What do you guys think?? I'm considering a Hobby Town franchise because of the lack of decent hobby store's in my area. Anyone have any thoughts as to how viable and successful they are. I have tons of ideas I would like to use in the business. Just curious...

Well their are alot of questions I would ask before I did to much. First I would ask how much does a franchise cost you? I would ask around and find a couple of franchises and ask some serious questions. How much does rent, utilities, labor, other expenses you have no idea about at this time. How much inventory do you need to get started? You add that all together and see what a start up would cost you. Some of the other franchises owners could probably tell you what their monthly expenses are.
You also need to know how much population is around the franchises you look at. You need to have about the same population around you that a thay have. Lots of questions I really don't have answers to. A small business incubator might be able to help you get a start. I don't want to discourage you, ,just that their are alot of questions to ask and get proven answers. I hope I have been helpful.
Joe

Joe is right , lots of reserach is needed in this and It will take time for that to happen . If you are conmmitted to this I wish you all the best of luck on filling this goal . You can also check to see if your local government has programs for starting up a business they might even have grants and loans for this as well .

Actually its a pretty "all inclusive" package. They will finance the whole thing for you. I beleive the franchise fee is 2% and I don't think that the startup costs are all that high. I have not filled out the application yet and they won't discuss particulars untill you do. My expectations are really low here I'm not looking to get rich just make a living and have some fun doing it. I have been working in retail for about 13 years and would love to have my own store. I would imagine that the RC stuff is the biggest expense but surely for a small location 30-40K in start up costs for inventory, fixtures and the like would be adequate. The only hard part is borrowing enough to pay myself a salary to get through the first year.

Great Idea you have. I think if you do a business plan that will pretty much set you on the way to knowing all the ins and outs. I wish you all the luck in the world hope you can do this and that it makes it.

Another question you might want to ask yourself is, WHY is there no good hobby store in your area. The two in my area look to be on the verge of closing down, if it wern't for RC stuff.

Mike

Good question. Why isn't there a LHS? I live in the SW Denver Metro area. I recently saw a Hobbytown close up after a year and a half. It was great at first. They moved an existing franchise closer to the area in which I live. At Christmas they did a bang up business. But the rest of the year was slow. They had "build-a-bears", doll house accessories , wargaming along with most other hobby items.

Being from Grand Junction Colorado originally, it amazes me that the LHS there "The Hobby Hut" is still in business. They were there 35 plus years ago and have managed to grow. (Not a franchise.) While the local population has grown and declined over the years The Hobby Hut people have fared well it seems. Though there was a large investment by them. They moved some years ago from a small shop to one three times larger.

Some of the competition is online shops of course. But also today on the www there is twenty-four hour gaming. Now owning a franchise like that is where most people are making $ hand over fist these days.

Sorry to be a wet blanket. I have a LHS in my area that has two shops one in east Denver one in west. A family owned business called "Colpar Hobbies." Though I know most of the management and some of the staff in the west shop. The drive for them has usually been the RC items. They also have the usual hobby fare of models and building tools wargaming and diroama kits. Their key seems to be keeping costs down and markup is a bit high for my tastes. BUT it works for them. Business is business.

Good luck.

There's a Hobby Town in Wichita I stop at now and again. They have lots of kits, and lots of other stuff, but nothing too specialized. I don't know if the diversity of the store is left to the franchise or the owner. I've found that if I want really obscure kits or items I need to find a mom and pop hobby store; which out here, is no easy task. In fact the Hobby Town is a two and a half hour drive.

The Hobbytown here in Plano just moved across town so it's no longer on the way home but it's now in an area with more disposable income and it's a more upscale strip center.

It seems that RC might be the source of the revenue. Most Hobbytowns I've stopped in have a shrinking model section

Paul

You might also query why most 'morter and brick' hobby shops are closing down at an alarming rate in this day and age. With gasoline averaging around $3.50-$4.00 a gallon I know one of the first places I cut back was purchases of models.

I wish you all luck and success in whatever you chose but please be sure to do your homework throughly and make sure you aren't digging yourself into a financial hole that would be tough to get out of without losing your investment.
The Best,
Charles

Hi. My name is Randy, and I was very good friends with the owners of a Hobbytown store in Houston a few years ago. The location seemed to be good, because there were no other hobby shops servicing that area before. What I can tell you about their experience is that they were required to carry a specific inventory for a certain length of time. After that they could customize their store to suit the buyer. Apparently this posed problems having money tied up in so much inventory and not knowing the customer base. What I noticed was whole areas (trains, war gaming, and educational to name some) sat stagnant for over a year until they could finally take their own action and move some of that stuff out.
Also, if you do go ahead with the plan, I'd recommend being very aggressive with your advertising. More to the point, try to be a part of any and every contest or gathering related to your store's inventory. If there's a local model contest, rent a table. If there's an RC event try to be there, and so on. Making your presence known works wonders, and helps establish rapport with your customers.
I've seen some excellent hobby shops fold in my city in recent years, and part of the problem is competition with internet stores. Personally I love being able to walk into a store and actually lay my hands on something I want, so if you pursue the idea I wish you all the best.

While stationed in South Carolina back in 1995, I asked an owner of the local Hobbytown how much the start out cost was. Answer: 250k. Its 13 year later.Go figure that out. While true they help with the start up of the place, they'll expect you to have money in hand. As far as the required inventory set by them, that is very true. Our local HTUSA has stuff still on shelves from several years ago. RC takes up half the store, while the other half is models, educationals,trains, and airsoft.

I worked at a HT for a couple of years. I would love to have a hobby shop! "Mine" had an above-average selection of models and model RR because the owner was a modeler!

Here is what the managers told me:

* You have to run it as a business, not an extension of your hobby focus. That means Hello Kitty stuff, crayons, school craft supplies, puzzles--things to bring not-model-oriented people in.

* You need to hire people who are hands-on with a genre, but to also make them learn enough about trains / models / RC they wouldn't otherwise look at.

IIRC, rule of thumb for how much $$ you'll pocket is:

--population within 20 mi. radius
--quadruple that in merchadise value
--10% of that you can take home.

The heartbreak is that this year HT expects about 20% of hobbyshops to close in the US.

To be a small businessman, you must have enough $$$ in the bank to sustain the shop at least 2 years. It takes that long for new businesses to succeed or fail.

Everyone certainly has excellent advice thankyou verymuch. A couple of things you might need to know I life in the DFW area which is the CHEAPEST major metropolitan area in the U.S. for realestate, etc. please notice I qualifiied it major metropolitan. 250K seems exorbitant to me it almost seems like they are worried you will "buy" yourself out of the franchise and branch out on your own so they want all of the money up front. I really have a hard time believing that any most of the tiny HT stores I have been into that they have more than 10-20K in inventory at any given time. Fixture costs is one of the biggest expenses but many vendors have all inclusive set ups (i.e. Testor's etc.). Haven't made a decision as of yet but where I live there is nothing but Hobby Lobby. There are 2 HT"s but they are both20-25 miles away.