Windsor Gaming Centre - opening second location

[colinmcmahon]

For those of you who remember what I'm doing with the gaming centre, I've got an update and I need some input.

I've been talking to one of the locals about franchising for a while now and we will be opening a second location on the other side of town. We've already tripled the numbers stated in our business plan, so everything is going well.

I just have a few questions. Please only answer if you have experience with this.

1- Franchising Fees - Charge a monthly fee, or a % of the income.
2- Linux clustered computer for storage or Microsoft Server ?
3- Buy all equipment and re-sell to franchised locations? Or have them buy there own?

Let me know. Cheers.

[criniit]

My parents opened a Petland Store (its a pet store franchise) and I can answer your questions based off experiences with that franchise.

1) They charge a % of monthly gross income..I think its 1 or 2%.

2) No idea

3) We had to buy everything, but they did help us out by giving us contacts (telling us where to buy things and such)

[chriswick]

1) Yes take a % of the gross income.
2) No difference, just different platforms.
3) You can offer a franchise start-up package. This means they pay a set fee for joining that will cover your costs in equipment.

Don't go and buy aload of equipment though, order the stuff when you have a candidate standing by.

[colinmcmahon]

Here's a brief version of what I came up with:

EQUIPMENT $25,000 to $30,000.00
LEASEHOLD IMPROVEMENTS $6,000 to $10,000.00 (Variable)
INITIAL FRANCHISE FEE $5,000.00 (5 Year term)
PERMITS $1,500.00 Variable
Opening inventory $7,500 Variable (Not included in total)
Start-up cash $5,000.00 Variable (Not included in total)
Total $37,500 to $46,500.00

There will also be monthly franchise fees of 8% total game time sold &
2% of gross profit on all other sales (Income on sales - items purchased)

*Franchise Fees Include:
Web Server / Email
Game distribution
Unlimited bandwidth with Cogeco Cable
Basic advertising costs (Flyers, Street team, news prints, online ad's)
Research & development
Acquisition of new games and licenses.
Online Business & Sales Accounts
Technical Support & Management
Network Support & Management
Point of Sale Management
Last minute Employees to cover shifts

**Franchise Set-up Fees Include:
Equipment Purchasing and Assembly
Software Installation
Server Installation and account set-up
Online Software set-up
WAN networking Set-up
Network wiring

[mungo21]

you might want to look into the licensing for the Microsoft, as each user may require a CAL client access license, or a device cal, as you would be running a server environment, a device CAL would suit your needs better.
as I did not see this mentioned in your inventory??

[akula]

haha, way to go colin. kicking ass and chewing bubble gum

that franchising of yours was a great idea after all

any chance of hooking up your old buddy nerezov with a job some day? :-)

[-nEEdLzZz--]

this sounds really interesting...

may i ask what games are you offering? console games? arcade games? pc games? how many consoles/arcades/pc's you got?

what about the license? do u have to buy some kind of license to be allowed to offer this game service?

are you also selling drinks/food?


sorry for all the questions, but i had a similar idea in mind...i'd really appreciate an answer...


thx a lot...

[Paint and Air Sportz]

Well i have a bit of franchise experince and this is how 7-11 does it,

Franchise Fee- $250,000
They take %50 of all net profits
You pay employees
They pay Rent (ussually $5000+ a month)
They outfit store (ussually $200,000+ right their)
Also their is a full time field consultant that works with you and 5-8 other stores.
As well as a national logo, millions of dollars spent on advertising a year, and a huge network of support people.

Now if you have a good location and a good staff you can be making well over $200,000 a year net at one location.

[carrera87]

nice m8 keep up the good work