I'm gonna open a game store! Yay me!
Okay, so it's not just going to be me. Jay (my husband) and Matt (great friend and awesome guy) are going to help.... by which I mean do most of the hard stuff and actually be the ones running the show.... but I'll be there to look pretty and come up with paint colors and stuff! ^_^
Seriously though, I'm totally excited. I am the very picture of the enthusiastic novice, reading everything I can get my hands on that relates to running a business. I got me a copy of "Small Business for Dummies." I'm reading Business of Gaming Retail and Behind the Counter which are blogs about the logistics of opening and running a FNGS (friendly neighborhood game store), and I'm just generally doing all kinds of research. And I'm planning on going back to school to be and accountant. I'll be putting my math skills and OCD tendencies to good use keeping the finances in order and the bills & taxes paid while the boys do all the hard stuff. It's exhilarating... and overwhelming because I have no clue what I'm doing. ACK!
So far we're still pretty early in the planning stages. Matt, being the one currently studying business management and actually knows whats going on, is working on the business plan. He's been discussing some of it with me, and I'm surprised to find that not all of it is going over my head. (I suspect he is humoring me.)
This is what we know so far:
- The shop will be somewhere in he Jackson area (Matt is thinking Flowood on Lakeland drive, Jay is thinking Pearl near the Hinds Campus, and I feel like I don't have enough info to have an informed opinion yet.)
- We're planning on having a game room, and a pretty aggressive event schedule. Like 3-4 nights a week we want to have SOMETHING going on.
- Our store strategy is going to place heavy emphasis on customer service. We want to make gaming as fun and accessible as we can.
- We want this place to be a hang out spot for people in the geek & nerd subculture, which is why we're thinking either "Geeks and Games" or "Geek Haven" for the shop name. You can tell by the name of the blog which one I'm leaning toward. Also, if (BIG IF) I can get permission and thus avoid copyright issues, the store slogan is tentatively "It's not about what you love, it's about how you love it", which is a lovely Wil Wheaton quote, and exactly the sort of sentiment that's driving this. We are geeks and gamers, all three of us. If this thing gets off the ground, it is going to be a labor of love. No doubt about it.
- And last and probably least... *drum roll*.... I designed a logo! It's just a concept design and subject to change, but I'm actually kinda proud of it:
I'm also working on a design for some gaming tables... but that's not going as well.... my spacial dynamics skills leave much to be desired. A carpenter I am not. Maybe Matt and his dad can fix the design so it doesn't suck. *crosses fingers*
Besides that.... as far as I can tell, it's mostly up in the air. I'll keep you guys posted!
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