So my sister was in town and I was talking about how the idea I keep revising that would be the business I would open if I won the lottery (which would be difficult given that I don’t play the lottery) or became wealthy in some other way... was never going to happen. We discussed a number of businesses following a similar model that actually exist and seem to be doing okay... so it's not so crazy an idea after-all... then she mentioned the possibility of Kickstarting the whole thing... and I was thinking:
Could I make a Kickstarter project to establish my dream business?
First, I would need to go over the “business plan” and revise it to meet the current version of my vision. Second, I’d need to figure out what contributors would get out of contributing.
The biggest question is “Would I hire me to run my business?” and “Could it be described as mine if I contribute practically nothing to the start-up costs?”... essentially I would just be the idea guy... and the world is full of us.
But, all reasonable considerations aside let’s get back to dreaming:
My “Idea” is nearly impossible to describe using a single word, which is why I think it’s worth doing. So here is a list of things I would like to have.
- Library of games and books for people to use
- Couches, chairs, tables (gaming tables and cafe tables), private gaming rooms.
- Arcade machines, pinball machines, computers and consoles (including vintage consoles like NES/genesis/colecovision)
- Collectible Card games, board games, books and comics for sale
- Food and beverages available for purchase
- a stage where we could have shows and open mics and karaoke
- pay showers, laundry machines and sleeping pods
I would also like to have regular events, every day and night if possible:
- Tabletop war-game, card game, board game, video game tournaments
- Expert led training sessions for geeky topics (how to DM DnD4e, how to build a beat down deck in MtG, writers worshops)
- Club nights and lockins, book clubs, real-life meetings for guilds
- all age concerts and mini-raves
- programming competitions
...and that’s just the current jumble of ideas on my mind... in my mind all of this forms a cohesive “come, stay, spend money, bring friends” atmosphere from a chaotic series of disparate elements
Next would be to think of how to “Kickstart” the idea:
We would need to raise enough money to secure and outfit the premises and maintain operation for a certain amount of time, let’s say six months to establish a beach-head in the community and culture, my guess is around $100,000
There would be a certain number of “slots” for shareholders... but I wouldn’t want to exceed more then %40 of my funding by this means, so the first 400 people to spend $140 would get a 1/1000th share and a six month preferred membership.
The first 600 people to donate $70 would get a six month preferred membership.
And then we would need to make up the target with anyone else spending $50 getting a six month normal membership.
But then I was thinking... could I really cater effectively to 1500 members over 6 months with 100,000 of start-up capital... assuming that I will not be giving any merchandise away for free and that I need to be able to sell services to non-members?
So we need to start looking at math instead of making arbitrary guesses... but let’s start with some more guessing:
Each month has somewhere around 180 profitable hours... if I can sell 8 people (who may be members) something in each of those 180 hours that would net me 5 dollars of profit I would make 7200 dollars, and I would theoretically be serving 180x8=1440 of my members some “free to members” service in those same (and possibly in off-peak) hours. So sure, it could work... and that is assuming my facility can readily cater to 16 people simultaneously in each of those hours... which seems reasonable.
So randomly rounded math works out... we give people the option to kick in $15 to get a set of keen buttons and we’re golden... time to start my business plan and market research again.
