Starting a small business, could use advice

Hey Veeky Forums

I'm wanting to start up a cards, comics and games store in my area (Large US city). It has a large community for comics, mtg, warhammer, yu-gi-oh, pokemon ect. I realize you guys probably get this kind of thread semi-often (I'm just a tourist), so to get a large amount of the shit posting out of the way I already know I'm not going to make a ton of money through this. My main hope is to be able to clear about 50k a year as salary after 3-4 years of hard work and busting ass to grow the business. To do this I'm wanting to most sell on the internet through TCGplayer for singles, ebay and amazon for things like boosters, accessories ect. as well as grow locally through tournaments and events. I have a location picked out and have come up with a start up budget of approx 35k including inventory. I have a friend who's wants to partner with me who's an expert in the area's I'm not, and a lawyer buddy who's willing to draw up my LLC for free. I also have 2 years behind the counter as an assistant manager at a games and comic store.

I've done my research and I'm confident that I can run the store with 1 full time employee and a part-time employee for the first year with my current start up budget in mind. My problem and what I've been banging my head into a wall is how can I build up to that 35k. I'm a poorfag who makes less than 30k a year (not including bonus). I get quarterly bonus at my job (which I'm planning on saving towards the shop) that would be between 1k-2.7k a quarter. Besides flipping collections can anyone recommend a good source of short to mid term investments or ways I can increase my 1-2k every three months into my start up capitol?

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to show I'm serious about this. I'm sick of being someone's wageslave. If I'm gonna break my back for something, I want it to be mine.

how's your credit? could you just buy inventory on account?

I don't have good investment ideas, sorry. If it was me I'd probably either move in with family to save the cash or get a loan.

Bad credit unfortunatly, I'm working to turn that around, but I was a bit of a shithead in my youth. Family lives over 1000 miles away, I'm also trying to start this business as debt free as possible

that's double-tough with a brick and mortar store. Best of luck, hopefully some here can lend an idea on investments.

yeah, but with a brick and mortar I get access to distributors and the wholesale discounts. Otherwise it's just selling singles and cracking packs, praying I hit big

>large investment
>few clients
>low profit
I would recommend against. If you are going this path, you should start a limited and try to split the bill with a bank or investor. So you cant ruin yourself entirely.

>with a brick and mortar I get access to distributors and the wholesale discounts.
interesting.

I run a home-based business and I regularly deal with distributors and wholesalers. Not in your field though.

I don't know how big your store is gonna be but usually you can manage the first year without employees and just make the hours yourself (maybe some help from friends here and there when needed). Also really think about location and size of your store since it will heavily influence the amount of your required capital. Keep the startup costs as low as possible (rent of pop-up store or vacant building is usually pretty low and can help you build a brand and a proven track record), you can re-invest along the way if the store starts to make money.

You can look at crowd funded loans for investment, the bank or a friend/family. Venture capitalists are not really interested in this sort of thing. Always put some of your own money in it to show you believe in it. If you can't get the money together you can always consider becoming a franchisee of a cards, comics and game store franchise.

Oh, and if possible try to make sure your legal business structure is set up so that you are not personally liable for the debts resulting from said business.

Yeah, WotC and Diamond Comics require a brick and mortar or no deals, GW won't even allow you to sell product online period.

I'm trying to go for around 1000 to 1500 sq ft.

The thing with these kinds of shops is that they are born out of the owners interest and not out of a specific need.

Although if people spend days in your shop you can also provide other needs. For example you can put down a fridge and a table where people can order and eat some sandwiches and water for example so they dont have to leave your store when they grow hungry (no sticky shit that interferes with your core business obviously).

not a bad idea but then he potentially runs into all the laws governing restaurants.

Not much in regulations for confections, but full on cafe requires health inspections and licencing.

I'd go for hot chicks in skimpy skirts working the counter. I think those would draw the sort of crowd you're after.

I was just thinking of casinos. Where people spend their entire day putting money in slot machines and playing blackjack. They have streamlined the whole experience so well. Casinos are truly the masters of this.

Or he might just scare them away. And running a store like this does require a lot of knowledge about the niche.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see how you going to finance this if you have bad credit and (I'm assuming) no investors.

Buddy does this. Knowledge and contacts seem to be key. Also they have a rather large area for games set up and a liquor license. They are open 24 hours and have a small studio in the back. So if it's slow the help can hang out or sleep in shifts and just hang out. Like 3 guys can spend almost a week there at 15 hour shifts on and off just fucking around. I'm considering casting pewter and plastic figurines if u have any requests.

>Bad credit unfortunatly,
Dude I don't think you understand the cash and credit you need to start a business. You need to fully fund all operations for a year!

Let me break some illusions

>My main hope is to be able to clear about 50k a year as salary
Don't even dream about it. Dream about just breaking even as most of these stores go under. Understand that you WILL be operating in the red for at least the first few years and then, with a combination of skill and luck you may begin to break even. Make sure you have the savings not just to start the store but to operate it at a substantial loss for some time and a negligible loss for a longer period of time. Also, even during the best of times your store will operate at a loss on various days / months / seasons. Be prepared for that. Running your own business you will also not make a salary. Your salary is literally just "Whatever the store makes minus what it costs." This can mean you may make substantially more than 50k, but more often it will be less and it will always be changing. Make sure your personal expenses and obligations can handle the uncertainty of your income source.

>(Large US city). It has a large community for comics, mtg, warhammer, yu-gi-oh, pokemon ect
How is that community currently serviced? Is there room in the market for another comic shop? Realistically, how much of their clientele do you think you can poach? Is there a demographic of customers who would go to your shop that don't already go to another shop? How big is that group? Far too many of these businesses are started by people who love hobbies because they want to do their hobby for a living. If you run this shop you're probably not ever going to do those hobbies again seriously because this store will become your entire life. You will eat, sleep, and breathe this store (not the hobbies within it, the business) your every waking moment from the day you sign the lease to the day you close up for good.

As a business owner, after reading your post I just want to warn you that the business you think you're going to make is very very different from the business it ends up being. I'm warning you, proceed with caution and feel out the business before you make any irreversible decisions. You may have this idea in your head that you have 1 employee, and you make money online and in-store. But maybe you find that only a certain product sells, maybe you find you can make more hosting events, maybe you find that nobody online is buying what you think they were gonna, what I'm saying is don't drop $400 on a printer because you foresee printing off a lot of flyers in the future, go to kinkos and print one flyer, test it out. Don't spend massive amounts of money on inventory, start with a very very small amount, because buying inventory is an irreversible decision and at this point you don't even know if it IS an inventory business, you don't even know what type of inventory this business will end up selling. Don't get attached to the idea in your head, you have no idea what this thing is going to be.

>MTG

From what I've heard Wizards really pushes the shit in for LGSes that are starting up. You'll need to either have a large attendance or grab every DCI number you can if you want to host any sort of Magic event outside of FNM

YouTube Rudy's investments.
Informative and amusing.

you are better off going to a tanning salon to be black then rapping with a wig on that makes you look like you have dreds.

I love when retards have names so I can filter them

>Besides flipping collections
Can I ask you why not? Why don't you want to want to sell collectibles? That's basically what the business will be. Why wouldn't you want to start doing that ASAP?

For a loan you'll need an actual business plan. Find real and relevant numbers. With something as niche as this, it's easy to oversaturate, so make sure there's a real marker.

Network. Get in touch with the community. Find another similar shop in your region and see if you can get their numbers. Posing as a college student doing a project should work, get creative if you need to. Work out your break even analysis, look at your best/worst case scenarios and be prepared to find other ways to cut costs and generate income.

These are small crowds so you really need to have away to get the message out to your audience.