Entrepreneurs in the playground

[Drakeburn]

This thought has been floating in my head for quite some time. And that thought, is to start my business.

Gary Gygax and his friend (I don't trust Wikipedia with the facts, so feel free to point out the actual facts to me) started TSR Inc. (And we all know what that started).

I know a friend who is married to a Game Publisher (or developer, I have a bad memory).

So, any ideas on how to start or run a business?

[Erloas]

Well I would start with being cautions with this post, as the first part very clearly implies some political leanings and commentary.

As for starting a business, my brother started a game shop about a year and a half ago and there have been a couple threads around about people wanting to do similar. A specific direction to try and take the thread would help, as starting and running a business is very different depending on what it is you want to do.

[Socratov]

I can't give you professional advice, however having participated in a nationwide project of starting up a business I can tell you what I've learned (and woudl do if I finish school and mayhaps start a business on my own).

Well, first I'd like to point you to a chamber of commerce like thing. they can help you with information on legislature and help you set up for startup loans, permits and whom to speak to at the government. they can also tell you tips and tricks in running a business.

then the next step is deciding what you want to do. once you know that, you can move on to the businessplan which involves basicaly 3 things:

1: Who/what are you (who=name, mission statement, vision statement, logo, identity, etc., what=legal appearance like corporation, limited, etc.)
2: then you tell them what you are going to do to earn your money (process, what you will be doing/selling/providing) and what your place is in the grand scheme of things
3: last but not least the people you are going to show your businessplan to (investors, bank, governemtn, chamber of commerce) want to knwo how you will financially structure they money they invest in you and profits/ turnover you will be expecting (best done on a worst case/best case basis)

You can make this businessplan as long or short as you want it, as long as all the information investors and government need is in there. warning: too long businessplans often don't get attention since for investors it would equal work, which they don't want to do. In my experience short, to the point and informative so they can quickly read it and decide to invest or not.

a few tips I found out (with my friends): enthousiasm is mandatory. If you daon't act liek your product is [insert deity of choice]'s gift to man it's not gonna work. Bookkeeping is boring, but it needs to be done and no matter how little, do it when you can straight away, else it will eat a lot of time. Accountants are expensive, so look around if a friend of yours could help you with that. Facebook and twitter are excellent opportunities to spread the word of your business. As are website (and if you sell stuff yoru webshop). patents are expensive. If you ahve a good idea but not good enough to start a business on, try to sell the idea to a corporation (in this case, get some protection in the form of pretecting the looks and brandname). corporations love these things since it saves them developmentcosts and becuase the product will be quick to market. if you do this, try to get a licensing agreement (meaning you get a tiny bot of money every time they sell a peice of stock) or a copyright license (meaning they pay a certain amount to make use of your idea for a certain amount of time). I hope this will help you a bit if you have more questions I'll stop by from time to time or you can PM me.

[pendell]

I am not an entrepreneur but want to be one at some point and have been reading books from the library on the subject. Reason: Being a 40-something, I have no confidence in any "safety net" for my retirement, so my "retirement plan" is to work until I die. And since it is increasingly hard for older people to get a job , I'll have to hire myself.

First stop is the local library and read all the "small business for dummies" books. Learn what a business plan is. Learn how to get venture capital (start with family and friends, next step up is 'angel' investors, then there are a number of loan programs for small businesses). Learn the ins and outs of the tax code. Decide whether you're going into business alone, as a partnership, or as a limited liability corporation (LLC). The third is often better because in a partnership you are completely liable for the other party's debts, and if you have misplaced your trust you can be drowned under a mountain of debt.

Understand the tax code. You'll need access to both accounting expertise and a lawyer, as corporate tax rates are quite a bit different from individual tax rates.

Probably the easiest way to get into business is to purchase an already-existing franchise, like a Mcdonald's or a 7-11. There's already a market for it.

As a software engineer, I would probably become a one-person consultant shop. I have two friends in real life who has gone this route: One works his tail off and we occasionally use him as a subcontractor. The other one found he simply didn't have the time to manage the business aspects AND be a first-class software guy at the same time. So he went back to being an employee.

The reason I am not yet an entrepreneur is because you need a substantial financial cushion in case of failure, and make no mistake about it: Starting a small business is a risk even in the best of climates. The risk is too large and the return is too small. For me at this stage of my life at any rate.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Chen]

Your own business CAN be very satisfying. But its a TON of work and its risky. Success rates after years looks something like 50% at best (http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/09/failure-rates-by-sector-the-real-numbers.html). Having worked with a friend (who is still in business) its not the job for everyone. Unless you get fantastically lucky its not going to be an immediate gold mine or anything. For myself, I prefer stability. I like knowing my next paycheck is X size and when its coming. Small businesses can be volatile. And you can get trapped by them. After a couple of years if you're still just scraping by, it starts getting harder and harder to cut it loose. You've invested time and money in something and it seems like it would be a waste to just leave it for something better. This is how you can get stuck in a job that takes a ton of time and doesn't really reward you for it.

That said, if you have a good idea or some marketable skill they can still be worthwhile. You need to do your research as other posted have said. Make a business plan and the like. Its a big deal to get into, not something you do on a whim.

[pendell]

Business plan = what I am going to do, and why it is going to make me more money than I'm going to spend doing it. Knowing how to write one is critical, not only as a guide to yourself, but it's also what you're going to use to sell investors on the concept.

The 50% failure rate is real, and is the primary reason I haven't gone this route myself. I simply can't afford to fail, and I have no practical business experience. Where to get it, I wonder ... ?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Socratov]

Business plan = what I am going to do, and why it is going to make me more money than I'm going to spend doing it. Knowing how to write one is critical, not only as a guide to yourself, but it's also what you're going to use to sell investors on the concept.

The 50% failure rate is real, and is the primary reason I haven't gone this route myself. I simply can't afford to fail, and I have no practical business experience. Where to get it, I wonder ... ?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

You forgot the who you are part. As much as what you do (what and what will bring me aka crunch) investors invest as much in the person (fluff) as in the idea itself (crunch). A good elevator pitch works like this: hi, I am [insert name], and I have this awesome idea [enthousiasm, no, more. Even more]. I sm going to conquer the world by [ whatever you do].

I am not joking or anything, who you are (and how you present yourself) and enthousiasm are at least 50% of success. Trust me on this one. Ideally you want the other persons rushing to reach for their checkbooks because you are the one they invest invest in. You are the one they invest in, you carry it home.

[Karoht]

If you plan on doing something involving gaming of any kind (be it table top or video games) you really need to start doing research. Lots of it. It's not a matter of knowing what your customers want, it's a matter of understanding why developers made something the way they did.
Often, there are important reasons why a developer made a certain choice, which might run contrary to what customers want. This sounds like a bad way to design something, but remember, these people are professionals, there has to be a logic behind it. It's a bit counter-intuitive, but once you get your mind around that kind of thinking, you'll likely approach problems quite a bit differently.

There are websites out there built around game design. Not just video games, all games. They debate the mechanics of Tic-tac-toe and chess and Operation and Monopoly, in and among discussions of video games. A friend of mine collects board games, and eventually became so bored with some of them that he started working on his own, and stumbled onto such sites. He's got 3 card games and a table top fantasy wargame in the works. I've played 2 of his card games, both are spectacular, and watching them iterate as he developed them afforded me some interesting pieces of insight into game design.
Anyway, go hunting for a few of these resources, I'll see if I can dig up a few for you.

@Stores
Stores have overhead. And these days, that overhead is rather high. A friend of mine sells swords for fun and profit in addition to his day job. www.darkagecreations.com
He used to run it out of his basement, he visited various clubs in person and sold to them that way, he went to conventions and events and tournaments and sold there. It was pretty groovy.
Then they got a storefront. And while it solved logistical problems for them, and lead to better exposure and therefore better sales, ultimately the rent on a storefront is quite high these days. It didn't ruin the business or anything, it greatly improved things, but that extra cost does make things much more challenging.

@Mobility
If you want your business to be more of a weekend thing, rather than a 24/7/365 commitment (it still will be though, trust me), my advice is do something mobile, particularly at events in your area of awareness.
If you start a business which functions at geek functions, parties, conventions, etc, you only need to pull out the gear when you have a gig. The rest of the time, it's in storage. Now storage costs money as well, but storage is cheaper than store front. Considerably cheaper.
The other advantage here, is that you do business more on your terms. If you don't like an event, either don't go back next year or staff the event with a proxy crew rather than yourself.

I'll give you an example (names are all changed for privacy sake).
An artist friend of mine named Quili follows the convention circut. Each weekend she goes out she makes about 4000 just from the convention goers buying her products. Now this isn't typical of others in her particular line of work, but you get the idea. There is a convention she extremely dislikes going to every year, but it's one of her best sellers. So what does she do? She still buys her table space at the convention, and pays one of the other artists (a friend of hers whom she greatly trusts) to run the table for her.
Meanwhile, the other days of the week, she has time open for her 9-5 job (if she has one), commission art work, portfolio work, and some of her own other projects she's working on.
Either way, it brings in the bacon, keeps her home during the week, gets her out of the house on weekends. I was giving thought to a mobile LAN Gaming system for conventions and events, mostly for the above reasons. And it would give me an excuse to go visit some other places on the convention/event circuit, once I got my feet in the door.

[Drakeburn]

If you plan on doing something involving gaming of any kind (be it table top or video games) you really need to start doing research. Lots of it. It's not a matter of knowing what your customers want, it's a matter of understanding why developers made something the way they did.
Often, there are important reasons why a developer made a certain choice, which might run contrary to what customers want. This sounds like a bad way to design something, but remember, these people are professionals, there has to be a logic behind it. It's a bit counter-intuitive, but once you get your mind around that kind of thinking, you'll likely approach problems quite a bit differently.

There are websites out there built around game design. Not just video games, all games. They debate the mechanics of Tic-tac-toe and chess and Operation and Monopoly, in and among discussions of video games. A friend of mine collects board games, and eventually became so bored with some of them that he started working on his own, and stumbled onto such sites. He's got 3 card games and a table top fantasy wargame in the works. I've played 2 of his card games, both are spectacular, and watching them iterate as he developed them afforded me some interesting pieces of insight into game design.
Anyway, go hunting for a few of these resources, I'll see if I can dig up a few for you.

@Stores
Stores have overhead. And these days, that overhead is rather high. A friend of mine sells swords for fun and profit in addition to his day job. www.darkagecreations.com
He used to run it out of his basement, he visited various clubs in person and sold to them that way, he went to conventions and events and tournaments and sold there. It was pretty groovy.
Then they got a storefront. And while it solved logistical problems for them, and lead to better exposure and therefore better sales, ultimately the rent on a storefront is quite high these days. It didn't ruin the business or anything, it greatly improved things, but that extra cost does make things much more challenging.

@Mobility
If you want your business to be more of a weekend thing, rather than a 24/7/365 commitment (it still will be though, trust me), my advice is do something mobile, particularly at events in your area of awareness.
If you start a business which functions at geek functions, parties, conventions, etc, you only need to pull out the gear when you have a gig. The rest of the time, it's in storage. Now storage costs money as well, but storage is cheaper than store front. Considerably cheaper.
The other advantage here, is that you do business more on your terms. If you don't like an event, either don't go back next year or staff the event with a proxy crew rather than yourself.

I'll give you an example (names are all changed for privacy sake).
An artist friend of mine named Quili follows the convention circut. Each weekend she goes out she makes about 4000 just from the convention goers buying her products. Now this isn't typical of others in her particular line of work, but you get the idea. There is a convention she extremely dislikes going to every year, but it's one of her best sellers. So what does she do? She still buys her table space at the convention, and pays one of the other artists (a friend of hers whom she greatly trusts) to run the table for her.
Meanwhile, the other days of the week, she has time open for her 9-5 job (if she has one), commission art work, portfolio work, and some of her own other projects she's working on.
Either way, it brings in the bacon, keeps her home during the week, gets her out of the house on weekends. I was giving thought to a mobile LAN Gaming system for conventions and events, mostly for the above reasons. And it would give me an excuse to go visit some other places on the convention/event circuit, once I got my feet in the door.

You've guessed my intentions correctly, good sir. But would you by any chance know where those game design sites? I looked all over the internet, and all I could find is game design sites for video games. :smallsigh:

[Karoht]

You've guessed my intentions correctly, good sir. But would you by any chance know where those game design sites? I looked all over the internet, and all I could find is game design sites for video games. :smallsigh:My searches came up clean too. I'll ask my contact and see what he's got.

However, I believe he tripped over a few of them when he was looking for a means to make his own card game. Apparently, "there's an app for that" applies here. He uses a program, I can't remember the name, to generate the cards, place the art and text, and pump them out. Not just a desktop publishing program either. Try searching for such a program, or maybe just google up "making your own card game/board game" and see what you find.

As for understanding game design, if you haven't watched Extra Credits yet, I urge you to check it out. Literally, every episode is pure gold, and might just give you a few decent leads. You can find most of Extra Credits on youtube, or on the Penny-Arcade site. Yeah, it focuses on video games mostly, but quite a bit of what they say can be applied elsewhere.

[GM.Casper]

(I don't trust Wikipedia with the facts, so feel free to point out the actual facts to me

So you don't trust Wikipedia, but do trust random people on the internet? You do know we are the same ones who edit the Wikipedia too? :smalltongue:

Above posters already gave some good ideas, More details on your idea are required for further advice.

[Karoht]

Not to get too far off topic, but Wiki is still a trustworth source, most of the time these days. There were bad days a few years ago, now due to the way the review system works it isn't likely that biased or completely wrong articles stay up for long. However, if you are reading an article and your BS detector goes off, by all means cross-reference it and check another source or two. Common sense mostly applies.

Yeah, trusting strangers on the internet over wiki? Wow. I'm kind of touched. We must come off as trustworthy/knowledgeable people around here.


Find any leads? My contact is MIA at the moment.

[Socratov]

Yeah, trusting strangers on the internet over wiki? Wow. I'm kind of touched. We must come off as trustworthy/knowledgeable people around here.

next we know he'll ask us to join him on his noble quest :smallbiggrin:

[Drakeburn]

Alright, I confess that I still use Wikipedia every once in a while.
Just let it go for crying out loud. :smallannoyed:

[Anarion]

You've guessed my intentions correctly, good sir. But would you by any chance know where those game design sites? I looked all over the internet, and all I could find is game design sites for video games. :smallsigh:

I'd suggest reading all the stuff by Mark Rosewater. Here's a link to his archive (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Archive.aspx?page=0&author=Mark%20Rosewater) (it's in reverse date order).

He's been designing Magic: The Gathering and writing about how he does it for over a decade and there's some really good insight in there. If you only read one article, I suggest you read Johnny, Timmy, and Spike (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr11b) because it's broadly applicable for any game design in any genre. It's an article about why people play games in the first place and what they want out of them.

Edit: For getting a business going, I would suggest going in the following order
idea-->things you're actually selling-->method for selling them-->business plan