Right now my daytime job (software engineer) salary is too high to be replaced by profits from the store right now. That’s why I’m looking for additional locations to increase the amount coming in so I can ultimately just manage one of the stores and earn from others. It’s a long term goal. ;)
Don’t overextend yourself too soon. Get the first store on a firm footing first. Also, think ahead. The economy is going gangbusters right now but what if there is a recession in the next 2 to 3 years? Might be a terrible time to open up a new store . . . Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
If we did that we’d all be invested in precious metals and have terrible ROI!
I think we’re definitely headed for a recession.
The markets and experts are starting to disagree with that assessment.
Remember the seventies, when Krugerands in the freezer was the retirement plan of choice for some?
You mean it’s not anymore? I need to call my investment advisor.
And, um, clean out your fridge?
Not related to Vesper’s shop (which is awesome by the way, I wish you guys were in LA) but I thought I would share this article given the direction the conversation is moving.
I do financial planning for individuals and families, and I watch these things closely to get ahead of client concerns. This is the best article I’ve seen on the matter and well worth a read.
That website in general is a great resource for people. It’s run by the Capital Group/American Funds. One of the few actively managed fund families that are actually worth the extra fees over passives.
Great read. Thanks.
FYI we have a economy thread!
We will have a recession eventually. Meanwhile, the internet people who I have seen saying a recession is coming since about 2012 have lost a lot of money (or at least foregone a lot of gains).
Sorry, I shouldn’t be posting stuff about the economy in this thread, no matter what direction it takes. This is @Vesper’s game thread. I just found the recession stuff funny.
You never know, which is especially why small business owners need to be prepared and have a plan. Too many go under during recessions because they don’t have such a plan.
What kind of plan can you have for your business taking a downturn and your revenues declining due to a recession?
Lol get disability overhead expense insurance and then jump in front of a truck.
Some ideas
- Control discretionary expenses
- Watch and manage inventories
- Have a cash reserve
- Don’t overextend yourself (as the OP was considering by opening a new store while he was getting his current one up and running)
- Watch and manage your payroll (
- Manage/reduce your debt beforehand
- Don’t stop marketing (I’d argue that if possible you should increase it during this time)
Those are just a few ideas.
I’m just going by what I heard on Marketplace. I’m not saying that Kai is always right, but he seems to be of sound mind and judgement.
So @Vesper, I assume you had a business plan when you started this thing up. Without giving up proprietary numbers, I’d be interested in hearing:
(1) How close your projections were to where you currently are, and
(2) What were the biggest surprises in terms of what you thought would happen and how things turned out. That could be more than expected revenue from mail-order, or some product line being a larger percentage of your revenue than you projected, or anything.
Would board game hobbyists buy smaller games or fewer games in a recession? Do the distributors or older GG stores have any data from the previous one?
I would guess that since there are so many more fakes now, people would still buy but pick smaller games more than they would have previously. This would be similar to what happened to restaurants last time (fast/fast casual at the expense of traditional restaurants.)