How can you create a business plan for your Gaming Industry consulting services?

Summarize your business goals and mission. Define your target market and analyze their needs. Outline the gaming consulting services you offer. Determine pricing strategies based on value and market rates. Research and analyze competitors in the industry. Develop a marketing and sales plan to attract clients. Explain how services will be delivered and managed. Create financial projections and consider profitability. Identify potential risks and challenges for the business. Establish a timeline with milestones for implementation. Monitor progress and adjust the plan as needed.

Creating a strong business plan for your gaming consulting services: Executive Summary: Highlight your vision and unique services. Business Description: Define your expertise and core values. Market Research: Understand industry trends and target audience. Services Offered: Detail your consulting services. Marketing and Sales: Plan for promotion and client acquisition. Team: Introduce your qualified team members. Financial Projections: Include income, expenses, and funding. Risk Analysis: Identify and mitigate potential challenges. Appendices: Provide supporting documents. Review and Edit: Polish your plan for clarity and accuracy.

Crafting a business plan involves highlighting unique services for the gaming industry. The executive summary outlines vital goals and vision. Describe distinctive consulting services and analyze the gaming sector, identifying trends and competitors. Specify services offered, target market, and a robust marketing strategy. Detail day-to-day operations, team structure, and financial projections. Mitigate potential risks and include supplemental information in the appendix. Regularly update the plan to align with industry shifts and ensure sustained success.

I favor a humble and realistic business plan. Very often start-ups in niche markets define themselves as unique and without competitors, which could be misinterpreted as a non-existent or hypothetical market. Even in niche markets there are always competitors and it is more useful to highlight the competitive advantages that differentiate the start-up. The perfect definition, knowledge, analysis and positioning in the market is the most relevant point for a start-up

Often people get lost in the maize of creating a fancy business plan with romantic numbers to get funding for their gaming studio. Instead present a realistic picture in your business plan with achievable targets basis your past or present experience of the gaming business. If you do not have adequate experience of a gaming biz (either as an entrepreneur or an employee), then it will be difficult to convince others, no matter how fancy your business plan is. Also if you have relevant experience of a gaming business then more often than not, you will present a more commonsensical picture in your business plan, rather than shooting for the stars. A pragmatic business plan is more likely to get the much needed funding for your next game.

Game developers spend an awful number of hours that stretches from weeks to months and sometimes dare I say, years in creating the next perfect game. While doing so, very often game devs put the commerce on the back burner. In the Gamescom event this year, I was approached by a few game studios with an exalted funding need, as part of their business plans. I saw a common streak in all - they had spent too many man-hours on creating their product and now expected to be compensated for their efforts. Unfortunately investors don't see things that way and game devs need to learn the balancing act of putting just the right amount of time behind a particular product so that it makes commercial sense to a buyer or an investor.

When a game does well, very often it is followed by clones from other studios. The thought behind this is that a product similar to a hit product is more likely to get funding or publisher eyeballs however, mere cloning won't help. Game devs should study a hit game and then try to put their own twist and create their own unique version of the already famous hit game. Simply re-skinning a hit game or copying the game mechanics shamelessly, reflects poorly on the creative abilities of a game dev and all individuals from the gaming world should avoid falling into this pit. It is this cloning and unabashed copying that results in so many similar looking games, that brings down the customer gaming experience and hurts the industry as a whole.