Setting up a LAN PC Gaming Shop

[Shogun]

I'll cut straight to the chase, I'm seriously considering setting up a small business in my city, well, me and my two friends.

I'll give you some details about myself and then the city and what type of business I'm hoping to get going so you can give me some input from there.

I'm 25 years old and currently working as a full-time Tele-sales worker, I like me job, but I've always wanted to run my own business. I've been into gaming for as long as I can remember, same as my two friends, all three of us are very computer orientated and we know a fair bit about pc's, how they work, how to set them up and fix them when they go wrong.

I live in a city called Chichester, there is a thriving student population in chichester what with the excellent College and Universitys here:
You can check their websites for more information on them, I cannot post links yet.

so there are alot of students, British and foreign, chichester College/uni is very very big on having foreign students come over and has won awards for it and all sorts.

The night life to chichester is ok, not great, it's not full of mad bars and clubs but is full of lots of little niech pubs and winebars, not very exciting, there is a health centre, cinema and bowling alley, but generally when people want entertainment they go out to one of the neighbouring towns.

There is also a small pokey internet cafe which is hardly brilliant with slow pc's and no aptitude towards gaming.

My friends and I are seriously considering setting up a LAN PC gaming shop, where all the students, young children can come play some pc games in a safe and friendly environment, so their parents wont have to worry about what their doing.

It's not just about playing pc games it's about the atmosphere and customer service that I'm trying to get going, a friendly community, fairly priced too, an afternoon of pc gaming would be cheaper than going to the cinema or swimming, and there will be facillities on site to for food and beverage.

We will be offering membership services like buy 2 hours get the 3rd free (for members), of half price (non-members) we will also set up tournaments and all-night gaming sessions, there will also be consoles and a pool table.
Aswell as a PC maintenance and repairs service on behalf of my friends and I.

I know that people have broadband at home and that they could play at home but I'm really hoping to get the whole atmosphere thing going to get people to want to come to us and we want to get people into us whom dont have PC's or a decent net connection, people like the live-in residence for the college/uni.

well... thats the vision anyway,
(and obviously because of the large student and young persons community, I'm hoping that there would be no end to the customers.)

We're going to plan a big openening ceremony, giving out flyers for a week/two weeks before opening, and each flyer admits you with 1 hours free gaming when you first come in, trying to entice people into the shop as it were.

and also, as we know school is in session during weekday hours 9 - 5, so we're offering cheaper student prices during those times to anyone who can provide us with their student i.d., people who might be on a lunch break etc...

Now, thats enough detail from my part.

What I'm asking is, Do any of you own your own businesses? What are the pitfalls and high points? is there anything I absolutely must be aware of?
Will i be able to get funding for it? I am only 20 after all, business grants? bank loans? etc... have any of you guys ever gotten anything like that?

Any tips, hints or generally good advice anyone can give me here would be greatly apprechiated.

also, what do you think on the general idea itself? from what you've heard about the city and population in general? think it'd work?

thanks,

Shogun

[Fergal]

Hi Shogun, that sounds like a good idea and you are obviously enthusiastic about it.

Do you know of any similar businesses in other parts of the country or even in other countries? It would be worth searching for them on the web, to see if the business concept is successful elsewhere. If there is a similar business some distance from you, it would be worth contacting them to ask if they can give you any advice or suggestions. You might be surprised that businesses are often willing to do this, when they are not competing with you directly. Even if they won't talk to you, you could learn a lot from their website and / or promotional materials, or even better by visiting their shop and trying out their services.

You should contact your Local Enterprise Agency regarding grants, even if they can't support you they should give you good business advice and they might be able to refer you to another agency who could give grants. You should be able to find your local agency through this link - http://www.nfea.com/.

Have you considered writing a business plan. The process of writing a business plan will give you a better understanding of what is required to set-up a business and the potential pitfalls you might face. It will help you to clarify your business idea and where you want to go with it. You can see a couple of useful business plan templates at the links below;

http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/StartBusiness/ - Click the "Sample Business Plan" link at the bottom right of the page.
http://www.score.org/template_gallery.html

Good luck with it all. Please keep us updated on your progress and let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.

[Nazreen]

I'm 25 years old and currently working as a full-time Tele-sales worker...

....I am only 20 after all, business grants? bank loans? etc...

I'm not really sure if you're 20 or 25 years old because you gave two conflicting statements above. In Singapore, you only become an adult at the age of 21. I'm not too sure of this rule/law in the UK or England but I'm guessing that you are already old enough to setup your own business.

Anyway, what Fergal mentioned about writing a business plan is very good advice. This will also be necessary in order to convince bank officers when applying for a bank loan.

I'd also agree that your business idea is a good one. Setting up a gaming business near the vicinity of schools will definitely bring in lots of students.

[scifi]

A good concept indeed.. I guess you want to add value to the service you are going to offer apart from LAN based gaming..But one thing I would like to advice you that try to keep your operational costs in the beginning as minimum as possible as & expect for profits only after some months of running..so be prepare to face that phase of period... See the response on first day & then slowly increase your operational costs, otherwise it wil take very long time to reach breakeven point.!!!!

[Shogun]

Thank you all for your input.

There are some extremely valuable bits of information there.

[Fergal]

You're welcome Shogun, please do keep us updated on your progress and how everything is progressing for you.

[Shogun]

Those business plans look very helpful, I would imagine that if I could complete those I'd have summarised up why I want to start a business, my goals, and my plans in general.

thank you very much for the links!

Now I just have the problem of filling them out, they look very thorough, and I still need to speak to a solicitor/lawyer I'd imagine? To see what his opinion on my business is. Would I still need to have the business plan ready when I did that?

[Fergal]

You wouldn't necessarily need to have a business plan ready before speaking to a solicitor, but it might help to give him / her a clear idea of where you want to go with the business.

Be careful when approaching a solicitor, they can cost you a lot of money very quickly. Have a list of questions ready before you meet them, so you can maximise your time with them and hopefully get all the advice you need at your initial meeting.

You should also ask the solicitor to give you some idea as to what their costs might be, before you meet them. Try to get the opinion of some people you know, preferably business people, before you decide which solicitor to give your business to.

When starting your business plan, it helps to write it for yourself in the first instance. By that I mean, that you should make it as realistic as possible. When you are first writing your plan, try not to think of what a bank, other investor or anyone else might think of it. This will make the process easier for you. You can tweak later versions a little before presenting them, if need be.

Good luck with it and please do keep us updated.

[scifi]

Business Plan or BPLAN (As I called it frequently..) comes in very handy when you want to put forward your idea as Businessman to people who are totally ignorant about your concept..I would recommend you to get your BPLAN ready as it would only facilitate your proceedings in this direction at a speed little bit greater than one without BPlan....:)

[Shogun]

My current CEO and Managing Directors both own the business I'm working for... but it seems a tad foolish or upfront to ask them about it.

I'll see if I can get the plan written and then maybe post a link to it here so it can be critiqued and any changes made, then I'm thinking of arranging to see a solicitor, but I have no idea how to go about that or how much it'd cost of how many times I'd need to see a solicitor, not what types of questions I'd need to specifically ask.

Would it not be possible to ask the same questions whatever they are at my local council? and still get answers... no harm in trying I guess.

[Fergal]

Yes you could certainly speak to your local council and if you are lucky enough to speak to a helpful person this could be most beneficial.

Have you contacted your local enterprise agency yet? They should be able to advise you on some of the legal issues regarding setting up a business in your own local area. This may well save you an expensive trip to your solicitor.

[Shogun]

No I haven't done that yet, I've tried to google 'Local enterprise agency chichester' but I haven't found much.

I'm still looking, I'm going to go and speak to someone at the council soon though.

[Fergal]

You might be able to find your local enterprise agency through this link - http://www.nfea.com/.

[Shogun]

I phoned up another LAN Gaming store today to speak to the owner about what would need to be done, machine specs etc, I used to go to his LAN shop when I was younger when it was branching out and the owner 'Mac' has kind of deflated me,
he strongly advised against getting a loan to start the business, he said that if I had the money personally then it'd be worth while, and that he's seen so many people before get loans and then fall out of place 2 - 3 years later with lots of debts.

Now I'm not too sure what to make of my plans for the business or if indeed I should go ahead with them

[Fergal]

Have you started working on your business plan?

You should use that to evaluate the feasibility of the idea, not just the views of one other person.

[Shogun]

I've started filling out sections of it with the data that I'm already aware of,

I just thought it'd be a wise decision to get the advice of someone else in the business aswell.

[scifi]

Shogun, I will strongly advice you here to first frame a BPlan for your venture & then using financial analysis...Work out your Breakeven point & Breakeven year ..it will boost your confidence in your concept & also will give you courage to move forward with your plan ahead of all doubts.....This stats is not only necessary but should your priority ....Keep Going...best wishes...
Share with us your results of breakeven..then we might provide you better suggestions..:)

[Fergal]

Getting advice from someone else in the business is an excellent idea and can be very, very helpful. However, I would suggest that you don't make any major decisions based solely on the opinion of one other person.

When you complete your business plan you might find that you don't actually need that much loan funding in order to set-up the business. You could also consider leasing some of the computer hardware and computer equipment that you need.

[Kay]

And just because one man's view is negative doesn't mean yours needs to be, Shogun. Reasons could be everything from location to bad business management. It should underscore for you however the importance of planning and preparation.

I posted some links in the Online Business Resources thread before. Have you tried the Princes Trust Business Programme (http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/need_help/business_start-up.aspx) for funding? You qualify age wise to apply but would need to go part-time at work or not be working at all to fulfill other criteria. That'd be a big leap of faith to take and there's no guarantee you'd get it from them of course.


You may want to check out this site too: http://www.startups.co.uk/

[Shogun]

I'm looking into this still, kinda had to slow down abit though, been busy etc...

I'll inform you all once I've had some updates.
thank you all,

- Shogun