GHQ Models Forums

I asked this about 2 years ago and the post has long long fallen off.

I attended a employment seminar and they suggested doing a hobby as a living. Of the 3 main hobbies that I waste my time with wargaming is the one I would like to support myself with.

Any ideas?

Well you could do a number of things

Start up a painting/modelling service,
Sculpt and cast your own miniatures
Start a hobby store ** CENSORED ** in wargaming
Use wargaming to teach history and sell this service to schools, universities, etc
Find a rich individual to pay you to teach and play wargames.

Honestly, beside a hobby store or making miniatures, I don't think there are too many avenues to make a profit from wargaming.

Best of luck

Ian

Voltiguer- Among my many former jobs, I worked at a wargames store. We managed to pay the bills every month and have money to pay ourselves, but none of us got rich in the process. Everyone who had adult responsibilities usually had to consider ther gamestore job as moonlighting. We eventually decided to close, it was obvious we were just treading water. Still, we didn't stiff any of our suppliers or the landlord, and even had some money left over for ourselves.
If you want to open a hobby or game store, you have to look at it as a business, not a way to subsidize your hobby. You'll be filling a niche within a niche business model, with many booby traps and land mines to catch both the unwary and the wary. I could write a series of articles on what to do and not to do, but I'll give you just a few pointers. Look up the Game Manufacturer's Association (GAMA) on the web, they should have more information. Anyway, here are some of my hints:

1. Are you prepared to be nice to people who are clueless and /or irritating? (That is something I still have to work on). You will need the customers, the customers won't need you.

2. Are you willing to risk a lot of your money (or acquaintances' money) on your success?

3. Are you willing to work long hours for little or no pay to make your business a success? There will be times at the start when expenses are going to exceed income.

4. Can you find a location that's convenient for your potential customers and doesn't
a. Cost an arm and a leg; b. doesn't share a parking lot with a biker's bar, and c. meets the local building codes?

To sum things up, when I was running a store, I had to have a completely different mindset than I did as a gamer. If you can answer the first three questions 'Yes' , then you're ready to work on the fourth question and all the other decisions you'll have to make.

By the way, despite all the hassles, working at the game store was one of the most enjoyable jobs I've ever had.
Groundlber