Biz Idea: Board Game Cafe
My friends and I love board games. My friends and I love cafes. So I thought, why not combine them both into a board game cafe!
The Business Model of Current Cafes
The current cafe business model is basically to sell you coffee and snacks (and occasionally, other things too). The more in-and-out customer traffic they get, the more sales they make. Although many cafes go out of their way to create a cozy, homey environment to attract lounging customers, this can actually hurt their bottom line.
For instance, cafes with free wifi will undoubtedly attract cafe wifi moochers. That’s good and all, if the moochers make occasional purchases. But as one Seattle coffee shop discovered, removing free wifi decreased lounging customers (more specifically: cafe wifi moochers) and increased sales.
So how about this as an alternate cafe business model: make money from customers who lounge around in your cafe. How? By offering board games!
Game Night at Yahoo!
Here’s another way to look at it. Randy Farmer, a Community Strategic Analyst for Yahoo! (YHOO) started a casual Game Night at Yahoo! last year. It’s free to anyone in the California Silicon Valley area. New members can join through their mailing list, South Bay Boardgamers, then play a large variety of board games at Yahoo!’s offices in Sunnyvale, CA.
Back when I was a Yahoo! employee, I’d occasionally see several dozen boardgamers happily socializing and playing in the Yahoo! cafeteria. The energy was enticing and exciting.
This is proof of an audience for board games. Now say they could also play on weekends in a nice, cozy, homey cafe, complete with coffee and snacks. Not only would it be a good wholesome family-friendly evening, but it would be a great way to meet new people too. There are lots of singles and new residents in the area, many of whom may be, or could grow to be, board game enthusiasts.
Monetizing the Board Game Cafe
Aside from coffee and snacks, this cafe could offer:
- Board game table rentals
- A group of customers could select or reserve a table and a board game from the cafe’s library. The table would be rented at an hourly rate that varied depending on the day of the week. Perhaps it could follow a bowling lane rental model, or something similar. The group could specify that the table is “private” or “public,” where public tables would allow walk-ins to join at a pro-rated rate. Tables would vary in size and be expandable, from small one-on-ones to large groups.
- Board game tournaments
- Once the cafe was somewhat established, weekly or monthly tournaments could be held. These would allow singles the opportunity to band together and compete for prizes, such as gift certificates, additional time, or cash. Teams and guilds could be formed too. Some tournaments could take on themes, such as a AD&D Halloween, WWII Week, or Star Wars Wars. Companies can also reserve the cafe for team outings or team-building games.
- Online Network
- An online supporting network would allow customers to view their accounts and subscribe to various rental schedules (such as a flat fee for unlimited usage per month). They could also form guilds with other members and track their winnings and losses from tournaments or private games. Members could purchase time or subscriptions for other members as gifts. New members could also be randomly selected on occasion for a game together, based on their game preferences and experience.
The Business Challenges
There are many business challenges to this idea. They aren’t insurmountable, but are reason to approach this with some caution.
- Video Games
- There’s a growing trend of video & electronic game usage. It’s arguable that board games have social benefits over the faceless screen of a monitor, though the video game industry is booming. If this trend continues, board game demand may drop and kill the profitability of this business. And if a niche survives, would it be large enough to sustain such a cafe? Or could a retro revival take place to reintroduce board games to the public?
- Price Point and Margins
- The rental rate would be an important determinant of success. How much are people willing to pay for playing board games in public vs in their own homes? Game Night at Yahoo! shows some demand for playing in public, especially when it means expanding your circle of players. The price can’t be so low that it doesn’t cover the costs involved (board game sets, employees, rent, etc) and can’t be so high that it drives away customers. Research would be needed to determine the right price point.
- Location
- As with any retail business, the location is crucial for success. Great locations mean high rent, however. Are the profits of this business enough to cover the costs?
Since this business idea would require relatively high capital costs (rent, furniture, materials, employees, training, web site development, point-of-sale infrastructure, etc), the break-even point may not come for a while, perhaps years?
Could this business become one of those successful trends that grows into franchises across the country? Or is it a labor of love, a hobby business for someone who doesn’t need the money but has the time to do this? I don’t know, but I dig the idea. And so, perhaps, would some of my friends!
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I sincerely apologise to all on this site. I promised to forward on my business plan to anyone looking for it but I was busy right through september finishing my dissertation for my masters (which I succeeded in doing and in graduating too) and then I was on a nice long holiday in the caribbean to celebrate finishing university for good. I actually found a great cafe there on one of the days I actually left our hotel resort, it was called “rituals coffee house” and I can highly recommend it should you find yourself in st. lucia, jamaica or any other caribbean island lucky enough to have one.
If anyone wants to obtain the business plan please email me at mrjamesoc@gmail.com
I have set up this e-mail address especially to send and receive messages on this topic so I don’t mind it being published.
james
Again, I apologise for not replying sooner but I am now looking for a job in marketing so I have plenty of time on my hands to get back to you.
Thanks for being accommodating like that James. Perhaps you’ll find a business partner here who wants to start a board game cafe with you. Or a current board game cafe owner who needs marketing consultation.
(Hint hint to the other entrepreneurs here.) Good luck everyone!
I have been considering this idea as well and found this website in my attempts to research the concept. Actually I have been torn between this or investing into video equipment to reboot my video production company which never really got off the ground or find some balance of the two. But I am entering rambling land now
The issue of electronic forms of entertainment (video games) also came to mind in my own personal brainstorm sessions. In my model I was considering including electronic entertainment as well. For random examples things like a WII or playstation area. Mostly games that have physical controllers came to mind such as WII sports type games etc. The other idea I was looking into was to see if there are any viable computer coffee table type devices. There was one by microsoft I seen a while back but not sure if it ever went to the consumer market. The idea was a computer coffee table that players could play computerized board games on. In this day and age it would be unwise to start a game store of any kind without having video games available to purchase. If anyone has seen or knows of some one or company able to create a coffee table table for this kind of purpose with of course touch screen interaction please let me know.
The issue would be licensing with these companies. For renting the use of games or reserving tables for a fee I would probably first check with the board game companies which you would be using their games for this purpose.
For Tournaments I would highly recommend looking into your local skill game laws before going down that road especially if there is some kind of entry fee for a tournament. Some games are a bit in the gray area for tournament or pay to play say like monopoly or to a lesser extent backgammon. There was a case in the 70's I believe it was where a backgammon tournament was shut down (forget the state off hand) but later in court it was clearly demonstrated that it was a game of skill through various testimonies. The issue was the dice in that case. So definitely for tournaments check with your local laws on the matter.
I came worked in local tv news production and for something as unique as this kind of venture check your local morning news shows. If they have a morning zoo entertainment/news format contact a producer/reporter or exec producer about your business especially if your having some kind of tournament type event. It's free advertisement for you. Just be mindful some are pay to be on the programs. It's a format that came out a few years ago and I would expect as tough a business it is in local television this approach will be more wide spread in the years to come. Other avenues of marketing this kind of business would do well with are free local infotainment newspapers/magazines. With my background I would be tempted to make a budget tv/internet show out of it especially if you have an internet presence.
Food & Drink: The most obvious set up for a place like this would be a variation of a Starbucks type of lay out. But in addition to typical things like overpriced coffees and my favorite coffee drinks that are closer to milkshakes than coffee I would include other prepared drinks like club soda with fruit juices and fruit smoothies. For myself I was considering things like having a large variety of beverages, and some basic game night type food available. Nachos, Pizza or whatever. The food aspect I would probably would not want to mess with and thought of the idea of making deals with surrounding local resturaunts and have prepared foods deliverable to people that have a game night table reservation.
Someone posted somewhere about free wifi can actually be a make a business lose money. Someone sited one place that discontinued the service and actually boosted sales. I can see that happening but also would put money on they didn't have good parking conditions. One thing you would want to do for a business like this you are operating with the thought your customers will be there for a fair amount of time. So with that in mind part of the location location location keep parking parking parking in mind as well. If the parking lot is full for a long time people might move on elsewhere especially by passers that see your place and want to stop out of curiosity.
If anyone is interested in sharing ideas or experiences of this kind of venture perhaps some kind of group or even co-op can be formed for a more on going discussions. Anyone interested in talking contact me at iolaos1968@yahoo.com this is my sign up/spam email so be sure to include the words boardgame cafe in the subject
That is fantastic feedback, thanks for the comments! I hadn't thought about the local laws around tournament play. Using the local TV news & media is a great idea too.
I really do hope someone goes out and tries this idea. I for one would love to be a patron
That is fantastic feedback, thanks for the comments! I hadn't thought about the local laws around tournament play. Using the local TV news & media is a great idea too.
I really do hope someone goes out and tries this idea. I for one would love to be a patron