[Musings of a Game Store Owner] Learning to Be a Better Boss

TheDude really loves being his own boss. He finds the challenge of managing himself, his time, his talents and his wisdom to be one of the most rewarding experiences he's ever encountered. We found this career almost entirely through a happy circumstance, but he knew within a week of trying it that he wanted to do it  for the rest of his life.

Sell games & dice forever? Awesome!

We've already made the decision that this is permanent for us.

That conversation was kind of illuminating, because at one point, I had a different opinion than TheDude did about what we would be doing in 5-10 years. His totally committed and confident comment that he wanted to do this until he retired or died, whichever came first, was the wakeup moment for me. I had to buy in pretty fast- fast enough for my response to be-- "Okay".




That mental transition from "we will quit doing this someday" to "this is what I am doing for the rest of my life" made a huge impact on my thoughts of career and long term goals. After quite a lot of trial and error, TheDude and I discovered that my talents are strongest in getting people to do things, and that kind of led me to my title inside our business. From there, what I wanted to "do when I grew up" became much clearer, and I've finally got concrete goals for the first time in my life.

I had no idea until recently. 

I have no formal training in the "job" I'm currently doing OR the job I want to grow into for our business. I'm doing a lot of learning on the fly, a lot of trial and error, and a lot of learning from other peoples' mistakes. None of those things are bad or wrong, they just put me in a situation where I don't feel totally competent or comfortable. I know that no matter what I do, I will always have something to learn or grow into, and that's ok, but I want to feel like I know what I am doing.

TheDude has learned a lot of how to run the business from day-to-day trial and error. Since we bought our business already existing, he had the benefit of talking to the previous owner and asking for advice. He also has a good network of professional connections inside the game retailer "network" and reads a message board for game store owners regularly. Most of the things he has needed to learn have come to him in the form of relationships and/or advice, and that has worked for him. He may still want to pursue formal training or further learning in specific fields, but at this point, he's where he wants to be. I'm not.

The "job" I hold and the job I want to have are both in-depth and complex enough that I can't really make it up as I go along. There are laws and regulations I have to be in compliance with as well, and while I'm doing ok now, I would hate for things to change and get caught unawares. I've also been influenced by a couple of people I've admired from afar, and these people are just consummate professionals that are always learning and growing.

So I've decided to go back to school.

Short answer? No. 

This is entirely for me, for my personal goals and my idea of what I need to have and know to be effective as "The Boss Lady".  I'm not doing this with the hopes of a new career or a better job- I'm doing this because I think I need it to be better at what I am already doing. There was a little outside pressure, which I definitely took into consideration, but that pressure was more of a push than anything else.

This will probably only change things a little- my customers won't be directly impacted, but the wisdom and knowledge I gain can only help me improve and be better at my job. I can only improve the experience for my customer base by being more informed, more up to date and working more to my strengths.