Remember going to the arcade with your friends when you were younger? Arcades are still around, even though most gamers now play at home. Before the pandemic, business was booming, and it is now coming back even better than before. It is up almost half from its low point in 2020, and it is expected to grow almost 17% in 2022 alone. This could be the perfect time to remember the arcades you went to as a kid and start your own. You could help people have fun while making a lot of money.
Above all, there is a lot you want to know about business. The good news is that you can learn everything you need to know about starting a business in this step-by-step guide, which will put you on the path to running a profitable arcade.
Step 1: Find Out if this is the Right Business for You?
Positives Vs Negatives
| Arcades have big earning margins. Have fun! Play your own games any time you want. Growing Market – Arcades are a popular way for families to have fun. | High startup costs – Games are expensive. Congested Market – Compete with places like Dave and Buster’s. |
Industry Trends
- Size and growth in the past: The arcade, food, and entertainment center business in the US will be worth $3.1 billion in 2022, after growing by more than 50% since 2020.
- In the United States, the arcade, food, and entertainment center business is expected to grow by 16.5% by 2022.
- Number of businesses: In 2022, there will be 5,634 arcade, food, and leisure companies in the US.
- The arcade, food, and entertainment center business in the United States will employ 54,594 people in 2022.
Cost of Starting Arcade Business
The starting prices for an arcade run from $65,000 to $130,000. The games themselves, which can cost anywhere from $6,000 to $9,000 each, and the room itself are the most expensive things.
Is Arcade Business Profitable?
The average weekly pay per machine is about $300. Your total income after rent, above, and work should be around 30%.
If you have ten machines, your yearly income will be $156,000 in the first year or two. With a 30% edge, this would mean $47,000 in benefits. At this time, you could add 10 more machines. With an annual income of $312,000, you’d make a clean gain of $94,000.
Entry Barriers
- The high prices of the games
- Competing with bigger arcades and leisure areas
Step 2: Create a Strategy
Identify a Gap
Find a chance to check out casinos in your area to find out what they have to offer, how much they cost, and what customers say about them. You want to fill in a gap in the market. For example, the local market might miss having an arcade with games like skeeball, the paw machine, or a shooting match-up.
This could get your word-of-mouth marketing going again and start getting you people right away.
Solutions
- Pinball game
- Icing hockey
- Fighting games like Mortal Kombat
- Shooting games and Big Buck Hunter games
- This movie Jurassic Park is a movie.
- Pac-Man and other old-style video games
- With the right permission, you could also offer food and alcoholic drinks.
- You could even set up a unique beer and game area,
Pricing
Playing an individual game usually costs between $.25 and $.50. Some arcades give $10 to $15 cards or unlimited play for a limited time, such as one hour for $10. A profit gap of about 30% should be your goal.
Once you know what your costs are, you can use this step-by-step profit margin tool to figure out your markup and end price points. Keep in mind that the starting prices should be able to change if the market needs it.
Target Market
Your target market will depend on the kind of games you buy. If you buy old video games or family-oriented games, your target market will be more settled people you can find on Facebook.
Location
You will need to rent a place, ideally in a mall with lots of people walking by. It’s also important to think about who you want to reach when picking a place. If you want to reach younger people, choose a location close to schools or colleges. If you want to reach families with children, choose a location close to family-friendly sites.
If you want to attract adults, you might also think about a place near popular places to go out at night. You can find office space to rent in your area on sites like Craigslist, Crexi, and Moment Workplaces.
When choosing a work place, you might want to keep these rules of thumb in mind:
- The place is central and can be reached by public transportation.
- The area is well-ventilated and gets a lot of natural light.
- The lease can be renewed if your business grows.
- It can be used right now and doesn’t need any big fixes.
Step 3: Write a Business Plan
Every company need a strategy. This will serve as a manual to help your business through the launch process while keeping you focused on your primary objectives. A business plan also helps potential partners and investors understand your company’s mission and vision:
- Executive Summary: A brief summary of the full business plan that should be produced when the plan is completed.
- Business Overview: A description of the organization, including its vision, mission, ownership, and corporate goals.
- Product and Services: Provide detailed descriptions of your offers.
- Market Analysis: Conduct a SWOT analysis to evaluate market trends such as variances in demand and development potential.
- Analyze your top rivals’ strengths and shortcomings, then produce a list of the benefits of your services.
- Marketing and Sales: Inspect your organizations’ exceptional selling suggestions (USPs) and foster deals, advertising, and limited time procedures.
- Team of Management: Outline of supervisory crew, itemizing their jobs and expert foundation, alongside a corporate pecking order.
- Plan of Operations: The procurement, office location, key assets and equipment, and other logistical details of your company’s operational plan are included.
- Plan for finances: Three years of financial planning, including estimates of profit and loss, cash flow, break-even analysis, and startup costs.
- Appendix: Incorporate any extra monetary or business-related archives.
Step 4: Create a Marketing Plan
Some of your business will come from people who walk by or find you online, but you should still spend money on advertising. Getting the word out is especially important for new businesses because it will bring in more customers and make people more familiar with the brand.
Once your website is up and running, link it to your social media accounts. Social media is a great way to promote your business because you can make posts that are interesting and sell your goods.
- Facebook is a great place for paid ads that lets you target specific groups, like Cleveland guys under 50.
- Instagram has benefits similar to those of Facebook, but for a different group of people.
- Website: With SEO, your website will be closer to the top of useful search results, which is important for growing sales. Make sure you add more ways to take action on your site. Try different things with the text, range, size, and placement of ideas to take action, like “Play Now.” This can forcefully make more buys.
- Yelp and Google: For businesses that rely on local customers, getting listed on Yelp and Google My Business can be important for gaining attention and customers.
- Put up eye-catching signs in your playground and on your website. Post a movie about your playground. Use fun, and maybe it will go viral on the Internet!
- Start a blog – Create a blog and post regularly. Change up your content and sell on a number of sites.
- Paid advertising through web-based entertainment – Choose places that will reach your target market and do targeted advertising.
- Pay-per-click marketing – Use Google AdWords to do better in look. Do topic study first.
- Powerhouse marketing: Pay people with big online entertainment followings to promote your gaming. There are also micro-influencers with fewer fans and lower interaction rates.