We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Phil Jacobs. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Phil below.

Phil, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, one thing many business owners consider is donating a percentage of sales or profits to an organization or cause. We’d love to hear your thoughts and the story behind how and why you chose the cause or organization you donate to.

Yes, because we want everyone to be able to enjoy the thrill, excitement and personal interaction from playing board games, for every 10 new board game subscription box signups, we’ll donate a board game to an organization that helps kids who can’t afford one.

Phil, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have always been a big fan of good board games and spending time with friends and family. A few years ago, my girlfriend (now wife), wanted to get me a “board game of-the-month” present for my birthday. When she went to look for this gift idea online, it didn’t exist!

Fast-forward a few years, and I was playing several board games with friends over the holidays. We were all having so much fun, and one of my friends pointed out that I had all of these great, unique games that no one in our group had heard about before. She suggested that I should create an “of-the-month” club for good board games. And with that, UnboxBoardom was born!

It wasn’t so long ago that people actually interacted with one another. Before people were connected to their electronics 24/7, there were board games. Families didn’t sit around the dinner table on their cell phones, they had family game nights. Friends wouldn’t sit in silence and watch TV, claiming they were “hanging out.” They got together for a night of games!

I’ve always enjoyed the competition and laughs I shared with friends and family while playing various games. Sometimes, it was the thrill of competition when I came from behind to beat my mom at her favorite game. Other times, it was the excitement of receiving a new game for my birthday and playing it for the first time with my cousins. Some of my most fond childhood, and even adult, memories have come while playing board games.

My goal with creating UnboxBoardom was to give others the same opportunity of collecting, sharing, and discovering new board games with their family and friends.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think providing high quality games that people actually enjoy. There are thousands of board games created each year and a large majority them are not good or just money-grabs by companies based on intellectual property. I think people appreciate when they are getting a subscription service, especially if they are choosing to be surprised, that they are not going to get dealt bad products. Additionally, I make a conscious effort to provide excellent customer service and communication, because I know as a customer of other brands I really appreciate that from a business. I think our 4.8/5 rating on Google (with over 200+ reviews from past customers) has helped build our reputation in the industry.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

Yes, we sell both on our own website and through Cratejoy. The best part of being on our own website is the customization and being able to keep the majority of the revenue generated directly through the website. By using Cratejoy, it is nice that they do some marketing for us and create coupon codes and are actively engaging with potential new customers. The major downside to that though is they take a decently sized referral fee for any subscribers they refer to us for the entire lifetime of customer on our site.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.unboxboardom.com
• Instagram: unboxboardom
• Facebook: unboxboardom
• Twitter: unboxboardom

Image Credits
Todd Patriquin