Home Arcade Solution
Business Plan
By: Kyle O’Brien
Holy Family University ISYM 520
Final Project
Executive Summary/Business Description
Home Arcade Solution is an online business based on bringing the do it yourselfer the goods and
resources needed in order to build or restore their own home arcade. We are currently based out of the
Philadelphia, PA area. Our business, at its core, is a two part business.
On the one side we have an e-commerce business. This will be an online store to buy, sell and
trade anything and everything in the arcade universe. This could range from something as large as an
entire arcade cabinet already built or something really minor to a colored button you need to restore
that old Donkey Kong machine. There will be a very large variety of hardware and software for this site
to distribute. The amount of parts and different variations of parts will lead to a huge inventory for us to
stock and sell online. We hope to be the “one stop shop” and “go to” website for all your needs in the
arcade world. The big question is how one becomes the “go to” site. This is where the second part of
the site comes in.
One of the main issues right now with building and designing your home arcade is that there are
no respectable online resources for everything you need in one place. There is no central place that has
all the information, hardware, and resources you need in order to start and finish that project. This is
where the second part of Home Arcade Solution will come in. The second part of the business will be a
resource center, ranging from building arcades 101, online videos, how to docs, discussion forums,
software support, hardware support, and online support. With our huge library of online resources, a
hefty stock of everything arcade, and excellent customer service we hope that customers will choose us
as their arcade headquarters.
Market Analysis
The market for gaming is enormous and increases every year. There is no debating that.
Typically your target audience are males from the ages of 12 to 45 who enjoy some type of gaming
whether their playing angry birds on their iPad or playing Call of Duty online through their X-Box or
PlayStation. There is a nice piece of the market that gaming has on lock down and it isn’t going
anywhere anytime soon. However….
Gaming is always changing and there are many discussions in the gaming world on what type or
model of gaming is growing the fastest. Gaming industries want to know who the new kid on the block is
going to be. The interesting thing about gaming is that it has come full circle. In the 80s and early 90s
arcades were in their prime and they were all over the place. The attractive thing about arcade games
was that most of them were easy to play and not over complicated. You could just put your quarter in
and play. They weren’t long and convoluted games where you had to use 10 different buttons and read
a 60 page manual just to play the game. Eventually home consoles from companies like Nintendo, Sony
and Microsoft took over our homes and this lead to the slow diminish of arcades. These home games
became very advanced and some of them can take up to 60 to 100 of hours of gameplay just to finish.
Yes sure, a lot of gamers like these types of games and there is still a large market for them but there are
still many gamers who enjoy the simpler games where you can just pick up and play. You can just look
at the portable devices like the iPad that have simple games. There is a huge market for these simple
pick up and play games. Even games on the Nintendo Wii and the X-box Kinect which don’t have
complicated controllers have chart topping sales. This is why I say gaming has come full circle. Gamers
enjoy the simplicity of games they can play for 15 minutes or so and then just pick up and play later. This
is the whole idea behind building your own Arcade. You can restore an original or make your own arcade
that can run thousands of games with today’s technology.
Competitor Analysis
There is a lot of competition out there for the gaming market and everyone knows this. This
goes without being said. There are many devices that people use to play games: ranging from phones,
tablets, PC’s and home consoles. There aren’t many competitors who are in the arcade business though
because it’s small business venture and big companies do not see any money in it.
On the positive side there is not any direct competition for what we are trying to do here. There
are places and online sites that offer some of these services but nothing that stands out and combines
all the hardware and resources to get the job done in one central location. We want to create a place
that stands out and takes home arcades to the next level. Our main strength that will make us stand out
more than anything else is that this is a hobby for a lot of people. They enjoy building their own custom
cabinets and playing games from their child hood. Who wouldn’t like to have a Pac-Man machine in
their rec room or basement and have friendly competition with their entire family for the high score?
Rec rooms across the country have pool tables, ping pong tables, and fuss ball tables. Why not have
arcade cabinet that is custom built to how and what you like to play? Home Arcade Solution knows
there will not be a huge out cry for this due to home consoles and online gaming but we are looking at
this as a small business and that’s exactly what we want to be here. We want to develop a personal
relationship with our customers and strive for excellence in support and services. I feel like this is a
growing hobby and anytime we talk to about this with people their eyes light up like they would love a
home arcade. We have been commissioned to build several arcade cabinets already and we have not
even gone live yet. Another thing we have going for us is the durability of the cabinets. This will allow for
bar, diners, and stores to be our target audience as well. They will hold up well in these type of
environments as other gaming systems will not. So if you are just looking to have a home arcade built
for you or you are looking to build one yourself we are the place for it.
Operations
Our operations will be mainly based online. All sales will take place online via e-commerce. We
also have a garage unit lined up where we can store our surplus of goods. This will also be our workshop
where custom arcade cabinets will be built and manufactured. We already have all the tools needed to
build arcade cabinets. We looked into several delivery methods and we will be using a combination of
UPS, USPS, and Fed Ex to deliver our packages. Also if the customer is in 50 mile radius of we will deliver
and setup their arcade cabinet for them. We also already have a truck to do this with. Customer service
will be one of our highest priorities. We plan to have online and phone support during your typical hours
of operations 8:00am until 5:00 pm. We will be available via Skype as well because sometimes words
just don’t explain well enough what one is trying to do. We will also be posting you tube videos and how
to guides on everything you would need to know to build your own arcade cabinet and then some. We
are also hoping to have a very detailed and organized forum for users to communicate amongst each
other and give each other help and ideas on whatever project they may be working on. Also another
great feature for users is we are going to ask that people post their progress of their machines and their
final cabinet when it’s done. These projects can inspire and give other people ideas on what they may or
may not like.
Currently the staff will consist of two people. Kyle O’Brien will be in charge of everything
technical and David Jewell will be in charge of everything carpentry. We will share all responsibilities.
The prototype website was created by Kyle O’Brien but we will eventually be outsourced to a web
developer. The current site is a prototype for some ideas and feature we would like to include but we do
plan on doing a total revamp once we have the necessary funds. We have not made a final decision on
our web developer yet.
Financial Statements
It will not be too much of a financial load to startup of this company. We currently own the
garage and truck. We also have all the tools in place that are needed. We currently have $15,000 saved
and ready to invest into the company. The bulk of this money will go towards web development and
hosting. We know how critical it is to have the site perfect before going live. We want the site to be
flawless and have a ton of online resources available before it is launched. We want someone to be able
to use our site as a resource from day one and be able to build their own arcade cabinet. We are looking
into possible investors for another $15,000 in order to buy supplies in bulk to save on cost. Also we
would like to have some cabinets already built this way we can stay on top of orders right off the start.
Our business will be small business and that’s the way we would like to keep it. We want our
relationships with our customers to stay personable. So profits will not be enormous but we are looking
to make $40,000-$60,000 a year. We hope to make $15,000 -$20,000 in sales on full size arcade
cabinets. We are hopeful that our site will indeed receive a lot of hits for our online resource so we hope
to draw in some advertisement money. Our goal is to receive $5,000 - $10,000 a year in advertisements.
Then we hope to make another $15,000 reselling products after we buy them in bulk for cheaper prices.
It is our hope that our site and service will be an arcade builders choice for all their arcade needs
whether its advice, knowledge or hardware parts.