Closing Down.
Not this blog, but one of my e-commerce sites. I’ve been running ChumpmonkeyGames.com for almost 2 years now. It’s been a great learning experience in e-commerce. I’ve had a blast with selling games to people all over the States. This week though is the end of the store. Since I started working with FGP Technology I’ve been really focusing on my efforts here and have not had the time to grow and work the website like I’ve wanted to. On top of that my wife and I are expecting our 1st child this fall so the extra closet space that was housing all my inventory had to be cleared out. So with those big factors and a few other things I have decided to shutter the store and liquidate all my existing inventory.
So was it a success? Most definitely. I really enjoyed learning a lot about the board game industry - from dealing with wholesale distribution houses, to retailing and shipping product all across the US. Did the company turn a profit? Yes, albeit a small one. The online board game industry is a very low margin business (about 10-15% net margins) and the competition is pretty high. Will I ever do this again? Maybe not board games, but other products yes. I already own my resale license and have the infrastructure in place for another store. In fact I’m working on something right now, but it’ll be a while till I can get it off the ground.
If you want to see my current inventory list you can access it here. As I sell games I’m removing them off the spreadsheet.
You know starting and running a business, even if it’s an e-commerce one takes a lot of planning and hard work. Even bootstrapping a small business like the one I did with the games takes a certain amount of financial resources and time to get it up and running.
The nice thing about this country is that it’s so easy to do it, anyone with an idea, a plan, and the gumption can start a business. That’s why I love this country and why I love being an entrepreneur.
