Q&A: Second Store

Mason Peatross asks:

Do you already have your business plan for a second store ready to go? If so, why haven't you moved on it? If no, why haven't you done it yet?

We made the difficult decision five years ago that a bigger store was a better choice than a second store. It came down to a few factors:

• Demographics: Our community was big enough to support a much larger store. Most multiple store owners tend to be in areas with a smaller population base. With our large, Bay Area base, we can have a single store that does the sales volume of 2-4 average sized game stores.
• Skill Set: At the time of having one store, there were some skills that I had mastered and some that were weak or unknown. The skill set of opening up multiple stores requires strong management skills, strong process oriented skills, and strong organizational skills. Those were not my strong areas, although I'm much better at them now.
• Desire: Do you enjoy the day to day operations of one store, regardless of size or would you rather manage process? Managing process seemed too much like what I was trying to get away from in owning my own business. I like having my hands in all the aspects of the business (some more than others). On top of that, there's no additional money generated from managing process over managing a single store, provided the larger store can support that.

As for the future, we've grown tremendously every year in our current location and I think we have capacity for another 30% growth before I would even consider a second store. We also still have plans to expand our game space, although the schedule for that is up in the air.