Opening a store

Hi,

I've been thinking for quite some time about opening a used video game/movie rental and sell store. There's nothing for the youth where i live. I found a small space for rent at 300$ a month.

I was wondering if someone on here run their own store. What is the best point of sale software for renting and selling video games and movies ? Is there a guide to check the value of video games ? I know real well that old sega master system games are not worth 70$ like i have seen in some used video store locally. I want to price to sell. What are your normal business hours ? Do you sell candies/popcorn and other stuff to help with the profits ?

I have another job i work 46 hours a week. The store would be for the weekends. As long as i make ends meet and don't loose money. It's a dream i want to make come true.

Renting movies and video games is not what it used to be. People prefer to own a game rather than renting. There's many way to test a game before buying now instead of renting.

I don't want to pop your balloon,but I think a vg rental store is a waste. Although maybe I am wrong. Just my opinion.

Kinda agree with this. Maybe it's better if it's an Arcade instead of VG Rental.

^^Same as others.

That stated, none of us own a store (to my knowledge). However, maybe consider a gamer friendly lounge.

Turn it into a hobby store that sells classical games, perhaps. I feel like the the same demographic likes both.

In addition to what has been said, I'd like to add something. Regardless of if you're starting with a viable business concept, it's VERY unrealistic to expect to start a business and have it be "for the weekends". If that's all the time that you're willing or able to put into it, then don't even bother. Starting up and running a business is not just a weekend job.

Even at 300 rent + liability insurance + utilities + advertising + payroll + taxes you’re looking at $600-700 a month, every month. That’s not even counting loss from either inventory shrinkage or legal fees from people that don’t return your games. How many video games would you have to rent a month to pay all those costs? And that’s just your break even number.

Most people miscalculate this number or don’t do the math at all, hence why so many small businesses fail.

@Baconstrip78: Well for advertising i'm gonna open a facebook page and put an ad in local newspaper and flyers. I'm thinking about a 500$ payment here. The city is really small and there is a spotted page on facebook and almost everybody is on it. Word of mouth goes really quick here.

For payroll there won't be any employee at first except me the owner. There's no way i'm going to pay someone to be there all week at 12$ an hour. We're looking around 500$ a week to sell almost nothing. My main target audience the kids are off school only on friday night and over the weekend. I know the parents have the wallets but they will come with their kids.

The reason for opening only on the weekend and maybe on some week nights is that i can't lose my regular day job and depend only on my store to live and pay the bills. Owning a dvd-blu ray/used video game rental and selling store is a dream i had as a kid. I really want to make it come true and give it a try even if i lose some money. However i don't want to lose everything in the process.

I'm also putting money aside for having kids of my own and go study filmmaking and film production in California.

I'm meeting someone from the city that will help me dress a business plan and see how much money i would really need to open and operate the business. I may be able to apply to some goverment credits for small business.

The worst that could happen is ask a local buisness to rent me a small space in their store and sell my products there.