I'm interesting in opening a game/lan center with Christian influence. What steps can I take to be successful?
Question:
My thoughts would be a gaming center with computers, consoles, and board games as well as other interesting activities. The place would be decorated with verses (written in Hebrew) on the walls but not overly-done as to make non-Christians 'uncomfortable'. I figured I could team with the local churches and give discount/free gaming hours to those who attend church regularly or participate in missions or volunteering. I know this wouldn't be a great source of income for me and my current job is a blessing in itself, I'd need investors and/or a business loan. I'm mainly looking for steps from those with knowledge of starting their own business.
Answer:
Dont. People who game are not going to go to a gaming center to find religion, in fact most will be offended if you try to push your religion on them. The truth of the matter is the most "christian" thing a good majority of gamers do is play Doom and watch the Boondock Saints in the same day. Your not going to find a large target audience. BTW many many people feel very negatively towards "missions". As for if you truly want to start a business take the same route I did and contact your lawyer. You can expect to be putting up a few thousand bucks for licensing alone. You will have to pick a name and your lawyer will check to make sure its not already taken and he will ensure all legal measures are taken care of. After that you will have to contact a building owner who is looking to rent and then most likely have to add more circuit breakers and ethernet access and even cable lines if they are not already installed. Buying all the machines and games comes next which will also coast you quite a bit. I would say be ready to spend upwards of 15k on startup alone. Licensing costs several thousand and assuming you will have many machines for people to game on as well as furniture it will cost you.
Like mixalotbright's answer, it will take a lot of work. While I am a devote Christian, this still would be a hard sell, but don't let that stop you from trying. Just because some people say it isn't possible doesn't mean that it isn't.
If you are to open such a gaming center, your main goal would be to advertise and you wouldn't want to advertise as a Christian gaming center...many people do not want to hear about religion, so therefore that alone would not get you a very big fan base.
But if you were to treat everyone with respect, courtesy and a great image, that would be a good way to go...but that doesn't list yourself as "Christian", just a good person, which is fine.
But I believe if you market yourself as "Christian" you will be limiting yourself from the start.
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