Behind the Counter
Personnel can make a big difference in a business. So can the plan, or lack of one.
This past month has been one of multiple changes for me and titan games. We have been looking for innovative ways to change, refocus, and sharpen our store.
This month we are refocusing our retail store for more success. Previously, I had kind of prioritized the work in the ways I like to work: Online sales, convention vending, retail. In that order. This worked well for years, but with gas prices now way higher than many conventions are worth to attend (at the higher cost), and with the retail store now seeing about 400% more people a week than we did 2 years ago, it is time to refocus.
Titan Games is now going to be focused toward: Retail, online sales, convention vendor. In that order.
As such, I have had a lot of new experiences this past month, buying advertising, print ads, talking to radio and television ad folks, printing flyers, new signage for the shop, and much more. Though I used to do this for my Quick Lube chain, years ago, I have never really spent much on advertising, or had to design display ads for the game store. Also, we are cancelling a lot of our cons (still keeping Origins and GenCon, of course!!), and training our staff to think "Retail First!". A retail customer is never an interruption to our work, they are now the focus of our work, everything else comes second (or later).
New fixtures, new merchandise arrangements, new contracts with my suppliers, and a lot of other stuff has to be done, get done, and get worked on in order to facilitate this change in focus, and attitude. If you get a chance to stop by, please do.
In the coming months I will very likely talk more about the changes at Titan Games, and the new direction my business is taking. But, I also wanted to talk this month about WHY I got into being a games retailer.
Often, my customers (whom I love) think I have the best job ever. "Boy, it sure must be nice to play games for a living" (they say). Uhhhhh, yeah, it sure must.
When I decided, in 1994, to open and run a game shop, and move from owning a chain of quick lube oil-change centers, to owning a game and hobby store - it was for one reason - my kids.
My kids, I vowed, would not have an absentee father, or be unsupervised after school. They would not get involved in drugs, or take up smoking, or--for my two daughters--get pregnant before graduation. They would complete highschool, and have the money to go to college, if they chose.
My father raised me pretty strictly, and I raised my girls more strictly still, but they have had plenty of fun, and freedom - but differently than their peers, I suppose. They have also had much better allowances.
But, the whole game-shop thing came about because I wanted my daughters to work the family business, and learn from it, and be underfoot after school, and be close by. And, I have to say, I am pleased how it has turned out so far. My oldest daughter, Tonya, is attending college, finishing up here paralegal degree, and selling on eBay pretty much full time (with a staff of her own!). She has a 3.88 GPA, and is doing well in life, and making something for herself. Katie, my younger girl, is 18 and finishing highschool in the next few weeks. Neither smokes, and neither does drugs, though I have caught them drinking a beer time to time (but, then, Tonya is 21 now). I am proud of them both. Very much.
Tonya is also my assistant manager of the retail store, and Katie is my shipping manager (both are very sharp at their tasks) and this year is likely to be the last time I get both of them to attend Origins and GenCon with me. I sure appreciate their help.
Back to topic: Choosing this career(?) Path.
Owning my own game store has been a tremendous benefit to me as a father, and to my daughters, though - I must admit - it ain't for everyone. The down side is no major medical coverage, high health care costs, imperfect credit, and hard to get a loan, and - long hours. Still the Game Industry has been very, very good to me.
Others that think of opening a game store would be well advised to take such concerns into account when they are thinking of it. I didn't, I just knew what I wanted to achieve, and worked hard to get there.
This will be the first year that my son, Max, will be working at both Origins and GenCon with me, and I can't wait to teach him the ropes! So, I still have a few years to be a retail store owner before I decide if this is what I will do for the rest of my life. Currently, the shop allows me to have my son after school until his mother (my ex-wife) gets out of work. That means I get 15-25 more hours a week with my son. :)
Owning my own game store has allowed me to be at all of my daughters' choir concerts (My sons, too), and to take a weekend off suddenly for various things. It has been a real benefit to me. It has, on occasion, been a real drag, too. Like the day I had to work a 12 hour shift on a Saturday when my Mother had died that morning. When you own your own business, if you treat it like a business, then you have to sometimes make sacrifices. It goes with the territory.
Would I recommend this career path to someone else? Yes, I would. I love it. And, to that end, I would like to note that a buddy of mine, Lloyd Brown is going to be writing another RPGnet column, about the hows of opening a new game store. Some of it will be math-heavy, but I would say that if you can get free advice from a guy like Lloyd Brown, you should snap it up! So, watch for his column. Mine will continue to talk about my experiences as a game retailer, and not so much with hard information, unless you folks email asking for such.
Okay, now to some more personal stuff, since several people emailed asking about this:
A. I have a new fiancee' Colleen, from Columbus, Ohio. We are getting married in September. I tried to talk Colleen into getting married at Origins - but, well, that is just too geeky for her. Colleen plays Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, San Juan, and several other games. She is starting to realize she is a gamer, after all.
B. As for changes at Titan Games - I have finally decided to make money on comics. This means I am going to read the comics, do pulls for customers, and order more carefully, and do a lot more inventory management and stuff. I may talk some about the comics in future columns. All I can say as of today is: I like the comics more last month, before I started working so hard on them. Oh, and I am pissed off they killed Captain America! I'll show them! I will only see Spiderman-3 - twice. Ha!
C. We are doing fewer cons this year, and more focus on the retail store. Previously, my company was 3-parts: Online, con vendor, and retail - in that order. Now, we are looking to re-focus things to: Retailer, online sales, and convention. This is a BIG change for us, but we finally have enough people coming in the store to make it work.
D. I recently resigned as the GAMA Vice President. This was purely a personal move, no reflection on GAMA at all, though I did stay on longer than I really wanted, mostly because I really love GAMA, the Game Industry, and the shows GAMA does (GTS and Origins) and feel that GAMA has a great staff, a fabulous Board of Directors, and a bright future. I am replaced by Jamie Chambers of Margaret Weis Productions - a real star in our industry.
Well, it is about 7AM on Tuesday, and I have been AT work for nearly 2 hours, and have to get started on the real tasks of the day - packing orders, and doing a comics inventory, so excuse me for leaving you till next month.
Marcus King
Owner of Titan Games
Titan Games
637 Capital Ave SW
Battle Creek, MI 49015
269-963-3773
titangamesinc at aol dot com
http://www.titangames.com
http://www.3FREEgames.com
