Lower game board. The game board represents one calendar month, divided into four weeks. All players participate in every turn. Each week, players experience a business activity, challenge, and compete for customers. At the end of each month, players calculate their Success. They can optionally complete accounting worksheets, including Balance Sheet, Profit-and-Loss Statement, General Ledger, and General Journal.

Upper game board. Chips (not shown) are used to mark each business's Price, Quality, Brand, number of Employees, and the entrepreneur's Lifestyle. Each business can choose its own strategy by setting product price, and investing in quality and marketing. For example, a business can choose to be a low-cost, low-quality supplier, while another can choose to be a high-cost, high-quality supplier — or somewhere in between. A business can change its strategy as the game progresses, choosing to fill a gap in the market or to directly challenge other competitors.
 

Game Instructions

Getting Started

1. The objective of the game is to make the most money. The player that accumulates the most equity wins. See SUCCESS on the game board for details.
2. Players make money by selling Gwidgets. A Gwidget can be anything you can imagine.
3. Assign a player to handle money for the bank. Each player starts the game with:
   1. 2,000 Gwidgets in the following denominations:
      1. 3 x 500 (large blue chips)
      2. 5 x 100 (large orange chips)
      Extra Gwidgets should not be used in the game. Set them aside.
   2. $25,000 Cash.
   3. Each player chooses a set of colored chips. All players place colored chips on the game board as follows:
      1. Quality Med
      2. Brand 0
      3. Employees 2
      4. Lifestyle 0

      5. Price — Each player chooses his/her own price. Price can only be changed when indicated on the game board.

4. Find the Challenge Marker card from the Challenge Cards and give it to the Banker. Shuffle Challenge Cards and place face down on the game board.
5. Each player should have paper and pen or pencil.
6. Set the playing piece on the game board to Start. All players use the same playing piece. The Banker moves first.
7. Go! Players take turns moving the playing piece one step per turn, but all players play every turn. The board has four weeks, or one month. Play as many months as you like.

Start playing now and read the rest of the directions as you go along.

Customers
Customers base their purchase decisions on three psychographic factors: Price, Quality, and Brand.

The player that moved the playing piece spins to determine Customer Psychographics (middle ring of the spinner).

Every business that matches the Customer Psychographics spins to compete for the sale. Use the outside ring of the spinner, numbered 1 to 10. Highest spin sells 1,000 Gwidgets. Second-highest sells 500. Third-highest sells 300. Fourth and lower sell 100 each. Non-spinning players sell none. Spin to break ties.

Example: The spinner lands on "Quality High." Blue, Red, and Green have Quality High so they each spin to compete for the customer. Blue lands on 10, Red on 7, and Green on 2. Blue sells 1,000 Gwidgets, Red 500, and Green 300. All others sell none.

Gwidgets are sold at the Price set by the business.

Return sold Gwidgets to the Gwidget Supply on the game board. For example, if Blue's price is $40, and Blue sells 1,000 Gwidgets, Blue gets $40,000 from the Bank and returns 1,000 Gwidgets to the Gwidget Supply on the game board.

If a Player does not have enough Gwidgets to sell, s/he may sell up to as many as s/he has, or purchase more from other players. Players may buy Gwidgets from each other at any time and at any price negotiated. Example: If you only have 700 Gwidgets and want to sell 1,000, you can buy 300 from another player to complete the sale.

HINT: A business which has high quality, high brand, and low price will attract the most customers. But be careful to set your price high enough to generate a profit.

Challenge
All players ante (pay) $1,000 each into the "Pot" on the game board. The Bank matches the total ante. The player with the Challenge Marker picks up a Challenge card and reads it out loud.

For Good News Bad News cards, money exchange is with the Bank, not the Pot. Once a card is played, the same player picks up another Challenge card.

For all other Challenge cards, start the 60-second sand timer once the card is read. Money is won from the Pot, but cannot be taken from the Pot unless at least one correct answer is provided. If there are no correct answers, the money stays in the Pot. Any money left in the Pot is added to the ante in the next challenge. Once a player completes a challenge s/he passes the Challenge Marker to the next player in a clockwise direction. Continue with the game (no one picks up another card until indicated on the game board).

Invest in Marketing
All players may invest in marketing as indicated on the game board. Payments are made to the Bank.

Employee Payroll
All players pay the Bank the amount indicated by the Employees chips on the game board.

Customer Loyalty
The player that moved the playing piece spins. All players win the amount indicated (from the Bank). For example, if the spinner lands on 6 and Red has High Quality, Red wins: $1,000 x 6 = $6,000.

Loan Payment
All players pay the Bank the amount of Debt interest indicated by the color chips on the game board. After paying the interest, a player may also pay off the Debt and remove the loan chip from the game board. Or, a player may make a partial payment on the Debt and move his/her loan chip down to the corresponding amount remaining. For example, Red has debt of $25,000 so pays interest of $3,000. Red also chooses to reduce the debt by paying another $15,000 and moving the Debt chip to $10,000.

Customer Service
The player that moved the playing piece spins. All players win the amount indicated (from the Bank). For example, if the spinner lands on 6 and Red has 2 Employees, Red wins:
6 x $300 x 2 = $3,600.

Employee Management
All players may choose to change their number of employees by paying the amount indicated to the Bank. Changes made should be indicated by moving the Employees chips.

Inventory Expires
All players move their Quality chips to Low. All players each return 300 Gwidgets to the Gwidget Supply (if they have them).

Brand
All players move their Brand chips down one level.

Taxes
All players spin and pay the Bank the amount indicated.

Success
Calculate success as indicated on the game board. Players should read their scores out loud. Players may agree to end the game now, or play another month.

Buy Gwidgets
All players may purchase Gwidgets for $5 each from the Gwidget Supply. The maximum number of Gwidgets a player can purchase is equal to the number of Gwidgets available from the Gwidget Supply divided by the number of businesses (for example, if 4 businesses and 1,000 Gwidgets, up to 250 can be purchased by each business). Players may buy Gwidgets from each other at any time and at any price negotiated.

Invest in Quality
All players can choose to increase the quality of their Gwidgets by investing in quality. Payments are made to the Bank.

Set Price
All players may move their chips to any price they choose. Prices cannot be changed at any other time.

Additional Rules and Resources
A player may raise money from other players at any deal negotiated, either by selling shares or getting a loan (no maximum). A player can also borrow money from the Bank (maximum $35,000 owed at any one time).

A player may start a new business by paying the Bank $100,000. Start with same settings as in Step 3 (left column).

Players may choose to play in teams. Each team runs one business together and is considered a single player when following the rules of the game.

Players may choose to practise accounting by using the Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss, General Ledger, and General Journal documents available for free download from the GoVenture website.