You can certainly run it as a partnership with no employees and just take a draw from the register when you need money. You really need to aggressively keep track of this though so that it stays fair between the two of you, and come tax time you have real income figures to give your accountant.
New businesses need to pay taxes quarterly for the first year (sales tax and income tax) until they have an established bracket, but they'll tell you this when you register your entity and get your federal EIN (employer identification number). Even if you don't have an employee you'll need an EIN to start and will have to submit forms at least stating no employees each quarter. The EIN is to businesses as the Social Security number is to citizens.
The other concern is keeping the partnership fair. With no employees and the two of you sharing the staffing and profits (scratch that, we'll just say "revenues" for now) you've got two options.
1. Account for everything so that there's no argument, no one partner has an unfair share of anything, and so that arguments - at least as far as workload and pay go - can be resolved on paper.
2. Account for nothing, so animosity grows from tiny injustices (on both sides) into a dissolution.
Obviously #1 is better for business. Best friends, brothers, husbands and wives - have all fallen prey to #2. No matter how much you love someone, and even if you're both taking small advantages over the other along the way, it never "evens out" in either partner's mind, and it just accumulates.
Good things for partners to argue about:
- What to buy, and how much to buy of it
- Where to advertise, and how much to pay into it
- Who the target market is, and how to appeal to it
- The schedule - AHEAD of time
- Pay - AHEAD of time
All aspects of planning and normal business function. That's why partnerships are strong - two heads really are better than one. So long as you tackle obstacles ahead of time and plan, plan, plan. Otherwise you're setting yourself up for disaster. Americans need structure. We inherently distrust the capitalist nature in each other. Partnerships in capitalism are inherently a bit ironic since a small business is always run with #1 in mind - the owner. But now there's a #2 - but who is #2? For each partner, it's the other guy. That's what you need to avoid every day, at every step.
oh I was also going to ask about my one worrie and thats Stock. Of coarse it is a used video game store so you can't always find certain games but how did you manage to keep (if you did) your store stocked up with rare and good selling games?
Two ways. Offering lucrative trade-ins and cash bounties on certain high-throughput games, and stocking from outside sources.
I never really had to go online with trading card games, but with classic games unless you really have an aggressive buying campaign (as in - flyering, massmails to local area, etc) you're going to have to buy some lots with the stuff you need.
There is one other option that kind of skirts around it, and it's kind of a wet noodle of an option, and that's taking special orders. My general belief is if you're in the business of providing used classic games, if your store is good enough you'd never need to take a special order on, say, Mario 3. Yes, sometimes you get caught with your pants down, but it's popular enough you really should never be out of it.
Some stores keep only a token supply and work almost completely off of special orders. Problem with that is, in the time it takes you to find, purchase, ship and contact the ordering customer, he's probably done the same on eBay and gotten what he wanted, and forgotten about you. Deposits can scare off customers too. I just don't like any aspect of this kind of business. It's essential for rare games, and if you can track something down that's really scarce you'll have a customer for life - but for Zelda - come on now.
You can never be overstocked on the most in-demand games. And if you want to know which ones those are, open up any of the top-20 or top-100 lists from an old Nintendo Power. They almost exactly correlate with what games sell the best. Funny, eh?
I'd just use off-times at the store to put in conservative snipes on various good resale lots, or snap up good BIN's. Console lots are great for stores because they get a premium over eBay prices (esp for SMB/DH) and going into Xmas you can't have enough toasters in good shape.
One final note, about the aggressive advertising to get local used stuff - this is something you should do anyways, because it advertises all aspects of your store at the same time. Your best case scenario is if you can become a hub of local used game exchange. To do this, look at your competition, see what holes you need to fill in their plan, and do that - while at the same time matching or exceeding their existing business.
Look at things above and beyond just their prices and stock. Look at their employees, how knowledgable and friendly (and when applicable, how hot!) they are. Look at the layout, if it's tidy, if prices are easy to see, if it's well-lit, if the floor isn't mysteriously stained. Does it look "new." Are there piles of unprocessed items laying around. That kind of thing.
Don't ever compare yourself directly to your competiton, in an advertisement. Just do it better, and people will gravitate towards you.
toys sell. custom artists who specialize in video game art but hav other interests like comic books helps too. comic books these days, leave it to a comic book store to run that market. u need a lot of something, w knowledge behind it like how much a cib Musha should cost top dollar sell it at 75% of that price or a Sealed Chrono Trigger. or CIB E.T. for atari lol w out looking it up. got a bunch of friends who started stores locally n they playd it right.
buy consoles and the games will come. test it before making an offer. obviously condition means everything, if u hav to clean it u give them less because u'll hav to clean it before u cat' it in ur db.
toys sell. custom artists who specialize in video game art but hav other interests like comic books helps too. comic books these days, leave it to a comic book store to run that market. u need a lot of something, w knowledge behind it like how much a cib Musha should cost top dollar sell it at 75% of that price or a Sealed Chrono Trigger. or CIB E.T. for atari lol w out looking it up. got a bunch of friends who started stores locally n they playd it right.
buy consoles and the games will come. test it before making an offer. obviously condition means everything, if u hav to clean it u give them less because u'll hav to clean it before u cat' it in ur db.
Comments
New businesses need to pay taxes quarterly for the first year (sales tax and income tax) until they have an established bracket, but they'll tell you this when you register your entity and get your federal EIN (employer identification number). Even if you don't have an employee you'll need an EIN to start and will have to submit forms at least stating no employees each quarter. The EIN is to businesses as the Social Security number is to citizens.
The other concern is keeping the partnership fair. With no employees and the two of you sharing the staffing and profits (scratch that, we'll just say "revenues" for now) you've got two options.
1. Account for everything so that there's no argument, no one partner has an unfair share of anything, and so that arguments - at least as far as workload and pay go - can be resolved on paper.
2. Account for nothing, so animosity grows from tiny injustices (on both sides) into a dissolution.
Obviously #1 is better for business. Best friends, brothers, husbands and wives - have all fallen prey to #2. No matter how much you love someone, and even if you're both taking small advantages over the other along the way, it never "evens out" in either partner's mind, and it just accumulates.
Good things for partners to argue about:
- What to buy, and how much to buy of it
- Where to advertise, and how much to pay into it
- Who the target market is, and how to appeal to it
- The schedule - AHEAD of time
- Pay - AHEAD of time
All aspects of planning and normal business function. That's why partnerships are strong - two heads really are better than one. So long as you tackle obstacles ahead of time and plan, plan, plan. Otherwise you're setting yourself up for disaster. Americans need structure. We inherently distrust the capitalist nature in each other. Partnerships in capitalism are inherently a bit ironic since a small business is always run with #1 in mind - the owner. But now there's a #2 - but who is #2? For each partner, it's the other guy. That's what you need to avoid every day, at every step.
I never really had to go online with trading card games, but with classic games unless you really have an aggressive buying campaign (as in - flyering, massmails to local area, etc) you're going to have to buy some lots with the stuff you need.
There is one other option that kind of skirts around it, and it's kind of a wet noodle of an option, and that's taking special orders. My general belief is if you're in the business of providing used classic games, if your store is good enough you'd never need to take a special order on, say, Mario 3. Yes, sometimes you get caught with your pants down, but it's popular enough you really should never be out of it.
Some stores keep only a token supply and work almost completely off of special orders. Problem with that is, in the time it takes you to find, purchase, ship and contact the ordering customer, he's probably done the same on eBay and gotten what he wanted, and forgotten about you. Deposits can scare off customers too. I just don't like any aspect of this kind of business. It's essential for rare games, and if you can track something down that's really scarce you'll have a customer for life - but for Zelda - come on now.
You can never be overstocked on the most in-demand games. And if you want to know which ones those are, open up any of the top-20 or top-100 lists from an old Nintendo Power. They almost exactly correlate with what games sell the best. Funny, eh?
I'd just use off-times at the store to put in conservative snipes on various good resale lots, or snap up good BIN's. Console lots are great for stores because they get a premium over eBay prices (esp for SMB/DH) and going into Xmas you can't have enough toasters in good shape.
One final note, about the aggressive advertising to get local used stuff - this is something you should do anyways, because it advertises all aspects of your store at the same time. Your best case scenario is if you can become a hub of local used game exchange. To do this, look at your competition, see what holes you need to fill in their plan, and do that - while at the same time matching or exceeding their existing business.
Look at things above and beyond just their prices and stock. Look at their employees, how knowledgable and friendly (and when applicable, how hot!) they are. Look at the layout, if it's tidy, if prices are easy to see, if it's well-lit, if the floor isn't mysteriously stained. Does it look "new." Are there piles of unprocessed items laying around. That kind of thing.
Don't ever compare yourself directly to your competiton, in an advertisement. Just do it better, and people will gravitate towards you.
buy consoles and the games will come. test it before making an offer. obviously condition means everything, if u hav to clean it u give them less because u'll hav to clean it before u cat' it in ur db.
hows the store now?
toys sell. custom artists who specialize in video game art but hav other interests like comic books helps too. comic books these days, leave it to a comic book store to run that market. u need a lot of something, w knowledge behind it like how much a cib Musha should cost top dollar sell it at 75% of that price or a Sealed Chrono Trigger. or CIB E.T. for atari lol w out looking it up. got a bunch of friends who started stores locally n they playd it right.
buy consoles and the games will come. test it before making an offer. obviously condition means everything, if u hav to clean it u give them less because u'll hav to clean it before u cat' it in ur db.
hows the store now?