Photo's added to my Images section as requested.

These were taken by me with my dinky Kodak digital so not the greatest but they get the idea across. The place looks a little more lived in now too, with posters and the like on the walls.

107 Old Cleveland Road, Capalaba, Queensland, 4157

Phone: (07) 3823 2828

After many long months of sleepless nights and enough stress to cause a man to drink a bottle of scotch every night and smoke a pack of 50, the shop is finally open.

It wasn't easy though, we had to fight every step of the way. Initially it was the lease that was difficult to obtain as the previous tenant and the owner didn't see eye to eye. Which in turn was delaying the loan approval, the ordering of stock and ultimately the opening of the store.

The last few weeks have been a real push, it took nearly 30 man hours to enter all the comic books, manga and trade paperbacks into the computer system and up on the shelf. Not to mention the cards, miniatures, collectables, role-playing material, dvd's, etc.

Our offical opening is December 1st but we have been open and trading since the 24th of November, a practice week if you will, an opportunity to finalise things, iron out the bugs and add the last bit of spit and polish. December 1 is going to be a big day, a BBQ set up and handing out free hotdogs, free comics and other goodies. Jedi will be turning up, complete with lightsabers and in general a lot of fun and many laughs.

The store is chock full of goodies:

Cards - Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, World Of Warcraft, Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh!, L5R

Miniatures - Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, Warhammer, Warhammer 40k

Role-Playing - Dungeons & Dragons, World Of Darkness, Star Wars, L5R

Collectables - Final Fantasy Figures, World Of Warcraft Figures, Lord Of The Rings, Star Wars & More

Anime DVD's - Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Initial D and many movies

Comics - Plenty of Manga, Heaps of Trade Paperbacks, Tonnes of Comics, way to many to list

Thursday night is war gaming night, Friday night is cards and Saturday night is role-playing, open late on those nights.

Website should be up before the end of the week, so look for the link on my forum signature in the very near future.

At the risk of getting in trouble for advertising on Gamespot, I'd like to offer the opporunity to all Gamespot members in the area to pop down and see me on Saturday the 1st. Come in and identify youself as a Gamespot member and I can offer you a 10% discount on all comic/manga/trade paperback purchases.

I look forward to seeing some of you soon.

Regards,

Hyper

I can't believe its been nearly two months since my last blog post. Not a lot has really happend since then with the business. We did find a shop we liked and had a number of qutoes for shop fitout, which was one of the two things the bank required before depositing funds. The other is a copy of the lease, signed or not, which I am still waiting for. Some solicitor I have never met is costing me time and money as he bumbles along and takes his time, without a care in the world. The real estate agent who is the intermediate between the two of us is completely inexperienced, I discovered that it's her first ever commercial lease, this has slowed things down as well, as she had little of idea of what to do. To top this off my computer died last week, looks like a faulty motherboard, its now back in the shop and the bastards want to take a week to test it, and get this they said if I paid $120 they would test it in 24 hrs. Hmm pay $120 for them to test it in 24 hours, just to prove that their $85 motherboard is faulty.

So much for a later September opening, at this rate I will be lucky to get a late October opening... nothing ever goes to plan.

Well the endless piles of paperwork are almost complete. The accountants have finished their jobs, the ABN's are back, everything has been signed, the business structure is complete.

Received a phone call from the bank today and the loan has been conditionally approved. We need to provide them with a few signatures and pieces of paperwork, and more importantly we need to find a location.

So this Friday is retail shop shopping day. Hopefully the location that we have been eyeing off for the last few months is still available, although it wont hurt to look around the area though and see what else is available. Location, location, location.

Meetings are being lined up with suppliers and at this stage we should be open by late September.

Short and sweet blog post this time, next one will be interesting im sure. Ill wait until we have found the shop and the contractors have finished painting and fitting out the store.

Can finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

A few weeks have passed now and things are slowly but surely moving ahead.

The accounting aspect of things has been finalised, we sign off on the paperwork this Wednesday. The ABN's should be on their way soon. Once we receive those it will be time for a second and final appointment with the solicitors to sign the Shareholder's Agreement.

We have currently employed the service of a young inspiring artist (Who actually did work experience for Disney in America whilst they where creating Lilo & Stich, some of those frames of animation are actually hers) who is designing the company logo and mascot. The logo is coming along nicely, and the intial draft of the mascot has been complete (Although I have yet to see it).

So while we wait for the bank to finish doing whatever it is banks need to do before they hand over money we are busy making a thousand decicions. Opening a store in principle is simple enough it's all the little things that keep you awake at night. What colour scheme should we use? Should I use the PC for in store music or buy a sound system? For that matter what music should we play? Should I invest in an arcade machine (Something suitable like Golden Axe or Alien Vs Predator)? What sort of marketing should we invest in? Should we have a cosplay contest on opening day? Staff uniforms?

Hopefully the loan process will be completed in the next 4 weeks and then we can start getting down to the nitty gritty. Meanwhile I managed to get down to Melbourne and see my daughter who I havn't seen in two and a half years, it was good to see her again.

I'm a little worried about revealing the shops name and location at this stage in case I breach some rule at Gamespot for spamming. Ill have to read up on the TOS. Ill probably update the blog again once the money has landed in the bank account.

After my initial post on this subject in the Gamespot AU forums I thought I might keep a record of events here, in my Blog. Like most of these things I suppose it is best to start at the beginning.

I use to work as a sales manager for a computer wholesale company in Brisbane. Spent a lot of time on the road conducting business with retail computer stores from as far south as Tweed Heads to as far north as Gympie. Unfortunately there where complications within the company, least of all the two owners of the company unable to agree on things. So the company was ultimately dissolved and I was made redundant.

Taking my knowledge I entered into the NEIS scheme, a government funded program that trains participants in small business operation and pays them a fortnightly wage, similar to welfare. I started a small business specialising in refurbished computer systems. I spent a solid six months on the project, obtaining my certificate in small business management. After which time I realised that I needed to spend money in order to make money, so I asked myself the hard questions. Did I want to open a retail store selling refurbished computer systems? Did I want to be working with computers for the next 10-20 years? Would it even succeed? The retail computer industry seems to be suffering a bit lately and many retailers have begun selling refurbished computer systems to stay ahead, so there was a great deal of competition, and to be honest I was getting sick and tired of computers. So what then? Go back to working for someone else? Go back to university? Or start something altogether new? After all if I was planning on borrowing money from the bank to open a retail shop, what else could I open instead?

I asked myself what else I enjoyed, and what would I enjoy doing for the next 10-20 years and still make a few dollars. The idea of a comic and game store came to me quite naturally. I'm not by any stretch an enthusiast, I have and still do collect a few comics, I played Magic The Gathering some 15 years ago (4th Edition), and have enjoyed tabletop role-playing for nearly 20 years. Here is something that I enjoy, yet dont have the same customer service and warranty issues that I would face in a computer store. I can enjoy the luxury of friendships with regular, repeat customers, something you dont normally find in a computer shop.

So I contacted a popular comic and game store in the city and asked them about franchise opportunities (There where none). I mentioned the idea to a friend of mine who already owns two retail stores. I put together a business plan and projected financial tables. After various meetings, things looked good on paper. I sourced several suppliers and figured out how much money would be required.

Every comic and/or game store I have visited thus far appears to be dusty, drab, hard to find, basically unprofessional. Many of the owners are enthusiasts who operate their business out of a love for the industry. Which is fine, don't get me wrong, but its not the future. 10 to 15 years ago gaming was considered "niche" and only for the "geeks" and "nerds", yet today its common place, socially acceptable, everyone plays games. I firmly believe with the right attitude and clever marketing comics and games can follow a similar path. After all, the two are closely intertwined.

So a salesman and a businessman with little product knowledge are planning to breathe new life into a dying industry. A well presented store, in a prominent and easily accesable location. Modern fittings, well lit, clean, professional yet friendly staff.

The inital bank meeting has taken place, and today we sat down with the accountants, who explained the company structure (companies within companies within trusts trading as, etc). Once the paperwork is completed with the acountants and the ABN/ACN's obtained (About 2 weeks), we can then submit the loan paperwork to the bank (4-6 weeks to process), after which we place the inital order for comics and outfit the store (4 weeks). So at this stage, all going well it looks like a late August, early September opening.

In amongst all that I have to organise a trip to Melbourne to see my daughter whom I havnt seen in about 2.5 years.

Busy times indeed.