Angie Clever

It seems like this should be self explanatory, but sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. I was looking at business-for-sale listings online listings a few days ago and saw a listing for an online handmade natural soap resale company, generating about $2000 a month. I read the listing, looked up soap prices, and thought about it.

Soap resale: You buy a loaf of soap for $12-$20. You split each loaf into 10-12 bars. You wrap the bars nicely and gift package them (tissue and foil sticker). You sell at $3.50 to $6 a bar. It seems like a rather nice little business plan. Very straightforward. In a niche market (natural soaps). Easy item to ship, good online product. You can order it, no need to invest much time in making a product. Good profit. Wide range of people locally and online who might want it. Easy to advertise.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to sell soap. The gaming market just seems that much more complex and difficult. That’s when the forest and the trees thing kicked in. I realized that I want to be in the gaming market, but I get so involved in the little details (my products development, news, game manufacturers, ect) that I stop seeing the bigger picture. I know absolutely nothing about soap, and strangely I find it easier and simpler to sell soap than games.

I start thinking about markets and products, and started to contrast soap with what I’m doing.

After careful consideration, I tried to resolve the problem: Why does selling soap seem easy, why does selling games seem hard? The two biggest problems I noticed were the type of product and the money involved.

In Soap Company, you are not designing or making soap. In Game Company, you are developing and designing games. I know nothing about soap, so I ask myself: If I knew about soap would my development costs go up because I wanted to design and develop soap? Is my knowledge actually holding me back from a good product in games because I am overanalyzing?

Is the problem that I know too much about my products, and thus I am overlooking important business steps while caught up in the design process?

The resolution is, for the Game Design Company, like Soap Company, I need to target a market. Instead of thinking I am making “Games”, think I am making “educational games that a school would buy” or “games that appeal to teens with electronic interests”—just like instead of selling Soap, sell “variety of natural handmade soaps”.

Begin by targeting a niche market. Target just one. If that doesn’t work, alter your target until you hit one. Small successes in this field will help you to build profits. Profits become capital. Capital allows you to expand business. You have to start somewhere though.

There is a South Park Episode about underpants gnomes. The underpants gnomes have a business plan that goes something like this:

Underpant Gnomes Business Plan:

1. Steal Underpants
2. ???
3. Profit!

Accompanied by a song that goes something like this (There’s no reason to know this other than I think its cool):

“Time to go to work. Work all day.
Search for underpants, hey.
We won’t stop until we have underpants.
Yum tum yummy tum tay!”

I think that my business plan (and this is also true of a lot of you aspiring designers out there) looks something like this. We don’t worry so much about the how, things like the target market. We just know we are designing a great product.

So now is the time to start worrying about market. We know who will buy soap. I wouldn’t sell soap without knowing someone would buy it. (In fact, I don’t even like soap… or other scented things for that matter). Why would I develop a game without an idea of who (what type of person, store, ect.) was going to buy it? Well, the short answer is because I want to. And that is the first important step, wanting to and actually turning that want into doing something (anything).

Now, refine “doing something” into turning a profit. I want to take that passion and “want to” drive, and turn it into success by designing with a target market in mind. If I know nothing about soap, and I can sell it… then I know I can sell games. Just keep a level head and balance design and business. Remember that designing for your own enjoyment and to sell are a little different. Thats not to say you shouldn’t enjoy it, thats why you’re here. Just keep in mind who you’re doing it for, and why.