Zoom Out
Where is your attention focused? “Should I put the sparkly dice next to the pearly ones?” The question reveals a microscopic look at one aspect of your store’s ...
Author: lloydbrown
The Shoestring Game Store Model
Opening a Store without Breaking the Bank Before we even begin, let me point out that I do not recommend this business model for most people who want commercial...
Site Selection
Choose Your Space Carefully You have two opposing desires when selecting a location: cost and attractiveness. High traffic count is attractive but expensive. Lo...
The Flea Market Way
I’ve recently created a truncated form of business plan describing a low-budget way to start a game store. Get inventory, get some fixtures, and focus on ...
Pre-Opening Promotion
Build Sales While You Build Set your budget. You should have already assigned a figure to this category when you created your financial statements, but now is t...
Bankruptcy in 10 Easy Steps
A Bizarro Look at Running Your Business 1. Blow off Special Orders Special orders require paying attention to something else while you’re furiously concentratin...
The Big Margin Discussion
Margin, margin, margin—retailers talk about it a lot. Yes, margin is extremely important. Without it, we wouldn’t be here. The difference between cost and sales...
Planning Store Layout
What to Place Where Early in your planning stages, you should have a broad idea of what major features you’ll have in your store. Will you have a game room? How...
Pre-Opening Marketing
Let People Know You’re Opening Marketing includes more than just advertising. It includes everything you do strategically and tactically to gain and retai...
The Pros & Cons of a Game Room
Should You or Shouldn’t You? The question of whether or not a store should have a game room is highly contentious. Fortunately, both camps are on good ter...