At the very end of July I officially formed the company and requested a bank account. During a busy August I spent a week in the US for work, then ordered and collected the Zombology artwork from the printers and then went to The Netherlands for a week's holiday. When I got back I could finally crack on.
The website went live, I shipped the proof copy to Derek (who didn't get either of the versions I had previously sent him due to the vagaries of the South African postal service) and I began making copies in earnest.
September was all go. I had intended to make 23 copies (which I did with 1.5 hours to spare!) and ship the first 20 pre-orders. With a busy first couple of weeks (four evenings written off by work travel, friends visiting for a weekend and preparing for Daughter the First's birthday party), I got off to a slow start, but things soon picked up.
It turns out the 4.5 hours I need to make six copies equates to three or four post-bedtime evenings (by the time we've got the kids to bed, eaten and tidied up there's not a lot of time before I need to go to bed, seeing as I can be up very early with Daughter the Second). So the second half of September felt like I hardly saw The Wife, but I got it done. I think that now I've nearly fulfilled all the pre-orders I'm going to slow my construction down to six copies (the number of boxes I can make from a single sheet of SRA2 greyboard, and hence my batch size) every ten days, rather 6 copies every seven days - that way I should be able to cram in some time with the family too.
I didn't quite hit the target of 20 sales (I had enough games and enough pre-orders but a couple of the pre-orders have gone dark and probably won't actually buy and I was trying to only email people when their copy was ready to post, so it moved quite slowly from my end).
Things are looking pretty good for October, I've already sold five of my target of 12 and have another six pre-orders I'm confident that I can sell to and deliver this month. By the 20th I hope to have built up stock for the first time, at which point I can make it for sale on my website and the BGG marketplace.
I'm also hoping to get a couple of reviews in the next few weeks, which might lead to some sales if I'm lucky!
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4 comments:
Do you have a video run through? Maybe worth adding a link to that (and your BGG entry) every time you do a blog post on this.
Hiya Derek,
No video run-through unfortunately. I don't have the kit to record one (or the time at the moment because I'm spending it all making games!).
Link to BGG is a good idea though.
Cheers,
Jack
OK; I am not a great fan of video but I appreciate that many gamers seem to be. Maybe discuss with your Council of Elders (er, Advisory Board) as to how you can tackle this?
Hiya Derek,
Yeah, It's something I'd like to do. I'm hoping that at least one of the reviews might be video based, but I should also see if I can do something myself.
Can't believe I missed a chance to call them a Council of Elders! Though that might upset a few of them :-p
Cheers,
Jack
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