Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Tyler.
Hi Lisa, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Our family started discussing the idea of opening a gaming and local artist store a few years ago. A business like this would include both passions for our family. The gaming side and the craft side. My daughter and I had already started our crafting business on a small scale. We also knew that we wanted to be in Jersey Village, which is a small city just outside of Houston. We realized that our community did not have a convenient gaming space and we really wanted to create that space. After going to farmer’s markets and conventions to sell our products, we felt it would be nice for those crafters we met to have a consistent, not weather dependent, location to sell their creations. I knew that I would not be able to get this business going as long as I was working my corporate job because of the time commitment. I discussed the idea at length with my father, and he was all for it and even mentioned how he would come up and hang out. My father had been in the corporate accounting world and always had good investment and business advice. He was 85 at the time and started having health issues not long after we started making plans. A lot of life events happened, and we lost my father about a year and a half ago. My family and I discussed it at length, and I decided to take early retirement to help with my mom and so we could concentrate on opening the store. I dusted off the old papers we had started working on for the business and started moving forward with the process once again. There was a lot more involved than I think any of us realized, but we are progressing and looking forward to opening soon. We have been promoting the new business while we are selling at our other markets and are receiving a lot of positive feedback from everyone we talk to. We are also having people we just met volunteer to help us in any way we need to get the store open. That really makes our family feel like we are going to provide a service that the community wants. They say all things happen for a reason, and in ways it has, because once we started the discussion back up, one of my nephews mentioned that he was just starting to look for a job change and agreed to come onboard with us. I like to think that this business will be great for the community and a promising venture for our family members to be able to work at a place that they enjoy.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. I was an IT Project Manager and thought I would be able to handle all the schedules and timelines as I had in my corporate world. My family and I quickly learned that there are a lot of components involved, from trying to find a space to rent; the cost of the space; making sure you had the size you needed; what types of changes needed to be made to accommodate the store; and the lease negotiating process. We are an independent store, so we did not have the assistance of a franchise to guide us. We decided against a franchise because we wanted to set the store up our way and did not feel a franchise would be flexible enough for us. I met with a counselor from SCORE, which is a free resource to advise on the business process. I would highly recommend anyone starting out to reach out to their local SCORE group. That was beneficial to help me with setting up my plan, completing a “why worksheet” and getting me access to worksheets that helped me put my plan and budget together. It is very easy to keep spending, but since we created a budget and allocated out for various aspects, that has helped us keep things under control. We also lucked into a supplier mentioning a GAMA convention and asked if we would be there. We quickly looked into it and registered 3 of us to go. We divided up the various learning sessions and came away with valuable information on running a retail store. We learned quickly that there were many aspects that were beyond our control and we were overly optimistic at how quickly we could get all the various contractors in and out and the business open.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Gryphon’s Peak, LLC is a family owned and run tabletop gaming store that also represents local artists. We want to be known as a community location where people of all ages can come and meet and play all sorts of games. We plan to run camps for kids so they can learn board games, roll playing games (RPG), and trading card games (TCG). Local artists are also planning various craft classes. We are working on our calendar of events and will be arranging that to start in June. We plan to offer unique items and games that are from independent publishers. It is our way to help support other small businesses. We are also looking into various local non-profit organizations that we can partner with to help raise funds for their organizations.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
The role that luck has played is tough to quantify. My husband and I worked hard in the corporate world, but the Enron crash hit us economically and personally. My husband lost his job and with the economy being as it was, we had to pivot our plans and goals. That was a life change, and we decided that my husband would stay home and homeschool our 2 children. We had the good luck/fortune that we had the support of our extended family. My father’s passing was bad, but it was the right push we needed to proceed with our dream.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gryphonspeak.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GryphonsPeak
