How to Start a Board Game Company | TRUiC (2023)

Start a board game company by following these 10 steps:

1. Plan your Board Game Company
2. Form your Board Game Company into a Legal Entity
3. Register your Board Game Company for Taxes
4. Open a Business Bank Account & Credit Card
5. Set up Accounting for your Board Game Company
6. Get the Necessary Permits & Licenses for your Board Game Company
7. Get Board Game Company Insurance
8. Define your Board Game Company Brand
9. Create your Board Game Company Website
10. Set up your Business Phone System

There is more to starting a business than just registering it with the state. We have put together this simple guide to starting your board game company. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.

Exploring your options? Check out other small business ideas.

STEP 1: Plan your business

A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:

• What are the startup and ongoing costs?
• Who is your target market?
• How much can you charge customers?
• What will you name your business?

Luckily we have done a lot of this research for you.

What are the costs involved in opening a board game company?

The costs of starting up a board game business are fairly low, although they are significant. It usually takes $18,00 to $20,000 to get a game made and start a business, but some businesses start with lower or higher costs. One board game business on Kickstarter initially asked for £50,000 in initial startup funds(about $69,200), while another board game business began with upfront costs of just $1,000 AUD(about $738 USD).

Assuming a business owner has friends who are willing to test a game for free, the biggest expenses are:

• Trademarking and copyrighting the game
• Hiring an artist to make the artwork
• Manufacturing the game

The costs for an artist can vary greatly, depending on the level of detail required and the experience an artist has. Manufacturing costs often run between $7 and $25 per unit, although larger orders can bring per-unit costs much lower.

What are the ongoing expenses for a board game company?

Ongoing expenses for a board game business include storage costs for games that haven’t been sold yet and manufacturing costs of new units. Business owners can keep storage costs low by storing unsold games themselves. Manufacturing costs for more units can be funded by sales of in-stock units.

Who is the target market?

Board games appeal to a broad demographic. Even millennials are playing lots of non-digital games.

Most board game businesses, however, focus in on a particular demographic that they want to develop games for. For instance, a business might make party games for social outings, strategy games geared towards thinkers or generational games based on certain decades.

How does a board game company make money?

A board game business makes money by selling its finished board games. Games may be sold directly to customers at retail prices or to resellers at wholesale prices.

How much can you charge customers?

According to The Board Game Family, board games can sell for as little as $10 or as much as $70. Many games, however, cost around $30 retail.

When calculating price, business owners should try to make their game’s retail price four times the per-unit product costs. This will help ensure a business is profitable.

How much profit can a board game company make?

A successful board game business can make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. If a game sells for $30 per copy, selling just 1,000 games would generate a revenue of $30,000. In some cases, businesses are much more successful than this. One board game raised over $12 million on Kickstarter.

How can you make your business more profitable?

A board game business can increase its profitability by creating expansion packs that customers can purchase for an additional fee. Alternatively, board game business owners can create a blog on board games.

A few board game businesses have been developed into video games or apps, but this requires a significant investment in developing digital resources.

What will you name your business?

Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already have a name in mind, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help brainstorming a name with our Board Game Company Name Generator

If you operate a sole proprietorship, you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name. Visit our DBA guide to learn more.

When registering a business name, we recommend researching your business name by checking:

• Your state's business records
• Federal and state trademark records
• Social media platforms
• Web domain availability.

It's very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.

STEP 2: Form a legal entity

The most common business structure types are the sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC), and corporation.

Establishing a legal business entity such as an LLC or corporation protects you from being held personally liable if your board game company is sued.

You can form an LLC yourself and pay only the minimal state LLC costs or hire one of the Best LLC Services for a small, additional fee.

STEP 3: Register for taxes

You will need to register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open for business.

In order to register for taxes you will need to apply for an EIN. It's really easy and free!

Learn how to get an EIN in our What is an EIN guide or find your existing EIN using our EIN lookup guide.

Small Business Taxes

Depending on which business structure you choose, you might have different options for how your business will be taxed. For example, some LLCs could benefit from being taxed as an S corporation (S corp).

You can learn more about small business taxes in these guides:

• LLC Taxes
• Sole Proprietorship vs LLC
• LLC vs Corporation
• LLC vs S Corp
• How to Start an S Corp
• S Corp vs C Corp

There are specific state taxes that might apply to your business. Learn more about state sales tax and franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.

STEP 4: Open a business bank account & credit card

Using dedicated business banking and credit accounts is essential for personal asset protection.

When your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets (your home, car, and other valuables) are at risk in the event your business is sued. In business law, this is referred to as piercing your corporate veil.

Additionally, learning how to build business credit can help you get credit cards and other financing in your business's name (instead of yours), better interest rates, higher lines of credit, and more.

Open a business bank account

Besides being a requirement when applying for business loans, opening a business bank account:

• Separates your personal assets from your company's assets, which is necessary for personal asset protection.
• Makes accounting and tax filing easier.

Open net 30 accounts

Net 30 accounts are used to establish and build business credit as well as increase business cash flow. With a net 30 account, businesses buy goods and repay the full balance within a 30-day term.

NetMany net 30 credit vendors report to the major business credit bureaus (Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, and Equifax Business Credit). This is how businesses build business credit so they can qualify for credit cards and other lines of credit.

Get a business credit card

Getting a business credit card helps you:

• Separate personal and business expenses by putting your business' expenses all in one place.
• Build your company's credit history, which can be useful to raise money later on.

STEP 5: Set up business accounting

Recording your various expenses and sources of income is critical to understanding the financial performance of your business. Keeping accurate and detailed accounts also greatly simplifies your annual tax filing.

Make LLC accounting easy with our LLC Expenses Cheat Sheet.

STEP 6: Obtain necessary permits and licenses

Failure to acquire necessary permits and licenses can result in hefty fines, or even cause your business to be shut down.

State & Local Business Licensing Requirements

Certain state permits and licenses may be needed to operate a board game company. Learn more about licensing requirements in your state by visiting SBA’s reference to state licenses and permits.

Most businesses are required to collect sales tax on the goods or services they provide. To learn more about how sales tax will affect your business, read our article, Sales Tax for Small Businesses.

For information about local licenses and permits:

• Check with your town, city or county clerk’s office
• Get assistance from one of the local associations listed in US Small Business Associations directory of local business resources.

Trademark & Copyright Protection

If you are developing a unique product, concept, brand, or design, it is prudent to protect your rights by registering for the appropriate trademarks and copyrights.

Learn more about trademark and copyright protection

The nature of legal requirements in distance education is ever changing, especially in regards to copyright laws. Here is a frequently updated resource, which can help keep you aware of the legal requirements.

Here are two great links on boardgame licensing to publishers:

• License 101 for Board Games
• Board Game Licensing Contracts

STEP 7: Get business insurance

Just as with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance in order to operate safely and lawfully. Business Insurance protects your company’s financial wellbeing in the event of a covered loss.

There are several types of insurance policies created for different types of businesses with different risks. If you’re unsure of the types of risks that your business may face, begin with General Liability Insurance. This is the most common coverage that small businesses need, so it’s a great place to start for your business.

Learn more about General Liability Insurance.

Another notable insurance policy that many businesses need is Workers’ Compensation Insurance. If your business will have employees, it’s a good chance that your state will require you to carry Workers' Compensation Coverage.

STEP 8: Define your brand

Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.

If you aren't feeling confident about designing your small business logo, then check out our Design Guides for Beginners, we'll give you helpful tips and advice for creating the best unique logo for your business.

If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our Free QR Code Generator. Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications, or to help spread awareness for your new website.

How to promote & market a board game company

Board games can be effectively marketed by soliciting reviews from bloggers and other reviewers. Many reviewers will write up a review for a free copy of the game, and their review will share the game with board game enthusiasts.

How to keep customers coming back

A board game business can set itself apart from other games on the market by winning awards. Even winning a small competition can help boost sales if a seal is displayed on the game’s packaging.

For this reason, business owners ought to enter their games into as many competitions as possible.

STEP 9: Create your business website

After defining your brand and creating your logo the next step is to create a website for your business.

While creating a website is an essential step, some may fear that it’s out of their reach because they don’t have any website-building experience. While this may have been a reasonable fear back in 2015, web technology has seen huge advancements in the past few years that makes the lives of small business owners much simpler.

Here are the main reasons why you shouldn’t delay building your website:

• All legitimate businesses have websites - full stop. The size or industry of your business does not matter when it comes to getting your business online.
• Social media accounts like Facebook pages or LinkedIn business profiles are not a replacement for a business website that you own.
• Website builder tools like the GoDaddy Website Builder have made creating a basic website extremely simple. You don’t need to hire a web developer or designer to create a website that you can be proud of.

Using our website building guides, the process will be simple and painless and shouldn’t take you any longer than 2-3 hours to complete.

Other popular website builders are: WordPress, WIX, Weebly, Squarespace, and Shopify.

STEP 10: Set up your business phone system

Getting a phone set up for your business is one of the best ways to help keep your personal life and business life separate and private. That’s not the only benefit; it also helps you make your business more automated, gives your business legitimacy, and makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you.

There are many services available to entrepreneurs who want to set up a business phone system. We’ve reviewed the top companies and rated them based on price, features, and ease of use. Check out our review of the Best Business Phone Systems 2023 to find the best phone service for your small business.

Start a Board Game Company in your State