New here, and just gleaning some ideas

[Stormhammer]

I'm slowing working my way through reading the 30 day business plan

Anywho - the location I have in mind, or the general area, is in the vincinity of a college that's actually booming pretty fantastically. It recently went from a 2 year to a 4 year and they just added dorms and 4 new buildings.

Is it good or bad to possibly mimick after what seems to be a successful LAN center ( its where I got my idea from when I attended college away from where I'm thinking of ) - they had games loaded onto what seemed a central server, all customers had their own logins, along with being able to rent 360s and PS3's.

Food is obvious, as is beer.

I have some experience in the IT field ( I worked as one for 2 years, doing a CCNA nugget to get my CCNA cert ) - this is more like a side venture as most LAN places tend to run from say, 6 or 7pm to 1 or 2am ( at least around here ) leaving a daily life available. I may need to refresh myself on the layout, but I do know how to wire up my own Cat5, build PCs, know of a local wholesale distributor ( I used to pick up there all the time when I worked at my old IT company, maybe look into opening an account there? ) and such.


Any sage advice, or am I in way over my head?

[Deeds]

Well for one, I've only written upto day 2 on the 30 day game center.  I've gotten insane busy this last 2 months and I haven't had the time to continue writing it.

Then second, hours for lan centers usually run 12pm - 12am or sub variants in there.  If your going to run a Lan Center run one.  Don't treat it like a hobby, treat it like a business and you should do fine.  Games on PCs were probably run by smartlaunch or something of the like.  They probably weren't centrally loaded on one computer (maybe the isos for games were on a File Server or something)  being into LAN will help you a great deal so will being able to build your own computers it will save you alot of money but will eat up alot of time.

Also don't expect a LAN Center to just be hot cakes in your area without trying.  Your going to have to do ALOT of advertising.  Ask Rsteele he did a great job of Guerilla Marketing before he opened. Uh other then that just read around the forums and you can pick up alot of information.

-deeds

[Stormhammer]

Well, as far as I'm concerned from what I've seen, 12-12 would only be profitable on a weekend as the general target demograph that even you pointed out, will either be at work or in school for at least 5 of those hours Monday through Friday.

It's not necessarily a hobby, but say, as a second job? I still do my own independent IT tech stuff, but I do it after hours when I get off work ( so from 6-11pm ) which makes a lot of people who just got home from work and or school happy ^_^

I was actually going to first try guerrilla marketing - I know there's a popular tabletop gaming place not far from here, there's college(s), and lots of schools in the area.

I've reading all I can

[Deeds]

Being and IT guy myself, I just kept my center open 12-12 alot of the time and ran a repair shop out of the my center also.  That's an Idea to look at.

-deeds

[RsteeleAUG]

If you can get hooked up with any local businesses cross promotion is excellent and FREE.

So far we've had:
-Fliers on Domino's Pizza boxes.
 
-I just made some $10 day pass coupons today for a Sticky Fingers Rib House. The Manager's son was at our all nighter and brought me some free food coupons I plan to hand out with day passes.

-We plan to hit up the booster clubs at all the local high schools when they start back in the next few weeks. I've had people shaking signs in trade for hours at the store.

-Taken in games on trade for store credit.

-We've got a large military base about 10 miles from our location working on some package deals for the warrant officers in training.

-Kmart put our fliers up in their games section and gives us a 10% discount.

-A guy brought in his son to play owns or manages a Xerox location in town printed 1000 full color fliers off for us and didn't charge us a dime.


It's taking a while to build the customer base up, but I have new people coming in and playing pretty much every single day. The majority of the time when they return it's with at least 1 or 2 friends. Most local businesses will go above and beyond to help you out if you do the same for them. Sometimes all it takes is asking someone nicely and they'll help you out.

[rkrol]

Listen to him he has great words of wisdom in marketing. I personally self-promote any and all good businesses in my town that has done me well or the company I work for.  Many others follow the same principles.

Through experience I have found one negative comment about a company can travel faster than half a dozen possitives. I strive to use word of mouth possitively to any and all companies that have done me right.

I mean I promote my pc guy for all electronic needs over best buy itself. Best Buy is worst customer service I have ever had. I asked for help on a special cable and then I waited 20 minutes before I left mad.

I went to Play 'N Trade and the owner answered my question and sold me the cable  a quarter of what its was actually worth. He lost his shirt, but he showed good service.

The reason I mention this is because you know which one I am willing to talk up and send people to. The relationship you build with the companies could litterally save you a fortune. It appeard Level Up sure is!

Hats off to you, Bro, keep up the business relations for this will be what will brake you or make you.

[Stormhammer]

I will have to give credit to my current job and boss - he strives for customer service in above and beyond means, even like you said, he loses his shirt on his back ( as in losing $400 by overnighting huge shipments to make sure things are there on time for a customer to meet his deadline, even if it is ridiculous )

At the moment I'm also studying... well rather, analyzing why the two LAN centers that existed here in Gwinnett County ( I live in Lawrenceville. GA ) failed, and why these other two are succeeding. While what works for them might not work here, I'm trying to correlate what they both have similarly in both marketing, location, layout ( etc ).

 As for the two that failed? One was located in the vicinity of a Dave & Busters. The other, inside of a mall. I specifically recall the mall one and just was never too impressed with it ( lack of food and drink, lack of alcohol thinking back to it ), and also it was located INSIDE of a mall. Mall's generally close access to walking through by around 10-11pm, so that right there limits your hours. Plus I'd imagine rent was killer.

Right now the 3 areas I'm looking at are

A) near a college
B) near a table top gaming place called The Tower, thats pretty popular. Only, there's a Hooters also in the same complex.
C) near a mall ( Mall of GA ) largest in the southeast, off of a highway ( convenient access to surrounding cities )

[Deeds]

In my experience with Game Centers the ones that fail have bad management.  The owner/manager is not advertising not building rep with his customers or not keeping his machines and consoles upto date with new games and such.

In short people that run Game Centers as their own personal social den usually fail because they blur the line between business and pleasure.

-deeds

[rkrol]

I agree with you there 100%. A LAN Gaming Center must be run as a business just like any other... even if it is the coolest business around. I have heard of two in my area and both clsed fairly quick. One in the larger city and one in the smaller, but both appeared to have been run badly. One with high prices on hours. Lower the costs and sell more merchandise I think is what was needed. Second one had really bad managment rom what I could glean from the rumors. I heard the owner was rude to the kids.

[Stormhammer]

I could understand that. I know the one that in my eyes is fairly successful keeps up to date with items. In fact, they just upgraded all their PC's.

I'm not sure if this happens with all LAN Centers but then they sell their used gaming stations to the general public ( to recoup their investment ).

I mean, if you want to take a look at their site just off hand and comment on it, it'd be useful ( to me at least )

http://www.battleandbrew.com/

I find it unique that they have Thursdays as ladies free night. I've been in there on a Thursday, and... well, last thing you ever expect walking into a LAN place is seeing that many women.  

Also, yesterday with the launch of Starcraft 2, you could play it all day for free.

The other place that I want to check out but have heard some about is

http://usgamingarena.com/index.php

I noticed that they offered PC sales and service, computer education etc

So, just based off of what you guys can see from their sites, what do you like and or dislike? I know it's subject to interpretation since they're just websites.

And, while it might seem ridiculous, I also want to eventually talk to the management of both places and just ask them questions to how they felt what lead them to being successful.

[Deeds]

We had a game room here years and years ago (Pool tables, arcade games, grill, tabletop gaming) that was started for the local kids. It did really I mean EXTREMELY well for 2-3 years then the owner got sick and his daughter started running it and let me tell you.  She was a Bitch.  She ran the business end of things fine.  But when it stopped being a cool place to hang out it took literally 3 months for it to sink and have to close.

I was one of the kids that went to this place and when I come in the door and this bitch yells at me for having my hat on backwards.  Ya screw that I'm going somewhere else.

That brings me to my next point, I see it in Game Store owners alot (Not talking Lan Centers here) they have a loyal customer base and their business is going well and they get complacent cocky and just damn rude.  I've witness this in TWO game stores I've worked with.  I don't know what it is.  Ego maybe?  Well they can take that Ego with them to Bankruptcy Court.

I'm not sure if this happens with all LAN Centers but then they sell their used gaming stations to the general public ( to recoup their investment ).

Yeah I sold mine to the public or sold on Ebay

I find it unique that they have Thursdays as ladies free night. I've been in there on a Thursday, and... well, last thing you ever expect walking into a LAN place is seeing that many women.  Cheesy

Teenage Girls tend to cost you money Sad but true.  They come in looking for their boyfriends and make him go home or whatever and the guy that would have just stayed 5 hours was only here for 1.  They also spend all their extra cash for them so they have less to spend when they come visit you. Its sad people but very true Teenage girls will cost you money unless you find some way to integrate them into your Game Center.

-deeds

[Stormhammer]

Actually, they weren't teenagers ( B&B has an age limit of I believe 18 and over after 8 or 10pm )

[Deeds]

Female MMORPG players are big money.  Especially if they got into it with a boyfriend/husband.  But yeah older girls not such a big deal.  18 and below.. Not so great.

-deeds

[Stormhammer]

So then would you agree that an age limit after a certain time unless accompanied by a parent would be good?

"7. No one under the age of 18 is allowed after 8PM unless accompanied by a PARENT . One parent may only be responsible for 3 or fewer under 18s. (This includes Private Parties)" Maybe extend it to how club hours are, to say 10/11pm.

[Deeds]

Not really.  I'm just saying young females aren't profitable to a game center.  My average customer was 14 - 21 yrs old.

-deeds