Who are we?
For those unfamiliar with us and our work I think it's important to provide a bit of context before I continue on with this post. Myself (Joshua Ellis) and Joshua Matthews set up Arkode in July with the intention of starting a successful indie games development company with a focus on transparent business and development practices.
Our slump.
We had hoped that this intention alone would help us kick-start our career in this sector, but it has proven difficult to get off of the ground for a number of reasons. We hit a massive slump two months ago, where all of the energy and excitement that we had at the start of the year faded into the background, and all we were left with was a few daunting realizations. The most disheartening of which was that our market is very over-saturated, with literally thousands of amateur developers and small indie development studios across the world.
Additionally running a business is TOUGH. Myself and Matthews had no issue developing games, as after all we are more than competent in our respective disciplines, but when you have to factor in business needs, it can get intense. Things like having a stable income, registering intellectual property, registering with HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs), going to events, promoting your brand, and a seemingly endless supply of other needs. It's easy to get overwhelmed and shut down, and understandably so, especially if you have no prior experience running a business. Burnout is the plague in business, and it's very real.
This all leads me onto the broader point I want to make in this post. How do you take a situation like ours and revamp your processes, despite what might be a demoralizing set of circumstances? It's a difficult question to answer, but I think we're on the right track now with WHAT we do and HOW we do what we do. My favorite quote is "work smarter, not harder" and there's no truer place for this principle in business start-ups.
1: Prepare to fail.
Our saving grace, and what continues to be important to us in growing this business is that we were actually prepared to fail this year (which I believe is essential for anyone planning on following in our footsteps regardless of industry sector). This has allowed us an almost essential amount of freedom to experiment with what works and what doesn't for our growth and as independent workers (both are equally important!). Very quickly we learnt what not to do, as our initial months were a massive challenge for us as individuals learning to become fully independent in terms of our work and finance.
One way we managed this was to get part time work that just covered our expenses. Don't EVER launch into a venture such as this one without a backup plan, or at the very least a small amount of income. Can't do very much if you're homeless!
2: Don't be afraid to re-evaluate plans.
Having the luxury of being able to experiment, for us, means that if either of us has an issue or foresees a problem we have the ability to rapidly pivot on our plans. A great illustration of this is our social media strategy. Initially it was almost an afterthought, but not by design. We would occasionally do a post to our Instagram, our podcast once a week and maybe I would live-stream a bit on Twitch. Overall we didn't really see a problem with this approach, as we expected our outreach to be small initially but we quickly realized that our following wasn't growing at the rate we needed, and so something needed to change!
To deal with this we came up with an entirely new strategy. As a side note it was actually inspired by a fellow entrepreneur in our work-space (hi Sandesh!), which speaks to the importance of networking in your field (go check out his work too at @sandxsh on Instagram). It's based on the idea that to really stand out now you need to go back to age old traditions of customer connection and by providing support to those in a similar position as ourselves.
I now deliberately reach out to those asking questions on social media about programming in a way that provides value to that individual, so that a small number of those people might help give a little love back. I truly believe that this more thoughtful and value driven approach of helping fellow creators and students will go a long way towards growing our network and as a result help us generate more of a following.
3: Grow discipline and routine.
When we developed our new strategies to social media outreach and game development, an essential component for myself was weekly routines and the discipline to stick to it. Without it, it's hard to make any progress, and from a marketing standpoint, your consumer-base needs to know when your content is going to release. If they don't it can lead to uncertainty in your brand, and many may lose interest or simply miss content releases.
You also have to think that as a consumer, many people build their lives around routines, such as work, education and leisure, and if you can work your way into or around those it becomes habit to consume your content at certain times. Never underestimate how important that is in holding onto existing users or buyers, as in my opinion it's rare that someone doesn't consume content online out of habit in today's market. Modern life is too chaotic nowadays for the average person to deliberately seek out new content on a regular basis, so make sure that yours is easy to find and reliable.
4: Keep track of the chaos.
I've taken on a huge amount of personal responsibility in the last few months with very few resources, and it has been a huge wake-up call. I never would have thought I could do as much as I do in a day at the start of this venture, but I wouldn't ever go back to my previous way of living. It's not for everyone, but I love the rush of waking up in a morning knowing that I achieved so much both personally and in my business the previous day. Having that period of experimentation for us has meant that I have really found a way of organizing my life that works best for me, and it really is fulfilling.
One of my most important assets that I have recently started using every day is a productivity planner. There are many to chose from online, so you'll almost certainly find what suits your values or needs the most. They are pricier than regular planners, but in terms of what they give back, they are incredible value. In my case I designed my own, and pencil in my layout in a standard notebook every morning to A: save money and B: to give me the most flexibility in what I get out of it. At some point I will write a blog on creating one of these planners for yourself and what to look our for.
Another essential tool is something like a whiteboard, or a very visual task tracking tool. I personally own two whiteboards (plan on buying more), with one being a task tracker and the other being a weekly schedule board (Matthews does something similar to me and we both love using them). Having them displayed prominently somewhere in your work-space or home is very important, as you end up thinking about your responsibilities more and get into that head-space of doing work. Here are mine above my desk:
5: Trim the "fat" from your life.
When you have as much stuff to do as I do, you realize very quickly that some things just aren't that important in life, and through process of elimination you can free up a surprising amount of time for your priorities. The time that you spend not doing a lot on your phone for example, or playing that one game that you don't actually love, but play out of habit. Learn what gives you fulfillment and moves your life forward and scrap what doesn't. You'll be happier for it AND more productive at the same time. It's not an easy process by any means, but it is the most worthwhile thing I've ever taken charge of.
This doesn't all mean that I don't have a social life or have fun though! My social life is actually richer than it has ever been, because I socialize with INTENTION. As you can see from my schedule I have two massive spaces for whatever I want to do (and do less serious tasks on a Wednesday), but that time is precious to me and I treat it as such. I'll make plans, even if that plan is to simply decompress. I give myself what I want and need rather than letting life drag me along.
Conclusion.
Overall my new approach to life and business is something that I feel very positive about, and I really believe will help us grow the business in a way that is meaningful and at the end of the day profitable. I hope that limited my experience so far (I am by no means an expert) is useful to some of you and that even the smallest amount of insight is beneficial in some way. The biggest take away from this article that I want you, the reader, to think about is the intention with which your life's habits and your business's strategies are built. What purpose do they serve, and what is the cleanest way you can deliver on your goals?
I'll finish on the quote I used at the start - "Work smarter, not harder". Good-luck!