It’s been a little while since I posted about my arcade progress. For those that aren’t aware, I am working on opening up my very own arcade place. It has been an arduous journey so far but I’m slowly inching my way there. While I couldn’t get the amount of money I really wanted, I have received an OK amount to get me started. I had to go the route of a bank loan which took much longer than I had hoped but at the same time it’s not a big deal since I have not secured a location yet. I could probably have got more with an investor but the issue is finding an interested investor.
Next up is my location. A couple of weeks ago I issued two letters of intent on two different locations to see which one would give me the best offer. Both are taking their time, one gave a counter offer I was not happy with and I may pass on that location(especially when they want me to define what I mean by running an arcade when it’s already been explained to them and they have my business plan which clearly defines what it is). The other location I just not have heard much about as they have been a little slow – it’s not in as desirable of a location as the first but it’s cheaper, bigger and I won’t have to finish the job of actually completing the building (the first one still needs two rooms built including a bathroom and it needs the walls and ceiling finished). But a twist came around a couple of days ago – there is one great location I wanted badly but when I finally could move on it, some other company issued their letter of intent. But it turns out they had second thoughts or something of that nature so the realtor called us and asked if we were still interested. We said we definently jump on it. Things were looking good until yesterday when they suddenly changed their minds and so it’s off the table again. So sadly I was strung along and that was quite irritating, I’m not even even sure why they’d bother calling me saying it’s available when they want to give priority to someone else that is dragging their feet.
Hopefully I’ll have a new update on the location next week.
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Now I know you’ve probably done alot more research into the economics of this whole project than I have, but I don’t really see why you should have to open with all these expensive simulation games.
If you had a good selection of slightly older stuff. You could get 10 clean candy cabinets for maybe 7 or 8 k. Then throw in some classics that everybody likes such as Street Fighter 2, 3, a few shmups and a few classics like Donkey Kong and Robotron.
Then you could charge a quarter or 50 cents per play rather than a dollar because the games themselves would cost a pittance.
Everybody is bored of simulators. Every single arcade you go into has the same handful of games.
Actually I don’t have any simulators on my list. My locations aren’t big enough for them anyways. I just need to have a couple of new (or relatively new) games and unfortunately they get very expensive. So juggling between which ones to go with is a little difficult. I already have 10 games in cabinets, all classics so I have that base covered. I just wish I had more to do what I really want with more new games. to balance it out as I definently will need a few new games to keep people interested and attracted to coming into the door more than once. I have The Act at least (it still needs a cabinet).
Have you seen this: http://www.familyentertainmentcenter.com/family-entertainment-centers/business-plan-60seconds.html
I hadn’t seen that, although I did use SCORE’s business plan guides in helping me throw together my business plan by myself (which wasn’t an easy task and I did get some help from a few outside sources). 🙂
Great website BTW, I wish I would have known about that a couple of years ago.