Either submit a request for information online or call and speak to one of our Franchise Development team members.
Work though our very informative investigation process. This process includes many conversations with your Franchise Development team member, several slide show presentations, and a face-to-face meeting.
If you are awarded the franchise rights you then sign the franchisee agreement and begin working with PNT to secure your location and get trained so you can open.
Absolutely! We encourage our owners to grow into multiunit operators and give assistance to those owners that have the resources and track record to justify multiple opportunities.
You do have some flexibility here. However you want to “fish when the fish are biting “ so to speak. There are certain times of the year where you may want to be open to later to capture spikes in demand for titles and seasonality’s. Most of our stores are open from 10-8pm M-F and varied hours during the weekends.
We are a specialty retail stores for all things related to video games and home entertainment. Therefore we sell home gaming and media products from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Activision, EA Sports, and other major distributors to name a few. We carry retro games, as well, and stock titles all the way back to the original Atari!
Besides video games, we also sell concessions like candy, drinks, fruit bars, and other munchies. A big part of what makes us unique are the long list of ancillary services we provide in our stores. Services like disk repair, console repair, warranties, birthday parties, tournaments, all night lock-ins, Date Night, Wii bowling leagues and charity fundraisers set us apart from the competition and drive revenue.
The total investment to begin operation of a traditional Play N Trade store ranges from $207-$317K (excluding ongoing rent for your location). This figure covers all typical costs including the franchisee fee, initial product order, training, and fixtures merchandising for your store, and working capital.
To buy a PNT franchise you need to have a minimum credit score of 650 and net worth of $250K. As part of your net worth you will need $60,000 min in liquid assets like cash or stocks you can use to invest in your business. Net worth is defined as your total assets; so that is cash, stocks, homes, cars, recreational vehicles, and business and so on less your total debt. If there are multiples partners we will look at the total net worth of the parties to determine eligibility.
Although we don’t provide financing, we do have some resources available to help you. We have several third party vendors that have been very successful in helping our franchisees get funding in the past. They can assist you in putting together your financing package including a business plan that they will submit to lenders on your behalf for your funding. Once you are a franchisee we can also provide you with a model you can use to assist you in creating and maintaining your financial projections.
The franchise fee is $30,000 paid at the time of the signing of your franchise agreement. Price breaks do apply to Military Veterans, qualified multi-unit operators, and current video game store owners.
We have a national ad campaign where 1% of your monthly gross sales go to fund national and local marketing for your store and the PNT brand promotion. Additionally, you should spend at least 2% of your gross sales to market your store locally in your community.
There are strict regulations in the franchise industry that prohibit us from forecasting how successful your business could be. You need to make these determinations yourself, but we can provide you some guidance.
Your sales will primarily depend on the quality of your location, your skill as an operator, and how well you manage and market your business. To estimate what your sales might be we suggest you talk to other owners that are in markets similar to yours. We can introduce you to some owners you can speak with when you are at that stage. You should ask them what their sales are. What lessons they have learned and what they are doing to grow their business. Find out what their sales are and how long they have been in business. Ask them how much they are carrying in inventory and what they do for marketing. Is the staff friendly and efficient? Is the location desirable? What is the report with the customers in the area? Adjust his or her numbers based on how good of an operator they seem to be to assist you in making your own projections.
As for expenses, you should also talk to a few operators near your market and determine what realistic number look like for labor, rent, advertising etc to build those into your plan as well.
We have been successful in a variety of different types of locations. We have stores in remote parts of Canada, downtown New York City and in your every day neighborhood power strip center. Once you are a franchisee we will carefully evaluate with you the best target market for your store. We have a network or professional brokers and real estate experts that are available to your local market and assist you in both selecting and negotiating the best deal on great real estate for you and your business.
Most of our new stores have the “Players Club” installed. The best size for our new generation stores is between 1400-1800 square feet. In some cases we would approve a location with a modified layout for spaces as small as 900sq feet.
This will depend largely on what space we ultimately approve and the condition of that space once you take possession. Assuming the space is ready immediately, once you order all your fixtures and place the deposit from our vendor your space can be set up 4-6 weeks later. All the fixtures are installed in just 2-3 days by their professional crew. It is our goal to have the majority of our franchisees actually open for business no later than 4-8 months from when they sign the franchise agreement and we start working with them as a franchisee.
We will provide you will the contacts to all of our preferred vendors. They are familiar with our programs and value our relationships and we treat you accordingly.
Certainly! You will start by working with a franchise development professional who will guide you through the investigative and financing process. Once you are on board as a franchisee, you will begin working with our real estate department and guide you through the site selection process and negotiating your lease. You will be provided a checklist of items to get your store open. We will track your time to opening and will make sure that you are connected with the appropriate vendors at the right times to support you in your ordering, grand opening, Point of Sale training, and set up of your business accounts. We have support personnel at our office six days a week to answer your calls and emails.
You will want to continue to plan and execute on your business plan. We have a business planning tool that you will be trained on and will use it to grow your business. You will want to stay connected to us on conference calls, email and via phone as you move your business to new heights. Our support personnel are also trained to conduct comprehensive evaluations of your operation via store visits and detailed one on one analysis centered on your business projections and actual statistics.
