After a private {and professional} odyssey that took him from New York Metropolis to Florida to Chattanooga, Chris Hampton discovered his “higher mousetrap” in a trailer.
The Carrollton, Georgia, native launched Rolling Video Video games in 2009. In his Hixson facility, his workers turns 32-foot trailers into customized video-game arcades, every of which might accommodate no less than six wide-screen televisions on one wall. On the wall reverse is seating, full with audio system and motors that vibrate to match the sport motion.
Hampton stated his trailers promote for $50,000 per and that greater than 200 are in service nationwide.
“Took me a yr to promote my first one,” he stated throughout an interview at his Hixson Pike manufacturing facility. “We will do three to 5 a month now, however I wish to get that as much as 10 if I can.”
After rising up in Carrollton, Hampton stated, he went to New York Metropolis to review theater. He stated he bought into pictures alongside the best way and, when he moved to Chattanooga in 1990 to be nearer to household, he launched a pictures enterprise.
“Pictures of infants at dwelling have been very large in New York again then,” he recalled. “Then I seen nobody actually did that right here – infants at dwelling, playtime portraits. We ran that enterprise for about 10 years.”
Hampton stated he moved to Florida at about the identical time the web was getting traction. He stated he opened a enterprise constructing web sites and met his future spouse, Jen. He stated that after they moved again to Chattanooga in 2000, they constructed their “delight and pleasure.”
“Vaudeville Cafe,” he known as his Market Avenue restaurant. “Household-oriented, improv comedy, good Italian meals. Plenty of good folks got here by means of. That was a variety of enjoyable, and I actually miss it.”
Hampton stated Vaudeville Cafe closed in 2015, however he’d lengthy since opened Rolling Video Video games. He stated his idea was a mashup of two others.
“I might heard one thing on NPR a few man in California who was doing events in an previous trailer he’d outfitted with (online game) consoles,” he stated. “Then I heard one thing else a few man in Arizona who’d capitalized on that concept and was promoting franchises.
“So between these two discoveries,” he stated, “I made a decision I might attempt to construct a greater mousetrap.”
Hampton’s thought was to construct and promote trailers outfitted with video video games and preserve relationships together with his prospects – however not what he calls the standard relationship between a franchiser and a franchisee.
“I did not like the concept of franchising,” he stated. “You have to bounce by means of a variety of hoops – bought to purchase their product, do issues their method. It is fairly restrictive.
“Individuals would a lot fairly be impartial,” he stated, including that prospects may make the most of centralized on-line reserving at www.rollingvideogames.com.
Hampton stated he has a how-to “template,” of which his prospects might avail themselves, however only a few musts.
“One is that you just use our brand,” he stated, “although you may connect your identify to it – ‘Chris’s Rolling Video Video games.’ And do not embarrass the model – be on time, or early (to a celebration), preserve the trailer clear and be skilled.
“It is fairly laborious to mess up,” he stated. “You personal the trailer, so you may e book as many or as few events as you need. You do not have to be a video-game or perhaps a enterprise professional. Simply comply with these few guidelines and you need to be okay.”
Chattanoogan Montrell Besley stated he is owned an RVG trailer for practically two years. In his first month, he stated, he made sufficient to cowl what he’d paid for his trailer.
“These first 12 months have been overwhelming,” Besley stated. “The necessity for service (in Chattanooga) was amazingly loopy. I needed to get one other cellphone as a result of my private line was blowing up (with bookings). Throughout the week, I might get off my day job, take off and go do an occasion – birthday events, household reunions, church occasions.
“It is the simplest enterprise anybody might get into,” Besley provides.
Hampton stated that whereas he is nonetheless attempting to determine digital actuality, he is making “gradual” adjustments – dashing up manufacturing, for example, making a smaller, lighter celebration trailer that is simpler to get round neighborhoods.
He stated he is additionally providing financing that permits prospects to place 25 % down and repay the stability in three to 5 years, however concedes that he can finance “solely so many.”
“There is a lengthy checklist of people that need that,” he stated. “Our pockets aren’t that deep – we depend on prospects who get their very own financing, and we provide them a reduction.
“You may’t begin a enterprise for $50,000,” Hampton stated. “Individuals are simply bananas about video video games and America’s an enormous place. With video video games and occasions, you may’t go mistaken.”
Contact Bob Gary at bgary@timesfreepress.com.
