New Gaming LAN center

[SubZeroGames]

Hi there, my names Jon and i'm new to these forums. I am 17 years old and i am attending Georgia Perimeter College taking Business/Entrepreneur majors.

I am looking to start a new Gaming LAN center and is wondering if any one can head me in the right direction.

I live in Atlanta, Georgia so there is no competition.

If any one can help me that would be great. Also would some one be able to give me a business plan template to use please?

Thanks again.

-Jon

[paul2145r]

My wife and I recently opened a gaming/dvd/computer repair store in our town. We are also looking into the possibility of moving into a bigger location and setting up a LAN/Video Gaming center. From research done for a previous venture, that type of business can be very lucrative. I am familiar with your area-- if there are no other similar stores or businesses, then you'll have plenty of pople interested.

As far as business plans, I recommend biting the bullet and downloading Business Plan Pro. I've been using it for three or four years now, and have been very pleased with the results.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

[SubZeroGames]

Thanks for the response. I have replied to you in a PM.

[deanelazab]

alright so I worked for a lan center for a few years and talked to the owner about the business. He told me that most of his profits are from computer repairs and custom pc building. The lan gaming center has a huge upfront cost for computers and games and those will slowly go away as people pay for time. The main goal of a lan center is the promotion of community for gamers. Hosting tournaments that are buy in for prizes or cash is a great way to drive traffic to your gaming center. There are a ton of forums for different type of gamers and you can promote on their.

The owner of my lan center said the first year was hell but he could not imagine doing anything else. So I say that you persevere and keep this business up, ive been to atlanta during a hurricane and I was sad I could not find a place like Dibbz (the lan center in new orleans)

You can also pm me for any more advice

[Southern_Lenders]

I've seen many of these types of business come and go in a flash. Here are some problems I see.

1. Why pay 3.00 an hr or whatever it is, (and it better be cheap) when you can play with other people over the internet for free?

2. It seems everyone wants to play a different game, it would be more fun if everyone was playing the same game and working together, but I dont think gamers are the social type to begin with, and people wouldnt want to be forced to play a certain game.

3. Be aware that these gaming rigs arnt cheap!, mine was 2500.00 and that wasnt even the very top (from iBUYPOWER Gaming PC - Gaming Computers and Gaming notebooks )...get 20+ of these bad boys, and your talkin some serious coin, PLUS customers are going to want video game consols on big screen tv's at another 2k a pop, and dont forget your lease which could be around 25k a year..and you have to pay this up front..at least here in Alabama you do.

PM me, I'd like to hear more about your idea.

- Nathan

[SubZeroGames]

thanks for the comments you guys. Deanelazab, i PMed you.

@southern_Lenders

I am not disagreeing with you but i believe that gaming centers is a great way to socialize. Yeah you can play online...but it also makes the gamer more comfortable when they can just look to the right or left and talk to them. Also about the computers...yes they may be expensive, but they will pay off over the years. When i open, i will be hosting lockins, tournaments, game nights, and there will be a lot of specials going on. I will be selling and fixing custom built computers as well. Then i will have a snack bar set up with salted snacks and energy drinks.

There is no competition in this business any where near the Atlanta area, so i do not feel as if this business will struggle one bit. I am aware from talking to consultants that the first year will be hell, but it will get better as promotions go out and more activity is going on.

Thanks again.


@everyone who reads

I am still continuing to look for a good business plan template. If any one has one they would be willing to share, please private message me.

[MarvinEason]

Well Nathan, you bought over priced from there sorry. You could easily build a powerful YET cheaper rig on your own using newegg.

But I've been thinking of this very idea that the OP posted to start here in Madison.

[SubZeroGames]

Thanks, and he is right. You can buy high tech gaming desktops for cheap.

I have planned to order 20 PCS all having what's below. It's only costing me 800 dollars per/comp.

Apevia X-Cruiser 2 Case
Intel Core i5-750 CPU
Asus P7P55D LE Intel P55 MB
4GB PC1333 PC3 10666 RAM
500GB SATA-II 7200RPM HDD
NVIDIA GT 220 1GB Video
LG 22X DVD±R/±RW Drive
High Definition 7.1 Sound

[MarvinEason]

Not bad, and def a lot cheaper . I build my own computers, and definitely want to nurture this idea of creating my own gaming cafe here in Madison, my question to you subzero, is the 20 comps you have for gaming, do you plan having more computers for people to be able to just do internet surfing and possible things like their college work, etc.

[SubZeroGames]

Well the computers will be able to go on the internet.

But they are meant for gaming.

I know that when i attended gaming centers, some times i wanted to check facebook and myspace and even emails...so there will be internet access.

I do not recommend people to do their school work though. i will be having music being played non stop through out the center.

You build your own custom computers?

I would like to learn more about that. I have sent you a pm with my email address. Please get back to me.

thanks.

-Jon Weinberger



@everyone who reads

I am still looking for business plan template that will help me with this business. If any one has a gaming LAN center business plan example or template, please don't hesitate to send me a PM

[Southern_Lenders]

* ok so you got 20 comps at 800 a piece = 16,000.00

* lease space at say 15psf for say 1,200 = 18,000 a year

* high speed internet.. T1 from megapath.com = 395 a month 4,740.00

* Comp maintance ... ?

* food and beverage ... ?

* Web site deign .. about 500.00 for something cheap... 5k + for something real nice

* Web site maintance .. ?

* legal services ... ?

* new games ... ?

* Advertising ... ?

With all this in mind, how do you expect to make money? You forgot to answer my first

question. Some of the expenses I listed equal about 43,700, and thats just a few on the

list. If you charged a heavy fee of 5.00 an hour for 20 players (the maximum number of

comps that you had), it would take each player 437 hrs just for you to break even on a

fraction of these costs. This would be a cost of 2,185.00 PER customer. Who is your

customer?... not many people will, or can afford to spend that kind of money, but then

again this assumes that you only had the same 20 customers.

A good idea is to have a special on friday for players to play all night for 20.00 and order

pizza for players. This is what our local LAN does, or used to do.

--

Not trying to shoot you down or anything, just a heads up.

[MarvinEason]

Being that the OP and I share the same business idea, I'd like to add my ideas to this thread as far as making money.

First, I just wanted to say you are right about the school work comment, I too had planned on having a real live DJ spinning electronic music (since that's what I listen to). That could also turn into a money making avenue.

In the town I used to live in (where there was a scene for my kind of music0 there was a record shop that had Dj's spinning live house music all day, they in turn would also give out dj lessons that they charged hourly.

Now being that this is a game center, in my cafe, I expect to expand more to it being more of a place for younger people to be able to come and relax and there being an entire spectrum of things for them to do within my cafe.

That would include Dj lessons amoung other things. I'll type out more after I get home (I am currently at work).

[SubZeroGames]

* ok so you got 20 comps at 800 a piece = 16,000.00

* lease space at say 15psf for say 1,200 = 18,000 a year

* high speed internet.. T1 from megapath.com = 395 a month 4,740.00

* Comp maintance ... ?

* food and beverage ... ?

* Web site deign .. about 500.00 for something cheap... 5k + for something real nice

* Web site maintance .. ?

* legal services ... ?

* new games ... ?

* Advertising ... ?

With all this in mind, how do you expect to make money? You forgot to answer my first

question. Some of the expenses I listed equal about 43,700, and thats just a few on the

list. If you charged a heavy fee of 5.00 an hour for 20 players (the maximum number of

comps that you had), it would take each player 437 hrs just for you to break even on a

fraction of these costs. This would be a cost of 2,185.00 PER customer. Who is your

customer?... not many people will, or can afford to spend that kind of money, but then

again this assumes that you only had the same 20 customers.

A good idea is to have a special on friday for players to play all night for 20.00 and order

pizza for players. This is what our local LAN does, or used to do.

--

Not trying to shoot you down or anything, just a heads up.

My customer's would be the ages of 14-22.

I am planning on doing promotions like that.

It will be $4/member and $5 for non members per hour

I will be doing:

• Game nights
• Tournaments
• Lock "Ns

I have figured out a formula for how much i will need at the miminum to stay in business.

This formula is based on having 30% of my store filled all through out the week.

This is on a scale of 15 hours of operation.

# of PCs X $/hr X Hr of operation X .30 (30%)

20 X 5.00 X 15 X .30

That's:

• $450/day
• $3,150/wk
• $12,600/mo
• $151,200/yr

That's with just 30 percent full. I live in the Atlanta area. There is well over 400k students within the age group of 14-22.

I will have a snack bar set up which will cost me $2,000.

I will also be selling/repairing computers.

The website i will be creating. I have 3 years combined of of HTML, C+, C++ and Java.


The site will cost me nothing. I have a friend who owns a hosting company, and has offered to give free services.

As for Legal Services...I have no idea...i have not yet got that far. I am still researching what i need.

As for Advertising -

I have:

• Local news paper
• Georgia Perimeter College
• Movie theater advertisement screen

With all do respect; Gaming LAN Centers do work. This economy sucks, but the gaming industry is still making Billions. In this economy, right now is the best time to open a business. I may need a 50k start-up loan. The bank will give me that loan and with a promising agreement, i will only have to pay an interest rate of 3.8%. If i where to open back in 2000, i would have maybe been shut down. Interest rates were much higher back then.



@all who read

I am still questioning on what legal info i need. I also noticed that a lot of Gaming LAN Centers have LLC???

If any one can tell me what Licences i need, that would be great. Thank you.

-Jon

[temjintorres]

hey, i'm looking to set up my own gaming center/internet cafe etc. it Gaborone, Botswana. don't worry if you've never heard of where i'm from. lol it's a small country in africa though. the thing is though that in my market it's small and fickle. so quality advertising and service are necessary. on the plus side, there are no people in the entire town who do what i do except maybe a few personal little setups. no proper venue. i plan on starting up small at first, looking at about 20 PCs or so. in my country though, the govt. is on a big push to sponsor youth ventures, so i can could get funding from the govt with a good business plan etc. i plan on doing a market survey at first though. i'm thinking of targeting similar age brackets as you mention, but i really plan on targeting diplomatic children etc. they're probably interested in what i do etc. plus i have a number of contacts at their high schools so this will hopefully make conducting the survey cheaper. but here's one of my questions. should i use Ncomputing or should i use a stand alone PC network system? i plan on providing the PCs etc. with the govt funding. thanks in advance. P.S.

[SubZeroGames]

hey, i'm looking to set up my own gaming center/internet cafe etc. it Gaborone, Botswana. don't worry if you've never heard of where i'm from. lol it's a small country in africa though. the thing is though that in my market it's small and fickle. so quality advertising and service are necessary. on the plus side, there are no people in the entire town who do what i do except maybe a few personal little setups. no proper venue. i plan on starting up small at first, looking at about 20 PCs or so. in my country though, the govt. is on a big push to sponsor youth ventures, so i can could get funding from the govt with a good business plan etc. i plan on doing a market survey at first though. i'm thinking of targeting similar age brackets as you mention, but i really plan on targeting diplomatic children etc. they're probably interested in what i do etc. plus i have a number of contacts at their high schools so this will hopefully make conducting the survey cheaper. but here's one of my questions. should i use Ncomputing or should i use a stand alone PC network system? i plan on providing the PCs etc. with the govt funding. thanks in advance. P.S.

I'm sorry, i do not fully understand your question..."should i use Ncomputing or should i use a stand alone PC network system"

I am going to be using my own custom built top of the line PCs. I realised it's much cheaper than buying them. I will be using Cyber-Cafe for the cashier/time management. (i think, may change)