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Virtual Reality Service business plan

It's a business plan show in numbers and describe how we can start a business in tourism section using the VR tech.

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How to Write a Virtual Reality Business Plan

A VR business plan should lay out a detailed roadmap for the growth of your VR business over the next few years.

How important is it to create a business plan for your VR business plan?

Well, there are many ways to answer this; but the best has to be this one that I read in an article not too long ago…

Creating a business without a business plan is like building a house without a blueprint. The chances of success are limited; the chances of creating something exquisite are remote; and the chances of the entire thing just falling apart are very high.

Some studies suggest that if you have a business plan, your business has a 20% higher chance of success than if you didn’t create a business plan.

And that is why, in this blog, we will go through the process of writing a virtual reality business plan.

Blog overview

First, we will take a look at the traditional format of a VR business plan.

This is the format you’ll be using on almost any professional occasion (such as pitching your business to a bank for a loan).

Second, we will look at the most important uses of your VR business plan.

Third, we will look at some important characteristics of a VR business plan.

We’ll conclude the blog with some useful resources to help you create your virtual reality business plan.

Virtual reality business plan - the traditional format

When people say “business plan”, they’re talking about the traditional format most of the time.

This is an expansive and exhaustive document that should capture every aspect and every detail of your VR business.

Like I mentioned earlier, you can take this as a definitive document when you’re presenting your business to formal lenders or investors .

The traditional business plan format consists of the following parts:

The title page should include only a title and a subtitle .

For example,

Business Plan

Virtuality Healthcare Solutions, LLC.

Virtuality Healthcare Solutions is a Virtual Reality startup catering to the healthcare sector. We aim to create custom-made VR simulations to help surgeons plan and prepare for individual surgeries.

That can be the title page of the business plan a healthcare VR startup . As you can see, it simply states the company’s name (title) , and their main business idea (subtitle) .

Table of contents

I hardly need to explain what this is.

But I need to remind you to include it in your virtual reality business plan. It sounds trivial, which is why some people forget about it.

Neither the title page nor the table of contents reveals a lot about your business.

But it’s crucial to include both to make your business plan presentable and organized .

A dishevelled and disorganized business plan will fail to inspire confidence amongst potential investors and lenders about your organizational capabilities.

Executive summary

The executive summary offers the reader a bird’s eye view of your entire business plan.

It should include what your VR startup is aiming to achieve , and why you think your business strategy will work .

In other words, it should summarize for an investor why they should invest in your business.

Key points to be included in the executive summary are:

• Mission statement.
• Your product or service.
• Your company structure and key employees.
• Financial projections.

Oh, and do I really need to tell you that the executive summary needs to be a clear and compelling read ?

Business description

A lot of blogs refer to this section as the “Company description”.

But I do NOT.

Because it’s easy to confuse “Company description” with “Company/Corporate structure”.

Just so we’re clear,

• Business description refers to the details of what demand your business wants to meet.
• Company structure refers to the organizational structure of your company; that comes later.

Here’s how the logical flow works: once a potential investor has gone through your executive summary, they will want to know more about what goods or services your company provides .

That question is answered by the business description.

The three main aspects that MUST be revealed by your business description are:

• What products or services your business aims to create.
• Who are your expected customers/clients?
• What strengths does your VR business have (talent, supply chains, prime location, etc)?

Market analysis

Having described your business to the reader, the logical next step is to tell them about the market you plan to tap .

For example, returning to the example of a VR healthcare startup, the market analysis would include:

• Which healthcare niche you’re planning to cater to?
• What’s the size of the market?
• What strategies have your competitors adopted? How do you plan on countering them?

Organizational/company structure

This section tells the reader two main things:

• What legal structure does your company have? It is a partnership, an LLC, an “S” corporation, etc?
• What’s the organizational hierarchy ? How many layers are there in the hierarchy, who fulfils what role, how people are compensated, and so on.

Products you’re planning to create

Include the following points:

• What is your product?
• How specifically does it help consumers?
• Can you differentiate it from competing products?
• What is the product lifecycle?
• Are you filing for patents or trademarks? Are you engaging in R&D?

Remember, you might know a lot about virtual reality, especially the product you’re planning to create; the reader of your business plan will almost certainly not know as much.

You should keep this section simple and appropriately detailed .

Marketing and growth

This section should reveal to the reader how you plan on acquiring and retaining customers/clients ; and how you plan on growing your business .

Your sales procedure should be clearly laid out: I think you can guess that investors would be interested in that.

This is where cost, earnings, and profit projections come into play.

Your aim is to convince investors that your business is worth investing in, and give them an idea of what kind of returns on investment (ROI) they can expect.

Some specific items you can include here are:

• Income statements.
• Cash flow statements.
• Balance sheets.
• Capital expenditure budgets.

Try to include projections for upto five years - I’ll explain why shortly.

If your business is already running, provide documentation to show how you’re doing.

Funding requirements

If you have funding requirements , this is where to indicate them.

Be specific as to:

• Whether you’re looking for equity or debt financing .
• What terms you expect on the investment.
• When and how an investor can exit .
• How you’ll use any funds supplied.

Uses of a VR business plan

The most important uses of a VR business plan are:

Organizing and studying your own business idea

The most important use of a business plan is to lay out your own business idea in front of you, placing information in the proper context , and giving you an idea of what lies ahead .

Like they say, if you aren’t convinced by your business idea, how can you expect others to be?

Pitching your business for fundraising

If you’re hoping to raise funds from lenders or investors , whether formal (like a bank), or informal (like your family members), your business plan will be invaluable in pitching your VR business to them.

Helping you attract talent for your VR startup

As a startup, if you’re looking to attract talent , you might end up sharing your business idea (and hence your business plan) with them.

Good talent will be in demand, and as a startup VR business, you have no track record to convince people why they should join you instead of some other firm.

Working in new fields, sound business ideas , shared values - these are some of the attributes that you can use to attract the talent you need.

Characteristics of a good virtual reality business plan

Your virtual reality business plan should be…

Always be precise as to what you’re talking about, and remember to include definite metrics to define your goals and describe your performance .

For example, if you’re setting up a virtual reality escape room , you can include:

• Expected footfall.
• Expected revenue.
• Main revenue source - personal celebrations, corporate events, and so on.

While you’re mentioning all these Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), remember to be realistic.

Of course you’re not going to intentionally put in misleading information, but as it’s your endeavor, it’s tempting to get carried away and make rosy assumptions.

Returning to the example of a VR escape room, it’s always preferable to mention that you expect a 10% annual growth in footfall by your third year, and then do your best to exceed your own estimate rather than promise investors a 20% growth in footfall, and fail to deliver.

It’s said that a business plan must be a living document .

As you should know by now, a large part of your virtual reality business plan involves “ guesstimates” which may not transpire into reality .

You MUST be able to adapt your business plan to changing circumstances and to incorporate new business models and ideas.

In fact, this is where a lean business plan format can prove useful.

In a lean format, you can follow the same structure, but condense each topic to a couple of sentences...except where you feel details are necessary.

Use the lean format to capture frequent changes in the business environment, and then put effort into creating a full-fledged plan when the changes become permanent.

Medium term

A good business plan talks about the medium term , that is, the next three to five years .

Anything shorter than that and you won’t really give your business a chance to grow; making “guesstimates” for longer periods has generally proven to not be very useful.

Which is why three to five years is the sweet spot for your virtual reality business plan.

Virtual reality business plan resources

Here’s a business plan toolkit provided by the International Finance Corporation.

And here’s a template created by the My Own Business Institute at Santa Clara University.

And now you’re ready to start drafting your virtual reality business plan.

If you’re looking to enter the virtual reality industry through the virtual reality escape room niche, you can check out the premier VR escape room franchise in the USA .

Please leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below as we are constantly looking for ways to improve this article. Have a great day!

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How to Write a VR Lounge Business Plan [Sample template]

Do you want to start a VR lounge and need to write a plan? If YES, here is a detailed sample VR lounge business plan template & FREE feasibility report. Virtual Reality (VR) lounges are built specifically for Location-Based Entertainment (LBE). They are multiplayer, intuitive and engaging attractions that are hard to get at home, but more importantly, designed to drive social experience with friends, family and co-workers which makes it is a good business to start in the united states.

If you are considering starting a Virtual Reality (VR) lounge business, the good news is that you can’t get it wrong because of the number of people who are looking towards escaping the boredom of normal life.

A Sample VR Lounge Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Virtual Reality (VR) lounges are part of the Arcade, Food & entertainment industry and players in this industry include businesses that primarily operate video game arcades and game-focused family entertainment centers, which typically sell food and beverages.

Industry operators rent or purchase card- or coin-operated arcade games that customers play for a fee. Establishments that primarily focus on gambling games, billiards, miniature golf and other larger-scale or outdoor amusements are not included in this industry.

According to a report published by IBISWorld, the Arcade, Food and Entertainment industry’s evolution has continued over the five years to 2019. Rapid technological change and shifting preferences have triggered a structural shift within the industry since its heyday in the 1980s.

As the home console rose in prominence, coin-operated games fell in popularity. Substitute products, including game consoles, offer convenience and long-term cost savings, while online and mobile games can largely be played at a nominal cost or for a free.

An improving economic outlook has spurred increased consumer spending, which has helped encourage consumers to spend more liberally on out-of-home entertainment without operators significantly lowering prices to buoy sales volumes.

The report further shows that over the five years to 2024, these trends are expected to continue. Game rooms are no longer the primary market for video game consumption, so developers dedicate far less funding to the creation of arcade games. This lack of resources stifles innovation, diminishing the ability of industry operators to draw in patrons with state-of-the-art offerings.

Statistics has it that in the United States of America alone, there are about 8,358 licensed and registered arcade, food and entertainment complexes responsible for employing about 56,513 employees and the industry rakes in a whooping sum of $3 billion annually with an annual growth rate projected at 2.6 percent between 2015 and 2022.

Although there are major players with significant market shares in this industry, but Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc. is the company with the lion share of the industry.

Lastly, the need for you to equip your virtual reality VR lounge can’t possibly be overemphasized and you should be aware that it is quite expensive equipping a virtual reality VR lounge. A high-end headset like HTC’s Vive or the Oculus Rift will run you $599 and $799, respectively. At the present costs, a VR fan will have to shell out at least $1,600 for a high-end virtual reality experience.

2. Executive Summary

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is a standard, licensed and well – equipped virtual reality arcade lounge that will be located in the entertainment hub of Santa Fe – New Mexico. We have been able to secure a standard facility in a central and easy to locate location in Santa Fe.

We are well equipped to service the whole of the community as well as visitors and tourists. Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is going to become the number one destination for virtual reality (VR) enthusiasts (gamers and gamblers alike) in the whole of Santa Fe – New Mexico.

We are well equipped and positioned to operate licensed virtual reality arcade lounge with a wide range of virtual reality games suitable for individuals, birthday parties and teambuilding et al, from top flight virtual reality games production companies like Microsoft Corporation, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Activision Blizzard Inc., GameStop Corp., Sony Corporation and Electronic Arts Inc. Our virtual reality arcade also has enough parking space.

We conducted a thorough market research and feasibility studies and we were able to come to the conclusion that Santa Fe – New Mexico is the right place to start our VR arcade lounge. Our client’s best interest would always come first, and everything we do is guided by our values and professional ethics.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will be open 24 hours in a day during weekends (Fridays to Sundays) and from 6:00 am to 12 midnight from Mondays to Thursdays in order for us to accommodate people with different time preferences.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will at all times demonstrate her commitment to sustainability, both individually and as a business, by actively participating in our communities and integrating sustainable business practices wherever possible. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is owned by Solomon Boston and his immediate family members. The business will be managed by Solomon Boston and his son Jerry Hamilton. Solomon Boston has over 15 years’ experience in the Arcade, Food and Entertainment Complexes industry working for some of the leading VR arcade lounges in Santa Fe – New Mexico.

3. Our Products and Services

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is in the industry to provide standard virtual reality arcade lounges, why we have been able to put up a facility that can help us achieve the goal. We are optimistic that anyone who makes use of our virtual reality arcade lounge will definitely derive huge value for their money.

These are the services and amenities that will be made available to our clients;

• Card- and coin-operated virtual reality games
• Food and beverages, including alcoholic beverages
• Corporate and party event services
• Virtual reality games and accessories merchandize

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our Vision of starting Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is to build a world – class virtual reality arcade lounge that can favorably compete with leading virtual reality lounges in the United States.
• Our mission for establishing Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is to build a virtual reality arcade lounge that has the biggest play space in Santa Fe – New Mexico with immersive VR experiences supported by the best equipment on the market and also to make profits from the Industry; we want to create multiplayer, intuitive and engaging attractions that are hard to get at home.

Our Business Structure

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is in business to become the leadingVR lounge in Santa Fe – New Mexico and we are fully aware that it will take the right facility, management and organizational structure to achieve our goal.

The kind of the virtual reality arcade business we intend building and the business goals we want to achieve is what informed the amount we are ready to pay for the best hands in the industry as long as they are ready to work with us. In view of that, we have made provisions for the following positions to be occupied by highly qualified and experienced staff;

• Chief Executive Office – CEO
• Accountant/Cashier
• Marketing and Sales Officer
• VR Games Instructors/Assistants (5)
• Customer Care Executive/Front Desk Officer

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer – CEO:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results
• Creates, communicates, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization
• Carries out staff induction for new team members
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organizationMaintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of VR games and other equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carrying out induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Responsible for arranging travel, meetings and appointments
• Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations.
• Oversees the smooth running of the daily activities in the virtual reality arcade lounge.

VR Game Instructors/Assistant (5)

• Responsible for giving out the required instructions and other support needed by patrons
• Responsible for teaching newbies how to play our VR games
• Responsible for selling food, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages
• Ensures that the virtual reality game gadgets and machines are well arranged after every session
• Responsible for recommending the replacement of worn out or damaged VR headsets, pads, consoles and other video game accessories

Marketing and Sales Officer (2)

• Identifies, prioritizes, and reaches out to new clients, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts
• Writes winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
• Responsible for handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Documents all customer contact and information
• Represents Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC in strategic meetings
• Helps to increase sales and growth for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC.

Accountant/Cashier:

• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for the organization
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC
• Serves as internal auditor for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC.

Client Service Executive

• Welcomes members and potential members/clients by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the organization’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the management in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients when they make enquiries

Cleaners (3):

• Responsible for cleaning in and around the virtual reality arcade lounge
• Cleanses up after customers
• Washes glassware and utensils after each use.
• Maintains a clean working area by sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, cleaning of glass doors and windows, etc. if required.
• Ensures that toiletries and supplies don’t run out of stock
• Handles any other duty as assigned by the manager.

6. SWOT Analysis

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is in business to provide virtual reality arcade facility for gamers in Santa Fe – New Mexico and at the same time to make profits. We are aware that there are competitions in the industry which is why we took out time to conduct an effective SWOT Analysis before investing our hard – earned money into the business.

We know that if we get things right before starting our virtual reality arcade lounge, we will not have to struggle before attract clients and building our customer base to a level where we can easily breakeven in record time. We hired the services of a HR and Business consultant with bias in business structuring to help us conduct SWOT analysis for our organization and he did a pretty good job for us.

Here is a of the result we got from the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC;

One of the obvious strengths that will definitely stand as a plus for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is the fact that our facility is centrally located in a densely populated area in Santa Fe – New Mexico; our location is in fact one of our major strengths.

We equally have a team of highly qualified professionals who will work with our clients and lastly our wide range of VR games are amongst the best that anybody living in Santa Fe – New Mexico can get; they are highly entertaining, easy to use and highly reliable.

We critically looked into our Business model and we were able to identify two major weakness. One is the fact that we are a new business and the second is the fact that we may not have the financial resources required to match up with existing virtual reality arcade lounges when it comes to employing experts in the industry and generating the needed hype that can drive traffic towards our lounge.

• Opportunities:

We are centrally located in one of the busiest and densely populated areas in Santa Fe – New Mexico and we are open to all the available opportunities the city has to offer. We will be open 24 hours in a day during weekends (Fridays to Sundays) and from 6:00 am to 12 midnight from Mondays to Thursdays giving us the advantage to leverage on any available opportunity.

Recent studies show that operators will continue to suffer under the weight of competition from substitute forms of entertainment like home video game consoles, the internet, online gaming and MPX players. Manufacturers will need to re-invent specific games that can only be enjoyed in arcades in order to generate positive revenue.

Still, the rising cost of machines, manufacturing decline in product innovation will limit the number of operators that are able to compete hence posing a threat to our business, and lastly, the emergence of new competitors within the same location where our virtual reality arcade lounge is located.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

If you are conversant with the trend in this industry, you will notice that competition from home video game systems continues to impede the industry’s performance, with the popularity of traditional arcades dwindling. Arcades have attempted to maintain their profits by introducing food and beverage sales to their services, but this strategy has not proved to be effective overall.

Since the early 1990s, growth in home video game consoles has been a major factor in the industry’s decline, and online gaming has followed, offering gamers the opportunity to compete with other individuals without leaving their homes. Furthermore, with discretionary spending falling, families are opting to save money by skipping trips to arcade, food and entertainment complexes.

As a result of these negative trends, operators are attempting to reclaim some of their previous popularity by investing into restaurants and improving their existing premises. Still, the number of establishments is expected to decline over the next five years, with many businesses expected to close in the midst of reduced consumer spending and poor credit conditions.

Employment is expected to decline as well, though an increase in the number of food service options within arcade complexes has prevented a sharper drop. Wages are also estimated to fall in the coming year. As virtual reality arcade lounges grow, it becomes necessary for them to develop new service offerings or install new facilities that will help them attract more people.

Little wonder some virtual reality arcade lounges now have fresh juice and smoothie bars, and retail food and drinks within their facility to encourage people to relax and socialize. In order words, it is very important for VR lounges to continue to improvise if they want to grow their business.

8. Our Target Market

Aside from teenagers and children, the target market for virtual reality arcade lounges cuts across people of different walks of life. The fact that people visit virtual reality lounges for various reasons makes marketing the business interesting. These are the category of people that we intend marketing our VR center to;

• High school students
• Applicants/School Leavers
• Sports Men and Women
• College Students
• Corporate organizations looking towards hosting team building office parties, corporate outing or offsite event
• Event planning organizations looking towards hosting birthday parties and private events

Our Competitive Advantage

The Arcade, Food and Entertainment Complexes industry is indeed a prolific and highly competitive industry. Clients will only patronize your lounge if they are comfortable with the VR games you have or if you can provide the enabling environment and facility for them to socialize and get entertained.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is centrally located in a densely populated – residential area in Santa Fe – New Mexico. We equally have a team of highly qualified professionals who will work with all our clients and make it easier and comfortable when they patronize our virtual reality arcade lounge.

So also, our VR headsets, consoles and game machines are amongst the best that anybody living in Santa Fe – New Mexico can get; they are easy to use and highly reliable.

Lastly, our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the Arcade, Food and Entertainment Complexes industry and we are going to ensure that we do all it takes to attract individuals, groups and corporate clients on a regular basis.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will generate income by offering the following services;

10. Sales Forecast

We are well positioned to take on the available market in Santa Fe – New Mexico and on our online platforms and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income/profits from the first six months of operation and grow the business and our clientele base.

We have been able to examine the Arcade, Food and Entertainment Complexes industry – market, we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. Below are the sales projection for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC, it is based on the location of our virtual reality arcade lounge facility and the wide range of VR games, foods and drinks that we will be offering;

• First Fiscal Year (FY1): $280,000
• Second Fiscal Year (FY2): $350,000
• Third Fiscal Year (FY3): $500,000

N.B : This projection was done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and natural disasters within the period stated above. There won’t also be any major competitor offering same additional services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

Our marketing strategies will be directed towards achieving specific objectives that will support the strategic goals of the organization. The truth is that all that we do will be geared towards creating new market channels, increasing sales and increase our market share.

At Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC, our marketing strategies will be consistent throughout the marketing mix and we will take into consideration product improvement, promotion, and price. As part of our sales and marketing strategies, we will pay attention to the promotion of our virtual reality arcade lounge so as to attract people to make use of our facility.

Part of the marketing and sales strategies that we will adopt are;

• Open our virtual reality arcade lounge with a big party in other to attract residents who are our first target
• Advertise our virtual reality arcade lounge on national dailies, local TV and radio stations
• Promote our virtual reality arcade lounge online via our official website and all available social media platforms
• Introduce our virtual reality arcade lounge by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to sports clubs, schools, corporate organizations, households and key stake holders in Santa Fe – New Mexico
• Print out fliers and business cards and strategically drop them in offices, libraries, public facilities and train stations et al.
• Making our first impression count positively to those making use of our virtual reality arcade lounge for the first time
• Make use of attractive hand bills to create awareness and also to give direction to our lounge
• Adopt direct mailing coupon marketing approach
• Position our signage/flexi banners at strategic places in and around Santa Fe – New Mexico
• Create a loyalty plan that will enable us reward our consistent clients especially those that registered as a family or as a group
• Engage on roadshows within our neighborhood to create awareness for our virtual reality arcade lounge.

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with our branding and publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the hearts of our target market. We are set to become the number one choice in the whole of Santa Fe – New Mexico which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our lounge.

Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC;

• Place adverts on both print (community based newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community based gaming or sport events and competitions
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our brand
• Install our Bill Boards in strategic locations all around Santa Fe – New Mexico
• Engage in roadshow from time to time in targeted neighborhoods all around Santa Fe – New Mexico
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas all around Santa Fe – New Mexico
• List Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC on local directories/yellow pages
• Advertise our virtual reality arcade lounges in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site.
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our corporate logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

Since the bulk of our customers comes from the middle class, it is advisable to set our prices on the moderate side. We will not allow the drive to recoup our money fast tempt us to set prices that can scare our customers off.

In view of that, our pricing system is going to be based on what is obtainable in the industry, we don’t intend to charge more (except for premium and customized services) and we don’t intend to charge less than what our competitors are charging.

Be that as it may, we have put plans in place to offer discount services once in a while and also to reward our loyal customers especially when they refer clients to us or when they register as a family or a group.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation of the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via mobile money
• Payment via Point of Sales Machines (POS Machines)
• Payment via check

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our clients make payments without any stress on their part. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

From our market survey and feasibility studies, we have been able to come up with a detailed budget for establishing a standard virtual reality arcade lounge in Santa Fe – New Mexico and here are the key areas where we will spend our startup capital;

These is the key areas where we will spend our startup capital on;

• The total fee for registering the Business in the United States of America – $750.
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits – $1,500.
• Marketing promotion expenses (8,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of – $10,000.
• The total cost for hiring Business Consultant – $2,000.
• The amount needed for the purchase of insurance policy covers (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $15,800.
• The total cost for the purchase of accounting software, CRM software and Payroll Software – $3,000
• The total cost for leasing facility for the virtual reality arcade lounge – $70,000.
• The total cost for facility remodeling – $30,000.
• Other start-up expenses including stationery – $1000
• Phone and utility deposits – $3,500
• Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) – $40,000
• The cost for Start-up inventory – $15,000
• The cost for Start-up inventory (food and drinks et al) – $10,000
• Storage hardware (bins, rack, shelves, food case) – $3,720
• The cost for counter area equipment (counter top, sink, ice machine, etc.) – $9,500
• The cost for store equipment (cash register, security, ventilation, signage) – $13,750
• The cost for acquiring LED TVs, computers, Xbox stations, comfortable chairs, tables, Air Conditions, Shelve for stocking VR high-end headset like HTC’s Vive or the Oculus Rift, consoles, games and VR games accessories amongst others. – $50,000
• The cost for the purchase of furniture and gadgets (Computers, Printers, Telephone, TVs, Sound System, snooker board, tables and chairs et al) – $4,000.
• The cost of Launching a Website – $600
• The cost for our grand opening party – $15,000
• Miscellaneous – $5,000

We would need an estimate of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($350,000) to successfully launch a medium but standard and well – equipped virtual reality arcade lounge in the United States of America.

Generating Funds/Startup Capital for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will be owned and managed by Mr. Solomon Boston and his immediate family members. They are the sole financier of the business which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the startup capital for the business to just three major sources.

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
• Generate part of the startup capital from friends and other extended family members
• Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility).

N.B: We have been able to generate about $100,000 (Personal savings $70,000 and soft loan from family members $30,000) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $250,000 from our bank. All the papers and documents have been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

Part of the plans we have in place to sustain Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is to ensure that we continue to make available a wide range of VR games, deliver quality services, improvise on how to do things faster and cheaper. We are not going to relent in providing conducive environment for our workers and also the required trainings that will help them deliver excellent services at all times.

From our findings, another factor that kills new business such as ours is financial leakages. In order to plug financial leakages, the management of Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC adopted the use of payment machine and accounting software to run the business.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner.

We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check: Completed
• Business Registration: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
• Securing Point of Sales (POS) Machines: Completed
• Opening Mobile Money Accounts: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Acquiring facility and remodeling the facility to fit into a standard virtual reality arcade lounge : In Progress
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating capital from family members: Completed
• Applications for Loan from the bank: In Progress
• writing of business plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents and other relevant Legal Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Printing of Packaging and Promotional Materials: In Progress
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the needed VR headsets, consoles, games and accessories, electronic appliances, office appliances and suppliers: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: Completed
• Creating Awareness for the business both online and in the neighborhood: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement (License): Secured
• Opening party/launching party planning: In Progress

More on Technology

• Business Plans Handbook
• Business Plans - Volume 01
• Virtual Reality v2 Business Plan

Virtual Reality

BUSINESS PLAN

C INE M EDIA S TUDIOS , I NC .

37404 Bedlington Park PI. Bedlington, WA 56390

June 23, 1992

CineMedia Studios is an aggressive developer of unique virtual reality entertainment products. Catering to the intelligent user seeking a game with intellect, it is seeking additional capital to fund more projects in its already well-received line. Following is an outline of a progressive company plan that can provide insight into product development and marketing .

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Present situation, financial projections, product/service description, interactive movie marketing, technology development & acquisition, conclusions and summary.

In 1990, CineMedia Studios was formed to fill the void in the marketplace for intelligent, sophisticated, interactive entertainment. The studio has grown to create world-class, interactive multimedia software products designed to take advantage of the rapidly expanding market. CineMedia Studios follows an artistic vision of interactive storytelling and entertainment, defining new boundaries of personal involvement with computer-based cinema. It continually explores the territory of this new media, charting ways to bring together user interaction, video, text, graphics, animation, music and sound.

CineMedia Studios now intends to capitalize on the immediate opportunities for growth in this explosive market by building our business to the next tier, expanding our operations to encompass publishing as well as production, and significantly increasing the number of innovative titles we produce each year.

For the last several years, this industry has been geared towards children, and sales of computer games and equipment have risen steadily. Unfortunately, parents have found it much more difficult to find computer software that will challenge as well as entertain. This trend will continue as the Nintendo generation grows up; one need only take a look at all of the computers being used in classrooms around the country to see the potential adult market.

CineMedia Studios believes adults are hungry for intelligent, interactive entertainment that takes advantage of the computer but jettisons the adolescent trappings of computer and video games. The advent of the large installed base of CD-ROM drives coupled with the increased sophistication of computer technology has now made the delivery of this kind of content possible. According to a new study done by Simba Information, Inc., the market for consumer-based CD-ROM titles is expected to double this year, generating over $300 million. With the increased penetration of CD-ROM drives leaving consumers searching for more diverse content, audiences are clearly ready for the titles that CineMedia creates.

In the past, CineMedia Studios has developed distribution arrangements in order to produce our interactive software. We now seek capital to develop our own titles, and to establish a publishing arm. This will solidify the future of our development, and is designed to capitalize on the enormous opportunity in this industry - one that, like the golden age of Hollywood, may never come again.

Our company developed The Lunacy of Ronald, which sold out of its initial run by the end of 1993. We have operated at a break-even position ever since because every dollar we make is immediately put back into the development of the company and additional software products. Revenue projected for fiscal year 1995 is expected to be $2,000,000. Annual growth is projected to be at least 50-60% per year through 1996. We are now ready to expand our operation to achieve maximum growth in the next five years.

CineMedia Studios' target market includes educated adults ages 18 to 45 who have the latest in computer technology available in their homes and a disposable income. This combines the current market of "early adopters" with females 21-40 and college-educated families with growing children.

Our strategy for dominating the competition is through the continued development of products, each as entertaining and technologically advanced as the last. Future products, will be strategically designed to chart a course for the market, and then follow up with products that will capture the interest of our audience again and again, building brand awareness and encouraging repeat customers.

Our work on CD-ROM has already broken new ground and will continue to lead the industry in interactive cinema. Our competition is just now entering the market and must develop the expertise and experience we already bring to our titles. The ability to develop award-winning interactive films from the ground up is unique to CineMedia. Our customers expect intelligent, engrossing entertainment and leading-edge technology when they reach for our products. Since our products take a completely different approach of the traditional computer game, we've found a niche others have not been able to capture.

We have just completed the development of Astral Gate: No One Sleeps Here, a full-length, interactive movie. The press we've received for this product has been voluminous, and our proprietary method of presentation, Absolute Cinema (patent pending), is setting the standard for interactive movie entertainment.

All products from CineMedia Studios are protected by trademark, copyright laws, and patents.

We are currently developing two titles, Astral Gate II and Gateways, an interactive movie theater environment that contains ten interactive films: six new films and four others that have already garnered multiple awards, including two Best of Shows at Quick Time™ Festivals.

In addition to our existing products, we have written treatments for another dozen software products that will build on the technology available and the demands of the market. We also have a project list of seventy other titles.

Other services include teaching and speaking engagements by our CEO and founder, James St. Clair. We are also beginning to involve other members of our organization in these capacities, including our resident composer, our computer programming team, and our award-winning digital architect.

CineMedia has been watching the movement of the interactive industry, and we have now decided to move into a strong growth phase, both to keep up with the sheer number of CD-ROM titles being distributed every year, and to capitalize on the current market opportunities for a company such as ours. This approach is generating a tremendous amount of interest throughout our industry. For example, CineMedia's recent signing with the Agency for the Performing Arts in Hollywood resulted in coverage on the front page of the Business Section in the Los Angeles Times Sunday edition.

Responses from customers and the press indicate that our software titles are enjoying an excellent reputation, and a shelf life that is far above average. Inquiries from prospective customers suggest a considerable demand. Relationships with leading retailers, manufacturers and other distributors substantiate the expectation of CineMedia Studios for rapid growth and accomplishment in our industry.

Our current objective is to people the company into a prominent market position. We feel that within two years CineMedia Studios will be in a suitable position for even greater expansion or an initial public offering. To accomplish this goal we have developed a comprehensive plan to intensify and accelerate our marketing and sales activities, product engineering and development, and customer service.

We also intend to take on a strategic partner, either a distributor or a publisher, who can guide us into the future while providing us with some of the necessary services that CineMedia inherently avoids. We will implement a publishing division designed to bring unique, marketable titles to an expanding audience. Our partner will help get these properties into retail channels in a time when shelf space is becoming scarce, and will also help us achieve our goal of marketing our titles through innovative sales channels.

To implement our two-year plan, we require an initial investment of $2 million, followed by a second tier funding of $6-10 million for the following purposes:

• Develop ten new innovative, interactive software titles for the mainstream market.
• Solidify relationships with strong strategic partners/distributors, exploring innovative new sales channels.
• Hire and develop a small, focused publishing team that will bring in new products and collaborate with the marketing department to sell them through known or unique channels.
• Develop a campaign to promote our current products and services, in order to maximize sales, educating and exciting our customers as we go.
• Augment company staff to support and sustain prolonged growth under the new marketing plan.
• Increase Research & Development to create additional technologies as well as to further fine-tune our competitive advantages through our existing proprietary software tools.

Our Management team consists of seven men and women:

James St. Clair , MFA, is our founder, CEO, and Artistic Director. His background consists of over ten years' experience as an award-winning actor, director and author combined with eight years' computer experience. He is now on the faculty of San Diego State University's Multimedia Studios Program and a coveted lecturer all over the world.

Evelyn Halistrom , President, has seven years' experience in sales and marketing and single-handedly propelled CineMedia from a two-person operation to the leading-edge growth company it is today.

Katherine Mailor , Executive Vice-President, serves as an integral part of the day-to-day management of the company, acting as both Director of Human Resources and Production Coordinator.

Jack Lockheart , Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer, has fourteen years of sales and marketing experience in various arenas, including the Live Aid Concert where he raised over $20 million, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and most recently, major motion pictures.

Diane Armstrong , Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, has seven years of financial, corporate development, management and systems consulting experience; in her last position, she worked with American General Life Insurance Company.

Thomas Calloway , Vice-President of Technology, has twelve years' experience in systems engineering and design, including nine years with NASA and other aerospace development companies.

Michael Peters , Vice President of Audio Production, is a musician with twenty years' experience in the music industry. He composed, arranged, performed, recorded, produced and engineered the complete soundtracks for both of our interactive films.

In addition, our Advisory Council offers outside management advice and consultation. This nine member council provides tremendous support for management decisions and creativity. A list of council members is available on request.

Overall, our company can be characterized as a high profile producer of worldclass interactive multimedia entertainment.

The fundamental thrust of our marketing strategy in the short term involves reaching the audience searching for intelligent adult entertainment, through traditional software retail stores as well as untapped channels.

In the near future, we plan to lead the industry in the production of interactive movies for television and theater, and computer platforms. We anticipate a campaign aimed at filmgoers, and intend to reach this market segment by placing a variety of advertisements in industry publications and mailing a full-color catalog to retail outlets every three months.

A partial list of current customers incudes:

• Warner Music Enterprises, Inc. (client)
• Arthur Anderson Consulting, Inc. (client)
• Media Vision, Inc. (distributor)
• Micro Warehouse, Inc. (catalog distributor)
• Tiger Software (retailer)
• Educorp, Inc. (retailer)

Also, we are targeting Europe as a strong future market: a deal is being negotiated for distribution and localization of The Lunacy of Ronald throughout Japan and Australia, and 35,000 copies of Astral Gate I: No One Sleeps Here have already been shipped overseas, resulting in very favorable press.

Based on conservative estimates, CineMedia Studios' asset base approximates $3,000,000, including cash, receivables, equipment and the value of copyrights and patents pending. In just two years we will have grossed $28,000,000 in sales and our investors will be able to collect a return on investment within five years.

CineMedia Studios' long-term strategy is keyed to the future of interactive media. We are currently pursuing all possible trademarks, copyrights, and patents, in order to increase the value of our intellectual property and our technology. We are already negotiating to license the appropriate material to other companies who seek to duplicate our methods of interactive filmmaking and its related elements.

CineMedia is very aware of the changing face of the industry, and is constantly preparing for the future. For example, raw film assets are archived at the highest possible levels for repurposing in a future iteration of the medium. Possibilities might include a port to another platform, interactive television, and forms of new media that have yet to be invented. Our proprietary perspective-switching technique is ideally suited for feature-like films, delivered via interactive television, and Absolute Cinema is equally appropriate for virtual reality-based programs.

CineMedia Studios is a content producer first and foremost, and until a standard is established, will continue to work on whatever platform is exciting and commercially viable.

CineMedia Studios enjoys an established track record as a unique supplier of interactive entertainment to our audience. By carving the niche in the marketplace for interactive cinema, we intend to continue our advances in the multimedia marketplace with many more exciting entertainment products, geared toward a sophisticated, educated customer.

Market Environment

This fledgling industry is only now beginning to be taken seriously by investors and market forecasters. Fortunately, we had already begun our groundwork over three years ago when interactive multimedia is just beginning to develop and digital video was not yet a reality for the desktop. CineMedia Studios is poised on the cutting edge of a rapidly changing growth environment, better positioned than other companies who are just now facing the challenges of this industry.

Products and Services

We currently have two titles on the market: the critically acclaimed interactive novel, The Lunacy of Ronald and Astral Gate I: No One Sleeps Here, the first interactive movie to take advantage of the technology of Absolute Cinema. (patent pending).

We have just completed work on a Macintosh version of Astral Gate, and by September will have finished. Astral Gate II for the MPC. We are developing an interactive CD-ROM version of Warner Music Enterprises' "rockvideomonthly," which will begin shipping in January, and will start work this fall on The Lunacy of Ronald Book II, which has just received a development contract. We also have twelve products in various stages of development, including four interactive movies. Written treatments for these products are available on request.

Product Life Cycle

Because our work is leading edge, our products have shown themselves to have a long life cycle. For example, The Lunacy of Ronald earned awards a full year after it was introduced and its sales reflected this.

Pricing and Profitability

Current prices are decreasing, but profits are rising far more rapidly. As price points continue to drop, market awareness and profitability will grow.

Current customers are using our products for their own entertainment; our titles have also been used by many professors as teaching tools. Our customers are requesting more of the same — intelligent titles with universal themes.

Distribution

Currently we make available Astral Gate I: No One Sleeps Here through a distributor that does not have right of first refusal on any new products we develop. We distribute The Lunacy of Ronald through various catalog retailers around the world and are about to ink a distribution relationship for this title (a letter of agreement has already been signed).

Our management team is largely inplace. We have proven we have the right talent to develop world-class interactive cinema, and our business, simultaneously. However, as the studio expands, we certainly intend to bring on more strong, dedicated talent, including a COO.

Financial Resources

Current cash available is $55,765

Our Current Ratio is:

Assets/Liabilities=1.8:1

Our Quick Ratio is:

(Cash & Equivalents + Accounts Receivable +Notes Receivable)/Total Current Liabilities = 10:1

The primary objectives of our organization are to:

• Continue to create world-class interactive cinema, literature and entertainment.
• Grow the company in two significant steps that will allow CineMedia to go public within two years, ensuring that investors receive a substantial return on investment within five years.
• Expand our technological and employee base as the market expands, exploring new arenas in the interactive multimedia frontier.
• Create a commercial niche as creators of leading-edge titles.
• Produce unique, highly-marketable products resulting in a library of titles that will drive this industry forward.
• Establish a marketing and communications model that exploits untapped new and existing revenue channels for multimedia titles.

Business Goals

The business goals of CineMedia Studios, in order of their importance are as follows:

• Quality Products. CineMedia is in the business of producing the highest quality products. This is our number one priority and our greatest strength.
• Profits/Customer Satisfaction. We must remain profitable to sustain the company in this rapidly changing industry; with our software products, we are fulfilling a customer demand that others in this field have not been able to meet.
• Growth. We realize the vital importance of growth at this phase in the marketing cycle in interactive multimedia products. We would like to take CineMedia Studios public within two years -our interim plan includes employee and market share growth to accomplish our goal of producing at least ten titles each year.
• Management. Up to now, our company is been self-managed, but we recognize the need for a special type of developer management structure as growth takes hold. When small developers are purchased by large distributors, we have often witnessed the unfortunate drop in product quality; the management paradigm is entirely different, and developers cannot operate within the confines of a traditional corporate management structure. We, therefore, intend to add additional strong management personnel to allow us to remain selfmanaged within a more non-traditional structure.
• People. The people who work for CineMedia Studios are the best in their fields, and we not only utilize their specific industry skills, we incorporate their special talents into our company's vision.

Based on our previous work and the talented management of this company, we are poised to create inroads in the technology of this medium, where others are just now learning the basics. Our work is innovative and marketable because we have the industry experience, technological innovation, and creative content, combined with marketing and management savvy to stay on the leading edge in a rapidly changing business.

The New Market

The market for interactive cinema will be comprised of the "early adopters" of new media, and traditional moviegoers who are open to new forms of entertainment. These will include both men and women, both game-players and computer neophytes. Just as the home market is expanding to become the fastest-growing segment of computer users (Multimedia News, June, 1994), so is the market for interactive cinema growing to accommodate users who now have something intelligent, innovative, and engaging to purchase.

Interactive cinema is certainly not designed to replace linear film. With the advent of Hollywood, movies did not replace the traditional theatre, which remains a worldwide form of entertainment after seventy years of filmmaking. However, movies became a distinct, profitable venture, and found overwhelming acceptance despite the early years of nay-sayers and the now apocryphal stories of people running screaming from the theater because they thought the locomotive would run them down. When people have something to watch, they will begin to embrace interactive film as an alternative, and even an enhancement, to traditional movies; the positive international attention CineMedia has received for its work only endorses this theory.

Position for Growth

• Understand customers, competition and industry
• Develop product/channel/customer congruency, & new revenue channels
• Achieve short-term goals while strategically planning for long-term
• Monitor and manage product life cycles
• Monitor growth by fields of interest
• Balance people/management/business goals
• Transition from single-point to distributed management
• Hire the best people
• Grow to 50 employees
• Continue to develop our vision

Within the next year, we will ally ourselves with a major motion picture studio or a major name director, in order to fiirther facilitate the acceptance of interactive films as true entertainment. Also, we will take on the first portion of growth capital as CineMedia charts its course for the future.

We expect to develop a market niche dominated by CineMedia Studios, Inc. We will sign at least one strategic partnership with a distributor this year, in addition to finding distributors for specific products. We will work with various companies as we search for a distributor who understands and believes in our family of products and the company vision.

Projecting Returns in a Growth Industry

According to a study completed in June 1994 by Frost & Sullivan, an international high-technology research firm, the U.S. market for multimedia hardware and software will more than quadruple from $4.9 billion in 1993 to over $22 billion by the end of the decade.

"End-users are increasingly aware of the impact multimedia can have on arange of applications prominently including training and education, business presentations and home entertainment," Frost & Sullivan note. "And multimedia's ability to bring together sound, animation, motion video and still images together with text on a PC or workstation will eventually make it the dominant form of computing."

In this type of growth industry, financial projections can be difficult to make. The urge is to be optimistic, and in the short history of multimedia, not unfounded. A long-term track record has not yet been established, although all signs suggest massive growth.

With the success of the video game markets and sales in the billions of dollars, the potential profits into the year 2000 are very lucrative indeed. All of this movement in the industry by hardware developers is excellent for CineMedia Studios. The demand for content to fill the vacuum established by better hardware is already a familiar cry; the need for more entertaining and unique software to run on these machines will soon be overwhelming.

Use of Funding Proceed

CineMedia Studios has developed a line of interactive multimedia software products that is entertaining, leading-edge, and unique, pioneering its own niche in the industry. In order to service the identified target markets and the potential markets with these exceptional products, significant capital infusion is required.

Specifically, the required $2 million will be allocated appropriately to:

Financial Reports

The following pages contain historical financial information, current figures (as 4/30/94), and projections. These reports are included:

• CineMedia Studios Balance Sheet 1992, 1993
• CineMedia Studios Balance Sheet as of 4/30/94
• CineMedia Studios Income Statement 1992, 1993
• CineMedia Studios Income Statement (month of 4/94)

Balance Sheet

Balance sheet

As of 4/30/94.

Income and Expense Statement (1992-1993)

Income Statement 4/1/94-4/30/94

"Generally, management of many is the same as management of few. It is a matter of organization."

—Sun Tzu, The Art of War

How We Started

CineMedia Studios was founded in 1990 by James St. Clair. He was joined by Evelyn Hallstrom, Michael Peters, Thomas Calloway and Sarah St. Clair, who formed a general partnership in 1992 after realizing the work they were doing in interactive multimedia was unique and marketable.

On October 1, 1993, the partnership incorporated into a C corporation. This was the most appropriate move for the company given its growth potential and current exposure.

Founding Partners

Of the twenty-three people who make up the company staff, there are four founders who hold the following positions:

James St. Clair, Artistic Director and CEO Evelyn Hallstrom, President Thomas Calloway, Vice President of Technology Michael Peters, Vice President of Audio Production, Composer

Of the five founders, each has been provided with a percentage of the original stock issue. Sarah St. Clair serves on our advisory council, but is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the company.

Management Team Overview

Three other members of our staff, while not among the original founders, are an invaluable part of our management team.

Katherine Mailor, Executive Vice President Diane Armstrong, Vice President of Finance, CFO Jack Lockheart, Vice President of Marketing, CMO

The founders and key managers of CineMedia Studios have combined experience exceeding forty years in the artistic, computer and business industries.

The strength of the CineMedia management team stems from synergistic expertise in artistic, management and technical areas. This has produced outstanding results over the past two years.

The leadership and alignment characteristics of CineMedia Studios' management team have resulted in broad and flexible goal setting, to meet the ever changing demands of the fast-paced marketplace requiring our products. This is evident when the team responds to situations that necessitate new and innovative solutions.

Responsibilities

James St. Clair , CEO and Artistic Director

Conceiving, writing, directing and producing all interactive films completed by CineMedia. Managing artistic side of organization.

Evelyn Hallstrom , President

Strategic and organizational planning and management, organizing, actuating and controlling business side of organization. Point person for new business ventures and company growth.

Katherine Mailor , Executive Vice President

Managing all human resource functions for company, coordinating all aspects of production, acting as liaison between Artistic Director and production teams, President and employees. In charge of special projects as requested by Artistic Director and/or President.

Thomas Calloway , Vice President of Technology

Managing all product technology development, including quality control, product design, new product development improvement, and improvements on existing products.

Diane Armstrong , Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer

Managing working capital including receivables, inventory, cash and marketable securities. Performing financial forecasting, including capital budgeting, cash budget, pro forma financial statements, and external financing requirements.

Jack Lockheart , Vice President of Communications, Chief Marketing Officer

Managing market planning, advertising, public relations, sales promotions, and merchandising. Identifying new markets (including foreign markets), corporate scope and market research.

Michael Peters , Vice President of Audio Production

Composing, arranging, performing, recording, producing and engineering all soundtracks and music for CineMedia Studios' interactive films. Managing all sound production and editing for films, as well as other employees in sound department.

Outside Support

Our Advisory Council, including highly qualified business and industry experts, assists our management team in making appropriate decisions in order to take the most effective actions.

Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors is made up of the original founding partners and our Chief Financial Officer.

People/Talent We Require

CineMedia Studios' development team recognizes that additional staff is required to properly support marketing, sales, systems administration, and support functions.

Currently, CineMedia is composed of twenty-three people; a total of up to fifty will be required to meet the demands of the projected market over the next five years. Our company expects to expand in the following direction:

Government Regulations

CineMedia Studios is operating in the multimedia/film industry, and we are under regulation of the State Licensing Bureau, Incorporation law, the IRS, and the Screen Actors Guild.

Currently, all appropriate legal requirements have been met, and all appropriate licenses, patents, and copyrights have been applied for and are in the process of being granted. When we prepare our initial public offering, licenses with the SEC will be processed.

Proprietary information pertaining to product proposals is available to investors upon signature of a Non-disclosure Agreement.

Our principle product, interactive multimedia software, currently includes The Lunacy of Ronald, Astral Gate I: No One Sleeps Here (MPC & Macintosh), and IMAGIN action: the Art of Storytelling.

Under production at this time is the sequel to Astral Gate, called Astral Gate II: Incubus. Also in production is an interactive cineplex theater called Gateways that will feature ten films, four of which have already garnered multiple awards including Best of Show, Best Narrative Film, and Best Other Film at the First Annual Quick Time Film Festival; Best of Show and Best Interactive at the Second Annual Quick Time Movie Festival; Best Narrative at the second Quick Time Film Festival, and an Award of Merit at the 1993 In Vision Multimedia Awards.

All of our current and future titles offer intelligent, stimulating entertainment for a mainstream audience prepared for something besides the traditional computer game.

Interactive movies work in many ways, but all allow the user to affect the movement and experience of the story/movie. Your choices ultimately determine the outcome of the story, or in Absolute Cinema, the reactions of the characters you encounter. This individual control is a capability unique to Virtual Cinema and is greatly enjoyed by our customers.

Current Products/Services

The Lunacy of Ronald Based on the story of a knight in the service of Charlemagne, this interactive novel is told through several different points of view through which the reader can move at will. Each character tells their own, often contradictory, version of the story. Ronald uses 256-color paintings, animation, Quick Time video, original music, professional "radio theatre" narration, hyper textual links and a complete soundtrack to transport you to the world of Charlemagne's France.

The Lunacy of Ronald is the winner of numerous awards including Top 50 CDROMs (#12) Mac User Magazine; Best Interactive, Quick Time Movie Festival, 1992; Best Interactive, Quick Time Film Festival, 1993; and Best of Show at the Dot. Pixel. Image National Graphic Design Contest, 1993.

Astral Gate 1: No One Sleeps Here In this interactive science fiction story world, the viewer assumes the perspective of Drew Griffin, a young medical student stationed on an alien planet. Earth's armed forces are there, at least officially, to protect a vital mission: to mine material needed to counteract terrible ecological damage, wrought by centuries of mankind's destructive use of technology. As Griffin, the viewer interacts with complex characters in situations that demand a search for truth far more sophisticated than virtual reality (VR) battle suits and seemingly dangerous aliens might suggest.

Astral Gate was named a Business Week Best Product of the Year the month it was released, and has gone on to win a silver medal for Best Interactive Movie at the 1994 In Vision Multimedia Awards, and a Multi Media World Reader's Choice Award for Best Interactive Movie.

IMAGIN action: the Art of Storytelling The first product developed by CineMedia Studios, features interactive fiction, art, political satire and music in a magazine format. Winner of numerous awards, including Editor's Choice for A+/In Cider Magazine and the Mac User Top 100. This product is on hiatus until resources can be devoted to its production needs, but will return as a formidable contender in the newly emerging interactive magazine format, where it was the first pioneer.

Work For Hire CineMedia now accepts work for hire on a project-by-project basis, as a way of expanding our horizons and bringing in additional funds. Our current project is " rock video monthly" for Warner Music Enterprises, a monthly CD-ROM that will ship in up to five different formats. CineMedia has planned the interactive interface design from the ground up, and will also perform the work each month on the CD-ROMs, which will be shipped to an installed base of CD-ROM owners for a nominal fee. CineMedia has already been approached by two other companies to perform similar tasks for them.

For most customers, our products pay for themselves immediately in terms of hours of sophisticated, exciting entertainment not previously available. Our software is robust, requiring minimum maintenance, and customers are beginning to see a brand name identity they can count on in CineMedia's titles, and are starting to anticipate a certain quality of product from us — an expectation we encourage.

Key Benefits of All Products/Services

The major benefit for customers of our Absolute Cinema products is entirely entertainment-based: complete immersion into the story worlds we create, while allowing the user freedom to experience the story in their own personal way. Our titles offer true interaction with filmic experiences that are world-class, entertaining and exciting.

Product/Service Life Cycle

Our products have been on the shelves for a relatively short period of time, but judging by the continued press coverage for Ronald, and its recent new distribution deal, the life cycle for our software is three to five years. This is mostly due to the fact that nothing else like it exists currently. Over the next few years, many other developers will attempt to produce products to compete with ours, so this shelf life may decrease.

In the meantime, we are developing at least four titles or ports by the end of the year, and we will continue to produce many new products each year to keep ahead of the competition. By bringing on a significant amount of capital by the end of the year, we anticipate being able to grow the company to achieve this level of commitment to the industry.

Planned Products

CineMedia Studios plans to continually develop new products and enhance existing products. New products currently being developed include Gateways and Astral Gate II: Incubus, plus ports of Astral Gate I and Gateways to other viable platforms. The Lunacy of Ronald has just been ported to the MPC platform, and the new, hybrid MPC/Mac version of the product will include Quick Time 2.0 for the Macintosh, complete with full-screen video and MIDI sound.

Concepts for our next generation of interactive products include a ghostly western, Western InSpecter; a swashbuckler, Barbary Coast; a "Three Musketeers" film, Sword & Saber; a hard-hitting modern action film called Mission; and a rock music flight simulator game called RockFlight. A complete listing of our more than seventy project ideas is available on request.

Advertising & Promotion

CineMedia Studios' titles are vastly different from the traditional CD-ROM games. This presents a marketing challenge, approached by highlighting the unique product features, for example, interactive movies and Absolute Cinema. To illustrate, CineMedia's campaign for Astral Gate I & II, which will be presented as true interactive movies, is outlined below. This includes all publicity and marketing efforts.

Distributors often encourage collaboration with us, because they recognize that the emerging market niche of interactive movies requires unique marketing techniques. As detailed below, we will guide our distributors in defining an aspect of their publishing division as "interactive movies."

General Positioning Ideas For Astral Gate (Mac) and Astral Gate II

• Highlight interactive movie features and Absolute Cinema
• Overcome consumer expectations of Astral Gate being game through initiating a movie image campaign
• Create hype over Absolute Cinema as a hook for publicity and consumer attention
• Add marketing and publicity milestones to title production to properly and completely develop our CD-ROM titles
• Conduct interactive movie "screening" promotions in conjunction with national retailers

Design & Advertising

• Design all product packaging and advertising to reflect movies, not games
• Offer distinctive product packaging
• Launch publicity campaigns for each title as if they were movie
• Produce electronic press kits for national distribution, just as if this were a feature film
• Bundle CineMedia titles with the distributor hardware (if possible), then spotlight the benefits of true interactive movies playing well on new home entertainment multimedia systems

At CineMedia, we are already moving forward with many interactive movie marketing strategies. We have created an electronic press kit (EPK) and seen immediate success, with segments airing on national and local broadcast media. Publicity events focused on "the movie" and Absolute Cinema angles have earned us great attention. Also, we have conceptual designs for packaging, and overall promotional program ideas that will affect the thrust of "interactive movies" in the industry.

We know distributors and other publishers recognize the success of emphasizing the movie marketing angle from traditional linear films. CineMedia offers strong design, advertising development and communications services for all products and seeks financial support program ideas that will affect the thrust of "interactive movies" in the industry.

We know distributors and other publishers recognize the success of emphasizing the movie marketing angle from traditional linear films. CineMedia offers strong design, advertising development and communications services for all products and seeks financial support for these efforts as a part of the complete development of CD-ROM titles.

A complete plan of marketing and communication milestones is under development for inclusion as a part of our future product development. This will be presented to the distributors and publishers of all CineMedia products. This plan will add additional revenue and advantageously position CineMedia and its products in the marketplace.

Selling Tactics

The following is an outline of an interactive movie screening promotion to be sponsored by the distributors and publishers of CineMedia Studios products.

Identify and introduce qualified multimedia users (including prospective system buyers) to the distributor's interactive movies and other CD-ROM titles. Also, offer them incentives for purchasing all the distributor titles (especially CineMedia interactive movie titles), as well as other products, through cosponsoring retailers. Additionally, establish the distributor as specialists in publishing interactive movies. The number one selling point for both movies and CD-ROM titles is word-of-mouth. Nothing accomplishes word-of-mouth better than preview screenings and product sampling.

On a first come, first served basis, our targeted audience is invited to a facility for the distributor's Interactive Movie Premier Screenings. The evening consists of door prizes, limited refreshments, one-night only product sales discounts, sales coupons, and a 90-minute preview of one or more of the distributor's interactive movie titles. This may include an opening of 60-second spots (like coining attractions) of other titles, or new hardware product announcements from the distributor.

• Multimedia screening nights sponsored by the distributor & national retail chains
• One or two interactive movie titles by the distributor are partially screened
• Initial test held in top ten or limited nationwide markets at retailer sites, nearby movie theater, or college campus
• Screening of new (and current) interactive movie titles published by the distributor
• Complete direct-mail, promotion, publicity & advertising campaign in each market

Promotion & Publicity

• Press release distributed nationwide with saturation at local screening markets
• Electronic press kits for feature title(s) distributed to screening market media
• Press representatives on-site at each event stocked with review copies and publicity materials
• Distributor & co-sponsor announcements will be made before the film begins
• Developers attend and demonstrate as appropriate
• Distributor uses passes and event as an incentive to area distributors and local sellers

Promotional Materials

For each screening:

• All materials include the distributor and retailer logos
• Screening passes (mailed, or picked up at participating retailer)
• Survey cards with limited market research question for the distributor & retailer
• Movie programs with the distributor advertisements listing several titles
• Ad posters posted around participating retailer and screening facility
• Movie posters distributed

Advertising

• Cooperative local print and radio advertising campaign
• Databases from registered owners of the distributor & multimedia buyer's club
• Purchased lists
• Print advertising response cards
• 800 number responses
• Retailer's consumer databases
• Online announcement inquiries
• User Group memberships
• Databases of developers whose titles are previewed
• Event site & point of purchase signage

Coupons & Giveaways

• Distributor gifts, door prizes, interactive movie title merchandise, and coupons will be distributed at each event
• Distributor CD-ROM sampler given to guests as they return a completed survey card

Distributor & Coming Attractions

• A medley of movie trailer-style CD-ROM previews by the distributor are run before the main features

Develop a proposal for the most appropriate retail chain (e.g., COMP USA) for co-sponsorship participation. This entire program may be sponsored exclusively by a single publisher (e.g. Viacom Interactive, Electronic Arts) as a vehicle to solidity distributor and retailer relationships in addition to publicity and consumer awareness. After approval in concept, the screening markets would be identified, followed by the selection of a third party promotional agency for implementation.

"Image" Advertising & Limited Sales

Select Print Advertising Campaign 1/3 page size column ads highlighting all current and announcing upcoming releases. Specifying the distributor's 800 number to buy product, CineMedia number for general info; also identifying new project deals, major trade shows and speaking engagements, awards, and company vision. A few possibilities:

• Multimedia World
• Specialty publications

On-line Services Places listing with opportunity to communicate, buy or call us for CineMedia tides and list company vision in every possible area, then keep track and respond promptly!

• America Online
• User Groups

Special targeted advertising efforts and discounted product offers would be made to reach user groups.

Direct Mail Continue to build major database for quick response for moving announcement, new product releases, company vision, CineMedia product owner communique, etc.

Mailings will include

• Reader response cards from print ads and publicity "bingo cards"
• The Lunacy of Ronald registration cards
• Rented mailing lists

Direct Sales

• Catalog sales of The Lunacy of Ronald on a limited basis.
• Response card sales from direct mail
• Sales at trade shows to offset expenses

Trade Shows & Speaking Engagements Several select shows a year. Since James often presents or conducts seminars, shows can easily be chosen to coincide with speaking engagements for maximum exposure.

CineMedia Newsletter One major full-color piece produced bi-annually with an occasional two-color smaller version distributed (four times annually). Distributed to our entire collective database of media, industry, customers and prospects.

Advance Product Demos, Teasers and Broadcast Video For each title we will produce teaser footage and demos to be included into our internal milestone schedule. The distributor will provide demos if they have an installed base of kiosks to be utilized.

Demo & Video Plans

• Video version montage e.g., movie fast-cutting teaser trailer
• Actual title demo 2-3 months in advance to create retailer pull-through

New Business Development

• Music business
• New major projects based on our project proposals
• Greeting cards
• Monitor interactive advertising pursuits
• Entertainment Agencies

Communications

Our CineMedia Studios titles must be presented as interactive movies to consumers, the industry and especially to our publisher. We have repeatedly discovered that we are the best source to introduce titles properly. Therefore, the production/milestone schedule will include communications and marketing elements. This involves incorporating both simple and involved steps into our production schedule. We will schedule steps and projects that will generate abundant resources for advance publicity, market anticipation and ultimately sales.

Press Releases

We will create a schedule for press releases corresponding to product news, shipping releases and all major media events.

A wide variety of publicity materials is available and constantly updated. This includes screen shots, publicity skills and candid shots, sell sheets (one sheets), a standard press kit, and an electronic press kit. The most effective way to maximize the current buzz surrounding multimedia is through personal accessibility and making an abundance of publicity materials available. CineMedia also holds regular media days on the set while shooting our interactive films. These are an integral part of CineMedia's successful publicity campaign.

E.P.K. - Electronic Press Kit

Created in standard feature film publicity format, highlighting Absolute Cinema, the purpose is to stimulate broadcast media and print coverage.

Items for inclusion into title development milestone schedule:

• Product photography
• Media events surrounding production phases
• Main title/logo design
• Step by Step "making of screen captures and PICT files
• Newsworthy software usage, Beta testing (e.g., Adobe, QuickTime, etc.)
• Advance screen shots for 35mm slides
• Demo creation (kiosks, promotional videos)
• Electronic Press Kit development (for each title)
• Copy prepared from storyline for all materials
• Trade show, conference title preview preparation
• Packaging/carton design
• Jewel case insert
• Registration card
• Print advertisement full page layouts
• Suggested Standee, poster, and POP design

CD-ROM buyers are expanding to include computer users of all ages, and even those most familiar with games are reaching out to widen their spectrum. Consumers brought to computer entertainment through Nintendo have grown up, and are starved for something more. This consumer demand added to the exploding installed as of CD-ROM drives leaves an open niche for interactive movies.

Currently, the new media market is broken in to four distinct segments; business, home user, education, and professional. The new media home user markets primarily consist of productivity, entertainment, education, and home business applications.

At the end of 1992, multimedia market share was dominated by the professional market, followed by business, education, and home computer use. By 1996, the home computer user market will be the largest segment.

CineMedia's customers are familiar with movies, demand more intelligent content than the market currently holds, and expect innovative technological artistry. Our studio satisfies these needs.

Competition

Some developers claim they create interactive movies as a selling point. But often the claim of "movie" is where the resemblance to interactive films ends. They produce games with little or no story content. In fact, their addition of video elements, live actors, and a movie declaration typically detracts from what their products really are: games. Though other developers are beginning to come on the scene who are following our lead, CineMedia is the definitive leader in the creation of interactive movies, as exemplified by our recent awards. This is the niche we have created and defined, as we educate consumers about a new type of entertainment. Now it is our intention to own and dominate this niche, evinced by CineMedia's recent signing to a major Hollywood agency, The Agency for Performing Arts. These extensive efforts will lead us to the peak of CD-ROM sales and into interactive TV and beyond.

Responsibilities of the Technology Division

The charter of the Technology Division of CineMedia Studios is:

• To provide the computer-based framework of our interactive titles.
• To provide and maintain the computer environment necessary to build our titles and run our business.
• To provide and implement the strategic plans for positioning our company at the technological forefront of the interactive film niche.

The type of entertainment products that CineMedia Studios creates relies on powerful technology. For the purposes of explanation, these are divided into three primary areas that correspond to the division's charter:

Develop and maintain the software portion of our products.

Develop the software systems that drive our titles This includes building/using proprietary software engines, using third-party title authoring tools and building/using hybrids (generally third-party tools with sections of proprietary software linked in). A large part of this area involves working with the artistic director to define realms of feasibility for envisioned artistic goals.

Testing our products Alpha testing is the responsibility of the Technology division. Beta testing can be handled by the title's distributor (e.g., the Astral Gate series), or can be done on a formal basis with a number of industry contacts who have the necessary skills to beta test.

Maintenance and customer technical support In-house maintenance of title support software is performed in order to build a better foundation for new titles. Any patch-maintenance of title software required to solve current user problems falls under the domain of customer technical support. For our current set of titles, Media Vision has responsibility for full customer support of the Astral Gate series, and Gateways. CineMedia has responsibility for The Lunacy of Ronald, which averages approximately three technical support questions per month, each one resolved without additional software support.

Management of software, hardware and data:

Software tools Used to build our titles, including asset authoring tools, project administration tools, and miscellaneous proprietary tools: the technology division recommends appropriate toolsets and makes purchases after reaching consensus with planners. In some instances, proprietary tools may be developed for in-house use if they cannot be found elsewhere.

Hardware systems Used to build our titles, including computer workstations, networks, video and sound equipment: the technology division recommends appropriate platforms and makes purchases after reaching consensus with planners.

Configuration and maintenance of hardware, software and data Includes data backup, archiving and cataloging, as well as software upgrade and license management. These tasks make up the jobs of system, network and data administration, and are performed in-house.

Maintaining vendor relations Acquire media used by our daily operations, including floppy disks, write-once CD-ROMs and data cartridge tapes. Other video and audio media used by the company are the responsibility of the various departments that use them.

Research and development of enabling and supporting technology.

The early stage of this industry forces developers to explore many of their own methods, to build the technology that enables these methods and supports the final project.

Planning the proper use of our development resources (striking the proper balance between "make versus buy"). It is important for a company of our size that the investments we make in technology development give us what we cannot buy from a third party, and not waste valuable time developing technology that is readily available to us elsewhere.

Maintaining knowledge regarding the state of current software and hardware architectures and development systems. This informs decisions on how to shape our development environment, as well as the plans described above.

In all of these areas, the technology that we develop is designed for internal use only. However, we are open to consider licensing technology to interested parties who may initiate such negotiations. We have already been approached regarding our Absolute Cinema technology. This is very worthwhile for us, as the act of licensing a technology to at least one other agent has the effect of increasing the value of that technology, and thus the value of our company.

In addition, we use other technologies in order to bring our products to market.

CD-ROM disc mass production; printing, cutting and assembly of product boxes; assembly of product with jewel case, product box and shrink wrap. The tasks performed in this area are not performed by the technology division—they are contracted out-of-house, and the distributor of our titles is typically in charge of negotiating and maintaining these contracts.

Develop Versus Acquire

In the first two primary technology areas, we decided whether to develop the system or tool using in-house expertise, or to acquire the system or tool from a third party. The technology division supports these decisions by analyzing costs of development versus acquisition, as well as benefits from owning versus licensing. We do not develop hardware; the decision is purchase versus lease; presently, much of our equipment is leased from an independent vendor.

Research and Development

The technology division supports decisions on hardware acquisition by providing technical and pricing information, but is not soley responsible for all equipment purchase recommendations. Such decisions are made jointly with the company's core team members who do strategic planning.

One of the technology division's primary responsibilities is in the area of longterm strategic planning of technology needs. Responsibilities include:

• Evaluating proposals for new titles to determine technical feasibility and resources required.
• Evaluating new technologies for appropriateness for current and new title work.
• Maintaining a library of software either developed or acquired by us to support title development.

New Titles Under Production

The following titles are currently in production. A document of base technology and enhancements to be developed to support these titles follows.

• Astral Gate II, Incubus for MPC
• Gateways for Macintosh
• Gateways for MPC
• Astral Gate: No One Sleeps Here for Macintosh (just completed)

New Titles Under Evaluation

The technology division is responsible for developing a document of baseline technology required for the following titles, and making recommendations for development versus acquisition when necessary. To illustrate, several examples are listed below:

Technology Base and Enhancements for Astral Gate II for MPC

Astral Gate II will use the same multimedia delivery engine as Astral Gate I. Some of the aspects of the story script require new capabilities to be created for this engine. Following is a list of the three primary features to be added - Ubernarrative, Dreamscape and evolving diary.

Ubernarrative

This term was coined to represent what is typically referred to as a drama's subtext. Here it is an active portion of the narrative that provides an arc over the whole piece, and joins all elements together. The unique aspect of the ubernarrative is that its essence changes in reaction to the viewer's choices, thus providing a subtext that echoes the viewer even as it draws them into the central character's experience — the central character, controlled by the user, is thus tailored to them.

This idea was conceived for Astral Gate I, but was cut from that project due to short development time. Since then, the concept has evolved, from the main character's voice-over thoughts into several new dimensions: colors, textures and music will all be tailored to reflect the user's choices. In addition, certain character interactions will be chosen, based on the current "Uberstate."

The mechanism driving the ubernarrative will be an external database/query system. This maintains a representation of the main character's emotional state, which is driven by the user's choices. Three extremes of emotion are chosen: angry, balanced, and secretive. Balanced is the "content" state, which exists between angry and secretive.

This technology will prove useful for many of our upcoming titles. The process of developing it is helping to bring Absolute Cinema to its full potential.

Primary support required by Ubernarrative: weighted average object functionality, and corresponding database of weights and thresholds.

A new level of user interactivity will be introduced with the ability to move about a landscape of dreams. The viewer will find themselves moving forward through floating images that come to life when approached; if the user continues to explore the moving image, it will enlarge to become a full screen movie, which will play one of the main characters' dreams.

The technology used for the 3D battle sequence in Astral Gate I is being modified to accommodate this dream exploration mechanism. Primary modifications are:

• All current 3D and graphic objects (pyramids, friends, bugs, etc.) will be removed, and there will be no horizon, since the player is meant to be flying through the air.
• Dreams will appear as panels of various size and aspect ratio, above and below the viewer's perspective. This requires texture mapping a movie onto a flat plane in perspective, and has already been developed.
• The viewer will be constantly in motion; the mouse will control turning left/right and flying higher or lower, but there is no need to use arrow keys to initiate forward movement.

The video architecture used for the dreamscape technology will be Microsoft Video for Windows 1.1, which includes a very impressive full-screen full-motion mode that is suitable for the dream compositions.

Primary support required by dreamscape: texture mapping movies onto flat planes is perspective. This is nearly complete.

Evolving Diary

As the story proceeds, the main character's journal will grow to include text that recalls this encounters; the emotions underlying the text will be taken from the Ubernarrative database, and will match the user's style of interacting with the story. In addition, charcoal-like sketches of places and people will be included. These too will vary in nature according to the engine's perception of the viewer's mood: from heavy black rough strokes indicating a reading of anger to finer shadings for a more balanced interpretation. Finally, a sketch of the user's painted "imago" will appear if they choose to create one for themselves.

Primary support required by the evolving diary: true type font functionality; Ubernarrative functionality to select appropriate passages based on viewer's choices.

Technology Base and Enhancements Required for Astral Gate I for Macintosh

There were no significant changes made to Astral Gate I during its port to the Macintosh platform. We made two moderate changes to the video game segment in order to enhance playability. First, we modified the behavior of enemies so that there are fewer of them and they are more difficult to kill, with more interesting behavior for avoiding the player. Second, we reduced the load time of the game from 30 to 2 seconds. Neither of these enhancements added to the time required for porting the entire title. In fact, due to the dedication of the team involved in the work, the product was available for shipping one month ahead of its internal schedule.

Technology Base and Enhancements Required for Gateways for Macintosh

By far, the bulk of Gateways for Macintosh will be realized using existing authoring tools: Macromedia Director 4.0 in conjunction with a simple shell written using HyperCard 2.2 or possibly Super Card 1.6. There is one feature that will require additional software development support — "The Actor Variations" will provide a simple movie editing environment. Super Card is easily capable of programming such a tool, as is HyperCard with the addition of some third party XCMDs.

Technology Base and Enhancements Required for Gateways for MFC

The primary authoring environment for Gateways for MPC will be the multimedia engine developed and enhanced for Astral Gate II. The movie editing functionality will require further tool development, to provide multiple windows and an editing capability.

Development Environment

Currently, the technology division has the following computer platforms at its disposal for software development and testing:

• (3) IBM PC-compatible 486/DX2/66 with CD-ROM and external monitoring for code debugging.
• (4) IBMPC-compatible 486/DX2/66 with CD-ROM.
• (1) IBM PC-compatible 386/SX/33 for low-end platform testing.
• (1) Macintosh Centris 650 with CD-ROM and external monitor for debugging.
• (2) Macintosh Centris 650 with CD-ROM.
• (1) Macintosh Quadra 800 with CD-ROM and large external disks for file service.

The software platform used for development on the PC side is Microsoft Visual C++ with Code View for symbolic debugging and Microsoft Assembler. The code analyzers Bounds Checker and PcLint are used to assure quality. The Defect Control System is used to collect, track and manage errors.

The software platform used for development on the Macintosh side is Apple's Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW) Development System with MacApp, MPW C++, MPW Assembler, SADE debugger, Source Server code control system, and other tools.

All of these computers are networked together using Apple's system 7 file sharing capability for Macintosh, and Farallon's Phone Net PC for IBM-compatibles. Phone Net PC makes a PC platform look and work like a Macintosh to the network, the only difference being that PCs are not implicitly visible to other computers and require the use of an additional program (Timbuktu) to implement direct communication between users. The network architecture is Ethernet, cabled as 10 base-T. We use 10 base-T hub architecture now, and as our network traffic grows, we may consider buying a router in order to split off some workstations that typically require high volume network transfers into a separate zone.

File service in general is handled by a set of distributed fileservers throughout our organization. The primary fileserver is a Quadra 800 with 6 gigabytes of external storage, to be used by anyone in the organization. Certain divisions within the company have reserved directories for their use. Daily backups are performed. Since the data are so voluminous, the backup plan alternates days; one part of the cycle covers the internal disk drives of all Macintosh programmer's workstations.

Other fileservers are:

• Primary graphics station; 1 gigabyte external; backups performed daily, including 500 megabytes on the secondary graphics station.
• Sound station; 2 gigabytes external; backups performed remotely from the movie conversion station on a weekly basis.
• Primary movie editing stations (2); each with more than 3 gigabytes external;backups performed as necessary.
• Secondary movie editing station; 4 gigabytes external; backups performed remotely from the main fileserver on a weekly basis.
• Movie conversion station; 2 gigabytes external; backups performed daily, including three other administrative stations on alternate days.

The E-mail system in place is Quick Mail, used by both PCs and Macintoshes.

Media required to support development operations are:

• 3.5" floppy disks, 1.4MB capacity (DSHD). Volume is approximately 50 per month.
• 5.25" floppy disks, 1.2 MB capacity. Volume is approximately 1 per month.
• 4mm data cartridge tapes, 90 meter length, 1.3 gigabyte capacity. Volume is approximately 20 per month. 120 meter length tapes are preferred, but are not yet manufactured for data quality tapes. These should be available in second-quarter 94.
• 5" write-once CD-ROM discs, 74 minute length, 680 megabyte capacity. Volume is approximately 25 per month.

Due to the nature of computer hardware and software, there are three types of maintenance that must be performed on a regular basis:

• Maintenance of software configuration of machines, including system software and applications. This also includes preventative maintenance of directory structures, which can become corrupted during system crashes.
• Maintenance of computer hardware, including internal components and peripherals. There are some in-house software applications that can solve some of the problems; other difficulties require repairs, and replacement of the part with a working substitute, if available.
• Maintenance of network hardware and configuration, including regular analysis of packet traffic speed and line transmission quality. This also includes maintenance of any individual or network modem hardware and software.

There is one area of simple hardware repair that is performed in-house when necessary: cable assembly offers an opportunity to cut back on a low level of cash flow, plus the time required to order specialty cables and have them delivered or picked up.

Software Quality

The robustness of the software we create and its ease of use (especially for PC installation software) is very important to the success of the title. Typically, two primary methods assure the quality of software: detailed design and extensive testing. However, due to the aggressive nature of our schedules, we are not afforded the luxury of long design or testing periods.

We rely quite heavily on the technical expertise of our software engineers to build code designs, structures and modules that are of high quality and performance. We evaluate progress on a very frequent basis, and strive to address concerns about performance, quality of presentation and compatibility with other platforms.

There are three forms of testing that we perform: unit testing, integration (alpha) testing, and beta testing. Our software engineers perform the unit and integration testing as they proceed, and also do a portion of the beta testing. Beta testing is performed chiefly by people who did not develop the software; other in-house personnel fulfill a portion of this role.

The positions that make up the technology division are:

• Director of Technology
• Senior Software Design Engineer
• Software Design Engineer (SDE)
• Systems Administrator

At present, there is one director (who also performs most of the systems administration duties), a co-manager, one senior SDE, and two SDEs. All have the bulk of their experience programming on the PC, and the junior SDEs are now programming on the Macintosh platform, using their experience on the PC to port the Astral Gate engine from there.

We are currently using other in-house personnel to asist with systems administration and will hire a full-time systems administrator as soon as a large development opportunity arises.

Like the company itself, the technology division is young, growing and learning. We have a good work environment that promotes satisfaction among the engineers who work here, and they do consistently good, often inspired, work.

In summary, the goals of this division are to produce high quality software to support title development, to equip and maintain the computer/working environment of the entire company, and to blaze trails into new areas of technology, helping us to deliver titles of unequaled satisfaction for the consumer.

CineMedia Studios is a promising, thriving company, ready to infuse growth capital into this business. In order to take advantage of our current market position and to continue to produce world-class, award-winning multimedia entertainment, we must obtain project funding.

Profits expected from this infusion of capital, already outlined in this plan, will allow our company to realize our vision; that is to:

Develop and pursue an artistic vision of interactive entertainment that defines new boundaries of personal involvement with computer-based media. CineMedia Studios will continue to explore the territory of this burgeoning growth market, charting ways to bringing together text, graphics, animation, sound, music, video and reader interaction to the complete satisfaction of ourselves and our customers.

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• Enterprise internet of things

macrovector - Fotolia

How do we build an augmented and virtual reality business plan?

Augmented and virtual reality is cutting edge, but that shouldn't be your sole reason to deploy it. ieee member todd richmond outlines three principles for design in ar/vr planning..

• Todd Richmond, IEEE

Augmented reality , to a certain extent, and virtual reality, to a greater extent, provide embodiment to a user and remove the boundaries of a screen.

For any task that requires a human experience -- which is nearly everything to some degree -- the ability for a human to be in the space rather than viewing it third person can offer some advantages -- though there isn't a lot of data on better outcomes using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) for training , sales and so forth.

Perhaps the most important step when building an augmented and virtual reality business plan is to figure out exactly what you're trying to accomplish. While this should go without saying, people often start AR/VR planning by writing code and building environments without first doing a deep dive into their goals and affordances.

I usually start with three considerations as a set of first principles for design. When creating an experience for a human, you need to contemplate the following:

• Agency. What can the user do? What can't they do? How do you make this evident -- i.e., train them to navigate/interact? Why are you giving them this agency -- or why are you not giving them this agency?
• Attention. What does the user need to see/hear/feel? When do they need to experience it? How will it be presented, and why are you using that mode of getting their attention? Often, people build their augmented and virtual reality business plan, design an immersive environment , and then use tricks to lead the users where they want them to go. This can be problematic, as AR/VR is typically supposed to offer agency -- see No. 1. So why are you leading them around by the nose -- or ear? If you want them to experience things in some order or particular manner, maybe a traditional flat screen-based, linear experience is a better choice. At this point, many AR/VR experiences are done in AR/VR just because it is viewed as cool and cutting edge rather than effective.
• Affiliation. Who is the user? What is their relationship to the environment? How is that relationship made obvious? Can the user influence what is happening or are they a voyeur? Why should they care about what is happening around them? Are you trying to sell them something, train them or entertain them?

If you haven't asked and answered these questions, odds are you will not be able to create a compelling augmented and virtual reality business plan. And note that none of this work requires a single line of code.

I always paper prototype any experience , be it virtual, physical or combined, before I write any code. Never underestimate how much you can learn from 3x5 cards, cardboard and other analog tools when prototyping human experiences.

Have a question for our experts? Submit it now . All questions are anonymous.

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VR Arcade Open Business Plan: Customer Experience

Best Practices

February 22, 2024 | 43 min read

VR Arcade Open Business Plan

Tips for Creating the Best Possible Customer Experience

As a company whose ultimate goal is to help ensure the success of Virtual Reality, we strive to empower those who share the same vision. Using data from 250+ locations using SpringboardVR, we compiled a list of top VR locations and spoke with their owners to understand what they’ve done to be successful in the VR industry. Based on what we’ve learned, we provide some recommendations and best practices on how to run a successful VR Arcade in this section of our “open business plan.”

The Importance of the Customer Experience

Back in May, we wrote the VR Multiplayer Gaming Guide , and proposed the notion that a more immersive virtual reality experience results in higher customer satisfaction, which in turn generates recurring business and higher profitability for a successful VR Arcade. Almost a year has gone by now, and if you’re thinking what we’re thinking, you’re like, “duh” . So much has happened over the past year, and like many in the VR industry, we’ve learned a ton. We’ve also been able to meet some amazing entrepreneurs in this industry who have also learned an immense amount over the past year. This gave us the opportunity to sit down and speak with some of the top VR Arcade owners all over the world to ask the question, “How do you create the best possible customer experience?” Lucky for you (and us), they said more than just “multiplayer gaming.”

Based on our findings, there are four main components to ensuring that every customer that comes into your Arcade will have the best possible experience. We will dive deep into each component and see what these top VR Arcade owners had to say about each one.

Four Components for the Best Possible Customer Experience

• VR Arcade Layout & Interior
• Staffing & Communication
• Multiplayer & Social Experience
• Immersive Experiences

VR ARCADE LAYOUT & INTERIOR

Just like any first impression, the customer’s first impression when they walk into the Arcade is huge. It sets the tone for what they will expect the rest of their time there, and what they will remember when recalling their experience to their friends or family (aka potential customers). Below are some tips and examples of what other successful VR Arcade owners have done.

Tip #1: Choose a theme

Erik Madsen, owner of Arcadia VR Lounge in Kelowna, British Columbia, found that choosing a theme really helped him as he was developing and building out his business model.

“Pick a theme and stick with it,” Madsen stated. “Really use that to your advantage. It just gives you a ton of focus on which way you’re going, and you can really focus on the quality of the experience — just making sure that everything you do is revolving around the same theme.”

Tip #2: Think through the aesthetics

Erik Madsen also designed Arcadia VR Lounge’s main lobby and waiting room as a homage to the 80s arcades. But as a customer enters the gaming area, it is as if they have entered an entirely different reality.

“We have the computers displayed inside the walls. We’ve custom built computer cases that allow you to see all the computer hardware, and when we were choosing the computer hardware, we went for as much RGBY lighting as much as possible, so it really adds to the feel of high-tech, and kind of the new age of arcade and gaming”, says Madsen.

“We definitely do get a bit of that ‘wow’ factor right off the bat. It’s something new — especially for people that have never tried VR. It’s something unknown, high-tech; it feels like you’re walking into the future. It’s definitely a cool experience watching people experience that for the first time.”

Erik also says that his futuristic aesthetic even helps with PR.

“It helps you in marketing, it helps you in the aesthetic of location, and people notice it. So many times, the people coming in just want to play VR, it doesn’t matter about the aesthetic of it. But, we get people, on a daily basis, commenting about the aesthetic, and just really enjoying the atmosphere of stepping into the future of arcades.”

Your Arcade layout can also be a huge determining factor in the type of experience a customer has in your VR Arcade. If you want to learn more on VR Arcade layouts, you can watch this Arcade Layout Tour , or read more about Base Station Set-up in VR Arcades . Based on the feedback we received from these VR Arcade owners, we’ve provided a few tips below:

Tip #3: Make your single player station around 8’x8′ to 8’x10′

By standardizing your single player stations, it provides the customer with ample space to move around without disrupting their immersive experience.

Tip #4: Provide reminders to help the customer stay in the gaming area while staying immersed

Jason Van Hierden, owner of VRKade in Calgary, Alberta, offered some great advice in laying out your game stations.

“On the floor, we have carpets. Those carpets are exactly a foot smaller than the bay itself. If you go too far, you have another soft reminder that you’ve gone too far. You’ve backed up too far against this wall, so you’re not going to feel it with your hands, but with your feet. It’s a soft reminder that doesn’t break immersion.”

Tip #5: Make sure you have durable dividers

VRKade also uses curtain dividers in all of their stations. Jason says there are certain perks of using curtains:

“[The curtain divider] gives you a couple of advantages. The first one being, if you go past your space, all you hit is a light curtain. You don’t have a hard reminder that you went too far. If you had a [sheetrocked] wall or a rubber wall and you hit that really hard while playing, the rest of your play time, you’re going to play a little bit more timidly because you’re scared of cracking your knuckles against the wall again, right? You stay close to the center. You’re not going to be quite as aggressive and it’s not going to be as much fun.”

If you choose to use curtain dividers in your VR Arcade, just make sure the fabric is thick enough to block base station interference from other bays. Luckily for you, (not so much for Jason), VRKade learned this the hard way. “When we opened our first store, we used burlap curtains. The burlap definitely didn’t block it. We had issues. We would stay up until 4:00AM. The problem with base stations issues is it throws your head all over the place and you get motion sick. It took us about two or three months to build an entire system around these things.”

If you already have dry-walled or hard dividers, you may want to add ¼ or ½ inch foam to keep from damaging the walls and controllers, as well as inhibiting the experience for the customer.

Tip #6: If you think you need help setting up your VR Arcade… Get help!

If the thought of designing the stations, purchasing the right equipment, ordering the right materials, building out the stations, setting up the headset and base stations, and hoping it all works is giving you anxiety, don’t sweat it! If a custom build-out that you do on your own isn’t your cup of tea, a turnkey solution might be right for you. With a turnkey solution, the design, purchase, installation, and build-out is already predetermined and guaranteed to work.

Mark McFatridge, owner of Apex Virtual Reality inside of Altitude Trampoline Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, opted for a turnkey solution and was not disappointed. He worked directly with his turnkey provider, and really valued the collaboration. He states, “We developed a really good working partnership with design for our Arcade within the space allocated using his expertise in design and functionality.”

Through collaboration, they were able to solve a problem before it even came into fruition.

“After we had gone through with what we thought was our final design, we did one last measurement, and one of the things that we [did not consider] was one of our shipping docks. So we ended up shifting it, and ironically, it turned out to be a much better setup than we originally had.”

Apex Virtual Reality is officially up and running, and Mark could not be happier with the result.

“We’re really proud of the design.”

Want to learn more about VR turnkey solutions for your location? Just contact us here , and we’d be happy to point you in the right direction.

STAFFING & COMMUNICATION

Having a staff that loves what they do it essential. Great communication skills to the owner, other employees, and especially the customers are also a nonnegotiable must .

Tip #1: Make sure your staff knows it is all about trust

Erik Madsen of Arcadia VR Lounge puts it this way:

“VR is a trust thing. You’re closing yourself off to the real world. You have no idea what’s going on out there, and you’re putting your trust in whoever is out there supposedly helping you. So making sure not to abuse that trust, and making sure that you are there for the customer when they need it, is the biggest thing out there for customer experience.”

Tip #2: Let your staff know their worth

This is more than just a retail job. We are providing insight into what the future may look like — not just with gaming, but with everything. Your staff needs to know the responsibility they carry with each and every customer they interact with.

“The staff makes all of the difference”, says Erik. “If you have happy, helpful staff that are always on their toes trying to help people out — it’s huge. Nine times out of ten, that’s going to be your break point. If you have rude staff, you’re going to lose that customer immediately.”

Tip #3: Be deliberate in your hiring process

Jason Van Hierden offers some insight into what VRKade looks for when hiring a new member on their team.

“We look for Best Buy employees and we look for Starbucks employees. Both of those are already trained in what we’re looking for. They’re trained in a fast-paced environment. They’re trained for customer service. They’re trained for up-sells. They’ve already got a lot of the skills that we’re looking for and they’re not normally that expensive… We’ve had a lot of success with those.”

It is also important to know what a successful employee looks like, and even more importantly, doesn’t look like. Jason expounds:

“We hire slowly and we fire quickly…If you can’t learn, you’re going to feel uncomfortable because everybody’s going to be past you in two months.”

Matt Adamson, owner of SpacesVR in Courtenay, British Columbia, chose a different approach with when hiring has staff. “My staff is very … is it politically correct to say “geeky?” They are very geeky. They [are] kind of people, they love games, they love comics. I hired them specifically because they wanted more than anything to work at a VR Arcade, and then they also had some customer service experience.” He continues:

“I looked for those two things. Somebody who wanted to work at a VR arcade more than anything, plus had some customer service experience. It’s been working out well.”

Tip #4: Look for empathetic team members

Madis Vassar, founder of CTO of Futuruum in Estonia, had a great comment regarding staff:

“We’re looking for people who are good communicators, and can take on the perspective of the player. When they are in trouble, then how do you go about explaining what to do next?”

Tip #5: Find your successful employee-to-station ratio

We found that this ratio varies and is dependent on a number of factors. But generally speaking, 2 employees to every 6–10 stations seems to be the sweet spot for most successful Arcades.

Matt Adamson, owner, spoke about how they do it at SpacesVR. “One thing we’ve done is when we know it’s going to be busy, we’ve got a minimum two-people coverage. So, one of the key things you need to have is enough coverage for somebody to be running around taking care of the people that need taking care of, while there’s someone else who can still answer the phone or greet people at the door, or help the other people who need help.”

Note: This proposed ratio is only possible with a VR management and distribution platform like SpringboardVR. Without it, you’ll be lucky to get by with 1 employee for every 1–2 stations.

Jason at VRKade also had this to say, “We need four people to do our 32 stations. The numbers do increase. You can have one person per 10 bays, but then you still need that fourth person running around because on a busy Saturday, you are going to have a headset go down. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. You need that extra person on site too.”

MULTIPLAYER & SOCIAL EXPERIENCES

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, providing multiplayer gaming options is a great way to bolster and amplify the customer experience. But just loading up Rec Room for a few people usually won’t cut it. For the best possible multiplayer experience, it has to be social as well. But how does one go about ensuring multiplayer events are easy and social for their customers?

Tip #1: Build a business model around multiplayer experiences

“You provide [multiplayer] the right away” Jason of VRKade states. “We do almost exclusively multiplayer experiences. We do do a couple of single player, but like job simulator — we don’t have that one. It’s single player and we don’t want people to feel exclusive. It’s the exact same thing as I’m presuming you don’t go to the movies by yourself.”

Matt Adamson of SpacesVR had similar thoughts:

“Multiplayer is everything. It adds to the immersion so much. A game can be relatively [bad] as far as immersion goes, but just the fact that you can talk to your buddy and see their avatar while you’re playing the game makes you forget that there’s a real world out there.”

Madis Vassar also shared a similar sentiment:

“We always sell our experiences as a social experience. You come here with a friend, and either you play together in separate boxes, or you play with only one set of headsets, but the others will watch you from the screen, or cheer you on, or comment.”

(You can read more on the importance of immersion in a VR Arcade here .)

Tip #2: Provide experiences that friends can talk about after they’ve finished

Sure, experiencing VR for the first time, regardless of who you’re with, is an unforgettable experience. But if we try to see through the eyes of the consumer, we can make certain assumptions about what will be the most memorable part of the experience… and what will encourage them to keep coming back.

“It’s looking at it through the eyes of the consumer”, says Jason of VRKade. “The consumer loves to talk to each other and they want multiplayer experiences, so when they leave, they can be like, ‘Joe, you totally saw when I ducked here and I put my gun under the table there and shot you in the chest!’ You know, all of those things — you don’t get that in single player.”

Tip #3: Single players can still be social players

Madis Vassar of Futuruum expounds:

“Even if someone is coming alone, then we say that, ‘Look, these are new games that you can play with people from around the world.’ It’s still a social experience.”

Note: With SpringboardVR’s content marketplace , you’ll have instant access to commercially license over 43 multiplayer titles!

IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES

There’s that buzzword again —  immersive . You have probably heard or read that word a couple thousand times over the past year or so (at least a dozen just from this article), but it may be the most important word involved in helping run a successful VR Arcade. Immersion is what makes virtual reality different than any other type of gaming experience. Sure, the games and experiences may be great, but it is the level of immersion that makes a VR experience unforgettable. Jason with VRKade simply states:

“As much as possible, we try to give people an experience that doesn’t break immersion.”

So what are some of the VR Arcade must-haves to ensure that every customer attains the highest level of immersion? These VR Arcade owners provide some insight.

Tip #1: Know what type of content your customers want, and give it to them

Based on the idea that the more immersive experiences will usually be the more popular experiences, Erik Madsen of Arcadia VR Lounge provides the type of content that is most requested, regardless of price or reputation.

“We want to have the best experiences that we can possibly get in there, so the content comes first; what people want comes first.”

Tip #2: Educate your customers with some kind of tutorial

Whether it be the virtual tutorials offered by SpringboardVR and Vive, walking through the controls with each customer, or making a tutorial video on your own, educating your customers is a great start to making sure once they are in the headset, they won’t need to break immersion to ask for help.

James Pollock, owner of Arctic Sun VR in Fairbanks, Alaska, took a very creative approach to solve this problem, and created his own tutorial video. He has found this to be extremely effective in educating first time users, and minimizing confusion and frustration once in the headset.

Tip #3: From the very start, it has to be simple

Erik expounds, “As for the experience when you get into VR, outside of the aesthetic; I keep coming back to that but that’s always going to add to the experience; but once you get into VR, just having a simple interface to get into games.

Tip #4: Provide an easy-to-use, in-headset game launcher

Erik Madsen of Arcadia VR Lounge provides his thoughts on on how a game launcher like SpringboardVR has helped his VR Arcade, “That was definitely one big thing in our success, is just that the HTC Viveport launcher, it’s great for in-home use… but it’s so complicated for somebody who has never played VR before. You’re going to turn them off just getting them into a game, let alone actually playing the game and understanding the controls. So just having that launcher that’s graphical, and you can see all the games around you and really experience the space before you even get into a game, it’s priceless at that point.”

Tip #5: Have a way for staff and customers to communicate

If a customer has to take off their headset or headphones to ask for help, that breaks immersion. If a customer has to yell at their friend they’re playing multiplayer with, it breaks immersion. If a VR Arcade is able to offer a solution to these problems, they have brought the level of immersion to an all-time high. VRKade uses Discord to solve these problems.

Jason explains, “When our techs are talking to our clients, it’s always through Discord, because if you have to pop off an ear muff or an earpiece to hear what I’m saying, ‘okay, yeah point at this, pull the trigger on that’ — I just broke immersion. You have to step outside of virtual reality to get orders for what you’re doing in virtual reality. We don’t want to break that immersion as much as possible.”

So let’s recap…

Returning customers are essential in running a successful & profitable VR Arcade, and a more immersive experience increases the likelihood of repeat customers.

The four main components of ensuring the best possible customer experience are as follows:

All of the above mentioned components must work together in unison to make the customer experience as great and unforgettable as possible. Madis Vassar comments, “Every step of the customer experience needs to be great in order for it to be great.”

Special Thanks to:

Jason Van Hierden: Owner of VRKade 3 location in Alberta, Canada

Eric Madsen: Owner of Arcadia VR Lounge Kelowna, British Columbia

Madis Vassar: Co-owner and CTO of Futuruum 2 locations in Estonia

Matt Adamson: Owner of SpacesVR Courtenay, British Columbia

James Pollock: Owner of Arctic Sun VR Fairbanks, Alaska

Mark McFatrigde: Owner of Apex VR in Altitude Trampoline Park Little Rock, Arkansas

Was this article helpful? Stay tuned to see more articles in our series, “ VR Arcade Open Business Plan !”

We’d also love to know if there is anything else you’d like for us to write about! Comment or message us your thoughts or topics and we’ll be more than happy to review them and get the conversation started.

VR Lounge Business Plan [Sample template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans » Technology Sector

Do you want to start a VR lounge and need to write a plan? If YES, here is a detailed sample VR lounge business plan template & FREE feasibility report.

Virtual Reality (VR) lounges are built specifically for Location-Based Entertainment (LBE). They are multiplayer, intuitive and engaging attractions that are hard to get at home, but more importantly, designed to drive social experience with friends, family and co-workers which makes it is a good business to start in the united states.

If you are considering starting a Virtual Reality (VR) lounge business, the good news is that you can’t get it wrong because of the number of people who are looking towards escaping the boredom of normal life.

A Sample VR Lounge Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Virtual Reality (VR) lounges are part of the Arcade, Food & entertainment industry and players in this industry include businesses that primarily operate video game arcades and game-focused family entertainment centers , which typically sell food and beverages.

Industry operators rent or purchase card- or coin-operated arcade games that customers play for a fee. Establishments that primarily focus on gambling games, billiards, miniature golf and other larger-scale or outdoor amusements are not included in this industry.

According to a report published by IBISWorld, the Arcade, Food and Entertainment industry’s evolution has continued over the five years to 2019. Rapid technological change and shifting preferences have triggered a structural shift within the industry since its heyday in the 1980s.

As the home console rose in prominence, coin-operated games fell in popularity. Substitute products, including game consoles, offer convenience and long-term cost savings, while online and mobile games can largely be played at a nominal cost or for a free.

An improving economic outlook has spurred increased consumer spending, which has helped encourage consumers to spend more liberally on out-of-home entertainment without operators significantly lowering prices to buoy sales volumes.

The report further shows that over the five years to 2024, these trends are expected to continue. Game rooms are no longer the primary market for video game consumption, so developers dedicate far less funding to the creation of arcade games. This lack of resources stifles innovation, diminishing the ability of industry operators to draw in patrons with state-of-the-art offerings.

Statistics has it that in the United States of America alone, there are about 8,358 licensed and registered arcade, food and entertainment complexes responsible for employing about 56,513 employees and the industry rakes in a whooping sum of $3 billion annually with an annual growth rate projected at 2.6 percent between 2015 and 2022.

Although there are major players with significant market shares in this industry, but Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc. is the company with the lion share of the industry.

Lastly, the need for you to equip your virtual reality VR lounge can’t possibly be overemphasized and you should be aware that it is quite expensive equipping a virtual reality VR lounge. A high-end headset like HTC’s Vive or the Oculus Rift will run you $599 and $799, respectively. At the present costs, a VR fan will have to shell out at least $1,600 for a high-end virtual reality experience.

2. Executive Summary

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is a standard, licensed and well – equipped virtual reality arcade lounge that will be located in the entertainment hub of Santa Fe – New Mexico. We have been able to secure a standard facility in a central and easy to locate location in Santa Fe.

We are well equipped to service the whole of the community as well as visitors and tourists. Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is going to become the number one destination for virtual reality (VR) enthusiasts (gamers and gamblers alike) in the whole of Santa Fe – New Mexico.

We are well equipped and positioned to operate licensed virtual reality arcade lounge with a wide range of virtual reality games suitable for individuals, birthday parties and teambuilding et al, from top flight virtual reality games production companies like Microsoft Corporation, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Activision Blizzard Inc., GameStop Corp., Sony Corporation and Electronic Arts Inc. Our virtual reality arcade also has enough parking space.

We conducted a thorough market research and feasibility studies and we were able to come to the conclusion that Santa Fe – New Mexico is the right place to start our VR arcade lounge. Our client’s best interest would always come first, and everything we do is guided by our values and professional ethics.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will be open 24 hours in a day during weekends (Fridays to Sundays) and from 6:00 am to 12 midnight from Mondays to Thursdays in order for us to accommodate people with different time preferences.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will at all times demonstrate her commitment to sustainability, both individually and as a business, by actively participating in our communities and integrating sustainable business practices wherever possible. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is owned by Solomon Boston and his immediate family members. The business will be managed by Solomon Boston and his son Jerry Hamilton. Solomon Boston has over 15 years’ experience in the Arcade, Food and Entertainment Complexes industry working for some of the leading VR arcade lounges in Santa Fe – New Mexico.

3. Our Products and Services

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is in the industry to provide standard virtual reality arcade lounges, why we have been able to put up a facility that can help us achieve the goal. We are optimistic that anyone who makes use of our virtual reality arcade lounge will definitely derive huge value for their money.

These are the services and amenities that will be made available to our clients;

• Card- and coin-operated virtual reality games
• Food and beverages, including alcoholic beverages
• Corporate and party event services
• Virtual reality games and accessories merchandize

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our Vision of starting Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is to build a world – class virtual reality arcade lounge that can favorably compete with leading virtual reality lounges in the United States.
• Our mission for establishing Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is to build a virtual reality arcade lounge that has the biggest play space in Santa Fe – New Mexico with immersive VR experiences supported by the best equipment on the market and also to make profits from the Industry; we want to create multiplayer, intuitive and engaging attractions that are hard to get at home.

Our Business Structure

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is in business to become the leadingVR lounge in Santa Fe – New Mexico and we are fully aware that it will take the right facility, management and organizational structure to achieve our goal.

The kind of the virtual reality arcade business we intend building and the business goals we want to achieve is what informed the amount we are ready to pay for the best hands in the industry as long as they are ready to work with us. In view of that, we have made provisions for the following positions to be occupied by highly qualified and experienced staff;

• Chief Executive Office – CEO
• Accountant/Cashier
• Marketing and Sales Officer
• VR Games Instructors/Assistants (5)
• Customer Care Executive/Front Desk Officer

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer – CEO:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results
• Creates, communicates, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization
• Carries out staff induction for new team members
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organizationMaintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of VR games and other equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carrying out induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Responsible for arranging travel, meetings and appointments
• Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations.
• Oversees the smooth running of the daily activities in the virtual reality arcade lounge.

VR Game Instructors/Assistant (5)

• Responsible for giving out the required instructions and other support needed by patrons
• Responsible for teaching newbies how to play our VR games
• Responsible for selling food, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages
• Ensures that the virtual reality game gadgets and machines are well arranged after every session
• Responsible for recommending the replacement of worn out or damaged VR headsets, pads, consoles and other video game accessories

Marketing and Sales Officer (2)

• Identifies, prioritizes, and reaches out to new clients, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts
• Writes winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
• Responsible for handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Documents all customer contact and information
• Represents Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC in strategic meetings
• Helps to increase sales and growth for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC.

Accountant/Cashier:

• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for the organization
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC
• Serves as internal auditor for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC.

Client Service Executive

• Welcomes members and potential members/clients by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the organization’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the management in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients when they make enquiries

Cleaners (3):

• Responsible for cleaning in and around the virtual reality arcade lounge
• Cleanses up after customers
• Washes glassware and utensils after each use.
• Maintains a clean working area by sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, cleaning of glass doors and windows, etc. if required.
• Ensures that toiletries and supplies don’t run out of stock
• Handles any other duty as assigned by the manager.

6. SWOT Analysis

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is in business to provide virtual reality arcade facility for gamers in Santa Fe – New Mexico and at the same time to make profits. We are aware that there are competitions in the industry which is why we took out time to conduct an effective SWOT Analysis before investing our hard – earned money into the business.

We know that if we get things right before starting our virtual reality arcade lounge, we will not have to struggle before attract clients and building our customer base to a level where we can easily breakeven in record time. We hired the services of a HR and Business consultant with bias in business structuring to help us conduct SWOT analysis for our organization and he did a pretty good job for us.

Here is a of the result we got from the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC;

One of the obvious strengths that will definitely stand as a plus for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is the fact that our facility is centrally located in a densely populated area in Santa Fe – New Mexico; our location is in fact one of our major strengths.

We equally have a team of highly qualified professionals who will work with our clients and lastly our wide range of VR games are amongst the best that anybody living in Santa Fe – New Mexico can get; they are highly entertaining, easy to use and highly reliable.

We critically looked into our Business model and we were able to identify two major weakness. One is the fact that we are a new business and the second is the fact that we may not have the financial resources required to match up with existing virtual reality arcade lounges when it comes to employing experts in the industry and generating the needed hype that can drive traffic towards our lounge.

• Opportunities:

We are centrally located in one of the busiest and densely populated areas in Santa Fe – New Mexico and we are open to all the available opportunities the city has to offer. We will be open 24 hours in a day during weekends (Fridays to Sundays) and from 6:00 am to 12 midnight from Mondays to Thursdays giving us the advantage to leverage on any available opportunity.

Recent studies show that operators will continue to suffer under the weight of competition from substitute forms of entertainment like home video game consoles, the internet, online gaming and MPX players. Manufacturers will need to re-invent specific games that can only be enjoyed in arcades in order to generate positive revenue.

Still, the rising cost of machines, manufacturing decline in product innovation will limit the number of operators that are able to compete hence posing a threat to our business, and lastly, the emergence of new competitors within the same location where our virtual reality arcade lounge is located.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

If you are conversant with the trend in this industry, you will notice that competition from home video game systems continues to impede the industry’s performance, with the popularity of traditional arcades dwindling. Arcades have attempted to maintain their profits by introducing food and beverage sales to their services, but this strategy has not proved to be effective overall.

Since the early 1990s, growth in home video game consoles has been a major factor in the industry’s decline, and online gaming has followed, offering gamers the opportunity to compete with other individuals without leaving their homes. Furthermore, with discretionary spending falling, families are opting to save money by skipping trips to arcade, food and entertainment complexes.

As a result of these negative trends, operators are attempting to reclaim some of their previous popularity by investing into restaurants and improving their existing premises. Still, the number of establishments is expected to decline over the next five years, with many businesses expected to close in the midst of reduced consumer spending and poor credit conditions.

Employment is expected to decline as well, though an increase in the number of food service options within arcade complexes has prevented a sharper drop. Wages are also estimated to fall in the coming year. As virtual reality arcade lounges grow, it becomes necessary for them to develop new service offerings or install new facilities that will help them attract more people.

Little wonder some virtual reality arcade lounges now have fresh juice and smoothie bars, and retail food and drinks within their facility to encourage people to relax and socialize. In order words, it is very important for VR lounges to continue to improvise if they want to grow their business.

8. Our Target Market

Aside from teenagers and children, the target market for virtual reality arcade lounges cuts across people of different walks of life. The fact that people visit virtual reality lounges for various reasons makes marketing the business interesting. These are the category of people that we intend marketing our VR center to;

• High school students
• Applicants/School Leavers
• Sports Men and Women
• College Students
• Corporate organizations looking towards hosting team building office parties, corporate outing or offsite event
• Event planning organizations looking towards hosting birthday parties and private events

Our Competitive Advantage

The Arcade, Food and Entertainment Complexes industry is indeed a prolific and highly competitive industry. Clients will only patronize your lounge if they are comfortable with the VR games you have or if you can provide the enabling environment and facility for them to socialize and get entertained.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is centrally located in a densely populated – residential area in Santa Fe – New Mexico. We equally have a team of highly qualified professionals who will work with all our clients and make it easier and comfortable when they patronize our virtual reality arcade lounge.

So also, our VR headsets, consoles and game machines are amongst the best that anybody living in Santa Fe – New Mexico can get; they are easy to use and highly reliable.

Lastly, our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the Arcade, Food and Entertainment Complexes industry and we are going to ensure that we do all it takes to attract individuals, groups and corporate clients on a regular basis.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will generate income by offering the following services;

10. Sales Forecast

We are well positioned to take on the available market in Santa Fe – New Mexico and on our online platforms and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income/profits from the first six months of operation and grow the business and our clientele base.

We have been able to examine the Arcade, Food and Entertainment Complexes industry – market, we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. Below are the sales projection for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC, it is based on the location of our virtual reality arcade lounge facility and the wide range of VR games, foods and drinks that we will be offering;

• First Fiscal Year (FY1): $280,000
• Second Fiscal Year (FY2): $350,000
• Third Fiscal Year (FY3): $500,000

N.B : This projection was done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and natural disasters within the period stated above. There won’t also be any major competitor offering same additional services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

Our marketing strategies will be directed towards achieving specific objectives that will support the strategic goals of the organization. The truth is that all that we do will be geared towards creating new market channels, increasing sales and increase our market share.

At Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC, our marketing strategies will be consistent throughout the marketing mix and we will take into consideration product improvement, promotion, and price. As part of our sales and marketing strategies, we will pay attention to the promotion of our virtual reality arcade lounge so as to attract people to make use of our facility.

Part of the marketing and sales strategies that we will adopt are;

• Open our virtual reality arcade lounge with a big party in other to attract residents who are our first target
• Advertise our virtual reality arcade lounge on national dailies, local TV and radio stations
• Promote our virtual reality arcade lounge online via our official website and all available social media platforms
• Introduce our virtual reality arcade lounge by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to sports clubs, schools, corporate organizations, households and key stake holders in Santa Fe – New Mexico
• Print out fliers and business cards and strategically drop them in offices, libraries, public facilities and train stations et al.
• Making our first impression count positively to those making use of our virtual reality arcade lounge for the first time
• Make use of attractive hand bills to create awareness and also to give direction to our lounge
• Adopt direct mailing coupon marketing approach
• Position our signage/flexi banners at strategic places in and around Santa Fe – New Mexico
• Create a loyalty plan that will enable us reward our consistent clients especially those that registered as a family or as a group
• Engage on roadshows within our neighborhood to create awareness for our virtual reality arcade lounge.

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with our branding and publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the hearts of our target market. We are set to become the number one choice in the whole of Santa Fe – New Mexico which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our lounge.

Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC;

• Place adverts on both print (community based newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community based gaming or sport events and competitions
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our brand
• Install our Bill Boards in strategic locations all around Santa Fe – New Mexico
• Engage in roadshow from time to time in targeted neighborhoods all around Santa Fe – New Mexico
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas all around Santa Fe – New Mexico
• List Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC on local directories/yellow pages
• Advertise our virtual reality arcade lounges in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site.
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our corporate logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

Since the bulk of our customers comes from the middle class, it is advisable to set our prices on the moderate side. We will not allow the drive to recoup our money fast tempt us to set prices that can scare our customers off.

In view of that, our pricing system is going to be based on what is obtainable in the industry, we don’t intend to charge more (except for premium and customized services) and we don’t intend to charge less than what our competitors are charging.

Be that as it may, we have put plans in place to offer discount services once in a while and also to reward our loyal customers especially when they refer clients to us or when they register as a family or a group.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation of the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via mobile money
• Payment via Point of Sales Machines (POS Machines)
• Payment via check

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our clients make payments without any stress on their part. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

From our market survey and feasibility studies, we have been able to come up with a detailed budget for establishing a standard virtual reality arcade lounge in Santa Fe – New Mexico and here are the key areas where we will spend our startup capital;

These is the key areas where we will spend our startup capital on;

• The total fee for registering the Business in the United States of America – $750.
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits – $1,500.
• Marketing promotion expenses (8,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of – $10,000.
• The total cost for hiring Business Consultant – $2,000.
• The amount needed for the purchase of insurance policy covers (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $15,800.
• The total cost for the purchase of accounting software, CRM software and Payroll Software – $3,000
• The total cost for leasing facility for the virtual reality arcade lounge – $70,000.
• The total cost for facility remodeling – $30,000.
• Other start-up expenses including stationery – $1000
• Phone and utility deposits – $3,500
• Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) – $40,000
• The cost for Start-up inventory – $15,000
• The cost for Start-up inventory (food and drinks et al) – $10,000
• Storage hardware (bins, rack, shelves, food case) – $3,720
• The cost for counter area equipment (counter top, sink, ice machine, etc.) – $9,500
• The cost for store equipment (cash register, security, ventilation, signage) – $13,750
• The cost for acquiring LED TVs, computers, Xbox stations, comfortable chairs, tables, Air Conditions, Shelve for stocking VR high-end headset like HTC’s Vive or the Oculus Rift, consoles, games and VR games accessories amongst others. – $50,000
• The cost for the purchase of furniture and gadgets (Computers, Printers, Telephone, TVs, Sound System, snooker board, tables and chairs et al) – $4,000.
• The cost of Launching a Website – $600
• The cost for our grand opening party – $15,000
• Miscellaneous – $5,000

We would need an estimate of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($350,000) to successfully launch a medium but standard and well – equipped virtual reality arcade lounge in the United States of America.

Generating Funds/Startup Capital for Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will be owned and managed by Mr. Solomon Boston and his immediate family members. They are the sole financier of the business which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the startup capital for the business to just three major sources.

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
• Generate part of the startup capital from friends and other extended family members
• Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility).

N.B: We have been able to generate about $100,000 (Personal savings $70,000 and soft loan from family members $30,000) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $250,000 from our bank. All the papers and documents have been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

Part of the plans we have in place to sustain Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC is to ensure that we continue to make available a wide range of VR games, deliver quality services, improvise on how to do things faster and cheaper. We are not going to relent in providing conducive environment for our workers and also the required trainings that will help them deliver excellent services at all times.

From our findings, another factor that kills new business such as ours is financial leakages. In order to plug financial leakages, the management of Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC adopted the use of payment machine and accounting software to run the business.

Woops Zone® Virtual Reality Lounge, LLC will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner.

We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check: Completed
• Business Registration: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
• Securing Point of Sales (POS) Machines: Completed
• Opening Mobile Money Accounts: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Acquiring facility and remodeling the facility to fit into a standard virtual reality arcade lounge : In Progress
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating capital from family members: Completed
• Applications for Loan from the bank: In Progress
• writing of business plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents and other relevant Legal Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Printing of Packaging and Promotional Materials: In Progress
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the needed VR headsets, consoles, games and accessories, electronic appliances, office appliances and suppliers: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: Completed
• Creating Awareness for the business both online and in the neighborhood: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement (License): Secured
• Opening party/launching party planning: In Progress

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