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Hello,

My name is Brian and I have been a dakkanaught for a long time now.

I am going to embark on a journey of a lifetime that started when I was in Jr. High. I have always been a gamer, and now at this point in my life I, a long with a group of friends, have decided to put the boots to the pavement and give being a game store owner a shot.
We have decided to turn to the public to help further our dream, as the start up costs are great, and while we have a majority of the capitol needed to get the project off the ground we decided to come to the public for help.

Gofundme funds will be used to help ensure that opening day we are not short on product or the things that will help our establishment become the premier game shop in Southern California.

Please take a moment, visit the link and if you cannot afford to help, then please share our link. This fund raiser will be successful if the gaming community does what it does best, and comes together to help fellow gamers out when they are in need.

"This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope"

Well not our only hope, but a couple bucks sure would be great.

Also, to any dakka members, in an effort to add some older Magic: The Gathering cards, if you have any of your old stuff laying around, I will gladly buy them from you or accept them as a donation.

Thank you all for the support and please do not hesitate to comment any questions. I will answer anything I can.

www.gofundme.com/dragonsden

Please do not hesitate to post any questions and I will answer them ASAP!

Thank you all for sharing this and helping a young man's dream come true.

Wasn't this tried before and shut down by the mods?

Not from me. I cant keep up with the 1,000's of threads that get locked and buried.

If It is against the rules, itll fade out in no time.

Relapse wrote:
Wasn't this tried before and shut down by the mods?

I'm not sure I see the difference between this and kickstarter.

The best help I can offer is advice though: Go to college or a trade school and get a real job. Get some experience working for a small time retailer if nothing else. Save up some money, and do some market research before you lunge into this.

A business borne alone out of turning a hobby into a job alone will result in a failing business and distaste for you hobby.

I went to college and have a real job. We have a fully fleshed out business plan and the capitol to get going well.

No business has ever had too much money to get started up inventory, especially in the world we are living (mini gamers / card gamers)

Oh. Your initial post led me to think you were somehow just graduated from high school. I think the misinterpretation was likely on my end.

Good luck at any rate.

I didn't think I wrote that bad :(

Hey, like I said, probably my bad.

While I won't give you money, I'll toss in my $0.02 of advice.

While money might seem to be the biggest challenge, its only a requirement. Not the determiner of success The real test will come in the first 6 months to a year of business.

You need to be supportive of your little community, and they'll support you in return.

A few things I would do if I had my own game store.

Have a nice, clean, safe environment. This means do a little policing of the regulars. Make sure they pick up after themselves, make a real effort to maintain personal hygiene, and don't scare away potential newbies. If you smell, you're gonna get sprayed with a little air freshener. If you keep smelling, you might be asked to leave. The same with regular litterers or particularly crass individuals.

Remember, a lot of gamers are going to be kids. And their parents will be doing a little background checking on the people, and place little, Timmy wants to hang out with. As long you maintain a decent environment, parents will let their kids come regularly and you'll have a steady stream of new players to come and play. and more importantly buy stuff!

I'd also consider not just having toys for sale. I'd have a couple vending machines or some snacks/drinks for sale behind the counter. This can be a nice sneaky way of "charging" for the play space. I easily drop at least 1.50-2$ each time I play at our store which has a vending machine, sometimes more.

Lastly, beware of going into business with friends. It can be awesome, but its also a great way to ruin friendships. Especially if things go sour. Just keep it in mind, you can make it work.

We will have sodas and candy.

My friend and partner has worked at FLGS for 10+ years but he and the owner are growing tired of each other.

The owner is also looking to close shop in the next year, as he is getting super old.

We are using his game store experience with my 15+ years of operations management experience to balance each other.

I appreciate the advice though, everything is appreciated, and while I don't expect 90% of people that read this to donate, I would be appreciative of anyone that shares my link via any social media possible.

The community of gamers is one that appreciates people that are willing to put it on the line, and that's what we are doing.

So, let me get this straight, you want to run a for-profit business but your business plan consists of begging for charity donations and acting like your for-profit business is some kind of desperate struggle to serve the community? Unless you're smart enough to take the money and run you're going to be bankrupt as soon as your initial funding runs out. The best thing you can do for your business is to give up on it for now, spend some time learning how to run a business without having to beg your customers for charity donations, and try again later as a proper business.

Peregrine is always a pillar of positivity.

Like I said, we have a business plan and capitol raised. Our plan has been approved by our lender, its sound and solid.

We got the business end of the business covered.

 Blood Lord Soldado wrote:
Peregrine is always a pillar of positivity.

I prefer to think of myself as a pillar of realism. And the reality is that you're either yet another potential game store owner with a questionable business plan who looks at running a store as a way to subsidize their hobbies instead of a for-profit business, or you're a greedy preying on the community and trying to exploit their generosity for personal profit. And given the way you're trying to portray this as a legitimate charitable effort and make money off donated goods I'm leaning towards the latter.

Like I said, we have a business plan and capitol raised. Our plan has been approved by our lender, its sound and solid.

We got the business end of the business covered.

Then stop begging for charity donations. If I was your lender and I saw this forum thread I'd probably cancel your loan because whatever business plan you showed me was clearly based on charity donations instead of a solid concept for making money. Things like "having sufficient funding for opening-day stock" are supposed to be covered by initial loans, and if you don't have sufficient funding to cover those expenses without begging for charity then you aren't ready to open your business.

I would also like to know what in particular you needed help with monetarily.

Take out loans, don't ask for charity. And if you can't qualify for loans, it means that your business model won't work, in-which case anyone donating would just be throwing their money away.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Blood Lord Soldado wrote:
Peregrine is always a pillar of positivity.

I prefer to think of myself as a pillar of realism. And the reality is that you're either yet another potential game store owner with a questionable business plan who looks at running a store as a way to subsidize their hobbies instead of a for-profit business, or you're a greedy preying on the community and trying to exploit their generosity for personal profit. And given the way you're trying to portray this as a legitimate charitable effort and make money off donated goods I'm leaning towards the latter.

Like I said, we have a business plan and capitol raised. Our plan has been approved by our lender, its sound and solid.

We got the business end of the business covered.

Then stop begging for charity donations. If I was your lender and I saw this forum thread I'd probably cancel your loan because whatever business plan you showed me was clearly based on charity donations instead of a solid concept for making money. Things like "having sufficient funding for opening-day stock" are supposed to be covered by initial loans, and if you don't have sufficient funding to cover those expenses without begging for charity then you aren't ready to open your business.

My thoughts as well. I figured it was a bunch of gamers trying to get stuff for their own use on the cheap or for free.

We have our loans Lictor.

Slarg232 we are going to be primarily focused on TCG's specifically Magic the Gathering.

While we have anticipated the costs of doing day to day business, we are also dealing a business of opportunity. If a guy comes in with a collection of cards that is of considerable value and is willing to part with it at a price we know we can make money on then that's an unforeseen expense. These are unforecastable and most of the time out of the blue. Having extra money on hand, specifically in the early phases of the business will allow us increased flexibility within our budget.

Crowd sourcing itself is an opportunity, I mean come on, they paid a guy over 100k to make spaghetti. While I don't expect that, it would be amazing and we would use it to make a really awesome gaming environment.

In regards to me saying it is about community, well you are entitled to your opinion, and it is the internet, so I expected the haters to be strong. We will take care of the people that helped us out.

If you come in my store and mentioned you were part of the GoFundMe I will make sure you leave knowing you did the community a service.

What exactly does that mean? It's hard to tell at this point, as people usually come in the store with an objective. Play a game, get a book, get some paint, whatever it is, I know that for people that support us early, when we really need it, we can go the extra mile to always make sure they leave the store happy about their visit.

I know that seems like something that any good store should do, but as the game systems evolve and prices on things continue to rise, it becomes harder to provide all of the items anyone could need at any given time. What I am saying is, I will work my a$$ for you if you manage to come to my neck of the woods and stop by.

 Blood Lord Soldado wrote:
While we have anticipated the costs of doing day to day business, we are also dealing a business of opportunity. If a guy comes in with a collection of cards that is of considerable value and is willing to part with it at a price we know we can make money on then that's an unforeseen expense. These are unforecastable and most of the time out of the blue. Having extra money on hand, specifically in the early phases of the business will allow us increased flexibility within our budget.

This is something you should cover with your business loans. If you haven't incorporated it into your business plan, complete with specific numbers for how much money to set aside for purchasing, then your business plan sucks and you'll probably be bankrupt as soon as the initial loans run out. You should absolutely NOT be asking for charity donations to make up for your failure to plan properly.

In regards to me saying it is about community, well you are entitled to your opinion, and it is the internet, so I expected the haters to be strong.

The fact that you're dismissing legitimate concerns as "haters" shows that you aren't ready to run a business. Portraying this as some kind of struggle to support the community doesn't change the fact that you're begging for charity donations to run a for-profit business. It just makes it look like you're trying to exploit the community to put money in your own pockets.

If you come in my store and mentioned you were part of the GoFundMe I will make sure you leave knowing you did the community a service.

Stop acting like you're just doing a service for the community. You're running a for-profit business, not a charity. Donating money to you isn't doing the community a service, it's doing YOU a service.

I know that seems like something that any good store should do, but as the game systems evolve and prices on things continue to rise, it becomes harder to provide all of the items anyone could need at any given time.

Yes, providing good service is hard. But that's part of running a successful business. If you can't make your customers happy without begging for charity donations then you don't have a viable business plan and your store is doomed.

Just wanted to say a few things. (I have a little perspective here.) Starting a small business is not easy, you need a passion for it, and determination to match, but if you truly love what you, do it can be very rewarding. Crowdfunding is defiantly a option worth looking into (I've seen FLGS run Kickstarters to expand their stores/gaming spaces before) but they can be tricky, so you need to know what you are doing.

Most of all though, I want to say: Good Luck.

Crowdfunding is kind of one of those things you want to do more so when you have a loyal customer base.

"We got the business end of the business covered."

Doesn't seem like it if you think that you need crowd sourcing for contingency funding.