If you’re one of the many hopeful entrepreneurs that want to start a gaming business, you’re not alone. The industry has a large appeal for casual fans and dedicated players alike. With the right team members and software platforms on your side, it’s possible that you could develop the next big gaming brand.
So, what should your top priority be when starting a gaming business? Do you have particular company goals in mind? Are you ready to make a commitment to entrepreneurship? Between tracking metrics and key results and choosing the ideal operating system or dedicated server for your brand, there are plenty of decisions to be made. If you want to hit your ambitious goals, here’s what you need to know about starting a gaming business.
Your servers are critical.
If you haven’t invested in a dedicated server or a dedicated host, now’s the time to start. Of course, this is often easier said than done. While you may be tempted to choose the cheapest dedicated host for your needs, this doesn’t always give the uptime or key results you want. When you’re looking for a dedicated server, server hosting, or a VPS, you need to ensure that the provider can align with your business goals. After all, the deployment of a VPS or dedicated server may seem simple from the outset but maintenance requires technical support and, occasionally, some add-ons. You want a dedicated server that can handle a higher bandwidth and has set metrics for uptime.
While uptime and server dependencies are important, you also need to ensure you have a server manager that can handle your web server with ease. Whether you’re using a web host that operates within a private cloud configuration or you’re using a dedicated server with full control, you need to ensure that your choice aligns with your company strategy. You’ll also need to consider backups and your hosting plan. If you have ambitious goals, it’s possible that you’ll need to consider a private cloud upgrade for better performance in the coming years. You can consider your web server as one of your ongoing stretch goals and company objectives. Once you’ve finessed the details of your server resources and you have an uptime guarantee for your deployment, you can make more headway on your overall business plan.
When you’re choosing between dedicated server hosts, you want to be able to ensure you’re getting a solid ROI. A web server can be expensive but you need to determine whether these server resources and deployment are worth the expense. On top of that, securing an uptime guarantee can have the biggest impact on your web server performance. Discuss this with the web server sales team and see if you can’t compromise on a money-back guarantee if there are issues with your web servers. Your web server also needs to be able to handle a strong workload which can help increase your brand’s visibility. After your server deployment, you’ll be ready to take things online.
Integrate smarter goal-setting metrics.
It’s important to determine the right key performance indicators (KPIs) and key results (KRs) for your business. If you’re not sure how to track these analytics, you may need to invest in an OKR platform. OKR stands for objectives and key results. The OKR methodology has helped businesses around the world set and track more intuitive, effective goals. Between team goals and individual OKRs, there are ways you can apply this goal-setting framework throughout your business. Commonly, OKRs are used to track quarterly goals and quarterly objectives. At the end of the quarter, your OKR process platform can give you a retrospective of your high-level objectives. Whether these are for your executive-level workers, your project managers, or your entire company, OKRs are incredibly beneficial.
The OKR system is a great way to follow measurable outcomes and take measurable steps to achieve them. If it’s your first time using OKR goals, that’s okay. While OKRs may seem daunting at first, the OKR framework is beginner-friendly and can help you set qualitative goals to measure key results. OKRs work for team objectives, employee engagement, aspirational objectives, and annual planning. Plus, a good OKR platform can even send push messages and notifications as to your progress towards a company’s goal. The first year of using OKRs to measure key results may take some tweaking to find the best fit but once you’ve mastered it, your business should be in a great place.
OKRs work especially well for gaming companies where it’s critical that you keep an eye on a wide variety of key results. OKRs can benefit your support team, your VPS hosting managers, and your data center team. If you need some extra assistance, some OKR programs offer templates and you can even work with an OKR coach. While an OKR template may not fit every gaming business perfectly, think of the template as more of a roadmap and feel free to make detours as needed. Whether you’re using an OKR to improve your customer service or get more clicks to your WordPress site, the methodology can help you out significantly.
Invest in your software development.
Since gaming companies are digital brands, you need to show customers that you’re on the cutting edge of your craft. This means investing some extra time and resources into customer software, web, and mobile development. Consider brands like Spotify and Uber. Their custom mobile software is essentially their entire brand. While there are web services too, the digital products both companies offer are unparalleled. However, when you’re considering a gaming company, you probably are focused on internal development projects as is. Chances are, you don’t exactly have the time to craft a mobile app or devote much attention to a custom web application. This is where a bit of outsourcing can help.
Brands like Devsu have years of experience helping companies develop custom digital products. Devsu, in particular, offers a high-end touch to all of their projects that other businesses struggle to match. If you need a site SSL, you’re working on optimizing applications for both an SSD and HDD, and you need to develop custom products. Whether you partner with Devsu or another brand, it’s important to verify that your software developments are up to par for your gaming brand’s needs. Again, like a company OKR system or dedicated server hosting, you need to ensure that you’re getting a true balance between expenses and values. This will help you make the right fiscal choice for your brand as a whole.
Use a multi-factor approach.
No matter your overall business goals for the next quarter or even the next year, it’s best to combine different platforms and approaches to ensure that your gaming company runs smoothly. Between setting up company OKRs and working with a visual studio or WordPress developer, there’s going to be a lot on your plate when you’re crafting your brand. If it seems like it’s a lot of work, that’s because it certainly will be. However, with a combination of the right software platforms and services, your job will be that much easier. Though you can’t use your add-ons and services as a crutch, they can undoubtedly be an effective support system for your brand moving forward.