Professor Richard Kohn, a Southeast Community College Business Law instructor and former lawyer, enjoys tabletop roleplaying games. Anyone who has taken a class with him is well aware of this fact, hearing him using character examples Boris, Gretz and Cory in his legal examples.
All three of these characters are based characters from a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Therefore, owning “Hobbies, etc.” was a natural move for him.
Hobbies, etc. was a gaming store focusing on miniatures and board games in addition to selling comic books and science fiction literature. Kohn learned about the opportunity to get involved in the business through his law practice.
He did have some struggles being a lawyer and owning the store. He hired managers to even the load, which limited the profits.
However, there were some upsides as well.
“I got to play games and participate in gaming society of Nebraska,” he said. “It was like being Stuart (Bloom) in Big Bang Theory. I got to run a comic book store.”
During his time as owner, he aimed his efforts on gaming conventions, both as a means of business and of getting word out to potential clients.
While the convention business eventually became a separate entity under an associate, the exposure assisted in spreading word-of-mouth advertising.
Kohn did eventually sell his share of the business to focus on his law business, but learned some lessons that he now teaches to entrepreneurial students.
“Have a really strong accounting background before you start something like this,” he asserted. “Understand where your costs and expenses are. It saves you money.”
He now teaches Legal Studies at the Entrepreneurship Center and arrived there in a peculiar manner.
“The last teacher that had been hired to set up and teach bailed,” he recalled with a grin. “I got a call…a month’s notice to create the class and get it up and running.”
“Tim (Mittan, director of the EC) has taken the care to keep it from exploding, but my last class was big last quarter,” he chuckled, recalling his Fall Entrepreneurship Legal Studies class of almost thirty members. “Tim has done a marvelous job of creating the Entrepreneurship Program. He was absolutely the right person for the right job.”
This article is #6 of a series on the Entrepreneurship Center, its instructors and its alumni. The following article will cover the Junior Achievement of Lincoln organization.