So Daniel, what is your business and how does it work?
Our Company, Board & Swords, is an online store which sells board games and provides a forum for people to come together to discuss and plan events. We are also in the process of creating an online comic for added character. A brick and mortar store has the opportunity to create their own personality based on how they set up their store, display their products, and most importantly, how they interact with customers. However, an online store, despite various possible configurations, often lacks personal interaction. By creating virtual characters we will be providing another reason for people to visit our site as well as instilling our website with a personality that online stores often miss.
What did you learn?
What we realized through our research is that there are many open source software packages available. Researching open source programs has saved us a lot of time and money in setting up our business. Also, open source software is very flexible, which allows us to tailor it to our specific needs.
Do you find it hard to be taken seriously as a young entrepreneur?
Presently, we have not experienced any problems. A lot of the business set up has taken place over the phone or the Internet. Also, many people both young and old have at one time in their life played a board game. Since our audience is cross-generational, younger people find what we're doing exciting, and older people love the idea that we're trying to promote board games.
Do you employ other youth?
We do not currently employ any youth.
How has your business model changed as time has gone on?
Our business model has changed several times. We first decided to do this as an ‘online only’ business. However after some debate we thought it would be beneficial to have a brick and mortar store so we could promote the social aspects of board games by having events at the store. Eventually we chose to go online only with plans to eventually open a store. Once we had that set, we then decided to bring in the aspect of the comic and message boards.
What steps would you take to start a business? Would you give us
examples?
The obvious first step is to brainstorm the company's field of interest. We personally came up with four to five ideas before deciding on what sort of store we wanted to open. However, this choice was based on researching each field and then weighing the positives and negatives of each. Upon choosing board games as our field, we then sought out to establish contacts. We contacted gaming clubs at various universities and then tried to locate wholesalers. After establishing all these contacts we began to set up our company by registering our name and filling out lots of paperwork. Creating a logo and website was next on our list, as well as finding outlets for our advertising. Lastly, and which we're still in the process of doing, is officially launching our business with an opening event. We plan on holding a free event to demo various popular games in hopes of creating an interest in our products.
What are some examples of things that people told to discourage you?
How did you overcome that?
The biggest discouragement was if there was really a market for board games. It is obvious that video and electronic games are currently the more popular social activity. But this is where we hope to hold events to promote the newest and greatest games. Board games offer a social aspect that's completely different. They don't rely on who's the most dexterous with their thumbs, but instead, who can plan ahead and better weigh the choices. The other deterrent we were asked was how we would promote ourselves. It's obvious that getting people to recognize you can be the most difficult part. This is where we decided to do two things: One was creating an online comic. Through establishing ourselves in the online comic community, we feel we would be opening ourselves to a relevant and appropriate market. The second aspect to promoting ourselves was to ally ourselves with a gaming group.
What would you do over if you could start over?
At the moment, we have not found anything to be a problem. We have always collectively researched and discussed our options before reaching any agreements.
Visit Boards & Swords at http://www.boardsandswords.ca
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