I am in the serious planning stage to open a lan gaming center. I have found a consulting firm for lan centers only that will assist from the business plan all the way through designing, purchasing the right equipment, and opening the company. They charge $500 a month until the business opens and then you would pay the remaining balance of the $12000. They have assisted in opening about 100 stores in the last 10 years world wide. They are rated B in in the BBB, but are not members in it. Would it be wise to use such a company for I am not tech savvy?
I am most well acquainted with Xbox 360s they say there is no profit in lan gaming with 360s... is this true? I know they over heat, but I can have extra fans installed for cooling purposes. This is the main system I would like to use, what would be my wisest course of action?
First, the law firm that opens gaming centers.. Hrm. Is this a US Based law firm? With you not being tech savvy you would think a law firm would be? I'll tell you what the law firm does. They take your money give you a business plan and then gives you some cookie cutter advice (This is not necessarily bad) and then uses sub-contractors (Tech savvy people) to advice on the network setup side of things(If they even go that far). If your not tech savvy your better with getting with an IT Consulting company. Because that's roughly what the "law firm" would be doing. Law firms are great to keep you on track on the legal side but "IT Consulting"? Because that's what it sounds like you are needing.
As for Profit for 360s.. That's an up down game. Your consoles aren't going to be your money makers they will in best case scenario maintain themselves fiscally. IE Pay for new games, new consoles and repairs (Because with consoles you will have alot of repairs on XBOX 360s). I've always looked at my Consoles/Stations as my way to bring in traffic and get customers in my store and my add-on purchases as my money makers. Example add-on purchases: Cokes, Candy, Food, Apparel, Peripheral, PC Repair, etc etc etc. Those are what have always been my real profit makers my game center just gave me an excellent platform to work within. My goal with the stations are for them to pay their own bills and nothing else. I've always been known that if my stations start making an "realized" profit, I would cut hour prices because I'm charging too much. (Or hire an employee to help out, I use station money always to pay bills and reinvest, new machines, new games, repairs, employees) I cut hour prices more people come in, and stay longer. The longer they are there the more likely they are too buy add-on purchases.
I would suggest getting with a company like gamecenterdirect.com They are partners with iGames. I've gotten several fair quotes from them and they "warranty" machines sold, and offer extended warranties on X360s. Honestly this is as close as it gets to a one stop shop for game center equipment, networking, and consultation. I would take the "quote" you got from the lawfirm and take it to gamecenterdirect and those guys over there will definitely beat them on the consultation side. I'm not saying they'll take care of you on the Business plan, filing info, taxes, blah blah blah. But they will do decent with the consultation. Because even getting quotes for buying equipment for them they helped me out with my existing layout for free and saved ME money. They are flexible to work with and you give them a budget and a goal and they work very hard to get within that. If your doing a large deployment (Opening a Large center) the time they can save you alone is worth it. Most of my time consuming tasks were designing a network, designing pcs, designing a layout, You give the specifications you want to these guys and they'll run with it. I've never actually bought from them personally (I've known centers that have) and they are still very good customer service.
-deeds
