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Starting my own business
Topic Started: Jun 1 2015, 09:48 PM (748 Views)
gvamp
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After talking about doing it for several years I'm finally going to do my dream and start my own business with my best friend. We're doing a new/used game store with movies as well as collectiables such as Magic the Gathering cards.

We have a basic FB page now located here: https://www.facebook.com/GameShopMI

My friend will be running the Twitter page too which you can find here @The_GameShop_MI

So like us on FB or Twitter

We're shooting for no later than a mid October open date. I'll update this topic when I have more information to share.

A friend of mine will be building us a simple web page to start off which should be going live in probably three or four weeks. After the store opens we're going to have a much more elaborate web site.
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packmule
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Good luck Tom! I'll be happy to promote your business in any way of can. Mr. Smiles
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gvamp
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Thanks Lee right now the best thing you could do is just share the FB page around with your friends.

We've already got over 30 likes in that's just in two days rock on

I'm shooting for about 50 by the end of the week but I'm very happy with the likes I have now. I will say this we will be launching a crowd funding campagin soon to cut back on some of the money we have to borrow to fully fund the business. As soon as I have details I'll be sharing that. What I can share is we have some cool perks set up for those who donate.
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TheDreadedGodOfKaiju
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Good luck with your business. topper
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Shawn
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Best of luck to you!
Click Meh!
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gvamp
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Thanks everyone we're now 49 likes in. Just one more to reach our end of the week goal.
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Well good luck with it and I also liked the page ,if you need a new banner/cover photo let me know....
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packmule
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gvamp
Jun 3 2015, 02:45 PM
Thanks everyone we're now 49 likes in. Just one more to reach our end of the week goal.
Tom, really think Facebook will help market your business that much? As someone who will be starting his own business between now and September 30th(depending on when my boss retires) I'm curious as to how effective FB could be in that regard.

How else will you market your business? Any local business directories? Yelp? Internet search engines?
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gvamp
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Lee Social Media outlets such as FB and Twitter can be amazingly beneficial for small business owners.

We'll also be marketing our business locally via TV ads and Radio ads. One of our stretch goals for our crowd funding campaign we'll be starting is to invest in advertisement at the local theater.
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gvamp
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We launched our web site today you can find it at www.thegameshop.biz sadly .com was already taken.

This is just a holder web site we're in negotions with my friend to design us a much better website and a logo.

Also we've managed to get over 60 likes our first week on FB. This week we're only shooting for 100 so if you haven't liked the FB page yet then please do so, if you have thank you for your support and please share the FB page a long with our website with your friends.
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packmule
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I've added myself to your business' mailing list and posted a brief "shout out" about The Game Shop on my Google blog which averages 10-12 hits per day. winky
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gvamp
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Thanks Lee. Things are moving fairly good now we finished off a good chunk of our business plan last night and then we should be starting our crowd funding campaign in no later then 2.5 weeks.

We've decided to do crowd funding to reduce the amount of money you have to borrow.
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packmule
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gvamp
Jun 8 2015, 02:05 PM
We've decided to do crowd funding to reduce the amount of money you have to borrow
Crowd funding? Never heard of this. How does it work? heyo
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gvamp
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Have you heard of Kickstarter Lee? If not then basically what it is is you set up a page asking for donations to get your project (business, video game, movie, etc. etc.) funded so you don't have to put up all the money yourself. Most successful crowd funding campaigns give rewards for incentive to donate.

For example a $30 donation to us once we get the crowd fund page up will net someone a exclusive t-shirt. I should be launching that in about 2.5 weeks so when I have more info to share I'll post it here.
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packmule
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gvamp
Jun 9 2015, 09:24 PM
Have you heard of Kickstarter Lee? If not then basically what it is is you set up a page asking for donations to get your project (business, video game, movie, etc. etc.) funded so you don't have to put up all the money yourself.
I've heard of it but never checked it out. How much money have you and Calvin(Devericks) received from your Kickstarter page?

As for my own business start up, I will be doing the following between now and August of this year:

1. upgrading my "Gardenwurks" website to a full domain(cost: about $30 a year through Webs.com)

2. purchasing magnetic signs for my pickup truck(cost:$60 for two signs through Vistaprint)

3. starting a "dba" account through Wells Fargo bank(I already started a checking acct and separate credit card acct, the latter of which I'll use to track work related purchases). I may designate my business an "LLC" but I haven't decided on that yet.

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gvamp
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We haven't started the Kickstarter campaign yet. We're in the process of refining our campaign so we can actually be successful when we launch.

As for getting a DBA it'll be cheaper to go down to your local county clerk building. My friend and I paid $10 ($5 a piece) for our partnership DBA this past week.

LLC is a little more costly you're looking at over $200 to set that up. If I where you what I'd do is set up a small kickstarter campaign (not through kickstarter as that's for media projects) and try and raise $5000 that should be enough to get you a LLC, some decent signage and a professional made website for your business. You could probably get away with maybe doing $15,000 which you could use for the things I listed above plus more equipment and a few extra hands that way you can take on more clients.

Also promote your business on as many social media accounts as you can as well as craigslist that is of course if you choose to go the route I suggested above.

I wish you luck Lee I hope your business is successful you deserve it.
Edited by gvamp, Jun 14 2015, 02:48 AM.
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packmule
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Upgraded my "Gardenwurks" website to a full domain a little while ago. It should be active in 24-48 hours.

The domain will be www.gardenwurks.com. (right now it's still gardenwurks.webs.com)

Going to order magnetic signs for my truck in early July and then some custom logo collared short sleeve shirts in August. Trying to spread out my purchases.

azz

Tom, I like your idea of creating a Kickstarter page but in all honesty if I did it I'd feel like a beggar. loco2
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gvamp
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That's why you offer incentives for people to donate.

I gave you an example of what my business partner and myself will be doing we have other ideas too.
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packmule
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Tom, will you and Calvin have a Twitter account for your business? heyo

Ever thought about using "Referral Key"?
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gvamp
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We may push off the store till next year now. We're currently shooting for an October launch date but we still have a lot of stuff to do and that's only three months away so if we're going to do it then we have to start fundraising like now.

I wouldn't mind pushing it off to March that way that gives us a solid 9 months to get money, plan a nice opening. Ideally I'd want it to happen this year but I just don't think it's a viable option right now.

On a side note please share our FB as well as our websites with your friends. We need exposure we started off strong but have tapered off a lot.

I'm going to start doing game reviews for youtube to help get some exposure and right now news is kind of slow since E3 is over. There should be more news this upcoming week with the SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) and PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) is coming up soon as well as the Tokyo Game Show and New York Comic Con

As soon as we get 5 subscribers to our newsletter I'll start doing a weekly one. Right now we've only got two including you Lee.
Edited by gvamp, Jul 5 2015, 09:20 PM.
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gvamp
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We've started our first round of fund raising by doing T-shirts. Check out the link below:

https://www.bonfirefunds.com/support-your-local-small-business

After this round we'll probably do our crowd funding campaign. Between those we'll be doing some local stuff like a few bake sales.
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packmule
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very funny
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gvamp
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Yep as part of our T-shirt fundraiser for every T-shirt bought my business parnter or I will be taking a pie to the face.
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gvamp
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We've got a launch date for our business; we've decided to push off the business to March 24, 2016 and we'll be doing a grand opening weekend too.

It sucks we couldn't get the business off the ground this year but with that extra time we're going to focus on finishing off our business plan and raising funds for our second crowd funding campaign. Plus I feel with the extra time we're going to be able to make the business the best it can be.

Stay tuned in the coming months for updates in the meantime we'll be using the FB page as well as the web site post video game, movie and other related news.
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gvamp
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Well guys I have some bad news I will no longer be doing my own business. Last month March 1st to be exact I get a call from my "best friend" and he proceeds to tell me that just so I don't hear it on social media he's opening a game store in our town but because he got the money from his father in law and said father in law doesn't know me I'm not involved with it.

So yeah I really don't know how to feel this was my best friend of 16 years and he just ups and stabs me in the back like that?
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packmule
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gvamp
Apr 11 2016, 12:53 AM
So yeah I really don't know how to feel this was my best friend of 16 years and he just ups and stabs me in the back like that?
Sounds like your friend's father in law is a total asshole. winky

As to how I'd feel...well, disgusted. boredd

Tom, from your updates you seem to be doing well at Walmart so take a positive from that. If you still want to own your own video game business don't give up on that idea yet.
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gvamp
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Actually Wal-mart isn't going so well, if I get one more write up I'm terminated. I recently got one for a very dumb reason but understandable (I left a game case unlocked accidently) so they had no choice to write me up. I pretty much have to make sure nothing happens until Febuary of this upcoming year.

Also because of this write up I'm no longer elibigble for a management position within Wal-mart until it falls off.

As for starting my own business I don't know what I'll do every time I get somewhere with it it bites me in the ass. I really have no want to do it any more.
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packmule
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gvamp
Apr 12 2016, 06:28 PM
Actually Wal-mart isn't going so well, if I get one more write up I'm terminated
sadlyicon eek!

I was in a Walmart this past Saturday to buy a budget TV stand. The store was very busy and while I like the prices of their merchandise I have always found customer service, at least in this particular store, to be laughably bad. The cashiers are courteous and friendly which is always good, obviously.

I would liken what I saw in this store to controlled chaos. It's no wonder we see so much insanity in Walmart stores on "Black Friday". loco2
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gvamp
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There's a lot to that Lee the managers put so much pressure on us that it's hard to stay positive.

That being said I have a vacation coming up in early July and I'll probably be spending my time looking for a new job.
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packmule
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Based on your retail experience, Tom have you considered employment at Home Depot or Lowes? heyo
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