How to Start an Arcade Business: Lessons from the Ghost Quarter in Greenfield, Iowa [Part 1]

Editors note: This is the first entry in what will hopefully be a recurring series of updates from Ryan Albright in Greenfield, Iowa, as he works to open up his first arcade, called the Ghost Quarter. Hoping these updates will be useful to others looking to do similar things in their own communities. Cheers! 

My name is Ryan Albright I am the owner of the Ghost Quarter. I am a small business located in Greenfield Iowa. I reached out to Kineticist to write a few articles for them explaining my journey of starting an arcade. The trials and lessons I’ve learned and went through to get open. Starting out wasn’t easy. I really got started in September of 2020 in the literal worst possible time in recent human history. Looked at that and said, “Yeah, now’s a good time to start a business.” Thing is most people would say that jokingly. I wasn’t joking.

While I don’t recommend doing what I did, there are some lessons to be learned from my thought process. I started at the worst time, with $400, of which $200 immediately went to rent. It was a complete disaster from the start. Everyone expected me to be out of business in a month and just give up going back to my part-time job.