If you own your own business can you help me please?

Hello everyone,

I'll cut straight to the chase, I'm seriously considering setting up a small business in my city, well, me and my two friends.

I'll give you some details about myself and then the city and what type of business I'm hoping to get going so you can give me some input from there.

I'm 20 years old and currently working as a full-time SEO Web Deveoper, I love me job, but I've always wanted to run my own business. I've been into gaming for as long as I can remember, same as my two friends, all three of us are very computer orientated and we know a fair bit about pc's, how they work, how to set them up and fix them when they go wrong.

I live in a city called Chichester, there is a thriving student population in chichester what with the excellent College and Universitys here:
http://www.chichester.ac.uk/
http://www.chiuni.ac.uk/

so there are alot of students, British and foreign, chchester College/uni is very very big on having foreign students come over and has won awards for it and all sorts.

The night life to chichester is ok, not great, it's not full of mad bars and clubs but is full of lots of little niech pubs and winebars, not very exciting, there is a health centre, cinema and bowling alley, but generally when people want entertainment they go out to one of the neighbouring towns.

There is also a small pokey internet cafe which is hardly brilliant with slow pc's and no aptitude towards gaming.

My friends and I are seriously considering setting up a LAN PC gaming shop, where all the students, young children can come play some pc games in a safe and friendly environment, so their parents wont have to worry about what their doing.

It's not just about playing pc games it's about the atmosphere and customer service that I'm trying to get going, a friendly community, fairly priced too, an afternoon of pc gaming would be cheaper than going to the cinema or swimming, and there will be facillities on site to for food and beverage.

We will be offering membership services like buy 2 hours get the 3rd free (for members), of half price (non-members) we will also set up tournaments and all-night gaming sessions, there will also be consoles and a pool table.
Aswell as a PC maintenance and repairs service on behalf of my friends and I.

I know that people have broadband at home and that they could play at home but I'm really hoping to get the whole atmosphere thing going to get people to want to come to us and we want to get people into us whom dont have PC's or a decent net connection, people like the live-in residence for the college/uni.

well... thats the vision anyway,
(and obviously because of the large student and young persons community, I'm hoping that there would be no end to the customers.)

We're going to plan a big openening ceremony, giving out flyers for a week/two weeks before opening, and each flyer admits you with 1 hours free gaming when you first come in, trying to entice people into the shop as it were.

and also, as we know school is in session during weekday hours 9 - 5, so we're offering cheaper student prices during those times to anyone who can provide us with their student i.d., people who might be on a lunch break etc...

Now, thats enough detail from my part.

What I'm asking is, Do any of you own your own businesses? What are the pitfalls and high points? is there anything I absolutely must be aware of?
Will i be able to get funding for it? I am only 20 after all, business grants? bank loans? etc... have any of you guys ever gotten anything like that?

Any tips, hints or generally good advice anyone can give me here would be greatly apprechiated.

also, what do you think on the general idea itself? from what you've heard about the city and population in general? think it'd work?

thanks,

- Piro

 

Being a gamer, how many friends do you have in your town that play the games you play? Will you be able to have a strong base membership at first? I would start promoting and networking NOW to get a feel out there along with promoting it.

Owning your own business is incredible. Figure out how many hours you'll have to sell to make your nut aka your monthly expenses. Good luck!

 

Well, when I took my college course in IT Development: IT Practitioners I knew maaaaaany gamers, my 2 friends whom will start the business with me know many other gamers too, I'm sure that there are lots more gamers at the college, people I dont even know, and also without meaning to sound racist, there is a very LARGE Asian community at the college and uni, everytime I've been into the internet cafe I've seen them trying to play WoW and many other games with horrible PC's, Appart from the internet cafe, which is mainly used for web browsing, there is absolutely nowhere else in the city that you can play online or console games, so I'm hardly fighting off competitors with a stick here, I believe that it'd be welcomed.

I believe it'd take 10-12 months to maybe break even, 12-24 months to start making a profit, with the main summer months being the ones that I'll hit the school children to come in and play, what with the summer holidays, and also it'd be a good business in winter too, somewhere warm to go, chill out with friends, play some games, snack, chat, drink coffee.

I believe it'd work. if it doesn't I'll make it work.

And what with new people moving to the city each year for college and uni there will always be fresh new people to pitch too.

One of my friends whom I'd set up the business with is currently taking IT and he spoke to his class today and every single person, including the lecturer thought it was an awsome idea and would go with their friends.

- Piro

 

Please keep one thing in mind (not sure about the legalities in your country) - doing business with anything involving children is very difficult, legally, because parent consent is required for anyone underage. There are also many other safety & security issues you will have to conform to. Be sure to research all of this.

 

Number one you need a business plan
Business is like this have you ever been bitten by an elephant ? Have you ever ben bitten by a mosquito ?
What this means is it is the little things that will get you in trouble ...check check and recheck every thing
be careful sometimes an attorney sounds like a big cost but cost might be higher without one.

Why not do a student survey see what the people in your town think about the idea .. this is good to also help if you need to borrow money but at your age you might be better off looking for private funds ...

You might need to give up some equity position but sometimes a half of a loaf of bread is bigger than the whole loaf....

 

Yes i have my own biz.
When starting a biz especially partnering,you should have a lawyer to setup the term and condition to prevent and future problem arise from this partnership.
You should approach angel investor coz they have money and willing to spent for high risk but high return biz.

 

Pitfalls always exist but they do differ from business to business

Minimum consult a lawyer and accountant !!

Who is taking care of the technical details ?

Make sure you calculate the monthly payments you will be paying (rent space, bandwidth, computer repair, personnel, etc) ... does the estimated amount of people coming in with the average charge covers at least your expenses ? Does the city have enough of a demand for that kind of shop ?

 

I've already thought about that, I'll get some Personal Liability Insurance, infact the SEO company I work for now also own an Insurance Brokers so I know I can get any Insurance i need from here, I was also thinking of setting up a 'walk-in' age cap. As there will hopefully be children and teenagers coming into the store, anyone over the age of 15-16 will be fine to just walk in and play, anyone underthat will need to get their parents to sign a T&C sheet and give me their contact details to put onto file, obviously I'll protect those under the Data Protection Act.

I was thinking about going out around the town and having a survey, my friends have already asked a number of their friends, to ask their friends to ask their friends (you get the idea) on what their take is on the subject and if they'd be interested, not only as it being a place to play pc games but as a place to go hang out with friends, get some food etc... so far they've all said it would be a good thing to have, so a positive reaction so far.

I was going to consult a lawyer before starting anything more decisive yes, I can handle the accounts, well keeping a cash-flow and checking it agains the incomings and outgoings.

Technical details, Well my friends and I are very computer orientated and know what we're doing when it comes to PCs, if I dont know the answer to something then 99% of the time one of those two do.

I am going to mock up a cash-flow of the outgoing expenditure against what I percieve to be what we would gain, obviously the first few months would be slow trading but we've got some self promotion schemes thought up to try to combat that. The computers will be under warranty, so if anything major happens to them that we cannot fix or that if by trying to fix we will void that warrenty then we'll just send them off to get repaired, we're going to ghost the servers weekly and the individual machines every 2-3 days, so that nobody would lose any data if something bad happened and so that you wouldn't have to wait around for GB's of patches to re-install

well as for personel it'd just be myself and my friends, taking turns in shifts, I'd do a majority of them with my friend Mr.A with Mr.B taking over when one of us needs respite.

I believe that given a few months the amount we would be charging and having regular customers would atleast start to pay the rent for the lease of the property and also some of the electric and Phoneline/Broadband bills, given 10-12 months to break even, 12-24 to start making a profit and being able to start paying back the loans. Also because of the nature of the city, people are coming in and going out of the colleges and uni every year, so there will always be somebody new to try to entice into the store

Thanks for all your input,

-Piro

 

You need to make a business plan. A good business plan is well thought out and can help attract investors, and it is also a guide of what you need to do to be successful. The last business plan I wrote, I just opened up a Word Document and came up with a basic plan in a few hours. Then every day I would add new ideas to it until I had a great plan. That took me 3 weeks or so. I still add new ideas to it weekly. The plan should be looked at continuously during operations, especially at the beginning.

You need to figure out what your fixed cost would be per month.
Rent. Electricity, internet, insurance, etc... And figure out how much income you need to break even. In this type of business internet and electricity can be variable, but come up with an average number.

I would figure out what types of food you could offer without a full kitchen (like bar food, sandwiches, etc...) Make sure to get the email address of anyone that comes in the store and keep marketing to them. Once you figure out the slower days, have gamming competitions (like poker competitions where people buy in) to keep the place full during slow times.
I don't game or play poker, but a bar/restaurant I go to has poker competions on Monday nights and the place is PACKED!! They were dead on Mondays before they started this.

If you and your buddies are computer nerds, I would consider adding a revenue stream that includes basic computer repair, spyware removal, firewall help, IT help, diagnostics, memory upgrades, hard drive upgrades, cleaning out Windows Start-Up Programs, Backup-up hard drives,etc...Here in the US, places charge $30 to $80 USD per hour. I have financial data on my computer (as well as other stuff I don't want people to see so take my computer to a guy and he works on it while I stand next to him, and he charges me extra to watch him, but I feel safe that he does not have access to my computer without me there. If you do offer repair service, find a couple hundred businesses around you and spend 2 days going into them with flyers for your gamming operation and let them know about your repair services. I guarantee you will get repair/upgrade doing this. You could also let them know about your SEO services for local businesses. If they don’t have a website, you could offer that service too. Flyers, word of mouth, and email should be great free promotional tools that will really make a difference in this type of endeavor. Feel free to PM me anytime.

Dave

 

maybe this should be something you hold once a week or something? and rent something for a day a week. I would imagine this would be a tough business to run where you have much over head. A more of an event type business instead of an on-going daily business.

How many days a week can people play at your location hours a day?

I can go see a movie for $8? you would have to have half a dozen people playing every hour 8 hours a day just to cover labor for 2 people and basic costs.

by making it an even business you have fixed costs for one 24 hour period, now you just have to work it backwards to find out how many people you need to break even. Maybe you do this a few times a month. If it works and they keep getting bigger, then decide if you need to do it more often.

I have heard of people renting movie theaters and having huge tournaments on the movie theater screens.

 

Thanks Dave, I'm in the process of starting up my business plan, however I dont think I'll actually be starting the business for a year, maybe two, i want to make sure that the business will work here, that means lots of research, and I'm also still enjoying working in my job, and I want to save up a substancial amount before I quit.

Poker seems to 'adult' for the type of place we want to run, that and the fact that there is a pub 50 yards down the road that does poker most night so it'd be a lost cause. Yes my friends and I will have a PC upgrade and repair service and we are going to go overboard with flyers and hand them out everywhere! Also we've thought about food, hot drinks and snacks that kinda thing.

In all honesty I think that if we were to do this it'd have to be full-time, for that $8 you could spend a whole afternoon of gaming with your friends in a safe, relaxed environment.

The price range goes up and down during the day depending on the time of day, what day it is and who we're marketing at, college kids, school children etc...

we're offering lower prices during the day 9-3, mon-fri to try to get the school kids in during the day, college students get discounts those times too.
Friday nights are tournament nights and Saturday evening would be an all night gaming session.

 

With the survey be careful. Its easy for everyone to say its a great idea but when it comes to the time to fork out the cash for your services you will be shocked at how many of them suddenly dont want to pay for what you offer. Its easy to say yes, much harder to follow through especially when it involves money.

 

Thanks for the input

 

The number one reason most businesses fail is a lack of capital, which means they make poor decisions on important things like marketing. Make sure you have enough money to operate the business with little to no revenue for as long as possible, ideally a year. Make sure you have enough cash to adequately market the business. Make sure the partnership is well-defined in terms of responsibilities and duties, and what the consequences are if someone fails to hold to their end of the deal. On this point, don't confuse the different roles of 'founder' and 'operator'. You may have one partner who can contribute some great ideas, but another who is doing all the work day to day. Another maybe has the capital. Each are important and should be valued in ways that properly reward them for their contribution.

Finally, take your business plan and pitch it to some local investors. You should do this even if you don't need the money, because the questions they ask and the work you have to do to answer them will insure you've thought through all of the potential pitfalls.

Best of luck.

 

Some good information here, thanks, Yeah I've thought about the partnership some more, We've decided that as I'm the one who'd take out the loans and sort out pretty much all the business side of things. I'll just employ my friends instead.

 

wow....you have a REALLY good idea. I own two businesses, a writing agency and a marketing campaign agency. I have to say this.....you got all the right ideas, however..you might have to do a little bit more marketing to find out exactly what type of gaming you will be aiming at. I mean, if your going for the simple pc games such as pacman or games you made yourself, then that is pretty cool. But you need to have your target market at 10-18 years old as these are the kids that like computer games. Also, you will need to be in an environment where a lot of these kids are located. Now, as far as the membership thing....hmmmm, I don't know about that because I you have to understand that most parents don't really care what their kids do..I'm just being honest....if you saw how many stray kids there are just walking around aimlessly, then you will get my point. So, I don't think a 14 year old could be interested in getting a membership. You should make things a little bit more simple by offering a "time card" or "game coins" or ticket of some sort like they do at Chucky Cheese. But good luck to you and good idea.

 

Thanks for your advice, I disagree slightly however, I used to go to a LAN gaming shop nearly everyday and I was glad I had a membership! Special offers, discounted rates etc... It's just another way to get them into coming in regularly, especially with the amount of School children and college kids (15,000 at the college alone) there are in Chichester!

And I'll be having PC Games there, FPS, RTS, MMO etc... aswell as some consoles.

 

Cool idea. I think you should go for it!! I live 20 minutes away near Havant.

 

sweet! I used to live in Havant/Leigh Park for abit.

Haha Would you come?

 

May be find some investors or supporters whom you will offer a share from your profits later on.
Also, do make sure your terms and services incorporate almost every necessary thing, Like 'We are not responsible for any damage however small to the health of the child' but at the same time assure them verbally that the security arrangements will be up to mark.

Why not hire a good (you get what I mean) receptionist who will pick up calls and help in marketing and all.
Also, having the local rock bands perform during the launch may help to attract people.

Make it a get together place for the teens. Buy a TV and put on the favorite local channel (Sports, Music, whatever).

It all contributes in making the place popular.