Could you be the next owner and manager of Et Games?

Handing over the reins of Et Games

After 14 years I’ve decided it’s time for me to move on from Et Games. The business has become a stable part time occupation that provides much joy to players around the world, and a good livelihood to a dozen or so artisans in India.

Could you be the next owner/manager of Et Games? If you like games, want to do business ethically according to fair trade principles, and you are happy to get hands on with hand made products (storage, quality control, repairs, and product development), then this could be for you.

Here’s what running the company looks like:

• Working hours, at a minimum, 2-3 hours per day most of the year rising to 8 hours per day in November and December.
• Turnover is around £100k.
• There is fun to be had attending games events and festivals
• It is very helpful to have a spare garage or other storage space to keep the stock. A 20ft shipping container sized space is ideal.
• Regular tasks include wrapping up and sending out parcels, quality controlling games, improving and developing new games.
• Basic woodworking skills (or a willingness to learn them) are handy for repairing games that fail quality control.
• Taking orders from stockists (ie. shops and other resellers).
• Simple bookkeeping – keeping track of invoices, orders, etc.
• Communicating with our fair trade supplier. It’s really helpful to travel to India every two or three years.
• Managing finance – under fair trade rules we pay 50% upfront when placing orders, and for Christmas orders to arrive on time they must be placed in the spring. We recommend a specialist fair trade lender called Shared Interest as an alternative to a bank overdraft. You’ll need access to about £40k of cash/credit.

Transfer of the business could be by sale of assets – or by selling the shares. Under sale of assets, we would sell the rights to all the games, as well as the website, stock, seller accounts on Ebay and Amazon, and everything else used to run the company. You should be aware that for Bridget, Raft and Scupper, and Kingdoms, our rights are held by way of a licensing agreement under which we pay royalties to the game inventor. The sale price for the business would be the value of the stock plus a “goodwill” element to be negotiated. If the buyer is unable to pay upfront, we could agree a royalty on sales, to last until the agreed amount is paid.

What qualities do you need to run this business? I would say the most important thing is enthusiasm for wooden games and fair trade. Business skills can be learned on the job. Given the part time and seasonal rhythm, it would suit someone who has alternative activities in the spring and summer. Alternatively, you could make it part time all year round by taking on an employee for November and December each year.

If you or anyone you know would be interested, please get in touch.