This is a little exploration in creativity; can we use RPG games to help us understand some concepts in starting a business? Let us begin.
Click to Start
The realm of business & marketing is like a wide-open fantasy world, with dragons guarding gold and treasure. What quests and opportunities lie in wait for brave adventurers?
Beginning your adventure in business is akin to embarking on a hero’s journey. It begins with a simple premise; your origin story. What’s your name? Where did you come from? Why did you decide to start this business? It’s basic, but it’s like starting an RPG by creating your character.
Who are you?
Create your brand like you would create your character. Are you planning to do protein shakes for gym ‘bros’? Maybe you can put your initial stats into pumping up your brands charisma. Your personality is your personal brand and it helps if you’re a gym ‘bro’ too, but your business can have a totally different ‘brand personality’ that you decide best fits with it and resonates the most with your target audience. Remember that authenticity is key, and consistency makes your brand feel more stable and easier to connect with. Here’s your creation menu:
- Your Name – All brands start with a name. Maybe it describes your work like ‘Staples’ or ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’, or it could be unrelated like ‘Target’ or ‘McDonalds’. It can be nerve-wracking coming up with a brand name but it’s actually an important start; that will be what your adoring fans will chant so make sure it’s memorable! This is also where you decide on your brand personality and tone of voice.
- Your Class – This is your field of business, your industry. You will commonly start without a market share or any fame and some industries are harder to break into as a beginner without substantial capital or know-how. Are you a maker of products like armour and weapons to sell or maybe you provide a service, like loaning carts to people to use. You could be the ‘Nike’ or the ‘Hertz’ of your chosen niche, which we’ll get into next.
- Your Origin – Now there are tons of brands or ‘adventurers’ out there, many who are juggernauts at high levels. But there are even more newbies out there. Each is aiming for fame, fortune and glory. So, to start with, you have to choose a starter town. This is your ‘niche’, where you will dip your toes at first. It’s typically better to be more focused on a much smaller and highly specialised target audience at the start because it’s often easier to be a big fish in a small pond before graduating to a larger lake so choose your niche wisely!
The Call to Adventure
Perhaps you want to be a blacksmith, making armour, for… hobbits to begin with. (It’s got less competition). You’ll need to learn your craft and gain experience somewhere, so you start in a small hobbit village. Finding a community of the target audience you want to sell to and learning what they want helps you decide on how you’ll identify a problem they face and how to solve it.
So, your hobbit town has a group of adventurers who do some basic questing. They need some light armour because they mostly hunt rabbits. However, rabbit hunting leads them down a lot of holes and burrows more often than not, and light armour can get ripped and dirty pretty quick.
Problems like these can be identified in any community you intend to market to. What problems are there in say children’s sportswear? Well, having to wash them constantly, soccer moms will say they might not dry fast enough, or they fade too easily. Whatever the problem, you’ll need to identify them by trawling Facebook groups, Reddit subs and talking to people in real life. Find the problem, and you have a golden opportunity to market a solution.
The Journey Begins
You’ve created a new light armour for hobbits using some imported material from the elven lands that resist dirt and tearing. It’s a bit more expensive but with some demonstrations and trials, they love it! Soon you’ve sold out your stock to every adventurer there. You’ve made a tidy profit. What’s next? Well, there’s a whole world out there.
Knowing your market, your solution and your brand, you can begin conquering the world, one small quest at a time. First thing you notice is that while the hobbits are spreading word of your armour, they don’t go as far as the neighbouring village. This is where marketing your product and building your brand truly begins. What can you do?
- Post on Message Boards – The cheapest way to share news and promote your brand is to post a free notice on the many message boards across the land. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter; it’s up to you on how to craft your communications for whatever you want, be it sales or promotions of a new product or sharing your story. After all, you want fame!
- Hire a Bard – There are ways to spread word of your achievements that rely on another adventurer; piggybacking on his or her skills and honed expertise at charming an audience, a bard (or influencer) may have a huge following of adoring fans that might love hearing tales told by said bard about your amazing new armour and how heroes have slain dragons in ‘em.
- Daring Escapades – Sometimes, the best way to garner some fame is by doing something extraordinary. This can include doing a quest (or event), kitting out a hero (or sponsoring one) and pulling stunts that are so amazing that it’ll be the talk of the town. Perhaps you’ll create a piece of armour for the local troll. A troll-sized, hobbit branded armour. Why not?
Trouble Brewing
Of course, not everything will be fine and dandy in your quest. The hero’s journey is all about overcoming terrible obstacles after all. Maybe that troll incident didn’t go over too well with the local townsfolk. I mean, he was already charging people a fortune to cross that bridge, now he’s got armour too? People start talking about your faux pas on message boards across the land. What can you do about that?
- Fixing Mistakes – The first thing you could do is see if it’s something that you can possibly undo. Can you take back the bad, bad thing you did? (Even if it wasn’t that bad, or so you think.) Removing the post if perhaps you offended your audience that way could be easy, but sometimes it’s not going to be enough. After all, crowds do love their pitchforks. Uh oh.
- Posting A Bounty – Maybe it’s time to hire professional help. A seasoned warrior might take down the troll for a price. Directly tackling your problems whether it’s in low sales, bad publicity can be likened to hiring a PR team or Marketing company. It’s a cost that you will find can directly result in an increase in revenue, awareness and public opinion.
- Learning Exp – Most importantly in facing problems, you’ll learn valuable experience on how to tackle the same problem in the future, and how to avoid them in the first place. Sometimes you’ll discover new skills in seemingly unrelated fields that actually are beneficial to your business. Whatever it is, don’t run from a challenge or be discouraged. It’s good XP.
The Mentor
As a fledgling hero, you’ll fail and fail again UNTIL you eventually run into the wise wizard who will guide you to your destiny. It’s commonly something that happens as you build your business too; many entrepreneurs lose their way as they get stuck in the drudgery of the daily grind without the help of a mentor guiding them to see the bigger picture. This can be a seasoned businessman with successful companies.
The Guild
There are many business bureaus or governmental bodies that helps small enterprises to grow. Having structure helps a lot in creating a business and having the willpower to go the distance in your adventure. In the exotic fantasy world of Malaysia, these are the guilds you can turn to:
- Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA):
- Website: MIDA
- MIDA plays a crucial role in facilitating the growth of businesses in Malaysia. It provides information on investment opportunities, incentives, and helps businesses navigate regulatory processes.
- Small and Medium Enterprises Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp Malaysia):
- Website: SME Corp Malaysia
- SME Corp Malaysia is dedicated to the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country. It offers various programs, training, and initiatives to support SMEs.
- Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE):
- Website: MATRADE
- MATRADE focuses on promoting Malaysian products and services globally. It provides assistance to businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in expanding their export markets.
- National Entrepreneur and SME Development Council (NESDC):
- Website: NESDC
- NESDC is responsible for formulating policies and strategies to promote entrepreneurship and SME development in Malaysia.
- Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad (CGC):
- Website: CGC
- CGC supports small and medium enterprises by providing credit guarantees, financial assistance, and advisory services to help businesses obtain financing.
- Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (PNS):
- Website: PNS
- PNS focuses on the development of Bumiputera entrepreneurs in various sectors. It provides financing and development programs to support Bumiputera-owned businesses.
Your Party of Heroes
The one thing you have to realize is that no hero is an island. You don’t achieve victory on your own, no matter if you’re a one-man-show or a freelancer; it’s wise to party up with others who have different skill sets. Here are a few types of adventurers who you will want on your team if you’re going to build your hobbit armour-smithing business into a kingdom-wide enterprise:
- The Marketing Wizard – Your journey needs a guide, someone wise and responsible who will take the party through an adventure or plan the assault on the castle. They would know how your audience might react and where they tend to be so that you can achieve results.
- The Sales Warriors – For the frontline, you need to make sure your product moves and a sales force will ensure that your services are connected with the audiences who require them in speedy fashion. These are the bread and butter of your team.
- The Advertising Bards – Attracting audiences and growing fame is all about creating your brand image bit by bit, and every company of heroes needs a good banner to rally under. Branding and product design, ads, media, it’s all part of the long-term plan for your business.
Hiring Mercenaries
In a lot of cases, small businesses are not in the position to hire full-time staff, so freelancers are the way to fill your team with positions that can help you to grow. The online freelancer platforms below can be great sources of ‘mercenaries’ you can pay for gigs or ‘quests’, letting you free up your valuable time on tasks you may be capable of, or acquiring assistance on things you may not have the skills for, like art or design.
- Upwork:
- Website: Upwork
- Upwork is a global freelancing platform that connects businesses with freelancers. You can find a diverse range of freelancers, including writers, designers, developers, and more.
- Freelancer:
- Website: Freelancer
- Similar to Upwork, Freelancer is a platform where you can post projects and find freelancers with the skills you need. It covers a wide range of categories.
- Fiverr:
- Website: Fiverr
- Fiverr is a platform where freelancers offer their services starting at $5. It’s known for its gig-based system, and you can find freelancers for creative, technical, and business services.
- Guru:
- Website: Guru
- Guru is a freelance platform that caters to a wide range of industries. Employers can find freelancers based on their skills and expertise.
- Truelancer:
- Website: Truelancer
- Truelancer is a global freelancing platform where you can find freelancers for IT, writing, design, marketing, and many other categories.
- Malaysia Freelance Marketplace:
- Website: Malaysia Freelance Marketplace
- This is a local platform specifically focused on freelancers in Malaysia. It allows businesses to find freelancers and vice versa.
Too hard or too easy? – Remember that at the beginning at least, your business is mostly run by you, and mental fatigue can occur in either end of the spectrum of whether your company is facing too many daily challenges or too little. Being overwhelmed by everything is going to lead to burnout quick, and you might need to delegate more. Hire a party of marketers, baristas, salespeople or whatever you need to support you.
However, once everything is too easy and routine, you might find boredom seeping into your enterprise, limiting your learning, curbing your enthusiasm and reducing your ability to envision further growth. A good balance allows you to maintain a gradual progression, and a long-term plan will further guide your journey into the ideal future you wish to envision.
The End Goal
The story usually ends with a ‘…happily ever after’ and that truly is a possibility with your business. Companies that succeed can last for hundreds of years with wealth, fame and barring total bankruptcy and dissolution, can potentially go on indefinitely in one form or another. Unlike those stories however, there’s never a one size fits all final ‘Big Bad’ to fight and no specific dragon to slay to save the princess. That goal is set by you, your business, and at every level, you can find yourself facing larger and larger quests and boss battles to win. But as you get further into the game, it’s going to be easier to see the end goal. And… even if you face a ‘Game over’ at any point, you can always start anew… armed with the knowledge you’ve gained.
Contact us at AnyMeta if you ever need a team of Sales Warriors, Design Wizards and Marketing Gurus to help you to complete a quest or to go the distance with you on your journey.
Email: enquiry@anymeta-global.com
Phone: 60136204868
Leave a Reply