Thinking of starting up a small business.Need advice from CAG business owners.
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GuilewasNK
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gargus
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1) Make your company a LLC.
2) Dont ever be partners with someone.
3) If you actually turn a sizeable profit in the first 12 to 16 months your extremely lucky so be prepared to eat shit for awhile.
4) Make sure you think of every possible contingency for your store policies and post it viewable in your store and on the backs of your recipets. If you do not customers will take advantage of you left and right.
5) Go jump in dumpsters of your competitors locally and tear off the shipping labels of their boxes and then you can get a idea where they get stuff they need from and you can get it there also.
6) Always try to offer some sort of service where you dont actually give the customer a physical product. You dont get taxed on services so its all pure profit going in your pocket.
7) Save your invoices for EVERYTHING you buy, its a business expense you can write off.
8) Be fully prepared to lose your ass in debt and fail miserably. This is reality here and in this economy opening up a rental business for games is a bad idea unless your live in a town of like 5k or more with no rental stores around. Even then gamefly has you beat because people can do it through the mail and not even drive anywhere and they have a bigger selection than you. Im not saying your guarnteed to fail, but lets face it your probablly going to, especially if thats as excited as you can get about it is to type that one little message out and you actually said youll be renting products and have a inventory. I would certain hope if your selling something you will have a inventory of it. I just dont see this ending well for you.
2) Dont ever be partners with someone.
3) If you actually turn a sizeable profit in the first 12 to 16 months your extremely lucky so be prepared to eat shit for awhile.
4) Make sure you think of every possible contingency for your store policies and post it viewable in your store and on the backs of your recipets. If you do not customers will take advantage of you left and right.
5) Go jump in dumpsters of your competitors locally and tear off the shipping labels of their boxes and then you can get a idea where they get stuff they need from and you can get it there also.
6) Always try to offer some sort of service where you dont actually give the customer a physical product. You dont get taxed on services so its all pure profit going in your pocket.
7) Save your invoices for EVERYTHING you buy, its a business expense you can write off.
8) Be fully prepared to lose your ass in debt and fail miserably. This is reality here and in this economy opening up a rental business for games is a bad idea unless your live in a town of like 5k or more with no rental stores around. Even then gamefly has you beat because people can do it through the mail and not even drive anywhere and they have a bigger selection than you. Im not saying your guarnteed to fail, but lets face it your probablly going to, especially if thats as excited as you can get about it is to type that one little message out and you actually said youll be renting products and have a inventory. I would certain hope if your selling something you will have a inventory of it. I just dont see this ending well for you.
No loan yet but I plan to get one.I plan to start small and spend 6 grand on inventory of my own money.I live in populated area so finding customers shouldn't be a problem.I'm scouting locations and finding a place with low rent and close to the street has been an issue.Places that offer low rent are swapmeets and some mini malls.
[quote name='mrx001']No loan yet but I plan to get one.I plan to start small and spend 6 grand on inventory of my own money.I live in populated area so finding customers shouldn't be a problem.I'm scouting locations and finding a place with low rent and close to the street has been an issue.Places that offer low rent are swapmeets and some mini malls.[/QUOTE]
the place that has the lowest rent doesnt mean its a good thing if you get 5 people around all day.
6k on inventory is a joke you will burn though it within a few months if that (depending if you got more stuff and going to buy another 6k then maybe you good for 4 months
I been thinking of opening up a store myself but just cant pull the trigger... i have over 400 Ds games 200 PSP games 100-200 gamecube, ps2, xbox ect older system games and over 1500 NES games
(no major ps3, 360 or wii games cause i never got into them) but our city is way overdone with gamestores
we have 3 mcvans (what i hate ) at least 7 pawnshops .... and at least another 2 Used game/dvd places here in the city.
Dont you need a licence to RENT video games ..now to sell and trade them you dont BUT im not sure if you need some sort of permit to RENT games...
Long story short if you think your going to make it on a 6k investment your joking yourself... the start up cost is probally at least 10 to 20k to really open up a good store
Stay far away from swapmeets your business will mostly fail there within 3 months (yea the rent is cheap but the turnover will be very low)
ALSO instead of renting why do you trade games..
Trade your game for someone elses game + 3 bucks could be another way to make cash.
a rental only store is going to be a major pain in the ass with redbox coming into the market and doing 2 buck nights
50 bucks for a new ps3 game if you did a buck a night it take you 50 nights to recoop your money and by then someone will Scratch the hell out of it and good luck making that person pay cause they will say
I DID NOT SCRATCH THE GAME SO (#$)*#))&%# you .... so you got a buck and a messed up game and your now out 49 bucks
the place that has the lowest rent doesnt mean its a good thing if you get 5 people around all day.
6k on inventory is a joke you will burn though it within a few months if that (depending if you got more stuff and going to buy another 6k then maybe you good for 4 months
I been thinking of opening up a store myself but just cant pull the trigger... i have over 400 Ds games 200 PSP games 100-200 gamecube, ps2, xbox ect older system games and over 1500 NES games
(no major ps3, 360 or wii games cause i never got into them) but our city is way overdone with gamestores
we have 3 mcvans (what i hate ) at least 7 pawnshops .... and at least another 2 Used game/dvd places here in the city.
Dont you need a licence to RENT video games ..now to sell and trade them you dont BUT im not sure if you need some sort of permit to RENT games...
Long story short if you think your going to make it on a 6k investment your joking yourself... the start up cost is probally at least 10 to 20k to really open up a good store
Stay far away from swapmeets your business will mostly fail there within 3 months (yea the rent is cheap but the turnover will be very low)
ALSO instead of renting why do you trade games..
Trade your game for someone elses game + 3 bucks could be another way to make cash.
a rental only store is going to be a major pain in the ass with redbox coming into the market and doing 2 buck nights
50 bucks for a new ps3 game if you did a buck a night it take you 50 nights to recoop your money and by then someone will Scratch the hell out of it and good luck making that person pay cause they will say
I DID NOT SCRATCH THE GAME SO (#$)*#))&%# you .... so you got a buck and a messed up game and your now out 49 bucks
Don't open a video/game rental store, it's financial suicide.
I'm gonna repeat that, don't open a video/game rental store, it's financial suicide.
Invest your money in something else. Your going to put your money into this and as it fails your going to draw more and more of your personal money into a failing dream to try to keep it alive and it's going to ruin you.
I'm gonna repeat that, don't open a video/game rental store, it's financial suicide.
Invest your money in something else. Your going to put your money into this and as it fails your going to draw more and more of your personal money into a failing dream to try to keep it alive and it's going to ruin you.
[quote name='mission42']Don't open a video/game rental store, it's financial suicide.
I'm gonna repeat that, don't open a video/game rental store, it's financial suicide.
Invest your money in something else. Your going to put your money into this and as it fails your going to draw more and more of your personal money into a failing dream to try to keep it alive and it's going to ruin you.[/QUOTE]
This x1000 after reading the post above it.
I'm gonna repeat that, don't open a video/game rental store, it's financial suicide.
Invest your money in something else. Your going to put your money into this and as it fails your going to draw more and more of your personal money into a failing dream to try to keep it alive and it's going to ruin you.[/QUOTE]
This x1000 after reading the post above it.
If you don't listen to the others for some reason, try and set up next to a college.
Place across the street from mine offers online play for PS3, 360, PC with all the latest games to play /at the shop/ (in addition to buying/selling/renting). Charges are based on how much time is spent playing those games. Membership rates and all that.
This is helpful because the majority of colleges have shit internet speeds per student, so the idea is they'd come to your place to play. Xbox offering cloud storage with profiles soon only helps, as they can just sign into their profile on your machine and start killing baddies.
Good luck.
Place across the street from mine offers online play for PS3, 360, PC with all the latest games to play /at the shop/ (in addition to buying/selling/renting). Charges are based on how much time is spent playing those games. Membership rates and all that.
This is helpful because the majority of colleges have shit internet speeds per student, so the idea is they'd come to your place to play. Xbox offering cloud storage with profiles soon only helps, as they can just sign into their profile on your machine and start killing baddies.
Good luck.
[quote name='mrx001']I'm renting out inventory, not selling. 4,000 on systems and 2,000 games.Yes,I will be renting out systems.Thinking of throwing in PCs in to the mix.[/QUOTE]
so your buying around 12 systems and 4o games .... ummm sorry but that = major fail
we got a few video stores around here that rent systems ps3 wii 360 1 of each system
the last year 52 weeks
wii was rented 12 times
ps3 was rented like 14 times
and 360 was rented 4 times
very few people Rent systems and they had around 4 systems ripped off and you cant charge the credit card cause the people will say
THEY RETURNED THE SYSTEM and your store messed up and lost it
so your buying around 12 systems and 4o games .... ummm sorry but that = major fail
we got a few video stores around here that rent systems ps3 wii 360 1 of each system
the last year 52 weeks
wii was rented 12 times
ps3 was rented like 14 times
and 360 was rented 4 times
very few people Rent systems and they had around 4 systems ripped off and you cant charge the credit card cause the people will say
THEY RETURNED THE SYSTEM and your store messed up and lost it
Don't forget that rent will at a minimum be several hundred-low thousand dollars a month. Utilities will be several hundred dollars a month. Insurance will be a couple hundred. Replacing broken and stolen games/systems will be variable, but presumably another expense. If you hire someone else to work you need to pay minimum wage and payroll taxes. If its only you, you are committing to being at the store every hour of every day that it is open and thus can't be earning money from any other job. You will need to advertise in some way so people know you exist which would run in the hundreds to low thousands for local papers/local TV/fliers. You would need to make hundreds to thousands of rentals just to break even with the costs of running the store, much less the fixed costs of your products and to turn a profit. It ain't going to happen in an ultra-competitive market. Put another way, brands with huge name recognition, who had national supply chains and advertising budgets are all going under, what makes you different, other than being much, much more susceptible to market forces? Why would someone go to you rather than redbox, blockbuster kiosk, gamefly, or established local rental places? Keep in mind it's not just "someone", but would have to be hundreds of someones every month.
BillyBob29
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Sorry but I would have to agree with most of the other posters in here when saying this idea does not sound like a wise move.
What is your business model? How many systems/games will you have to rent per month just to cover your rent on your retail location?
I just don't see real demand for renting game systems and renting the games themselves is a very crowded marketplace and I don't see how you can compete with nation wide companies that put millions of dollars a year into marketing.
But anyway, regardless of what industry your small business is in, it is an unfortunate fact that 85% of all small business ventures fail in the first year.
If you decide to go forward, do so with caution and make sure you are willing to live with the loss of all funds put into the venture.
Honestly, if you want a small business, you would be much better off looking into a franchise opportunity that isn't currently in your area. It would require more than $6k of your cash but you would also be far more likely to get a good loan.
What is your business model? How many systems/games will you have to rent per month just to cover your rent on your retail location?
I just don't see real demand for renting game systems and renting the games themselves is a very crowded marketplace and I don't see how you can compete with nation wide companies that put millions of dollars a year into marketing.
But anyway, regardless of what industry your small business is in, it is an unfortunate fact that 85% of all small business ventures fail in the first year.
If you decide to go forward, do so with caution and make sure you are willing to live with the loss of all funds put into the venture.
Honestly, if you want a small business, you would be much better off looking into a franchise opportunity that isn't currently in your area. It would require more than $6k of your cash but you would also be far more likely to get a good loan.
DurbanBrown
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Sounds like fun, but is this for real?
smiley241275
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Here is my take. To give you the short end of my business experience, I have ran a freelance transcription company for 8 years and launched a tech website about 5 months ago. The first thing that popped out to me is whether or not you have a written, detailed business plan. I would start there before doing anything else. My concern with your rental service is licensing issues and the low initial investment. Granted, 6000 bones seems like a nice chunk of change to most. Nonetheless, you'll burn through that quickly, especially when acquiring inventory.
Probably the biggest hurdle you will encounter, though, is competition. Everyone wants convenience and it looks more and more like rental stores are going to be obsolete in a few more years. Kiosks like Redbox, online rental services, and streaming content are the way everything will be heading in the future. The one thing I think you should heavily consider, if you still choose to follow-through with it, is offering your business solely online. Having a storefront will eat away at your profits. Rent, electricity, internet, all of that adds up quick when paying it out monthly as overhead expenses. Of course, the problem you would then have is insuring products in case they are never returned (plan for the worst, hope for the best). Maybe another thing to consider is checking into franchising a kiosk. Again, keep costs low. Don't be too daunted by naysayers, but you have to be practical about where the market is heading and how much you have to invest. Hope that helps! Good on you for wanting to be an entrepreneur!
Probably the biggest hurdle you will encounter, though, is competition. Everyone wants convenience and it looks more and more like rental stores are going to be obsolete in a few more years. Kiosks like Redbox, online rental services, and streaming content are the way everything will be heading in the future. The one thing I think you should heavily consider, if you still choose to follow-through with it, is offering your business solely online. Having a storefront will eat away at your profits. Rent, electricity, internet, all of that adds up quick when paying it out monthly as overhead expenses. Of course, the problem you would then have is insuring products in case they are never returned (plan for the worst, hope for the best). Maybe another thing to consider is checking into franchising a kiosk. Again, keep costs low. Don't be too daunted by naysayers, but you have to be practical about where the market is heading and how much you have to invest. Hope that helps! Good on you for wanting to be an entrepreneur!
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Monsta Mack
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Don't do it.
Your better off doing some sort of food joint. I've yet to see any local video rental store or even a hardware mom and pop store survive here in the last ten years. Your either a franchise or some big place like Wal-Mart to survive these days.
Your better off doing some sort of food joint. I've yet to see any local video rental store or even a hardware mom and pop store survive here in the last ten years. Your either a franchise or some big place like Wal-Mart to survive these days.
CouRageouS
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This is a terrible idea. Everything everyone is saying is the truth, you will be in the negative for at least a year and your idea of renting out systems simply has no market. You don't seem to have much of a business sense and you will put yourself in financial hell if you move forward with this. You eat so much shit on costs and you seem to have no idea how much it'll add up. Major stuff like business licenses, store construction to the little things like bathroom supplies, you eat the costs and it'll bury you faster than you can imagine.
It is not realistic to open up a rental store and turn a profit in this day and age. There simply is no market for system rentals and Blockbuster is the last survivor barely hanging on against kiosks and online rentals. Even Redbox rents games now. Do you honestly want to compete with Redbox and Gamefly? Let's say we ignore the startup costs and your estimated costs to stay open for is $1000 a month. What do you have to charge and how many customers would you have to need to just break even? You can't compete with $1 a night rentals from Redbox (even if their selection is minimal) or Gamefly's monthly fees.
If you have this dream of having your own business, look into franchises and see what's profitable. Research research research then go from there.
It is not realistic to open up a rental store and turn a profit in this day and age. There simply is no market for system rentals and Blockbuster is the last survivor barely hanging on against kiosks and online rentals. Even Redbox rents games now. Do you honestly want to compete with Redbox and Gamefly? Let's say we ignore the startup costs and your estimated costs to stay open for is $1000 a month. What do you have to charge and how many customers would you have to need to just break even? You can't compete with $1 a night rentals from Redbox (even if their selection is minimal) or Gamefly's monthly fees.
If you have this dream of having your own business, look into franchises and see what's profitable. Research research research then go from there.
blackdog60
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2 words,..... ramen and tuna,,, learn it, eat it, love it. when I opened my first B&M store, I had a good amount of inventory approx $100K or so of misc stuff, I opened my store a block off a major Phoenix freeway and used $10K to set up the actual store front & shelves & fixtures etc. I did rent anime videos at the time and that was pretty much a break even on buying the videos and such. Once it shifted to DVDs, I lost a few customers since I made them pay to replace the DVDs. shortly there after I quit renting. I sell & trade now, but rentals are gone to much stress and bother. I can't imagine VGs will be much different, if people don't actually own it, they treat it like crap. I moved from the Phoenix market after 3 years. "I had to drive 15 minutes to get to your store." gets old really fast. I was open 10AM - 9PM to allow people to come in after the heat of the day. I am now in a much smaller market 200K+ population and while I do make a profit most years (8 years now), not much in the grand scheme of things. and while a LLC would protect me from the additional taxes I pay, the additional costs incurred doing it that way would make it a push for me, I would just be making more money for someone else. I am still the only employee, most people want to work here thinking they can watch anime & play VGs all day, I clearly explain that would be come my job, yours would be cleaning, dusting, inventory and all the not fun things that make up a business, most flee...... ( not like I can afford to hire them anyway, I can't see paying someone more than me.) Look at most of your independent game store/comic shop/specialty store owners and you will see, we don't get rich. The perks are good the pay really SUCKS.
[quote name='Jodou']There's a reason why my town has no local rental stores anymore. Nobody goes to them.[/QUOTE]
This.
With all the mail rental options for games and movies (blockbuster does game rentals along with movies now, in addition to Gamefly) most people don't want to bother with driving to the local store, dealing with due dates etc.
Also, with the economy still struggling and consumer spending increasing at super slow rates right now, it's a really bad time to start a business right now in general. Too many people are still unemployed or worried about losing their jobs so spending on luxury items is still relatively low.
Unless you have some kind of "sure thing"--something that's still selling well (still in high demand) and provides a product or service that isn't readily available in your area, it just seems like too much risk.
It reminds me of the member who posted the thread about opening a Play N Trade franchise. Took him a couple years to get it up and running and he disregarded a lot of cautionary device, and IIRC he was out of business in less than a year.
This.
With all the mail rental options for games and movies (blockbuster does game rentals along with movies now, in addition to Gamefly) most people don't want to bother with driving to the local store, dealing with due dates etc.
Also, with the economy still struggling and consumer spending increasing at super slow rates right now, it's a really bad time to start a business right now in general. Too many people are still unemployed or worried about losing their jobs so spending on luxury items is still relatively low.
Unless you have some kind of "sure thing"--something that's still selling well (still in high demand) and provides a product or service that isn't readily available in your area, it just seems like too much risk.
It reminds me of the member who posted the thread about opening a Play N Trade franchise. Took him a couple years to get it up and running and he disregarded a lot of cautionary device, and IIRC he was out of business in less than a year.
bread's done