Board Game Business Plan, With a Projection

A board game business plan is a plan for one big order and a year of selling it. A small publisher designs a game, has art made, prints 2,000 copies at a factory, ships them across an ocean, and then has to sell them before the money runs out. The usual way to pay for the print run is to pre-sell the game in a crowdfunding campaign, and the plan has to show that the campaign covers the run and what the rest of the copies earn afterwards. In the example below, a publisher in Ohio pre-sells 800 copies, uses the money for the print run and the art, and sells the other 1,200 online, to a distributor and at conventions, about $25,600 ahead after a year. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the year, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the game and the company in a paragraph: the game, who plays it, the goals.
• Cost a copy landed: the factory price, freight and duty to your warehouse.
• Budget the art, prototypes and campaign before the first copy is printed.
• Pre-sell enough in the campaign to pay for the print run and the art.
• Sell the rest direct, through a distributor at about 40% of the shelf price, and at conventions.
• Plan the reprint before the last copy sells, because a factory run takes months.
• TaroStack keeps every copy counted, in the warehouse and at conventions, and tracks the reprint's purchase order. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Cuyahoga Table Games, a made-up board game publisher in Cleveland, Ohio, I use in these examples, writes:

Cuyahoga Table Games designs and publishes strategy board games for players 14 and up. Its first game, a two-to-four player game about Great Lakes shipping, is printed in a run of 2,000 copies, pre-sold through a crowdfunding campaign, and then sold through its own online store, a hobby game distributor and conventions.

Part 2: what a copy costs, and the campaign

The factory quotes $7 a copy for 2,000 copies, and freight, duty and delivery to the warehouse add about $1.50, so a copy costs $8.50 landed, $17,000 for the run. Art and graphic design cost $8,000, prototypes and playtest copies $1,500, the campaign video and photos $2,000, and review copies $1,000: $29,500 before the first sale.

The campaign pays for the run, the art and the rest of the start, with $500 to spare, and leaves 1,200 copies paid for. Shipping to backers is charged to them separately. Games for children 12 and under are children's products with testing and tracking-label rules; a strategy game for 14 and up isn't, which is one reason the age on the box matters.

Part 3: selling the rest

The copies were paid for by the campaign, so a sale's cost here is only what that sale adds: packing, postage and fees online, freight to the distributor, card fees at conventions. A distributor pays about 40% of the $50 shelf price and sells to game stores, which keep their own margin; it's the only way into hundreds of stores at once. How distributors price is in distributor margin.

Part 4: the year, month by month

Fixed costs are $1,235 every month: warehouse and fulfillment storage ($300), the website and store ($50), ads ($500), convention fees and travel averaged ($300), insurance ($50), and software and card fees ($35). The 1,200 copies sell at about 120 a month:

The year's sales after the campaign are $43,500 and the profit $25,575. The last two months show the cost of running out: the warehouse, ads and website keep costing while there's nothing to sell. A reprint ordered in month 6 or 7 would have arrived in time, which is the real decision in a game plan. How to time a reorder against a long lead time is in reorder point example, and how long a supplier really takes in lead time calculation formula.

Part 5: the startup budget

The campaign's $30,000 covers it. If the campaign raises less, the run shrinks or the publisher funds the gap; a smaller run costs more a copy at the factory.

Get the template

Download the board game business plan workbook. Four sheets: your sales channels with price, the cost each sale adds and copies a month; the year, month by month, with sales, profit and cash; your fixed costs; and your startup budget. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Two thousand copies in a warehouse, a few hundred at a fulfillment center, a box at every convention, backers' replacement parts, and a reprint that has to be ordered months before the last copy sells. A spreadsheet can't say how many copies are where, or when the reprint must be ordered.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps every copy counted, in the warehouse and at conventions, and tracks the reprint's purchase order.

Copies where they are. The warehouse and each convention can be sites of their own, so copies taken to a show are a transfer, counted on a phone after; more than one site is on Standard.

The reprint on time. The game comes up on a reorder list in days of cover, worked out from how fast it sells, against the factory's lead time, and the reprint is a purchase order with its expected date.

Distributor orders. Each distributor order is a sales order, and margins are reported by product and by customer.

Stock, purchase orders and reorder lists are on every plan, from $49 a month; more than one site is on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How much does it cost to make a board game?

In the example, $8.50 a copy landed for a run of 2,000, plus $8,000 of art and $4,500 of prototypes, campaign and review copies: $29,500 before the first sale.

Is making a board game profitable?

It can be, if the campaign covers the run. In the example, the first run's remaining 1,200 copies bring about $25,600 after fixed costs, before any reprint.

How do you start a board game company?

Design and playtest the game, cost a print run, build an audience, pre-sell in a campaign that pays for the run, and line up a distributor and conventions for the rest.

How much do distributors pay for board games?

About 40% of the shelf price in the example: $20 for a $50 game. They sell to stores, which keep their own margin.