Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 10, 2013 22:52:57 GMT -5
If I take the location by Gamestop, no.
If I take the other location I might think about having a small selection of the best selling consoles and titles. I'd never compete with Gamestop on breadth of product line but I could see trying to snag a few of their sales, especially around the holidays, by offering the hit titles to make me a more one stop shop when it comes to Birthdays and Christmas.
Somebody on the previous page asked about online sales. I didn't have time to respond before I had to run. To start I'd like to avoid it. The margins online are tiny. The overhead is as well, obviously, but reselling wholesale merchandise online is a bit like opening a physical store right next door to the largest store in the world that sells the same products you do. If a mom brings her 5 year old into my toy store and he sees something he wants, she has to leave the store and drive 20 miles to comparison shop at my nearest competitor. If she's looking at the same item in my online store, it takes her 5 seconds to see if Amazon has a lower price. If a wholesaler sells you a product for $10 with an MSRP of $20, guaranteed it's selling online somewhere for $11.
If I was creating my own products, personalizing the products before resale, or something like that, I'd go online in a heartbeat. Reselling nationally available wholesale merchandise though... I don't like it online.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2013 22:55:18 GMT -5
I am still trying to wrap my head around someone making $100,000 plus that apparently wasn't able to save any real money but still thinks he has the financial abilities to run a business. Why wasn't the start up capital saved? I see an IRS audit coming soon.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2013 22:58:26 GMT -5
Hon, if I'm in your brick and mortar store it takes me about 10 seconds to see if Amazon has it cheaper. There are lots of times I'm in another store and place an order at Amazon.
One local game video game store here that is expanding ( 3 ores now) sells some new, but mostly used... Lots of consoles including some really old ones. They also rent play space...
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mmhmm
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It's a great pity the right of free speech isn't based on the obligation to say something sensible.
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Post by mmhmm on Apr 10, 2013 23:33:17 GMT -5
That assumes you have enough money when you die to *have* a tombstone... I'm sure this community could scrape together a few bucks to get Dark a proper headstone. I'll donate.
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mmhmm
Administrator
It's a great pity the right of free speech isn't based on the obligation to say something sensible.
Joined: Dec 25, 2010 18:13:34 GMT -5
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Post by mmhmm on Apr 11, 2013 1:01:29 GMT -5
Oh! That kind of headstone! I thought we were talking about a big stone Loop could use to bash his head in! My bad!
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susanb
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Post by susanb on Apr 11, 2013 1:07:08 GMT -5
How much do you hope to pay yourself the first year?
How long do you think it will take you to make a profit (beyond your salary)?
You mentioned employees in the OP. When are you planning to hire employees? Something to keep in mind with this is health insurance. In my state, if you have two full time employees, you can sign up for an employer health insurance plan. IMHO, having you and Loop as the full time employees would make the most sense. I can't imagine hiring before you have a profit with the start up costs you are going to have.
Are you going to use LIFO or FIFO for your inventory?
Also, I would suggest letting your customers know that you are going to be having fun events and promotions and asking them if they want to give you their email address. Presenting this as a requirement is a huge turn off, I hate it when stores basically demand my email as though it is part of the check out process. However, when it is is presented as an opportunity, it can be a great way to communicate with your customers, particularly if you only send them campaigns that offer them value.
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The Fonz
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Ayyyyy!!
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Post by The Fonz on Apr 11, 2013 2:35:06 GMT -5
The ETA was a joke since Thyme keeps mentioning porno. Wait a minute... porn production company! It's a gold mine I tell ya. You have all these gamer dorks that sit in their mom's basement totally incapable of hooking up with real women, but nobody is making The Lord of the Cockrings, to target that market. Dude. It's out there. Or something like it. I forget the name though. Google "Diddle Earth" or "Dildo Saggins" and I'm sure you'll find it. www.imdb.com/title/tt0323108/It sucks I have nothing to add but this.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 11, 2013 4:00:39 GMT -5
Six years ago I was just getting out of the military at 25 with two kids and no degree. My first civilian job paid $60k in a HCOLA, and it built up to six figures over the next couple of years. Six years later I have just shy of $150k saved and bought an almost $300k house. Two thirds of that is in retirement vehicles though.
How many assets did you have at 30?
That's fine, I'm not doing anything shady or illegal. You've been able to use retirement assets to fund business startups or acquisitions since 1939. You have to do it in a very specific way, which is why I'm using the largest legal/accounting firm in the country that specializes in ROBS.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 11, 2013 4:14:07 GMT -5
I hope to pay myself nine hundred gajillion dollars. If I'm able to pay myself $20k the first year I'll be doing pretty good.
Several years at least. Wait, just my salary or all the overhead?
Within the first quarter I'd probably want at least one or two part time employees, assuming I'm getting business.
I'm going to purchase a point of sale system and track the specific products I sell. As to how my accountant wants to value the inventory at the end of the year, beats me, whatever he recommends.
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Formerly SK
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Post by Formerly SK on Apr 11, 2013 9:10:10 GMT -5
If I take the location by Gamestop, no. If I take the other location I might think about having a small selection of the best selling consoles and titles. I'd never compete with Gamestop on breadth of product line but I could see trying to snag a few of their sales, especially around the holidays, by offering the hit titles to make me a more one stop shop when it comes to Birthdays and Christmas. Somebody on the previous page asked about online sales. I didn't have time to respond before I had to run. To start I'd like to avoid it. The margins online are tiny. The overhead is as well, obviously, but reselling wholesale merchandise online is a bit like opening a physical store right next door to the largest store in the world that sells the same products you do. If a mom brings her 5 year old into my toy store and he sees something he wants, she has to leave the store and drive 20 miles to comparison shop at my nearest competitor. If she's looking at the same item in my online store, it takes her 5 seconds to see if Amazon has a lower price. If a wholesaler sells you a product for $10 with an MSRP of $20, guaranteed it's selling online somewhere for $11. If I was creating my own products, personalizing the products before resale, or something like that, I'd go online in a heartbeat. Reselling nationally available wholesale merchandise though... I don't like it online. I don't think you should carry video games, especially not a few during the holidays. "One stop shopping" is not your business plan when you have such a small space. Instead, figure out your niche and do a 10,000% job with that niche. If you're going the "educational toy" route, then make your place synonymous with that so that when a parent thinks, "I really want to get my son some math stuff" they'll immediately think of your place. You'll never compete with video games and they'll just use up real estate. I go to my local educational store easily once/month. I'm looking for lined paper for early writers, or 9-sided dice for quick math facts. The easter bunny brought the kids science stuff in their baskets this year, etc. We had a blast making chewing gum from a kit I had no idea even existed until I was browsing the educational store. Video games - eh you can get that anywhere.
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Otto the Orange
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Go Orange!
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Post by Otto the Orange on Apr 11, 2013 9:16:44 GMT -5
.......... The anchors are Target and a busy grocery store........... Loony's grocery store is going to be one of your anchors??!!!??!! !!! NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Pants
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Post by Pants on Apr 11, 2013 9:34:25 GMT -5
If I take the location by Gamestop, no. If I take the other location I might think about having a small selection of the best selling consoles and titles. I'd never compete with Gamestop on breadth of product line but I could see trying to snag a few of their sales, especially around the holidays, by offering the hit titles to make me a more one stop shop when it comes to Birthdays and Christmas. Somebody on the previous page asked about online sales. I didn't have time to respond before I had to run. To start I'd like to avoid it. The margins online are tiny. The overhead is as well, obviously, but reselling wholesale merchandise online is a bit like opening a physical store right next door to the largest store in the world that sells the same products you do. If a mom brings her 5 year old into my toy store and he sees something he wants, she has to leave the store and drive 20 miles to comparison shop at my nearest competitor. If she's looking at the same item in my online store, it takes her 5 seconds to see if Amazon has a lower price. If a wholesaler sells you a product for $10 with an MSRP of $20, guaranteed it's selling online somewhere for $11. If I was creating my own products, personalizing the products before resale, or something like that, I'd go online in a heartbeat. Reselling nationally available wholesale merchandise though... I don't like it online. I don't think you should carry video games, especially not a few during the holidays. "One stop shopping" is not your business plan when you have such a small space. Instead, figure out your niche and do a 10,000% job with that niche. If you're going the "educational toy" route, then make your place synonymous with that so that when a parent thinks, "I really want to get my son some math stuff" they'll immediately think of your place. You'll never compete with video games and they'll just use up real estate. I go to my local educational store easily once/month. I'm looking for lined paper for early writers, or 9-sided dice for quick math facts. The easter bunny brought the kids science stuff in their baskets this year, etc. We had a blast making chewing gum from a kit I had no idea even existed until I was browsing the educational store. Video games - eh you can get that anywhere. You are looking to create a niche that delivers on what Target and Kmart and Gamestop are not. A few ways to think through your business offering: I am guessing you are aiming at the middle-high to high end of the market. Any lower than that and you have people just shopping at the big-box. So, what do those consumers want in terms of experience, products for their kids, etc.? What can you do to fit those needs? (What is your customer value proposition?) Who are your competitors? Not just Target, but probably Amazon, etc. How do you differentiate yourselves from them? How do you reach your customers? How will you advertise? Do you want 100 people to come once or 1 person to come 100 times? On a logistics level: What is your overhead? How many toys will you have to sell per day in order to cover your costs? How many toys do you expect per transaction? (Toys/day/avg toys/transaction) tells you how many people you need to purchase. What's your conversion rate - how many people do you need to get through the door in order to have one who purchases?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2013 10:36:25 GMT -5
Are you looking at games/toys for younger kids? We love this toy store: www.frogpondtoys.com/They have a cafe and music time to get people coming in often. They sell things you don't see in Target or other big stores.
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susanb
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Post by susanb on Apr 11, 2013 10:58:28 GMT -5
Several years at least. Wait, just my salary or all the overhead? I'm going to purchase a point of sale system and track the specific products I sell. As to how my accountant wants to value the inventory at the end of the year, beats me, whatever he recommends. Yes, we both know I meant all of the overhead. Small business brokers try to combine an owner's salary and profit all of the time. If you end up very sucessfull and are able to pay yourself more than the salary of what it would cost the new owner to replace you, it is fair to consider the difference in a business valuation. I brought this up because you mentioned your exit strategy is pretty soon. Your taxes used to be something you gave your accountant to do at the end of the year. Your taxes are now a very important part of your business strategy, and your accountant is part of you team that you manage. My accounting firm is very good, but I can't imagine what our taxes would look like if we just left it up to them. They aren't in our books enough to know how to offer the best strategies for everything. We sell services, so I don't have to deal with inventory, but I spend about 10-15% of my time on reading up on small business taxes and changes in them during January and February each year. A good example of this for us in 2012 was acquiring some equipment using a non-tax capital lease, which allowed us to have some pretty nice 179 deductions. We don't consult our accountant before each contract we sign or item we purchase. If we had just signed a normal lease and given it to our accountant at the end of the year, he couldn't have helped us get the same advantages we got with the capital lease.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Apr 11, 2013 11:47:10 GMT -5
[/span]
I'm into online shopping as well, but I also don't discount our "instant gratification" society. If I want a new game, and I see the one I like, there are a lot of times I would rather spend the extra $5, take it home right now, rip it open and start playing. I think there will always be a market for brick-and-mortar stores, because there will always be people that need or want something NOW. Not 48 hours from now - but 48 seconds from now. In fact, I will probably roll my eyes at the long line if I have to wait 48 whole seconds. [/span]
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2013 11:48:31 GMT -5
[/span] I'm into online shopping as well, but I also don't discount our "instant gratification" society. If I want a new game, and I see the one I like, there are a lot of times I would rather spend the extra $5, take it home right now, rip it open and start playing. I think there will always be a market for brick-and-mortar stores, because there will always be people that need or want something NOW. Not 48 hours from now - but 48 seconds from now. In fact, I will probably roll my eyes at the long line if I have to wait 48 whole seconds. [/span][/quote] streaming.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Apr 11, 2013 11:52:31 GMT -5
Hard to stream a pair of pants, or piece of jewelry. Board games may be a little old-fashioned, but if you want to sit down and play Zooloretto, streaming is not going to give you that experience.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2013 11:54:02 GMT -5
Hard to stream a pair of pants, or piece of jewelry. Board games may be a little old-fashioned, but if you want to sit down and play Zooloretto, streaming is not going to give you that experience. jeweley and pants, yes. board games, just play on the ipad.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2013 11:54:46 GMT -5
Hard to stream a pair of pants, or piece of jewelry. Board games may be a little old-fashioned, but if you want to sit down and play Zooloretto, streaming is not going to give you that experience. jeweley and pants, yes. I thought you were talking more experience based items. Board games, just play on the ipad.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Apr 11, 2013 11:55:45 GMT -5
Twister on the iPad is a bitch!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2013 11:57:30 GMT -5
Twister on the iPad is a bitch! Just wait until the large, flexible tablet screens come out and it will be easier. Like you said, though, most people don't want to wait 48 seconds, let alone 48 hours, so they will play something on the I pad versus going to the store to buy twister.
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swamp
Community Leader
THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Post by swamp on Apr 11, 2013 11:59:12 GMT -5
Twister on the iPad is a bitch! Just wait until the large, flexible tablet screens come out and it will be easier. Like you said, though, most people don't want to wait 48 seconds, let alone 48 hours, so they will play something on the I pad versus going to the store to buy twister. Clearly, your sex life is lacking. [img]http://images.proboards.com/new/tongue.png[/img]
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gambler
Well-Known Member
"the education of a man is never completed until he dies" Robert E. Lee
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Post by gambler on Apr 11, 2013 12:08:41 GMT -5
let me though i idea out for dark, look at a food trailor, had one for a while use to go around to event (arts and crafts,fishing,prades ect)also use to set up at big constrution sites and out side some factories and sell burgers fries drinks chip ect. I got to travel alot when north in the summer and south in the winter meet some very intresting people and some how managed not to kill them. I have recently seen some self contatined trailors for around 40K. I ran it mostly on the weekends and one of my ex's ran it durring the week I think my 3rd got it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2013 12:10:48 GMT -5
Just wait until the large, flexible tablet screens come out and it will be easier. Like you said, though, most people don't want to wait 48 seconds, let alone 48 hours, so they will play something on the I pad versus going to the store to buy twister. Clearly, your sex life is lacking. Twister is so not sexy. Not even really in shape people look good naked and bent around like that. Then add a sneeze into the mix and it really goes downhill.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 11, 2013 12:31:59 GMT -5
Right, but if you're standing in my store holding a product, or your kid is, my competitive advantage is that you have to tell him/her to put it back, walk out of the store without it, and either drive to another city to find a similar item or buy online and wait several days for it to show up. Human nature says you buy it then and there way more often than you walk out without it.
If you're looking at an item in my online store, while you're doing that you can spend 5 seconds to open a new tab and search Amazon for the exact same product, and more than likely get free shipping on it. What's my competitive advantage now?
Ironically this board hates retail anything, because "everyone shops at Amazon now", but at the same time they all seem to love the idea of selling things online where you're directly competing with Amazon, and since it's online, your two stores might as well be right smack up against each other with a doorway in between.
The day you can stream a Tonka truck to an 8 year old boy is the day that toy stores go out of business. Not until then though.
Clearly you've never seen really in shape people naked. They look good doing almost anything.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2013 12:33:20 GMT -5
The day you can stream a Tonka truck to an 8 year old boy is the day that toy stores go out of business. Not until then though. Clearly you've never seen really in shape people naked. They look good doing almost anything. Never in real life.
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swamp
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THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Post by swamp on Apr 11, 2013 12:33:58 GMT -5
Dark, I still think you're whacked, but I don't generally shop at Amazon. I actually go to stores to buy my kids toys, and I love independent toy stores.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2013 12:35:24 GMT -5
The day you can stream a Tonka truck to an 8 year old boy is the day that toy stores go out of business. Not until then though. I agree. You just need to be aware of it, though. My daughter loves playing her stupid my little pony game on the Kindle, but she still wants my little pony toys.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Apr 11, 2013 12:36:48 GMT -5
I don't much like shopping online. But then again, I don't like to shop period, unless it's involving wine, chocolate and books.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Apr 11, 2013 12:37:32 GMT -5
The day you can stream a Tonka truck to an 8 year old boy is the day that toy stores go out of business. Not until then though. I agree. You just need to be aware of it, though. My daughter loves playing her stupid my little pony game on the Kindle, but she still wants my little pony toys. <Beth prays very hard that Keira will NOT discover the my little pony game on the Kindle.>
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