View from the Game Store is a weekly(-ish) column by Marcus King of Titan Games & Music in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, Michigan.  This week, Marcus talks about the importance of relationships.

A little construction update on the store:  We are in the last day of putting in the new tile and I'll have more pictures next week(ish) and hopefully have the construction on the cafe portion of the new store underway by then, too.

This week I would like to talk about relationships.  Not everyone is good at them.  To me the key to business success in the game industry, or in owning a small business, is relationships.  Certainly, the key for me has been in building and maintaining relationships.  Funny thing for a guy who has been divorced to be talking about this subject, but I have found that relationships are the exact recipe for success in owning a small retail store.

Understanding relationships has been a life long struggle for me.  It might have something to do with being an only child, or maybe my mommy didn't hug me enough (heh), but I have found that relationships are what makes or breaks us in life and in business.  This comes to mind because recently my wife's father (William Botkin) passed away after a long illness.  It wasn't unexpected, but it was still very emotionally straining and hard for my wife--and for me, truth be told.  Having had several father-in-laws in my time, Mister Botkin (whom I always called either Mister Botkin, Sir, or Dad) was the one who got to know me the most.  He was a deliberate man--both of words and deeds, who had shown me, quite accidentally, the value of relationships.

He knew a million people by name and I do not think that is an exaggeration.  If you had lived in Columbus, Ohio for 6 months then he probably knew someone you knew.  Guaranteed.  He had friends from grade school, high school, college, every job he ever had, and other social groups and clubs--whom he was in at least monthly contact with and had been his whole life.  Having been married himself three times--he had relatives across several generations, with different women, and somehow stayed close with estranged relatives, new family like my daughters, and even with former in laws.  His second wife's brother and sister were at his funeral, and both were crying.  I wish I had met him years earlier.  My life has been enriched by knowing him.  The man was a giant.  And, I miss him.

Back to topic.  In business there are a thousand relationships to juggle.  Relationships with staff.  Relationships with business partners.  With distributors.  With publishers, printers, suppliers, vendors and more.  There are of course relationships with each customer.  And when you're having a bad day--and
in retail there are bad days, and REALLY bad days, galore--well, you still have to not "take it out on the kids."  In other words, you gotta be "that" guy.  That relationship guy.  The guy everyone wants you to be--in spite of the other problems you might have had.  

I guess that has been the hardest thing for me to learn in this business, which I have been in for 24 years.  And, I learned it from William Botkin, may he rest in peace (born May 18th, 1939 -- died May 5th, 2010).  Lived, loved, raised children and touched many, many, MANY more people than I think he ever knew.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.