[knifely]

Hey guys
I'm in the process of starting a gaming center/ cyber cafe with a student lounge. I live in Fort Collins, Colorado and there is a lack of places for persons under 21 to hang out without spending a lot of money. There is one other gaming center here, but it only offers about 15 computers and 2 tvs with consoles, and markets only to current gamers.

Our idea is to combine a student lounge atmosphere with the casual and competitive gaming community. These would be separated, (lounge upstairs/ gaming downstairs) but our mission is to draw in the non gaming crowd with our student study lounge, offering wifi, pool, internet computers, and tvs, while also appealing to serious gamers with our high performance systems and games collection.

The gaming industry among high school and college students is feeling a lot of growth in past years. According to internet surveys, 70% of college students play video games. Top reasons people go to gaming centers are: They cannot afford to buy a high-end computer capable of playing today's titles, they enjoy the social atmosphere the center brings, or they do not have some of the games offered by the gaming centers.

I am currently in the process of writting a business plan, and am about 50% done. We have a name for the store in mind, a website is to 99 per cent complete, we have a logo, and many other things. Right now our biggest concern is capitol. With all this in mind when is it time to: Buy the domain name, register the trademark, and go public, and start looking for investors. We have many ideas but are stuck on how to continue, and in what order

Thank you in advance, this is a great community

[jonathanfigaro]

Thanks for the tips!

[pboychuk]

I think the problem is who goes somewhere, pays money, to play video games that they could play at home, a computer and a game are not that expensive.. And if they are "hardcore" enough they will all bring computers to their friends basements and play for 3 days straight..

Personally I think your market should be middle schoolers.

How do you anticipate to break even?

I don't know if you are the same person that had the idea to put one of these on a college campus, but I just think the idea is high risk.

[rpermana]

@pboychuck : for hardcore players, they prefer playing in cyber cafe due to easy & better coordination. I have seen them like to hang at cyber cafe VIP room (own room with few comp).

and in popular cyber cafe, you often bump with your worthy opponents

@knifely :for capital, have you talked with bank ?
best investor : Your Dad !

[pboychuk]

I can tell you one thing, I used to play computer games, and one of the hardest things to do is adapt to a different computer, everything from the keyboard and mouse, to the chair become adapted to the player, it is extremely hard to use any other "setup"
In addition the GUI for most games is adapted by each player for each game on their computer only..

And honestly, how much can you charge people to play on your systems? Would the fees even cover the power bill? Even worse, your peak hours are very limited, basically to weekends..

All I am trying to say is that there are feasible ways to make money with high school/college kids.. start a hooka lounge or a bar..

Anyways I will leave you guys alone, I know how annoying it is when all someone does is try to down talk your ideas. Honestly I dont know this market, and am probably completely off

Keep us updated

[knifely]

@pboychuck:
I agree that the setup of your GUI and your autoexec(for css and these types of games) is very personal, but casual players won't have this. And If we were to host a serious tournament there could be some exceptions, as you can trust these players not to hack your system without being disqualified. And in your earlier post you said that buying your own system is not that expensive, on the contrary, a rig capable of playing a high end game like crysis is going to run you a $1500+ which is a lot for a desktop, especially these days were a laptop is higher priority among students.
And I agree with the hookha bar, I would love to open one, but the city I live in reached its cap. We have two already, and the city will not allow any more due to the smoking bans.

@rpermana: Thank you for your support. And yes I was thinking banks, that's why I'm putting so much effort into this business plan.

But my question was in what order do I continue from here... Should I talk to a bank first, or get all the legal stuff out of the way like registering my trademark, and buying the domain for the site?

[dalex]

Buy the domain now! People register good domains and hold onto them to resell "domainers". Domains are not guranteed the next hour and would have suggested buying before the business plan and website design.

Your Business Model:
I think this could do very well, actually extremely well!

Ideas to make it better:

Rented room for parties

Offer Snacks:

Ice Cream "homeade would do the best I would think, make a brand and make it look like an actual company ice cream sort of like
your company name... finest homeade ice cream"

Smoothies
Italian Ices
Coffee

Free Wifi "for laptops"

Try and attract young kids as well, Why? Kids love ice cream, parents like homeade ice cream over Mc Donalds and the likes, never bad to have an all in one business if around the same model.

offer an ice cream that is healthy or appeals to healthy people and advertise it, people are all about green and health these days.

"I dont play video games and have not played video games since about 13-14, instead ive been into business. I will say that if you sold home ade ice cream had comftorable seating, air conditioning and free fast wifi, I would be a regular customer even if wifi was limited due to space issues."

Good luck!

[rpermana]

1. Determine whether you are going to be doing business as an individual proprietorship, partnership, corporation.

2. Register your Business Name (required for bank)

3. Location

4. Payroll Tax - get Federal and State application forms for ID numbers. Request "Business Start Up" application forms from the Internal Revenue Service and from the State Tax Commission. You will be notified of your number and get a packet of information(required for bank to create bank account).

5. Licenses & Permit. Apply at City or County offices for local licenses required.

6. Create bank account. Get to know the manager of your bank & ask for advises on financial matter.The banks can't exist without making loans so don't hesitate to apply. When you handle high cost items your bank may be able to work up installment contracts for your customers. Get set up with Mastercard, Visa, etc. It will cost you from 3% to 5% but you must have this service available for your customers if you want to stay in business.

7. Utilities - Electricity, Water, Gas...etc. It takes few days to active them.

8. Insurance - Don't forget to get a peace of mind!

9. Hiring employees.

10. Bookkeeping & Accounting

11. Equipment required.

12. Advertisement.

[knifely]

@rpermana:
Thank you, this is EXACTLY what i was hoping for... you've helped a lot

[rpermana]

no problem knifely. Good luck setting up your cyber cafe. I am addicted to game 'Left 4 Dead' which is very popular in Singapore right now. Almost all cyber cafe are playing it..

[SophieM]

What about offering a retro gaming lounge or evening? You could decorate the walls with classic game scenes and retro seating.

If you want to PM you could bounce ideas off me and get some more and feedback. Also, if you want any design work doing I am quite creative with that kind of thing.

[inle]

I had got some business case studies on hand & one of them s a gaming lounge similar to us..

one of the issues this company had got on hand s the off-peak hours where sales is slow & the lack of activites, beside the normal gaming activities, to boost up the sales..
another is the cost of the constant upgrading, maintenance of software, hardware etc..

maybe you will like to consider the feasibility of your plan, your market, and also how you intend to overcome the challenges..

please let me know what support you need ya..

[knifely]

@sophieM
Thanks for the idea, it would be fun to have those type of days, and I was thinking of making old arcade games like pacman into tables for the cafe portion.

@inle
Yes, you're right, there are a lot of risks with this idea, and I think it would be important to make a indepth "what if..." list to get a general plan for overcome these obstibles.

[inle]

Originally Posted by knifely

@inle
Yes, you're right, there are a lot of risks with this idea, and I think it would be important to make a indepth "what if..." list to get a general plan for overcome these obstibles.

if you are interested in my case, please pm me ya..
As that is a real life situation involving a real business, several issues might not be good to discuss openly..

I will be glad to share some of the insights with you in prlvate, after seekin advice from the relevant sources..
Should not be a problem on my side..
Hopefully it can aid you in your business to a certain extent..

Please advise me ya..

[hilaryduff33]

i agree with your tips.............................................. .....................