I love few things in life as much as I love Magic, beer, and coffee. I think many of you will agree those truly are the finer things in life. I want to start a nerd-themed cafe/beer bar. Here's my idea:
My idea is a moderate take on a cafe-bar-gaming venue: a cafe that serves coffee drinks, teas, and light snacks with some beers on tap/bottled, with all sorts of nerdy elements (for example, some stand up arcade games, "nerdy" art, showing old cartoons or movies on a projector, etc). (It should be noted that I am not selling any Magic cards or gaming things, just coffee drinks, snacks, and beer--the nerd stuff is just for ambiance and to attract people to my venue.)
Things I'm already aware of:
-I need enough capital to start and run a business for at least a year. I have money behind me, so I am not worried about underestimating costs and struggling--a common mistake it seems in many small businesses. I have the funds to start the business and plenty of money to run it for a year without fear of bankrupting myself--I can live without income for a year without a problem. My parents ran a similar business (in the sense they sold stuff and had food) in the 90's and have plenty of experience, so I also have some experience to work with.
-Up-selling is important! This is where baked goods, a refrigerator full of beverages and snacks, and other various items for sale will come in.
-On the other side of the up-selling coin, don't try to sell too much. If you have too much crap, you waste money on things people won't buy. So t-shirts, stickers, mugs, etc aren't ALL necessary.
-Take-away customers are more valuable than dine-in customers for the most part. So if I do have arcade consoles, I know they can't be on free-play. Nothing can be too comfortable for sitting around or people will lounge all day with one drink and I'll lose a ton of space to the void. And so on.
-I'll need some sort of liquor license. And if I plan to have games involved, I will likely need special licensing.
So that's the business idea--as for the actual venue:
I have dreams of very comfortable, organic, yet sleek-looking interior. I'm talking hip--so that you WANT to come here for beers and coffee (or a date even!) and that you don't think of the dirty carpets, stench, and horrible lighting of an actual game/nerd store. I want to offer space on the walls for artists to sell paintings (costs me nothing and I can skim a percentage). Custom built cabinets for the arcade games so they match the sleek wooden interior--my dad is a retired carpenter, I've got this covered! Some industrial decor, some chemistry stuff (you know...a distillation kit and some flasks and crap make for good decorations as long as you aren't a chemist and see that stuff on a daily basis...like me). I hope I'm explaining this well! Basically between myself, my dad, and my uncle, we can build just about all the seating, the bar, and shelving by hand.
As for events I would have, I was thinking of the following:
-Trivia nights (millions of bars have trivia nights...we could easily run our own and even make it nerd themed!)
-Drinking and drafting (charge packs at cost, doesn't have to be sanctioned, sort of off-the-hip, but gets people to buy drinks)
-Pay-to-Play Game tournaments--projecting a Smash Bros tournament, Street Fighter, Mario Kart, etc for prizes sounds AWESOME to me
-Swap meets--Magic cards, toys, records...whatever! Just hosting it would bring a lot of people in for drinks and costs me nothing
-Live music? I'm not certain on this. Depends on the space, but having some live music is always a draw.
So what do you think? Do you know something I don't? Have experience in owning a cafe, a bar, or anything related? Please let me know!
tl;dr
I want to open a hip coffee shop that serves beer and features nerd things. What do you think?
The only business advice I can give you is to have business education or to partner with someone who does. Going into this stuff blind is asking for financial disaster.
As for inspiration and examples of others who have gone this route, I know of two establishments in the Vancouver region which have similar themes - one leaning towards video games and one leaning towards traditional games. Try learning from those who have come before you as much as you can, if you're serious about this.
There's a bar just like that at about 2 miles away from home
It's a very cool place, nice environment and all.
they have plenty of old comic books and magazines, videogames, action figures (for sell and just show), they have epic geek stuff all over the place, it's really nice... LOL.
The waiter is always dressed up as Mario or something, it's really funny.
the problem is, I live in São Paulo - Brazil, it would be hard for you to visit the place and see what they did right... haha
either way, here's their website: http://www.gibiculturageek.com/ which unfortunately doesn't have a english version, dunno if you can get something out of it if you don't speak portuguese, but you can give it a try.
the bar can actually keep a good public around here, if you somehow make a good job, there's no reason at all this kind of business wouldn't work in your area.
Why would nerds come to your place and not just go to the local games store (if they serve beer)?
Well, for one, I don't know of many LGSs in the USA that serve beer. Or coffee for that matter. Many have a soda machine and a few bags of chips at most. Also, I'm using "nerd" in a bit more general sense than you're implying. I'm not only hoping to snag diehard Magic players, rather I'm hoping to attract anyone that might find a theme bar/cafe slightly more interesting than the average Starbucks or other local coffee spot. Somewhere that is fun to go!
It seems to me that if your target audience would go to a bar, they might as well play some games there too (at least have the option to).
Surely, they can play any games they want to bring there. I plan on having some stand-up arcade consoles for playing and possibly some other type of games people can play. But like I said, having a million free things for people to do might sound fun to a customer but doesn't bode well for a business trying to make money off of sales. You want people to come, but not necessarily to hang out forever with one drink. Also, like I mentioned, I plan on having a lot of different nerd/game-themed events like nerd trivia, magic drinking/drafting night, video game/arcade game tournaments, etc. That should be enough entertainment, I hope.[/b]
And they are more likely to do all that in the place where they can buy their games. Keep in mind that your focus product will be the beverages, meaning that you'll try to get your profit out of that. A games store that also sells booze will have much more options for profit, allowing for tighter margins on the booze (and cheap booze plus tabletop/card game support is a winning combination). I don't think you can compete with that, unless there is no such venue already available.
I think this is a good point. I'd like to state a fact: the general public makes up a larger chunk of our customer base than gamers who go to card shops. That being said, I think that our draw will more likely be for people looking for a fun, themed cafe/bar. It will attract more social Magic players who aren't looking for a hardcore gaming environment. Also, I'm not so sure your cheap beer/magic shop exists or is a good business model. From everything I've read, your suggestion sounds like you'd be trying to cover the difficulties of running a Magic/card store with a lackluster "bar". I've specifically decided to stay away from selling gaming products because the profit margin is so low and there are more chances for failure. Of course, I am speaking hypothetically because the only experience I have is the research I've done and my experience with game stores, bars, and cafes.
Even if that is the case (maybe selling alcohol ain't so easy in the US, I don't know It's not as easy as other countries.), I think it's important to offer some games or game support items.
This was what your comment all boiled down to and I don't think it's something I'm entirely dismissing in the business's future, it just isn't something I plan on doing from the get go because of the difficulties associated with it. I'd rather establish myself as a fun cafe/bar with some nerdy happenings and then work from there. I'm being a bit conservative to protect myself from the risks associated with this type of business. Also, if I start selling gaming products, I'll essentially be starting TWO businesses, and that just compounds the difficulties.
Otherwise, you'll be just another bar, with the intentional handicap of alienating a part of your target audience's needs.
I don't know how many bars or cafes you've been to and I don't know what kind of person you are, but if there was a bar in my area like the one I'm proposing, I know I'd be there all the time and so would many of my friends. I hardly see how it would be "just another bar" since most bars are just that: bars. Even still, the plan doesn't hinge on selling gaming products, so I would expect it to be a self-sufficient bar even if that's all it was. I don't see how it alienates anyone. Where would you rather get coffee, Starbucks or a nerdy cafe? I guess I should have made that clear as well, my intention is to be less of a "bar" and more of a cafe. If one personality begins to dominate the other, I can shift a little more attention to that.
My idea for this business honestly stemmed from a few businesses locally. There's a game store near me that allows you to bring beer (they don't serve it)--I thought this was cool. It's very casual and fun, but ultimately that doesn't affect my decision to play games there and I wouldn't choose to go have a drink there because well....I could just drink at home if I have to provide the beer anyway. When I lived in Boston, there was a bar that actually had Drinking and Drafting night and it was a great success--tons of fun. And there is a bar in LA called Eighty-Two that is an all-out arcade and a bar--I shouldn't even have to say why that place rules. My final inspiration came from a local grocery store (yes, a grocery store)--this particular store has groceries, a sandwich counter, coffee drinks, a few beers on tap, seating for people to hang out, live music...and it is a HIT. However, this grocery isn't really focused on any one of those things. If I could distill down the things about those businesses that I like, I think I have a winning combination!
Thank you for the feedback, please keep it coming!
My idea is a moderate take on a cafe-bar-gaming venue: a cafe that serves coffee drinks, teas, and light snacks with some beers on tap/bottled, with all sorts of nerdy elements (for example, some stand up arcade games, "nerdy" art, showing old cartoons or movies on a projector, etc). (It should be noted that I am not selling any Magic cards or gaming things, just coffee drinks, snacks, and beer--the nerd stuff is just for ambiance and to attract people to my venue.)
Things I'm already aware of:
-I need enough capital to start and run a business for at least a year. I have money behind me, so I am not worried about underestimating costs and struggling--a common mistake it seems in many small businesses. I have the funds to start the business and plenty of money to run it for a year without fear of bankrupting myself--I can live without income for a year without a problem. My parents ran a similar business (in the sense they sold stuff and had food) in the 90's and have plenty of experience, so I also have some experience to work with.
-Up-selling is important! This is where baked goods, a refrigerator full of beverages and snacks, and other various items for sale will come in.
-On the other side of the up-selling coin, don't try to sell too much. If you have too much crap, you waste money on things people won't buy. So t-shirts, stickers, mugs, etc aren't ALL necessary.
-Take-away customers are more valuable than dine-in customers for the most part. So if I do have arcade consoles, I know they can't be on free-play. Nothing can be too comfortable for sitting around or people will lounge all day with one drink and I'll lose a ton of space to the void. And so on.
-I'll need some sort of liquor license. And if I plan to have games involved, I will likely need special licensing.
So that's the business idea--as for the actual venue:
I have dreams of very comfortable, organic, yet sleek-looking interior. I'm talking hip--so that you WANT to come here for beers and coffee (or a date even!) and that you don't think of the dirty carpets, stench, and horrible lighting of an actual game/nerd store. I want to offer space on the walls for artists to sell paintings (costs me nothing and I can skim a percentage). Custom built cabinets for the arcade games so they match the sleek wooden interior--my dad is a retired carpenter, I've got this covered! Some industrial decor, some chemistry stuff (you know...a distillation kit and some flasks and crap make for good decorations as long as you aren't a chemist and see that stuff on a daily basis...like me). I hope I'm explaining this well! Basically between myself, my dad, and my uncle, we can build just about all the seating, the bar, and shelving by hand.
As for events I would have, I was thinking of the following:
-Trivia nights (millions of bars have trivia nights...we could easily run our own and even make it nerd themed!)
-Drinking and drafting (charge packs at cost, doesn't have to be sanctioned, sort of off-the-hip, but gets people to buy drinks)
-Pay-to-Play Game tournaments--projecting a Smash Bros tournament, Street Fighter, Mario Kart, etc for prizes sounds AWESOME to me
-Swap meets--Magic cards, toys, records...whatever! Just hosting it would bring a lot of people in for drinks and costs me nothing
-Live music? I'm not certain on this. Depends on the space, but having some live music is always a draw.
So what do you think? Do you know something I don't? Have experience in owning a cafe, a bar, or anything related? Please let me know!
tl;dr
I want to open a hip coffee shop that serves beer and features nerd things. What do you think?
As for inspiration and examples of others who have gone this route, I know of two establishments in the Vancouver region which have similar themes - one leaning towards video games and one leaning towards traditional games. Try learning from those who have come before you as much as you can, if you're serious about this.
Best of luck!
It's a very cool place, nice environment and all.
they have plenty of old comic books and magazines, videogames, action figures (for sell and just show), they have epic geek stuff all over the place, it's really nice... LOL.
The waiter is always dressed up as Mario or something, it's really funny.
the problem is, I live in São Paulo - Brazil, it would be hard for you to visit the place and see what they did right... haha
either way, here's their website: http://www.gibiculturageek.com/ which unfortunately doesn't have a english version, dunno if you can get something out of it if you don't speak portuguese, but you can give it a try.
the bar can actually keep a good public around here, if you somehow make a good job, there's no reason at all this kind of business wouldn't work in your area.
My idea for this business honestly stemmed from a few businesses locally. There's a game store near me that allows you to bring beer (they don't serve it)--I thought this was cool. It's very casual and fun, but ultimately that doesn't affect my decision to play games there and I wouldn't choose to go have a drink there because well....I could just drink at home if I have to provide the beer anyway. When I lived in Boston, there was a bar that actually had Drinking and Drafting night and it was a great success--tons of fun. And there is a bar in LA called Eighty-Two that is an all-out arcade and a bar--I shouldn't even have to say why that place rules. My final inspiration came from a local grocery store (yes, a grocery store)--this particular store has groceries, a sandwich counter, coffee drinks, a few beers on tap, seating for people to hang out, live music...and it is a HIT. However, this grocery isn't really focused on any one of those things. If I could distill down the things about those businesses that I like, I think I have a winning combination!
Thank you for the feedback, please keep it coming!