With the growth of the online gaming industry and the influence of the internet in our daily lives, a lot of people are in need to be “connected”. Unfortunately, not everyone here in the Philippines has access to good hardware and a decent connection. But all of that is changing now, especially with the frenetic rise of Internet Cafes in our country.

For the local MMORPG industry, roughly 80% of our business comes from the cafes. So it’s important to have a good relationship with our “partners”.

Meanwhile, I’m certain that a lot of individuals or friends (mostly thru gaming) are considering opening up their own shop. Mind you, it’s no joke. A business is always serious.

I thought I’d share with you some practical tips on how to start (and maintain) your own Internet Cafe.

One more click, faps…

HOW TO START YOUR OWN INTERNET CAFE BUSINESS

• Budget – An internet cafe with around 20 seats will push you back P700 to P1M in capital. Of course, the more seats, the more money you will need. If you don’t have the cash, you can find partners to pool in money. I believe that the optimum number of partners for this project will be 4. Expect an ROI (Return of Investment) of 1 to 2 years. Also, I would suggest against forming a business with your close friends. The chances of ruining your friendship is high. Just note that.
• Location – Aside from the moolah, location is one of the KEY FACTORS FOR SUCCESS. Keywords to look for when scouting; near a school, heavy foot traffic, not too many competitors in the area. You should try to look for a place that’s easy to spot (from the customers perspective, ok?). A good monthly rental is P15,000 to P25,000 a month, more than that and you’ll have to work double time for the return.
• Hardware – Try to budget P25,000 to P35,000 per PC. Remember, I always tell potential entrepreneurs to “invest for the future”. Do not scrimp out on memory, processing power or video cards. The logic here is that a) okay, so you save a few bucks but your computers will be trash in less than a year and b) you should have a faster PC than your competitors – it’s your “edge”. And hey, if you can get LCD monitors for all computers, do so! The cost savings on electricity will more than pay for itself.
• Connection – again, a faster and decent connection in your cafe will be a key selling point. Don’t worry too much about marketing, if you have the best computers and the fastest connection in your area, sheer WORD-OF-MOUTH will drive customers through YOUR door. It’s a fact. So try to get the best kbps package that you can afford. Also, if you have the money, you can always get another as back-up in case your primary connection goes down.
• Set-Up – if you’re a techie, you can probably do the wiring and the setup of the routers and switches yourself. But if you can’t, there are professionals who can do it for you. If you can’t find one in your province or city, grab a copy of Buy&Sell or discreetly ask the tech guy at the PC shop where you bought your hardware if he can do a little moonlighting for your new shop.
• Software – if you plan to start small, you don’t have to pay to install MMORPGs. The installers are free. Just tell me if you need it delivered to your new shop and I’ll get the Sales boys on it right away. For office applications, openoffice is free and mimics Micro$oft. For a good, free billing solution, try handycafe
• Other services – Food is always a good extra source of income. Check out my post on Gamer Food 101 and you’ll see what gamers need and want. Printing, Fax and Xerox (photocopying) are other good sources of supplementary revenue.
• Staff – If you’ve formed a partnership, take turns with your partners manning the shop. Just make a schedule. If you’re going to hire someone, hire someone you can trust. You have to set “check and balance” systems (such as an advance billing system) to avoid fraud and theft. It may be tempting to hire an avid gamer to staff your shop but if he has friends and he let’s them play for free… you know what that will bring you. Speaking of free play, tell your all your friends that you can’t allow them to play for free. It IS a business after all. But tell them you can give them a discount. If they really are your friends, they’ll understand.

So there you have it…

Best of luck in your business. Questions? Type ‘em below.

Strength and Honor,

GM T

MY OTHER ARTICLES ON INTERNET CAFE BUSINESS

• Buying old PCS vs new ones (if you’re starting out)
• How Much Capital Do I Need? And Computing Break Even

Want more similar articles? You can be my fan on Facebook or subscribe to my RSS. Thanks!

Most MMO game players in the Philippines play in Internet Cafes.

I really don’t know why they call a place WITHOUT coffee a “Cafe”. But what the hey… a cafe is a computer shop. Add noisy teens, fun games, low ceilings, grimmy keyboards/mice and you get the idea of the joys of the Pinoy cafe culture.

Having been to several cafes – from those simple 10-seaters without aircons to the fully decked out set-ups like E.G.G. (with rigs to totally die for), a lot of the cafes here in our country average around 20-30 seats or so. We’ve had events across the nation in all sorts of cafes too.

This post is a simple wishlist on what I envision a perfect cafe to be.

Ok… so what does it take to be an ultimate cafe?

Here’s my list:

1. Open 24 hours
2. PCs with at least 1G Ram and kick-ass video cards
3. comfy seats (car seats are the best)
4. strong aircon
5. a female (sexy) cafe manager (who’s a gamer too!)
6. a smoking area (separate from the non-smoking)
7. fast (and I mean FAST) internet connection
8. NO disconnections
9. accepts credit (hehe)
10. free drinks (non-alchoholic of course)
11. Loyalty rewards
12. A bunk area (for me to take a quick nap and then play again!)
13. a bulletin board to display your stuff for sale
14. dim lights
15. a private place for video conferencing *snicker* (some really do)
16. a locker room
17. serves Gamer Food
18. NO keyloggers
19. Allows USB drives
20. Has a download or torrent station
21. separate bandwith for youtubers and friendster customers
22. has a body-odor detector in the front door
23. each members gets an INDIVIDUAL earphone
24. a virtual locker for your screenshots and torrent files
25. regular tournaments for boys and men to prove that they are better
26. shower area in the comfort room
27. free deodorant in the comfort room
28. money-back guarantee
29. lots of Level Up game cards
30. Wi-Fi area
31. Filesharing area (where I can share stuff with my friends)
32. Comfy lounge
33. A well-armed (and alert) security guard
34. Parking (lit)
35. No slippers allowed

How about you? Anything to add?

Ciao,

GM T

It’s official, the Perfect World Close Beta Test (CBT) is underway. At exactly 9AM of May 18, the servers opened for the public. I was actually inside the game after lunch and saw an avatar with the name Trist@n – egad! An impostor!

Anyway, this post is all about EMPOWERMENT.

In a similar line to ABS-CBN’s Boto Mo I-Patrol Mo where the public is empowered to report anything and anyone under the sun – from cheating to suspicious acts to protect the sanctiity of the ballot, this exercise – PW CBT PATROL, is precisely the same.

I’d like to empower anyone and everyone to share their experiences – good or bad - about the Perfect World CBT. As you may already know, we have opened the Close Beta of the game to 250 Internet Cafes nationwide and gave scores of individuals CBT accounts via raffles and blog contests (which will all be wiped and deleted after the CBT). That’s more than 12,000 CBT accounts generated (I’d be the happiest GM alive if I see all 12k logged to the game tomorrow!). Already, I am getting reports via e-mail and text that some cafes still don’t have installers or accounts. Some are even reportedly selling the accounts… tsk.. tsk (pag bad ka, lagot ka!). The topic below “First Impressions” is all about the game, this one is all about the Beta (see the difference?)

I will tell the Cafe Sales team, the PW Marketing, the forum mods and GM Team to closely monitor this post so that your concerns are heard AND addressed immediately. Do share your experience(s) whether you’re a cafe owner, “bantay”, player or CBT account winner. I encourage you to REPORT anything that needs our immediate attention. Myself, the PW team, our field sales officers and the entire Level Up family want to do the beta the right way. And there is no better way than to get our actual customers involved. We value your satisfaction and we want to give due service to the people that made us a success.

You can simply comment below. If you have a picture or video, you can upload it to the web and post the link here so that all may view it. (If reporting in behalf of a cafe, please give the complete cafe name and address)

Let me also point out that we will read the reports here and do our best to review each post and of course, verify it and check it against our standard processes so that we can act accordingly. Some urgent matters will be prioritized over the rest. But will do our darnest best to try and help all of you, given the resources and time we have.

We will use this information to compile our “best practices” and learn from it so that similar endeavors in the future will be better.

Let’s start the reports shall we?

Peace!

GM T