Today we’d like to introduce you to Melinda Abram.
Hi Melinda, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
When my daughter was in high school she was the complete opposite of me. She never wanted to really go out or hang out with her friends, she just preferred books. One day she came home and asked if she could meet a friend to go play a game and I was ecstatic because she was going to leave the house. I had no idea that the game would change our life. The game was called Yu-Gi-Oh! and it is a trading card game played against an opponent and based on an anime. My husband and I quickly learned that this game would go well into the night and maybe it wasn’t ideal for a beautiful young, naïve, girl, to go alone to this tournament space that was filled with mostly teenage boys and young men. My husband and I decided that this particular scenario wasn’t the best place for a 15-year-old girl. However, she loved the game….so we made a deal with her. We told her that she could go and stay late on the weekends but either her dad or I had to go with her, we would stay out of her way but someone would be there if she got into trouble or needed us. She agreed. My husband was the one who elected to go with her on the weekends and it started out, he just hung out making sure his daughter was ok. Then of course he became curious and started walking around. He then tried to play the game and in short, learned that most people were playing incorrectly. That is when he read the rules, took, the judge test and began judging these tournaments at a local level. It was now a father-daughter activity. Fast forward a little bit and Haley and her dad (David) start going to regional events a little further out past our local area. This did a couple of things, it helped David realize how much he loved judging and spending time with his daughter and it also offset the cost of the travel a little bit. So many weekends they would spend away with Haley playing in events and David judging events. Often when Haley was tired of playing and David wasn’t quite finished she would just volunteer and help the organizers. Soon Haley just stopped playing altogether and she began working the events with her father. So begins the second half of her junior year of high school and her first job. She would travel the country with her dad on the weekends working these events. As a mom, it was bittersweet. I missed my family but I was also happy they had something they could do together. It also helped as many moms were worried about their child on the weekends, I always knew where she was – off on some work adventure in another part of the country – with her dad. Whenever you work these events you tend to amass a large amount of product. This product began to take over my house. We had to find a way to get rid of it. My husband began putting the product online and selling it through multiple avenues. Of course, we both still had full-time jobs and this was just a hobby or “side hustle” and we couldn’t devote all of our time to it so he was constantly looking for faster ways to get to the end goal – sell the product, get the money. It eventually turned into a website, where we would sell it more quickly. That began to grow quickly and now not only did we have product in my house that I wanted out we had people coming into our house to help get the product shipped to the places. This was stressful for me and our family – as much as I adored the people coming into our house I wanted my house back. We briefly thought of getting a shipping and receiving building so that we could move the side business out of the house. Then we decided that if we were going to do that we might as well open a retail building. At the end of 2018, The Side Deck Gaming Café opened its doors for the first time. Since opening we have endured and survived a pandemic, became an event organizer that travels all over the country hosting Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournaments and partnering with some other great stores. We incorporated in Canada and now run Regionals there. Yu-Gi-Oh! has taken our family to Berlin Germany and my husband to Brazil. Much like in the beginning we just continue with the what’s next mentality and put one foot in front of the other. Neither myself or my husband are still employed full-time at our old jobs and we do this fully. My daughter has since graduated college and works with us traveling and helping us put on these tournaments. The friends that used to work out of our house to help us now work with our store full time and this has become their career. We are so incredibly blessed and thankful for everything. We can’t wait to see what is next.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like any new business, there are highs and lows. The first was working with family. As you can imagine, it can be difficult to work so closely with a spouse and children. We continue to navigate and grow from that and I would say we are doing it well now. We are probably a closer family because of it. Another struggle was the fact that we opened at the end of 2018 so our brick and mortar had only been open barely a year and some change before we had to close because of the pandemic. We had to pivot and grow very quickly to survive. Not only did we survive but we thrived. We were able to pivot our inventory online and with the help of dedicated patrons we not only survived the pandemic but came out with a growth year.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The Side Deck Gaming Café is the PREMIER game store and coffee shop in the Southeast. We offer locally roasted coffee and delicious handcrafted lattes served by expert baristas. Our staff will offer incredible customer service while teaching you about the latest board games and trading card games. We buy and sell trading cards and offer tournaments 7 days a week both in person and remotely through our discord server. Https://discord.thesidedeck.com
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Do your research. Remember the only way to ensure failure is to not try. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek the knowledge of those who have gone through this before. Don’t compare yourself to others, be the best you – you aren’t’ them and they aren’t you. No one is the best at everything, build a team that compliments your strengths and fills in the weaknesses. Mental health matters, for you and your staff. Money isn’t the most important thing, create a creative environment. Encourage change and suggestions, be ok with new things and letting yourself and others make mistakes, it’s how we learn.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thesidedeck.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidedeck/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSideDeck
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/The_Side_Deck
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1PkHB27ko8xH202XfgF3dw
- Other: https://events.thesidedeck.com
