Behind the Curtain

When I set up this Patreon, it was with the idea of providing patrons with an insight not just into forthcoming products and designs, but also into the process of running and growing a small business in this market.

Conscious, as I inevitably am, that the greater media content I used to generate has contracted to zero for the time being, and that development on new games content - whilst on-going - is hardly enough to keep your attention let alone repay your support, I thought I ought to get back to where we began.

How am I dealing with a business that I've mismanaged into near-failure?

In short: badly.

I have almost passed through the denial phase, which started as "it's not happening" (it was) and transitioned into "it's not my fault" (it is) and I'm currently fighting through acceptance, which is manifesting as guilt and aversion to actually doing anything about it.

Despite how dark that sounds, the important thing is that, practically-speaking, I'm fine. Unlike some small business owners in this market I'm not exclusively dependent upon the income from this business. This provides me with a degree of perspective, because I can gradually take the time to step back and see things clearer.

It's not a bad thing for a business to have values and ethics, nor for a business owner to impose their own values and ethics onto a business. But the ultimate job of a business isn't to communicate its values and ethics. It's to make money. And I've let myself drift more and more towards using it as a platform to, well, mostly feed my own ego at the detriment of actually making money. I was seduced by the "influencer" narrative into thinking that I could leverage "having an opinion" into an income stream to the point that I neglected the income streams that were demonstrably generating an actual, y'know, income.

By the time I noticed this, it was too late to stop Precinct Omega's slide to... I was going to say "near failure" but, if I'm honest about this, there was nothing "near" about it. Precinct Omega would have been bankrupt at Christmas if I hadn't pumped money from my personal income back into the business.

Here's a tip to any thinking about running a business of your own: don't forget that you have to pay tax at the end of the year!

Fortunately, though, this isn't the end of the story because I do have personal assets and I do have my patrons and I do still have sales revenue from Wargame Vault, which is enough to keep the whole thing ticking over for the time being.

Between now and the end of June, then, when my current contract ends, I really have to focus on two big things:

- New miniatures wargaming content, and

- Marketing the f*** out of that content.

The first one is the easy bit, in many ways. It doesn't cost me much money to create miniatures wargaming content. It's just a matter of imagination, time and effort. I have existing games that deserve more attention, and new games working their way towards being a worthwhile publication.

The second one is a lot harder.

I am not a marketing guy. I understand the strategy of marketing. I understand the underlying principles. And I have have a moderately good grasp of what the marketing armoury looks like (yes, when in doubt I will always default to military thinking). But, to extend the metaphor, I might know what a marketing rocket launcher looks like, but I have no idea how to use it and, thanks to my earlier profligacy, I don't have the resources to pay someone to do it for me.

I am very much open to hearing advice and suggestions from patrons with more experience in this area, but I just have to do a lot of work to strategize how to market most efficiently and most effectively.

It's a lot like starting again, only wiser and (hopefully) more humble and with more content all ready to go.

And for those of you who still want to hear my thoughts on the market in general and the decisions and performance of other entities in the market, don't worry. I'll still be talking about that stuff.