4 Stages of Competence and Game Stores

Psychology includes an explanation of understanding referred to as the four stages of competence, formally summarized by Gordon Training International in the 70s. Summarized, they are: Unconscious incompetence A person does not know how to do something, and does not recognize their lack of knowledge. They will make mistakes they do not recognize as mistakes, …

Find a Niche

Specialty retail appeals to people into whatever it is you sell. If it’s horseback riding, it sounds cool to run a barn. If it’s fly fishing, it sounds cool to sell specialty lures. If it’s gaming, it sounds cool to own a game store. However, specialty retail is, by definition, so specialized that there is …

The most important 3% of your budget

Marketing, real marketing, is the single most important part of your budget in a game store. I’m not talking “oops I ran that event below cost let’s write it off as marketing” screw ups, I’m talking about genuine “get people in your door and excited” marketing. If you read around the game industry, and retail …

3 Game Stores in the Wild and How to Identify them

Part of running a game store, or any business, is customer acquisition and retention. One of the big struggles a game store faces is, somewhat counter-intuitively, what kind of customers to pursue, charm and win over to their fold. Some of this is based on the demographics of a stores’ region, but much of it …

The Competition: Working side by side

I see a lot of store owners sweating their competitors. Mostly the ones who apparently operate without business sense or an infinite advertising budget. Or a trust fund. There’s lots of those, in every industry, but far more important is to recognize the good, healthy competitors you have and work with them. Aren’t your competitors …

So you want to be a Game Store owner? PART 3

HOW TO SHOUT IT OUT? This is part of a series of articles written by James Mathe on his old website. I have brought select articles over here, for reasons that are mostly personal. All author credit remains with James Mathe’s estate. He is credited here as a guest author. Advertising – Yes, you need to do it. …

So you want to be a Game Store owner? PART 2

HOW TO DO IT? This is part of a series of articles written by James Mathe on his old website. I have brought select articles over here, for reasons that are mostly personal. All author credit remains with James Mathe’s estate. He is credited here as a guest author. Timeline – Create a timeline to open. Use it …

So you want to be a Game Store owner? PART 1

This is part of a series of articles written by James Mathe on his old website. I have brought select articles over here, for reasons that are mostly personal. All author credit remains with James Mathe’s estate. He is credited here as a guest author. I own 3 game stores in the Milwaukee (Game Universe) area and …