All or nothing...

It's been awhile since I've wrote in this thing. With good reason though. Some of you might be wondering if my business has completely flopped yet. Nope, it hasn't. We're still running relatively strong.

It's still an uphill battle. If it weren't for the team I've slowly been putting together, my sanity would be gone. Their willingness to help and work has been amazing.  Unfortunately, everyone wants to be on the team.  Not everyone can play a part the way they want to though. I've got to delegate carefully.

With every second of frustration, I've found a lifetime of diplomacy. With weakness, I've pushed new limits. I'm an innovative genius but not without flaws. My organization lacks, my time managements is mehh.  I've got a good head my shoulders, I see profitability and 95% of the time I hit it dead on.  I was never an acadamic scholar in school. But it was never for lack of brains.

Moving forward, I am wanting to take a lot of different steps. It's all or nothing. On a personal basis, I can see myself going two different directions within the next year or 2. I would either consider selling my baby and letting someone else take advantage of the beast.  Or, I would need s to get a partner that I trust and we would have to get better financing to expand our business. Both prove to be challenging.

So while my team continues to help me maintain the growth of this business, my mind has been racking over projections for the next year based on what we are profiting now and based on what we could be profiting if we chose to evolve the business in different areas.

The margin thus far is intense. Despite the doubters, we have been nothing but successful.

But to take advantage of the potential we really have in front of us, it's a tedious process of studying tactics, and marketing strategy.  I need a flexible business plan that can adapt easily.

Summer is around the corner and if I'm going to use any time to take advantage of stepping stones, this of the year is the best one I can look for.

My hours are going to be changing and it's going to require my presence more than ever.  While my team continues to grow it's also going to take a lot of discipline from us to maintain.

So we'll see. That's the update for now!

Policy Work

I've spent a lot of time these past few weeks trying to figure out how to be diplomatic with my rules and my system. I'm going to have to make some changes. The main one is being diplomatic. I can't really make exceptions for certain people who aren't working for me - just for the simple fact of who they are. It's not a matter of whether I trust THEIR behavior. It's a matter of what kind of messag I am sending to everyone else.

Because as soon as you make one exception, everyone else wants to become part of it.

I just don't know how to set up a fair system.

So over the course of the next week, I will be figuring out some sort of fair system to run the show. Things like smoking out back are going to have to change. I can't have the back door turn into a smoking lounge for everyone. If it's 2 or 3 people, it's one thing. But how do you legitimately set the standard? I need to get my webcams in so I can set up better surveillance. Those should be in this week.

I need to put my foot down a lot more as far as expectations are concerned.

Gaps and Bridges

Business has still been pretty steady.

We ended up not having an official "Grand Open", (yet).

Why?

Lots of reasons.

First of all, I still don't have enough consoles or monitors to host an efficient tournaments in that regard of my store. Magic is still too much focus.

Secondly, if I did, I doubt my wiring could handle more than three 360's at one time. A circuit blows everytime I have all the lights on, my computer and a turn a vacuum on. I'm just not equipped to do anything about it.

Finally, my building just isn't big enough. As it is, my weekends are pretty packed wall to wall already. I don't think having a Grand Open would have been healthy for my PR.

So now I'm working on fixing up the downstairs to expand. Problem is low ceilings, so you can't do too much. Also, you can hear people walking around upstairs ridiculously bad. Part of me wants to see if my landlords would be willing to work out a deal where I get the building connected to mine and use them both.

I've also started a system that allows trustworthy volunteers to run the store when I am not present. They get compensated and when I can afford to hire, these people will be the first people in line to get paid. It's been a huge lift off my shoulders having volunteers who are willing to contribute their time to making the store successful.

I've recently bumped into one big obstacle: Crowd control. My crowd is finally getting more diverse. In the beginning, it was mainly my friends and kids from high school. So that was an easy gap for me to bridge. Everyone was able to connect.

Now that more people are becoming aware of my store, my store attracts a lot more of a diverse crowd, for better or worse. This includes ALL kinds of people. Young kids, old men, college girls, you name it. Throwing all these different personalities is like throwing a bunch of chemicals into a bottle and shaking it. You don't know what's gonna happen, but more times than not, it's going to explode. Now, I have people who's voices naturally rise, and kids who try to run around on their Heelys in my store. It's not a good mix. I need to spread it out more but I need to have a better system for condensing it too. The downstairs is a project all its own.

Simply... too many variables to account for.

Financially, we're doing well enough to pay the bills. But without having an official distributor, we're just "Getting By". We have the ability to do so much more. Having a distributor would capitalize my gross profit margin. But that's substantially easier said than done.

Up to date...

Things at the store are still going overwhelmingly well. Tonight we had around 22 people in the store at once all playing games. Mostly Magic, but a few were playing other board games such as Ascension and Munchkin. The console side of things has only been mildly pushed due to limited amount of supplies. But the weekend of March 9th is when I'm going to host my official grand open and March 10th will be all about console gaming. So I really hope we can get it to take off the right way.

A few things that I'm having to deal with -

Kids using appropriate language. I need to put my foot down harder about kids using extremely vulgar language. It's a family oriented place.

People smoking outside. I have put a lot of emphasis on people walking away from the store. Still, some of them look young. I don't want to be the jerk who tells them that stuff is bad for you. I'm the last person who should be telling kids what to do and what not to do. But Jesus, don't do it okay? What people don't seem to understand it's more than just the principle of the matter, it's the impression that people get when they drive by my store and see people smoking outside my shop. Bad news. Still, even though I have a back alley, I don't want people hanging out back there because I feel like it will get abused.

Theft. I think I have spotted a couple times where kids were trying to steal, or getting ready to. So I need to invest in some security cameras.

Those are the big things.

Starting this Thursday the local high school's Anime Club is going to start hosting their evenings here as opposed to the local library. I'm going to set a projector up downstairs and turn it into a little movie theater. I'm curious as to how that's going to effect my electric bill.

By the way, my first electric bill was $755. Heavy hitter. Granted, that included $215 of it being 1 of 3 deposits. I think we can survive for another month though.

We get plenty of traffic to keep it going. Magic is a huge hitter. The biggest hitter. I'm just now starting to get in the right rhythm.

My biggest concern overall is to make sure that this isn't just a fad and that we can push this going. Great thing for me is that there is no other place for people to go and hang out. There's no malls, no other stores, etc. Before my store, kids were going to each other's houses, and trollin' through Wal-Mart. Now, I'm providing them a place where they can come play games, or just watch, or just hang out for awhile and we don't tolerate wrongful activity in the store. Fact of the matter is, kids will do what they do, and there's not a lot I can do about it to stop them. But if I can at least give them an option to make better choices then that's definitely a step in the right direction.

Moving forward, I'm trying to figure out how to best accomodate this many people. Is this something where I need to start looking for a bigger location with better insulation or do I need to wait and see if this plan flies like it should? Decisions, decisions. I also need to start trying to network heavier with local businesses and see if there's any cool deals I can work out as far as advertising, giveaways and stuff like that is concerned. So hey, if you're a business and you want to partner, let me know!

Week One! Infinite amount to go!

Hard work is not without reward. Between the diligence of my volunteer team, and the many hours I have been putting into the growth of the shop, I'm really satisfied with the results. Granted, I would be way in over my head if I actually had to PAY the people helping me. But everyone has been working extremely wholeheartedly and has accepted nothing but my gratitude as payment. Occasionally, if I can, I'll spring for lunch. Local groups that have offered a lot of help and advice include Psi of I, Look At My Junk and Crawford County Computers. Thanks guys! Several other people have donated other items of great value and expected very little if anything in return. The list goes on.

This week has been a huge success though, not just from the people helping build shelves or donating chairs/tables/stools, or what have you. But just the traffic that has been coming into the store and showing their appreciation and hanging out with all of us. It's very gratifying to see a community of such diverse people coming to my store and finding common interest. I've also made a lot of new friends in the process, and gotten the pleasure of networking and meeting several new people. Even old acquaintances have slowly started to come out and show their faces, so that's really refreshing too.

Now as we move forward and trying our best to stay accurate to the original vision, many obstacles approach soon. The electric bill should be in anytime now and I do not look forward to seeing the overbearing numbers that will inevitably draw my excitement to a halt and instill twenty times more stress than I am truly ready to deal with. We also need to isolate several of the outlets. One thing we noticed was that the circuitry can't seem to handle a lot at once. And of course, once we get the cyber part of the cafe running, we can't have surges happening on a regular basis. Overall though, none of these obstacles can compare to the biggest one. And that is just me being me! I've got the eye for business, I've got the knack for it, and I know what I'm selling. But working 9 to 2 at my other job and then going straight to my store with no days off in throughout the week is bearing down on me. Despite the willingness for others to volunteer their time to give me a break, I'm just not ready to put faith in anyone else to run the shop for an entire day or two. It's not that I don't trust certain people because there are a couple people I'd trust with my life. I just haven't figured out all the kinks of running the business yet, so it's hard for me to justify letting anyone else run a business that's still in beta.

We'll have to get past that soon though. March is a busy month. I'll be gone Mar 2-3 for a State Pool tournament, and then Mar 6th for an acoustic set I'll be playing in Indiana. Then possibly again on Mar 10th, and possibly do something to celebrate my birthday on Mar 18th.

So March will be a long road, indeed.

Currently though, I'm outlining plans to launch my "Grand Open Weekend". We will see how that goes!

Good news, and Obstacles

First let me begin with the good news.

I filed my taxes today. Yes, I filed with H&R Block consciously aware that they kill you on fees. Why did I do that? A.) I've always filed there with the exception of when I tried to do it myself and ended up having to pay the IRS a crap ton because of misfiling some things. B.) It was right down the street like a block away. Seemed pretty practical. The good news about this is that I got way more than I thought I would - especially for being a single guy, and making less than $20k the previous year. I'll leave the amount undisclosed because legitimately, it's not THAT much. Especially compared to people who have kids and families. But I'm definitely going to have enough to put a dent in the growth of my business.

More good news. Thanks to Joe Myers, owner of Crawford County Computers, we got a lot of our networking taken care of for the console gaming side of the store. Just have to get more consoles now! Thanks Joe for offering awesome services. Joe has been a great deal of help in other avenues as well as far as wisdom and lending a helping hand.

Overall, business has been pretty steady. Nothing overwhelming, but a little better than I initially expected. Overhead with having to pay utility deposits are still a little bit ridiculous though!

The Obstacles:

My tax return isn't going to arrive for at least 7-14 business days. Which means 2 weeks of only 2 monitors and 2 360s for the console gaming. That's just not going to cut it.

My health! Good jeebus, do you know how hard it is to be 133 pounds, and work 16 hour days with only 2 meals? It's hard.

The utilities. I'm still waiting on my first electric bill. But I know it's going to be really high. The deposit alone is going to be an additional $215 for the first 3 months for deposits. Not seeing exactly what the bill is yet stresses me out!


Internet. I can already tell I'm going to need to increase my bandwidth immediately.

---

Can't complain too much though. Success comes with time and patience, both of which I have been lacking lately. But I'm making the best of what I have. And I'm really happy with the support the local community has been giving, like I said before. I'm leaning towards having our actual "Grand Open" at the beginning of March when I'll have more TV's and consoles installed. I'm going to do a huge grand opening weekend. It'll be a blast!

Still swingin', still rollin'

Man, time has been flying by. This is exhausting! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about everyone out there in Blog World. I'm still alive.

Opening a business is just very overwhelming when it gets down to the nitty gritty of things. It's a learning experience. So far, we're doing pretty exceptional! Inventory is flying off the shelf much faster than I expected. Can't complain too much but it definitely makes ordering a lot more complicated.

Still, there's so much to do! I don't think I prepared as much as I should have. But at the same time, what was I suppose to do? Sit there, twiddling my thumbs burning time that I could be making my rent money for the store? I had to open asap. The store is presentable.

Now it's a matter of time management. Having Gil around helping man the store is a huge help. Still, between my now part time job at Verizon, my side projects with web design, and trying to get the store running right, along with last but not least - my personal life - it's just difficult to get a handle on things. But alas, I knew what I was getting myself into, didn't I?

The response has been as I expected for the most part. The positive response has been more so than I thought it would be. The skeptical crowd has responded pretty accurately to what I expected. A lot of people, especially older people, just don't understand what the store is about. A lot of people just don't understand why people would pay to play console games. I have to get into depth about how there's an entire market dedicated to it. It's a process. I think for a lot of people, this town never having had a legit shop like this, it's a culture shock when you explain that you're using a business model that's been used a frequently in the past.

The younger crowd has been extremely supportive and excited that Robinson, IL is actually getting something like this. Most of my friends are just excited for me. And then most of my friends who share my common interest are just pretty happy that there's going to be a place they can all gather, play competitively and not disturb their wives.

Next up on my agenda:

Getting a lot of in-store contests ready.
Getting snack food in-stock.
Getting my open/close routine documented
Start outlining our after school program
Start getting a consistent schedule for themed nights.
Getting all my cards properly organized
Order more inventory


Oh and finally, hopefully, someone can watch the shop while I go do my tax return. I'm hoping my tax return is one of those that actually returns money. As opposed the ones I feel like I constantly screw up on and end up having to pay into the government. It happens a lot, you'd be surprised. I can be an idiot! Ugh.

Anyway. That's it for updates for now. Thanks to everyone who has shown their support to the store! You all know who you are.

Exhausting! But we were meant for this...

Well, right now I have 3 websites I need to finish. My other job is wearing down on me pretty heavily. The only bills I PERSONALLY have is my $95 a month cell phone bill, and my lunch/dinner. I generally skip breakfast and lately and I've been trying to combine lunch with dinner to save money. I've also cut down drastically on eating out. Don't worry, all 133 pounds of me is still in healthy condition. I won't complain. All the money that I'm "saving" has been getting put towards the store. It will all pay off in the long run. Stay positive, right? Persevere.

I'm pretty thankful for my team, the online encouragement from all the forums I'm on and the local community support. It's awesome. Our friend Jason has been great with donating his time and labor with renovations. I don't know anything about holding anything other than a hammer and a screwdriver. So we're pretty fortunate to have someone like Jason who is a great handyman. My parents also happened to have a lot of scrap wood sitting storage that they were trying to unload anyway, so we took advantage of that. Needless to say, the store is actually starting to look like a store. An acquaintance on a forum that I frequent loaned me a tiny bit of money to help us get by. We were extremely fortunate for that. It would have been an overly tight month otherwise. Another acquaintance locally donated a computer and a broke Xbox 360. Thanks, Adam! Getting the console gaming half of the store is definitely the biggest uphill thing we have going for us.

The biggest thing that stresses me out right now is our electric bill. We don't have bank loans, we don't have grants, we have me and my soon-to-be part time job at Verizon and we currently are not making ANY revenue for the business store-wise because we're not open til Feb 6! So hm.

One other thing is the huge response of people wanting jobs! Two people work with me. Gil Wilson and Tyler Akers. I retain title of owner, so I take financial responsibility for the most part. Gil manages comics and the studio downstairs. Tyler manages the upstairs with me and finances (and by that I mean, he tells me how we should budget our funds). I don't always know how to reply to people wanting a job. I'd like to hire people, but I know that won't be plausible for awhile and that's going to mean we're going to be working long, long, long hours. The idea of volunteers sounds cool. But still, that's a ways off. How can I expect to train people for a position here if I'm still training myself? Still adapting? Figuring out the rhythm of how things will run is at least a quarter of the battle.

Updates & Hiccups

This is currently what's in our store window. Charming? Yep. After about 10 seconds, it transitions into another ad that says "Advertise here for $49.99 a month, call ... for details." If I can get 9 local businesses to advertise in my window, that pays for my rent there. Not to mention, it's great for them. With us located on the square, there's easily a lot of views to that window.

Onward to other things though...

Let me tell you why it's important to make sure you have a separate bank account for your business. Because when you budget for a set amount of money, you don't budget for the things that automatically get withdrawn out of your personal funds. Fortunately, we're still in an early enough stage, it's not too bad. Still, you know, I've got x amount of dollars in my bank account and in my head, I'm thinking "Okay, this much money goes towards the business." Next thing I know $7.99 from GoDaddy is getting withdrawn from my bank account that I forgot about and forgot to budget for, for a completely unrelated project. Luckily, I'm the only person who has put money into the store so far. My counterparts have contributed with inventory. Still, what if they had given me money and then some crazy bill I forgot about had withdrawn out of my bank account and subtracted from ALL of our money. We can't have that.

So tomorrow. We're setting a bank account up completely separate. New Paypal accounts, new eBay accounts, etc. I know this was probably some sort of common sense thing but it's mostly been me doing most of the finances, and my partner is just now able to free up some time where he's going to be a little more active in our decision making.

Which raises another issue - a lot of people keep saying "If you can avoid having a partner, avoid having a partner." I probably could have avoided having a partner. My friend Tyler is stepping into this role as a co-owner. I'm taking all the risks, but I asked him to be co-owner. Why? Because a. Tyler is better with finances and can manage them better than me. b. Tyler has a great vision and we can share both of ours. Second opinions are great. c. Tyler isn't quite in the financial position to contribute why I currently am, (he's got a wife and 3 kids. I've got... well, a cell phone bill.) Long story short, Tyler despite what many might say, is a necessity to this business. He brings a lot of strengths and diversity. So does my friend Gil who is not a co-owner, but I would call him the equivalent of a manager. With him being point guard on the studio and also providing the comic side of things, we wouldn't be able to do this nearly as well without him.

So anyway.
That's right.
Studio.

Currently, we have converted the downstairs to the makings of a studio.

Here are some wonderful pictures.

A Quick Updated Tour (so far)

Tonight I just wanted to walk you through real fast some of the cool changes the store has went through in the past couple days!

If you're standing in the middle of the store, this is what it looks like facing the front. The idea eventually is to have both sides of the walls with tables on each side, hosting flat panel TVs with 360s and PS3s on one side, and then PCs to use on the other.

Now if you turn around, you'll see a lovely counter top currently blanketed by random posters, (a huge upgrade from the previously cliche leaves that really played no role.

If you turn to your right, you'll see a couple lovely Spongebob wall scrolls. He adds interesting diversity to the store and appeals to a lot of crowds, (I guess). The blank board you see there is going to be used as "Post your ads" board. You know, that thing where people post a piece of paper saying they can mow lawns or baby sit? There's also a 32 inch TV on that shelf to keep me from dying of boredom during dead time, and also something to pass the time when customers want some distraction from deck building.

If I step back a little, you can kinda see where more of the card playing may take place. To the left, I eventually plan on squeezing a display case in.

Again, looking at one side of the wall near the front you can see a little more. Getting the tables is no feat - my friend Joe is going to help out.

Here, if you turn, this is where a lot of the comic stuff is going to be at. My buddy Gil is going to be in charge of keeping up to date with the comic side of things.

A closer look if you will.

Moving forward, I'm definitely looking forward to sprucing the place up with some paint, and hopefully some more art.

It's the little things! What can you do without moving to help?

Updates, updates, updates.

But before I get into the progress of the shop, I want to talk about what you guys can do to help. There's a huge spectrum of things you can do.

What you can do, just sitting where you're at now:

• Read my blog! Give feedback, and let me know what you think, or any ideas you might have.
• Visit the links in the ads. Don't worry, they're not going to screw your PC over. But by visiting the links you see around on the blog, you help the blog rake in money from Ads. Clicking the same links over and over is considered abuse, so you don't have to overkill it. Just support the other websites and in turn, you support mine!
• Join my forum. Go to www.truehideaway.com and click the forums and start participating.
• Share my blog on your Facebook. It drives more traffic here. Word of mouth is amazing.
• Let's exchange links. If you've got a blog, or a website, I'd like to do some sort of link exchange so we can trade traffic!

What you can do if you want to get more involved:

1. Donate your broke 360s, PS3s, TVs, monitors, and computers. To set up the cyber half of the store I need 360s, PS3s, TVs, monitors and computers. Unfortunately, I don't have the bankroll to buy them. But I can fix them!
2. Folding Chairs. Yup. In this type of business, folding chairs are gold!
3. Paint. If you've got paint supplies you're not using, or leftover paint, I can put it to use.
4. Curtains. Anyone good at sewing? Anyone have the material to sew with? I need some curtains to hang in the windows of the front of the shop for when we're closed

So anyway. That's some of what you can do to help me out. There are lot of other things you can do too to help out if you really want to. You can contact me outside of my blog. But these favors are within reach pretty easily.

Now onward...

Progress on the shop has been going extremely well. I just ordered a lot of inventory, mainly focused around Pokemon and Magic. Although I plan to open around February 6th, I don't think our "Grand Open" will be until closer to the 18th.

I finally got things arranged and set up accordingly. With some help from one of my friends who also owns a business here in town, hopefully we will have a display case and more tables set up by the end of this week. My friend Gil Wilson and I have partnered and is bringing the comic angle to the store. He's also willing to help work at the shop which is going to extend my hours!

After a lot of consideration on what we should do with the downstairs area, we are converting part of it to a recording studio. Gil is also partnering with me in that aspect. Podcasting and music is something we're both hobbyists of. So we're going to record local bands, and record our own podcasts. Additionally, with a lot of the same equipment we're going to convert the other half of the downstairs to a place where we can start producing a web TV show eventually as well as set it up as a "lounge" for when bands come to record. Not all of this is going to happen at once. Sound proofing the room takes time.

Unfortunately, the pace of which I'm getting the TVs and consoles is the biggest setback. I've come to the conclusion that it might not be instant and I may have to work my way up slowly to getting enough revenue to do that side of the store.

My next blog, we're going to take another tour through the shop and you guys get to see everything we have done thus far! Thanks for reading

So you wanna see what it looks like? Sneak peek

What's my actual game plan?

So the biggest question I get asked by my peers is - "Have you really thought this through?"

The brutal truth is that there is several things I need go over that I probably haven't. It's a rookie mistake. You accept it, you let other people mention it, and then you look into what needs to be done to take care of it. Constantly be proactive - not reactive. Act before it's an issue.

That being said, this blog will kind of outline some of our focuses.

Note: SOME of our focuses. Not some of the "what-if's", not "have you looked into doing this?", not "do you have this covered?"

All those questions are for a whole different blog. Not to say that they aren't valid questions, but I really want to cover one stage at a time so that I don't spread myself too thin.

So. Without articulating numbers, or itemizing anything really, this is more or less a sketchy vision of what's to come.

The outline for the store is currently rough drafted to look like this:

1. CCG Card Games:

A. Magic the Gathering.

MTG is going to be the biggest focus of our CCG card player demographic. We expect at least 8 players to show up every week to play in whatever tournaments. I'm currently also working on an in-house league to promote Magic. Additionally, our website www.truehideaway.com is also going to focus a large portion of its subject on the strategy of Magic from local writers and from people outside the game as well.

B. Pokemon & YuGiOh are both going to be two of our major sub-focus card collecting games. While these games certainly aren't as broad as Magic, they certainly touch base with the same target audience and are a great gateway CCG for younger adults to transition into a game like Magic.

C. Tournaments. We intend to have tournaments for all of the above ranging from booster drafts to certain formats, all with great prizes.

2. Console Gaming.

A. Although not immediately, as soon as funds for the business suffice, we are going to host minimally 10 26' TVs, all of which will have a PS3 and an Xbox 360 connected to it. Although prices are not officially confirmed, the idea is that people will pay $4 for 1 hour of Game Play, $6 for 2 hours of Game Play, and $8 for an all-day pass. Prices are subjected to change and go up though assuming it's a success.

B. We will also have various promotions encouraging gamers to play certain games with prizes as incentive. For instance, one of my first promotions will be to offer a prize to the first person who beats Final Fantasy XIII-2. Memory cards will not be allowed for this competition. And the prize will be extremely suitable for the cost of play.

C.Tournaments. We intend on having weekend tournaments outside of the CCG tournaments, mostly focused on first person shooters.

3. Memorabilia.

A. We will constantly be on the search for fun memorabilia at the shop, a large portion which will be bought for liquidation sales and various collectors over the Internet. Not only does it add marginal profit to every sale, but it also offers a lot of unique cover.

B. Local Artists Art. Local artists who are interested, may have their art displayed at the shop. The art will have to meet certain requirements as far as dimensions, but we welcome all creativity, and think that locals will appreciate recognizing the names under the pieces of beauty. While all art will constantly be on display, we will also offer it for sale for the creator at a commission price.

4. The Programs

A. One of the huge "programs" I'm going to put a huge focus on is getting kids to come do their homework. I will personally sit down with anyone K-12 until a local following gains a volunteer base to come help out. But one thing I'm passionate about is keeping good kids out of juvenile delinquency and maybe showing them the potential they could have. I want to provide the incentive and opportunity to grow.

B. My other big "program" is to take donations from anyone who wants to donate computer parts. We will use these computer parts to firstly build a cyber cafe within our business that is free to use by the community. After we have enough computers to run a cyber cafe, I don't want to stop there though. I want to continue to take PC parts in and build them for any families or churches or organizations that need them. The difficult part of this is figuring out what I need to do as far as tax write-offs and what-not for people who want make sure they get to take advantage of that.

5. The biggest question I get asked is "Where are you going to get revenue from?"

Fact of the matter is, tournaments are fun and they bring traffic in but most the money that's put into the tournament is going to be cycled back into prizes and what-not. Fortunately, "Game Time" is one thing that can be given away infinitely and it builds a customer loyalty base and is free for the store to provide. So there's that. But a lot of the revenue will probably come from selling sodas and snacks. Again, there's a lot of margin there. With our low overhead, it shouldn't be hard to be self-sufficient in the beginning although I do not expect to be fully profitable.

These are just some of the many things that we're going to try to hit. Several of these projects aren't going to happen. I definitely don't want to spread myself too thin. In my next blog, I'm going to talk about the preparation I'm doing before we open, how I'm getting inventory, and how ANYONE can help in a lot of unique ways.

The Path is Set

Every geek teen at some point in their life has one of three thoughts:

1. I want a place to go to where I can be around geeks with common interest and who encourage my hobby.

2. I want to MAKE a place where other geeks can come and hang out and maybe I can be somewhat profitable.

3. I want to be the one who accomplishes all the above.

Fact of the matter is, it's hard to start a business under any circumstances. More importantly, if you don't get a loan to do it, and you don't have a lot of money to start it up out of pocket, people are going to shoot it down, and question your ability to actually make it a workable idea.

I'm doing it anyway. I figure, "What the heck, if I fail, it's a short failure among many." Because in the big picture, I don't have a lot of money to get it going, so if it flops, it flops, but I didn't lose much because I didn't have much and I can finally say I did one of the many things on my bucket list which was to start a brick and mortar nerd haven. Ultimately, the vision is to have several TVs and several video game consoles lined up and down the wall for console players to "pay to play". That's pure marginal profit once you get the actual stuff set up. But it's not just for electronic gamers. We're also targeting strategy card game players and board game players. The name of the store is going to be "Truehideaway Family & Gaming Lounge".

Naturally, anyone who knows anything about the business industry is going to be pretty pessimistic about getting a business going under these circumstances. Understandably so. One of the biggest downfalls in people trying to start a business is that they try to start it with too little money. My parents don't want me living with them permanently which raises another obstacle. I'm going to be spending a lot of evenings with my head on the desk as my pillow until I can get my business going full throttle. I'm also keeping my current job as a Verizon wireless indirect agent but I'm dropping down to part time. Everyone who knows me has been pretty supportive regardless. "Robinson needs a place that is well-kept and where anyone can go." "If anyone can do it, you can, Shawn." "You've always had a keen eye for business." was some of the more positive feedback I got. Some of the more grounding feedback was, "Do you think something like this will fly? It's a good idea, but it's a small town." "Do you think it's wise to invest in something with not much money?" "You're forfeiting your position at Verizon for this?"

It's time to sink or swim.

So about a week and a half ago, I moved out of my apartment, and back with my parents to save money to put towards inventory and deposits and what-not.

I went into this entire project with about $800. Which is not a lot at all. A forum called GameTZ has been my greatest resource. I've been able to get games for bargain deals, and financially a couple users have been generous enough to loan me some cash.

Then on January, 10th I actually made the deposit on the building. Because there was a lot of stuff that the landlord needs to move out still, all I had to do was make the deposit. I don't actually have to make the first month's rent til February 1st. By Thursday, the electricity and gas was on. The utility bill concerns me a bit. It was an average of $325 a month from the previous tenant. Mind you, the previous tenant wasn't running consoles and TVs like I will be. The monthly rent is $450 a month with a prime location on the local square. For those who aren't familiar with Robinson, IL, it's in the heart of the town, dead center, with great parking. So really, I couldn't ask for a better price. As far as our audience, the town itself peaks a population of around 7,000 people and draws from about 3 or 4 smaller towns that border it with average population of 2,000 people give or take.

Fortunately, the building already had a lot of tables we could use. My friends here locally have all been very helpful and supportive, especially with me not having a car.

I aim to open up in mid-February. My hours for the shop will officially be 3pm to 11pm starting out at least. To help make up some more money, I'll continue to do run my Shawn Mitchell Solutions project which is a web design service I offer. Conveniently, now I will at least have an area where I can set up meetings with my clients and they can come to my shop to sit down and talk about options and what they need from me. Web design is a huge market, but requires a lot of networking. While I have a lot of talent in the subject, I don't have too much clientele right now, or the time to invest in networking. But I may have to find time.

Anyway. That's it for this blog entry. Tomorrow, I'm going to be go into more depth in regards to the actual business plan. What are the plans and what kind of pace do I have set for myself? People have been questioning how in depth I've thought this through. Have I itemized things? Will I legitimately be ready by mid-Feb? Where am I going to actually live when my parents kick me out? God, it sucks being 24.