Not Just Fun and GamesPlay N Trade's franchise model incorporates a business-like devotion to fun and games.

It takes a certain kind of person to start a Play N Trade franchise. Jimmy Kindred, executive vice president of franchise development for the retail videogame franchise, is exactly that person. But he's not what you might imagine; he hasn't spent his life's waking hours glued to a TV or a computer screen, refusing food or water for fear that it might interrupt Link's quest to rescue Princess Zelda. No, Kindred is first and foremost a businessman, and, despite his franchise company's devotion to the hardcore gaming set, he admits it is entrepreneurial spirit that gets the most points in this game. "Early on, our franchisees were gamers; now they're definitely more businesspeople," says Kindred, 37. "We happen to sell games, but it's the business of gaming that we're in."

如果它不是一个狂热的爱情游戏的高级警官ired him to start franchising the now 250-unit Play N Trade, what was it? Years earlier, in a land far, far away (Mesa, Ari., approximately 400 miles from his current headquarters in Newport Beach, Calif.), Kindred founded wireless communications franchise Yakety Yak Wireless with a college buddy. Their success spurred them to look for new ventures they could develop through T-Street, the umbrella company they created to house the Yakety Yak brand. That's when they discovered Play N Trade, a small Colorado chain of videogame stores, and decided its similarly techie consumers would make it a perfect franchising partner.