For lovers of board games, tabletop roleplaying, and card trading, starting your own business selling and playing games is the dream! Women remain underrepresented in the industry, so you’re likely to face some real challenges ahead. But the business opportunities are growing as fast as the hobby itself. Here are a handful of tips on how to start a board game store in your area.

How To Start a Board Game Store in Your Area

Connect With New Creators

As a local board game shop owner, you will often run into content creators and game designers not only enjoying the hobby but seeking inspiration and even designing while in your shop. There will come a day when you are asked to stock a small creator’s game, and instead of dreading that discussion, open your business up to those most engrossed in the gaming world!

By establishing your shop as welcoming to designers, you can begin to grow your connections up the game-making chain and expand your network. Having good relations with designers, manufacturers, and event planners in your industry can go a long way toward establishing your physical and online presence.

Prepare for a Complex Inventory

Running a shop that only sells board games will undoubtedly lead to some days where you have to keep turning away customers looking for other adjacent hobby products. Trading card games, tabletop figurines, and LAN center gaming all share a target audience with your business, so catering to these other hobbies can benefit your business. However, even board gaming alone has a complex inventory.

Organizing your stock is a key part of your business plan and operations when looking to start a board game store in your area. Finding an organizational system that fits your shop’s needs and sticking to it is instrumental in keeping your business sustainable and your customers happy.

Keep On Top of Finances

Board game shops aren’t the kind of business that makes money hand over fist for a lot of owners, so staying on top of finances becomes one of the more demanding aspects of the business, as every penny counts. One of the biggest advantages of expanding to have other employees is giving yourself the time to focus on bookkeeping!

You’ll need to factor shipping, stocking, and every other aspect of selling games into the cost of your product while still staying competitive with other local game shops. Finding other avenues for income besides selling game products is a smart move for shops with a lot of walk-in traffic, such as hosting paid entry tournaments, figure painting classes, or even food for shops looking to create more of a café setting.

Every game shop captures a different section of the community and a different atmosphere based on how you choose to run it. The customers who recognize the effort you put in will be the most loyal patrons of your store and help it grow for years to come.