Entries of the Den

Hey, there! Cassidy here.

So, Tish kicked off this series with a nice introduction about how Replay Games finally came to be. We want to connect with you guys on a deeper level, but also offer some transparency into our lives behind the scenes at Replay. It’s been an incredibly fun project for me to pursue something I’m obviously quite passionate about. However, that hasn’t been without sacrifices, and many of which I was not prepared for. Things have a habit of sneaking up on you, taking more time than anticipated, and being much more challenging than you could ever imagine.

However, our goal with this series is to offer a back and forth on different topics that we’ve thought of, or from suggestions we’ll get from you. Sometimes it will be Tish initiating on something, and other times it will be myself. And that is definitely a great starting point when we talk about our marriage, and being involved with one another. Sometimes the wife initiates, and sometimes the husband does. But, that back and forth between husband and wife is what brings two people closer, and establishes trust. When you violate that trust, all sorts of hell can break loose. So treat that with respect!

As Tish mentioned, I’ve talked about this store for a long time. To the point that Tish finally initiated and commanded me to shut up, and actually find out more about such an idea. Her words and hope was: “Write a business plan, do the research, and maybe it will convince you that this hasn’t been done before for a reason.” I tend to have impossible dreams, but believe they are tangible and achievable. Always the dreamer. I won’t even begin to tell you about my flying-squirrel-powered-drone-delivery-service. The liability insurance on that one was far too expensive, and the scope of the service was unfortunately fairly narrow.

The idea for the store came to me when I was in high school. The industry was changing and maturing. World of Warcraft had only been out for a couple of years, and broadband internet was rapidly developing in North Dakota. But, maybe it was something burning in me from my business management related courses. I was struck with this notion that retail video game stores were crap. The employees were sort of knowledgeable. But, if you wanted to deep dive on something, the pool of their knowledge quickly proved to be pretty shallow.

I also started to see things with that model that just irked me to no end. I could see where they were chasing dollars, and that never sat well with me. A company should be investing in their customers, not their inventory. Sure, an investment could be made into inventory, and managing stock, but I was disgusted by the “pawn shop” model when it came to trading games. “Here, let me give you a laughable dollar amount for your game, and we’ll call that fair, while I resell it for a disgusting profit margin.” A lot of places will also nickel and dime you for the quality of the product, while important, the person behind the counter can be a bit picky what they call dirty or damaged.

Entrepreneurship is in my blood. Problem-solving is also in my blood. And I wrestled with this idea of what I think a video game store should be for nearly a decade. My dad owned a successful towing practice for over 20 years, 8 of which I worked for him. I had started a short lived video game development studio, and while it is a technical failure in my book, it was an incredible learning experience.

Taking everything I knew, talking with people about this idea, and the research I was doing, I wrote the business plan. I had every aspect of the store nailed down, and even how much I needed to finance it. The real challenge was to find a bank or lender to help me finance the idea. We had a bit of money saved up, and in our opinion, a killer business plan. I even had surveyed people in our area for the viability of such an idea. I spent months on this business plan, and it finally came time to pursue a lender.

I really thought this was going to be a quick process. I felt like I had crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s on everything. I met with the ND Small Business Development Center, and got their stamp of approval on the business plan as well. They were truly quite surprised at how well our business plan was written. So, I went to the bank we did our business with, and sat down with a loan officer. The meeting lasted well over an hour, and the guy told me he’d get back to me, seemingly interested in the concept. He liked our finances and balance sheet, and had no major complaints through the entire meeting.

A week went by, and nothing. No news, no response, or anything. A few more days go by, and I got an email saying no. The gist of that email said that our business venture was too risky, it had never been done before. I was surprised that we weren’t even allowed to apply to see if we’d qualify. My wife and I both had great credit, sitting well into the high 700s, so this was pretty frustrating. Never the less, we decided to pursue another lender, who rejected us because we weren’t creating enough full time jobs. A weird request, but alright, let’s find another lender, and another… and another.

I went to a neat seminar that talked about startups and financing those startups. I learned that there were some really awesome small business programs available from the State Bank of North Dakota. Utilizing one of those programs, I rewrote the financing portion of our business plan. I then scheduled a meeting with a bank that specializes in these state programs. That conversation lasted over three hours, and the two loan officers I sat down with were very excited about our business proposal. To the point where the lady looks over to the guy, and asked, “How you feeling [about this]?” “I’m feeling really happy about it,” came the response.

Another week went by, and they came back with another no. The business was just too risky for never having been done. I’ll tell you all this right now, this one made me consider throwing in the towel. This was the fourth bank I had sat down with that was willing to talk to me. I had sent out at least half a dozen other requests for meetings that had been shot down. I was ready to call it quits, and hang up the idea.

My cousins are chiropractors in Oklahoma, and they told me they had approached nine lenders before getting their starting loan. I couldn’t imagine dedicating that much time and energy only to be told no eight times. But it gave me something to compare to. They also had a really interesting idea to put into our business plan.

How to Fail. If Replay Games failed, how would we pursue closing, and still repay our debt? How would we ensure that whatever lender sponsors this insane plan would still get paid in the end. I sat down yet again with our business plan, and added a section right near the beginning. I went through step by step how we would liquidate the inventory, and sell everything we owned to cover the debt we’d be racking up with this idea.

I then approached our fifth lender, Gate City Bank. After having a fairly short phone conversation, the guy said, “Well, send me a business plan, and we’ll see what we can do.” After some email back and forth, it basically came down to the bank manager saying, “Well, do the application, and find out if he even qualifies.” And the rest is history, we needed not only someone to believe in our idea, what we really needed was someone to allow us to apply and see if we even qualify.

One of my favorite passive troll jabs I’ve done every year on our anniversary is email those contacts that said no, or rejected us outright, inviting them to come on in and see what they said no to. “Hey there, not sure if you remember me or not, but I had applied for a loan with you in 2017. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out with us, but I wanted to let you know it is Replay Games’s anniversary May 1^st, and we’d love to invite you to come on in and check it out.”

Not one has yet to come see what they said no to.

So thank you for saying yes. Thank you for coming into the store, and seeing what I wanted to create for the Fargo-Moorhead community. Thank you for sharing in the idea that I believe in and feel so passionately about. I know I’ve said it before, but I’m going to say it again. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have come this far. We could not have made it this far. It truly is because of you, why I am doing this. Why I’m working 70+ hours a week, and barely paying myself a paycheck. I want this store to succeed, because it really isn’t about me. It’s about you, and it is my dream to prove that to you.

Lastly, to my wife, thank you for challenging me, and then supporting me in this crazy journey. Pretty sure it’s your fault that we are here, but I’m glad to be here, doing this with you.