This post will only be in English for now, due to the industry’s nature.
Pre beta run? 😉
Sustainable entrepreneurship and balance between work and play is a goal worthy of diving deep into.
My day-to-day-job is, or was until just recently, accounting and financial services, mainly in the Swedish Games Industry. I have another tiny little business on the side, which is solely creative. This sort of balances my own work and play situation.
I’ve been asked to hold webinars and tutorials, about starting and running own businesses in the games industry, so I thought I’d extend it to include all creative industries.
I am currently creating a set of online courses that will help young ambitions with the fundamentals of running an own business, and the bare minimum of knowledge you should have if running your own business, particularly concentrating on creative industries, games, arts, writing, music, etc.
I have a bachelor’s degree in business, and marketing, and over twenty years working experience in the field. And even though this particular set of courses will focus on the Swedish statutory’s, markets, and industries, the earth is my arena so I welcome you all from all over the globe.
The WHY’s
Firstly, there is the big question of WHY?
Why do you want to open up your own business?
The answers to this question are as vast as there are number of entrepreneurs. Some people prefer being employed. Not all have what it takes to run an own business. Others can’t thrive in employment. Why do YOU want to start your own business?
The pandemic saw a huge upswing in start-ups, when many found opportunities in working from home, and thus realizing the many perks and benefits of the freedom that entailed.
Lay-offs is also a great motivator for taking that last step to realize a perhaps life-long dream. If you’ve been laid off you’ve got nothing to loose, right?
My own why’s are, and were, several.
I’ve had a few really awesome bosses in my days. I have also had a few that drove me absolutely nuts. Reorganizations, and a financial opportunity led to me finally taking that last step to total freedom.
Having a Bachelor’s in Business have helped me a long way but I was SO SCARED! But I did it. The first time I crashed and burned. The second time I was really close to making the same mistakes again so I decided to take a time out and reboot. Here I am right now.
Starting the all new Goblin Academy of Business in Games.
The HOW’s
After the why’s is the question of how’s. How do you start up your own business?
First you need to go over a few scary, but oh so necessary, steps and questions.
You need to formulate and create:
A Business plan
A Budget
Contracts and Agreements.
Templates for this are readily available online.
Are you looking for:
Investors
Publishers ./. Developers
Employees ./. Contractors
Agents
Editors
Do you have a solid Network of peers?
Different people have different skills and mindsets, educations and experiences. Some people make order out of chaos, and steer the ship in the right direction, but leaves enough space for creativity. Some people are creative wizards with total chaos surrounding them. We are all needed. One is probably really good at a few things, but rarely all. We just need to find our place, and the people to support us in the areas we need.
The SWOT
This is a classic from I think pretty much all global business administration courses, and for a reason. It also goes back to the network of peers.
You need to identify your, and your industry’s, and niche’s:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
The Rolls in Business
There are so many different roles in running a business. It can of course be a sole proprietorship, or a publicly listed mega-corporation, but several roles need to filled, either in-house or contracted.
Chief Anything, Everything or Something Officer
The NEED TO DO’s
Statutory accounting is a must that no registered company, organisation, trust, or fund can escape from. Taxes need to be filed and paid, and certain reports are mandatory to tax authorities and governments.
The Now
I am looking for a small test panel of my peers to sit in on a webinar about starting business in games, and other creative industries.
At this very moment I am not looking for young entrepreneurs wanting to learn more, but for the older, more experienced foxes in the industries to help me set the final strokes on these presentations and courses to assure the quality of the info.
I am looking for someone that can spare a half hour for a test webinar with time to give feedback on ideas of improvement.
After this feedback I will be available for lectures, works groups, private lessons, tutorials, webinars, teams-calls and whatnot.
So, do you work in the games industry, or other creative industries, with marketing, finance, organization, hr, personel, accounting and/or legal departments and have 30 minutes to spare I would love your input before I launch my beta!
I can promise you a heartfelt thank you and public recognition for you time! 🙂
Cheers,
El
X.