you got this man!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that a lot of us in the GS community will be glad to assist you with spreading what word we can toward your future projects with this new business. You are venturing out and doing what most of us will only dream to do.
Hey stormy this is great news and an inspiration, I'm an architect myself, Liverpool UK and make games in the evening, hopefully next year I'm starting my own architecture and digital design studio like yourself so it's great to see someone from the community getting started, best of luck dude, and when you make millions hit me up for your house and studio designs haha
(please forgive the grammatical errors and typos... It's been a long old day :-). . .
I'm now in my 7th week of running my own business after leaving my old job of 9 years.
It's been a very busy time... burning the candle both ends, working weekends when needed. It's amazing how much incentive fear of not earning can be..
but it's all starting to pay off.
NEW WEBSITE:
After 7 weeks of working on it in between other business, the new business website finally went live late last night.. (around 1.00 am ... I was then up at 6am to go to a business network event.. I'm not sure if I went to network or to take advantage of the free coffee and fried breakfast)
The website isn't quite finished, but it finally seemed like it was good enough to launch. (I'll finish up tweaking colours / colors / spacing / uploading a full portfolio / testimonials and more soon).
**
FREE TEMPLATES STILL THERE:**
It still has all my free GameSalad templates built into the site, but the button for the templates currently lives at the bottom of the site and are setup to work with the excellent free version of Woo Commerce...
I partially considered taking them down as it confuses the site which is now really focused on the animation/video business... But I'm still proud of my own GameSalad projects and don't want to lose touch compeletly (one day I'll be back into it)
I hope to offer some fixed cost animation services through the Woo Commerce store as well... one day in the distant, distant future.
ZEN:
The hours really have been pretty intense... and it's a real balance to try and make sure I'm still making some time to hang out with the kids, wife and do the normal day to day family stuff.
The whole business process is ALL still really enjoyable... working out basic marketing ideas...pitching for work.. dealing with my own clients, knowing the the work I do (if done well) will benefit the company (and me) directly is really great for pushing me to produce better work and provide a professional service.
Finding and commissioning professional voiceover artists (better than my and my wifes amateur ones) has been a real success,
All the jobs that a team of producers and company directors would people took care of at my former work... are now mine...
CONTACTS:
I've built some great contacts in the local area, with 2 film companies who are now offering their clients animation that would be delivered by Stormy Studio. In return I can now offer filming services which is a great plus.
Plus also met with 2 web & app design companies, a marketing company and more all of whom are interested in offering animation to their clients.
It also seems that there's very little local competition in my area of the UK with most production companies focusing on filming rather than animation. Which has come as a bit of a surprise. (a good one).
Even if most jobs I've won have been via the interweb there's some good potential locally.
HORRIBLE WORLD OF TAXES:
I've got an accountancy firm signed up and they're sorting all the horrible numbers stuff and advising me on how to be more tax efficient going forward...
They really enjoy that stuff... it's definitely money well spent as its the one area of the business I take no pleasure in tackling.
JOBS WON: (4 finished)...
Over the 7 weeks Stormy Studio have produced:
App promo for developer in Florida
45 second promo for online detective agency in Sydney.
1.5 minute promo for UK based Worldwide adventure travel company.
3 minute promo for new business communication service (Huge International client, contact based in Scotland).
Comedy Promo for film company in Manchester, UK.
1 days worth of Visual FX needed for a local film studio.
About to start work on Data centre promo for company in California
Potentially won two other interesting jobs...
Also this morning I pitched on a job to create a animation for NASA... I doubt it'll come off but it would be so very cool to be able to add NASA to my list of clients on the website.
So its been busy... interesting... rewarding... and busy...
It's amazing how much incentive fear of not earning can be.." @StormyStudio Jeah man! Its like you take over evolutionary pressure and put it on yourself, live or death(of your biz). Wish you the best man!
As well as the current anination biz setting up and planning I have now started tinkering a little with GS again in the evening..... A little.. Keen totry and find time to do both.
I am very happy for you with your decision to become a full time developer. Starting a business can be tricky, but also exiting and fun. Best of Luck. Also, a HUGE plus to have your wife on board (I know from experience).
Its been 82 days (or nearly 3 months) since I packed in my job of 9 years and setup my own animation business.
I'll try and be quick this time... (I think I failed).
Website...
- I've continued to improve the new website... and always will.
- I've added more to the portfolio section... (Plus have 2 recent videos to add once the client gives the ok).
- There's also a new little testimonials slider on the home page.. with real testimonials..
Hours
- The hours continue to be long.. This past week has been the longest yet. Early mornings and late nights working to ensure 4 projects meet the various deadlines. Needless to say at the end of the week (yesterday).. a cold beer had never tasted quite so good.
Work
I've got into a good habit of pitching on various animation websites for work daily for around an hour. It's paying off and Stormy Studio is now ranked 19th on a particular creative companies website with over 10220 creatives.
With one 1 project on 2 weeks ago the paranoia of 'will I ever work again' kicked in.. I pitched on loads more jobs..
Cut to 24 hours later... and I was staring at 5 projects that all needed working on.. In the end I politely declined one of the projects, which was a first for me. Not a bad position to be in but it does feel so wrong turning down a paid project, the only way to solve it in the future is to have a bigger team.
Staff.. scary but potentially a great step
Obviously I needed to find a gradual way to get used to employing someone without risking massive financial loss or lowering the level of service or quality I want my company to produce. I also needed to get used to sharing out some of the work load and trusting in others abilities (whilst overseeing it).
So I started contacting some of the freelancers that had responded to an advert I put up at the beginning of setting up the company.
Over the past 3 weeks I've employed 3 freelancers for small bits of projects, 2 of which are local and interested in joining the team on a more regular basis and eventually coming to the 'office space' when we get there. One in particular could be superb and is working for me all next week.
Office Space
I'm considering setting up the company address at a Science Park rather than my current home address near the sea. You can pay a small monthly fee to simply have a 'fancy' address on site and use the meeting rooms and coffee shop. There are over 60 technology firms on the park (including Mozilla) and it looks the part too. I could then eventually move into one of the offices (which are really pretty cheap as they're all about boosting industry) when it makes sense to. Also they approached me to create 4 videos to promote their park (The largest in South West England) so it may make even more sense to join them. The only real reason not to is at the moment my commute consists of walking to a spare room ('office') at home. There are positives to being at home i.e. see the wife and kids more... but there are definitely negatives sides... i.e. see the wife and kids more... :-) joking... but having a small commute would help clear the mind before jumping into Dad mode back at home, plus office space would mean I could train up some less experienced freelancers, hang out with other human beings, potentially reach the holy grail of having someone bring me a cup of tea to my big desk :-)... Also it would mean Stormy Studio becomes a real physical business where as a team it can grow, evolve and become a cool place to work with regular visits to beer gardens and the beach for creativity....so I'll probably get the address and go from there.
GameSalad
I've started planning a new GameSalad project with an old friend who is doing a masters in business marketing. We going to breath some life into my multiplayer game concept.. we've set a data of 1st of August to begin development. So it's really cool to have a date set for when I need to start building time back into my day for Game developing... I miss it.
Comments
Great stuff! Best of luck to you, Jon!
My GameSalad Academy Courses! ◦ Check out my quality templates! ◦ Add me on Skype: braydon_sfx
that is awesome, great luck!
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Best of luck @StormyStudio !
MESSAGING, X-PLATFORM LEADERBOARDS, OFFLINE-TIMER, ANALYTICS and BACK-END CONTROL for your GameSalad projects
www.APPFORMATIVE.com
you got this man!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that a lot of us in the GS community will be glad to assist you with spreading what word we can toward your future projects with this new business. You are venturing out and doing what most of us will only dream to do.
Congrats! Best of Luck!
www.marcosriffel.com
Well done man ... Best of luck with it
Free Mini Games and Demo Templates
Awww. Yeeaahh.
Love the ribbon cutting video! Best of luck!
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Hey stormy this is great news and an inspiration, I'm an architect myself, Liverpool UK and make games in the evening, hopefully next year I'm starting my own architecture and digital design studio like yourself so it's great to see someone from the community getting started, best of luck dude, and when you make millions hit me up for your house and studio designs haha
@jay2dx thanks... give me a year or 2 and maybe I'll be up for building a swanky (cheap) garden office. :-)
**Another little update... **
(please forgive the grammatical errors and typos... It's been a long old day :-). . .
I'm now in my 7th week of running my own business after leaving my old job of 9 years.
It's been a very busy time... burning the candle both ends, working weekends when needed. It's amazing how much incentive fear of not earning can be..
but it's all starting to pay off.
NEW WEBSITE:
After 7 weeks of working on it in between other business, the new business website finally went live late last night.. (around 1.00 am ... I was then up at 6am to go to a business network event.. I'm not sure if I went to network or to take advantage of the free coffee and fried breakfast)
The website isn't quite finished, but it finally seemed like it was good enough to launch. (I'll finish up tweaking colours / colors / spacing / uploading a full portfolio / testimonials and more soon).
**
FREE TEMPLATES STILL THERE:**
It still has all my free GameSalad templates built into the site, but the button for the templates currently lives at the bottom of the site and are setup to work with the excellent free version of Woo Commerce...
I partially considered taking them down as it confuses the site which is now really focused on the animation/video business... But I'm still proud of my own GameSalad projects and don't want to lose touch compeletly (one day I'll be back into it)
I hope to offer some fixed cost animation services through the Woo Commerce store as well... one day in the distant, distant future.
ZEN:
The hours really have been pretty intense... and it's a real balance to try and make sure I'm still making some time to hang out with the kids, wife and do the normal day to day family stuff.
The whole business process is ALL still really enjoyable... working out basic marketing ideas...pitching for work.. dealing with my own clients, knowing the the work I do (if done well) will benefit the company (and me) directly is really great for pushing me to produce better work and provide a professional service.
Finding and commissioning professional voiceover artists (better than my and my wifes amateur ones) has been a real success,
All the jobs that a team of producers and company directors would people took care of at my former work... are now mine...
CONTACTS:
I've built some great contacts in the local area, with 2 film companies who are now offering their clients animation that would be delivered by Stormy Studio. In return I can now offer filming services which is a great plus.
Plus also met with 2 web & app design companies, a marketing company and more all of whom are interested in offering animation to their clients.
It also seems that there's very little local competition in my area of the UK with most production companies focusing on filming rather than animation. Which has come as a bit of a surprise. (a good one).
Even if most jobs I've won have been via the interweb there's some good potential locally.
HORRIBLE WORLD OF TAXES:
I've got an accountancy firm signed up and they're sorting all the horrible numbers stuff and advising me on how to be more tax efficient going forward...
They really enjoy that stuff... it's definitely money well spent as its the one area of the business I take no pleasure in tackling.
JOBS WON: (4 finished)...
Over the 7 weeks Stormy Studio have produced:
Potentially won two other interesting jobs...
Also this morning I pitched on a job to create a animation for NASA... I doubt it'll come off but it would be so very cool to be able to add NASA to my list of clients on the website.
So its been busy... interesting... rewarding... and busy...
Did I mention its been been busy? ..
Awesome. Keep up the good work!
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WooHoo!
Sounds like a lot of jobs won in just 7 weeks, keep it up!
http://jamie-cross.net/posts/ ✮ Udemy: Introduction to Mobile Games Development ✮ Learn Mobile Game Development in One Day Using Gamesalad ✮ My Patreon Page
Great, Stormy! I love reading the updates and seeing your posts on Facebook! Keep it up!
My GameSalad Academy Courses! ◦ Check out my quality templates! ◦ Add me on Skype: braydon_sfx
Thanks for the positive words as always...
getting there...
slowly slowly catchy monkey...
It's amazing how much incentive fear of not earning can be.."
@StormyStudio Jeah man! Its like you take over evolutionary pressure and put it on yourself, live or death(of your biz). Wish you the best man!
My Apps
https://itunes.apple.com/de/artist/david-zobrist/id733552276
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=David+Zobrist&hl=de
Hey Stormy! I see today is your fifth anniversary with GameSalad. Way to hang in there!
Thanks @RThurman
Still hanging on by the skin if my teeth.
As well as the current anination biz setting up and planning I have now started tinkering a little with GS again in the evening..... A little.. Keen totry and find time to do both.
Thanks for the shout out.
Jon
I am very happy for you with your decision to become a full time developer. Starting a business can be tricky, but also exiting and fun. Best of Luck. Also, a HUGE plus to have your wife on board (I know from experience).
Time for another long old update...
Its been 82 days (or nearly 3 months) since I packed in my job of 9 years and setup my own animation business.
I'll try and be quick this time... (I think I failed).
Website...
- I've continued to improve the new website... and always will.
- I've added more to the portfolio section... (Plus have 2 recent videos to add once the client gives the ok).
- There's also a new little testimonials slider on the home page.. with real testimonials..
Hours
- The hours continue to be long.. This past week has been the longest yet. Early mornings and late nights working to ensure 4 projects meet the various deadlines. Needless to say at the end of the week (yesterday).. a cold beer had never tasted quite so good.
Work
I've got into a good habit of pitching on various animation websites for work daily for around an hour. It's paying off and Stormy Studio is now ranked 19th on a particular creative companies website with over 10220 creatives.
With one 1 project on 2 weeks ago the paranoia of 'will I ever work again' kicked in.. I pitched on loads more jobs..
Cut to 24 hours later... and I was staring at 5 projects that all needed working on.. In the end I politely declined one of the projects, which was a first for me. Not a bad position to be in but it does feel so wrong turning down a paid project, the only way to solve it in the future is to have a bigger team.
Staff.. scary but potentially a great step
Obviously I needed to find a gradual way to get used to employing someone without risking massive financial loss or lowering the level of service or quality I want my company to produce. I also needed to get used to sharing out some of the work load and trusting in others abilities (whilst overseeing it).
So I started contacting some of the freelancers that had responded to an advert I put up at the beginning of setting up the company.
Over the past 3 weeks I've employed 3 freelancers for small bits of projects, 2 of which are local and interested in joining the team on a more regular basis and eventually coming to the 'office space' when we get there. One in particular could be superb and is working for me all next week.
Office Space
I'm considering setting up the company address at a Science Park rather than my current home address near the sea. You can pay a small monthly fee to simply have a 'fancy' address on site and use the meeting rooms and coffee shop. There are over 60 technology firms on the park (including Mozilla) and it looks the part too. I could then eventually move into one of the offices (which are really pretty cheap as they're all about boosting industry) when it makes sense to. Also they approached me to create 4 videos to promote their park (The largest in South West England) so it may make even more sense to join them. The only real reason not to is at the moment my commute consists of walking to a spare room ('office') at home. There are positives to being at home i.e. see the wife and kids more... but there are definitely negatives sides... i.e. see the wife and kids more... :-) joking... but having a small commute would help clear the mind before jumping into Dad mode back at home, plus office space would mean I could train up some less experienced freelancers, hang out with other human beings, potentially reach the holy grail of having someone bring me a cup of tea to my big desk :-)... Also it would mean Stormy Studio becomes a real physical business where as a team it can grow, evolve and become a cool place to work with regular visits to beer gardens and the beach for creativity....so I'll probably get the address and go from there.
GameSalad
I've started planning a new GameSalad project with an old friend who is doing a masters in business marketing. We going to breath some life into my multiplayer game concept.. we've set a data of 1st of August to begin development. So it's really cool to have a date set for when I need to start building time back into my day for Game developing... I miss it.
Since I'm here... another much quicker update...
August was quiet... got a little paranoid.. spent money on film camera and got addicted to vintage lenses...
Now September.. busy once again.. animating, pitching, editing etc...
Very soon hoping to make a quick GameSalad game... ( a re-hash of an old 1 hour game contest entry)...
awesome! keep up the good work
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