could make convenience a little more important to you.

Competitors and differentiation:
You should have some idea who and where other game stores and boardgame cafe's are.
Get ideas from visiting a few and make a goal to do some things a little different. Your tables are a neat idea especially if no one else around is doing that. Be prepared to respond and adapt to what customers are telling you.
There are both pro's and con's to being close to other "similar" stores. As long as you have some differentiation it doesn't matter that much if Bob's store is around the corner.

Those are my 2 cents. Best of luck with the business plan and all the best in your efforts to execute it!

-- edit: grammar and such. Wrote most on my phone.