When I first opened up shop well over a decade ago, there weren’t a lot of resources out there for game store owners. Certainly none that were easy to find and access. Even now, the knowledge and expertise to run a successful and profitable game store is rare and hard to come by.
It’s almost esoteric knowledge in many ways. There is plenty of general small business education available that will certainly aid you in your quest, but it can be tricky to find the gold nuggets of hard won wisdom specific to the game trade.
That’s why I started this blog and the Manaverse Podcast. I wanted to rectify the situation to the best of my ability and create a resource for store owners to learn and grow, to avoid the pitfalls and leverage the experience of those who’ve been there before.
And there has been plenty of experience to draw from. There are also been quite a few common threads so let’s talk about some of the best resources that game store owners can access to hone their skills and build their businesses.
Blogs
Gary Ray’s Blog – Quest For Fun
There are a few great blogs on the internet that talk about the local game store owner experience. The longest running of which is probably Gary Ray’s blog. Gary talks about numerous aspects of the game trade and is known for a few occasionally controversial stances, like charging a table fee to his customers that gets added to their store credit.
Gary has also written a book on running a Friendly Local Game Store, but we’ll get to that in the next section.
Desert Sky Games Blog
Michael Bahr has been writing about the game business since 2014, according to the archive on the site. He keeps it light and humorous and with well over 200 articles published, there is a vast trove of knowledge to glean from coming through the blog.
ICv2
ICv2 (Internal Correspondance version 2) is the #1 geek culture news and trend site on the internet. It covers more than just the hottest game of the season, ICv2 has articles and features written about virtually every aspect of geek culture including comics, movies, merchandise, anime, and mange.
If you want to get ahead of the curve and see what’s trending ICv2 is a great place to start, especially if your local game store deals in more than just games.
Books
Game Retailer Guide by Lloyd Brown
Written by a veteran game store owner, the Game Retailer Guide is a how-to industry manual that contains everything you need to know in order to start and run a successful game-selling business.
Topics the Game Retailer Guide covers include:
- Administration & Planning
- Building and Equipping the Store
- Competitive Analysis
- Products and Services
- Marketing & Advertising
- Operations
- Financials
- Advanced Lessons
- Growth
It’s written quite a while ago now but there are a lot principles in this book that still apply.
Click here to buy your copy of the Game Retailer Guide.
Why We Buy by Paco Underhill
If you want to have a deeper understanding of buyer psychology and retails physics, this is the book. This is great primer for anyone looking to venture into retail, especially if you want to keep your existing customers while also attracting new ones.
Click here to buy your copy of Why We Buy.
Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim
The Blue Ocean Strategy has been known by game store owners pretty much since the dawn of the concept, but it goes deeper than just specialty retail. If you want to truly differentiate your business and stand out from the crowd, you need to create your own “Blue Ocean”.
This book goes over how to win by not competing. Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any company can use to create and capture blue oceans.
Click here to buy your copy of Blue Ocean Strategy.
Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
The hobby and game business is built on relationships. Permission Marketing talks about the difference between disruption marketing like TV and radio commercials, and the more powerful alternative, permission marketing.
If you want to engage your customers more effectively, getting their permission is vital.
Click here to buy your copy of Permission Marketing.
Start With Why by Simon Sinek
This book will change the way you think about business, perhaps even life itself. That’s not hyperbole either. Simon Sinek gets to the heart of the matter and wants you to ask yourself “why?” before you get to the “what? and the “how?”. For a quick version, you can check out his TED talk.
Simple, yet powerful. The way real wisdom tend to be.
Click here to buy your copy of Start With Why.
Digital Marketing for Dummies
Digital Marketing is a very broad concept. It’s email, social media, video, podcasts, PPC, SEO, SEM, Facebook ads, chatbots, and more. In many ways, marketing your game store is easier than ever. You don’t have to rely on expensive traditional media and word of mouth to reach new customers, but the number of tools and options available can be daunting. Putting it all together in a way that works, makes sense, and is easy can seem like an impossible task.
Digital Marketing for Dummies is the perfect introduction to fundamental digital marketing concepts that every local game store owner should understand. It gives you the foundation to start seeing results quickly without getting too bogged down in specific tools that are changing all the time.
Click here to buy your copy of Digital Marketing for Dummies.
Friendly Local Game Store by Gary Ray
Friendly Local Game Store is a solid book for prospective store owners and experienced veterans of the business. The central thrust of the book is building a business where all the math and calculations are derived from earning yourself a middle class income, which is a surprisingly rare idea. And that’s exactly the point.
Too many store owners get into the game business based on hopes and dreams, instead of math. Passion is great, essential even, but you can’t run a business solely on passion. It may even become a hindrance.
Before you make the leap, crunch the numbers and make sure your new business idea will be able to fund the lifestyle you want. One of the worst outcomes is a halfway success where you’re trapped owning a job that you can’t walk away from and doesn’t pay you more than minimum wage.
Click here to buy your copy of Friendly Local Game Store.
Events
GAMA Trade Show
Every local game store owner should attend the GAMA Trade Show at least once, preferably before they decide to open up their shop. GAMA is the place to go if you want to mingle and network with fellow store owners, network and connect with distributors and publishers, learn how to run a better business, and find out what trends are coming down the pipe.
You do need to be a member of the Game Manufacturers Association to attend the trade show, so make sure you sign up before the next event.
For more resources and info on how to run a profitable and successful game store you should subscribe to Manaverse Saga and the Manaverse Podcast.
