Category: Featured Articles

Opening Stores on Somebody Else’s Dime Franchising your business requires finding a tricky balance. You must offer a service worth paying for. You have to...

Your Path to Riches One Dime At a Time One of the things you do when you open your store is price a whole bunch of stuff. Like many things, it’s both easi...

A Partnership Formed and Dissolved A while ago, a prospective store owner contacted me about advice. That happens all the time, especially right after each colu...

Write it Into Your Business Plan Last month we discussed the benefits of marketing your business from a service-focused approach. Independent retailers often ha...

How Long Does It Take? When I first started this column, I assumed that the more math-intensive discussions would turn off the casual readers. I expected a mix ...

What does that mean, anyway? The three main categories on which your business can compete are price, selection, and service. Competing on Price You don’t ...

A Few More Tricks for Saving Money After inventory, labor is your highest controllable cost. Any dollars you can save on labor translate directly into improved ...

Demos aren’t your only option for game room activities. Leagues Leagues are a finite periodic event with a competitive element. You require players to play matc...

The gamble with having a game room is that the increase in gamer activity it generates will encourage more sales than if you filled that space with more merchan...

Race to the Starting Line   Ah, the mindset of a gamer. When a bank approves a loan, they typically request that you reapply if you take more than 30 days to en...