Small Businesses Are Nimble
Steve Cole reports:
It is said that the advantage small businesses have over large ones is that they can make decisions faster and respond to changing markets, and have a closer connection to their customer base (smaller though it may be).
It is well known that I am the most-accessible game designer in the industry. It is also well-known (and much admired) that ADB, Inc., has the most fanatically-loyal customer base in the wargame (adventure game) industry. It is not well understood just how much effort ADB, Inc., has given toward educating its extremely intelligent customers into how business works. Having done so, we can reap the reward of an educated customer base.
We noted some weeks ago that in planning for products for 2009, we wanted to emphasize books we could print on our own equipment. These kinds of products are good for our cash flow. This is why we are encouraging Jean Sexton to generate at least six RPG books during 2009, and why we are seriously considering the SFB Master Starship Book, as well as the first two FC Borders of Madness books.
Knowing this, our industrious and ingenious Federation Commander customers came up with an idea (by way of a discussion led by Mike West, the Q&A guy and principle staffer for Federation Commander). Their idea was to do "paper" FC expansions for areas of the Star Fleet Universe that have lower sales potential but higher demand for new ships.
Mike West and his happy-go-lucky band of gamers came up with the idea of using the not-yet-defined FC Briefing #2 as a book for The Middle Years, a period of time before the General War. (The ships in Federation Commander have all of the "refits"; the Middle Years uses the un-refitted ships which are more challenging to fly due to thinner shields, fewer weapons, and less power.) Mike needed about 72 ships to make Middle Years work, which would require FOUR "attack" products for Federation Commander, and would cost players about $200 including the boosters. Doing a paper product will cost those players only $20.
He submitted this plan, and I took it to the Board, which immediately (and enthusiastically) approved it. So, in the space of three or four days, a new product was not only conceived but approved. Mike West wanted 96 pages (Briefing #1 was 64). Leanna said she would approve this increase in page count ONLY if we could get the revised price ($19.95) into the Greater Games Industry Catalog in time. Fortunately, I had made it a point to be friends with the guys who run GGIC, and since I had done them a favor (I published an article encouraging all publishers to have a "Finish Like A Professional" list for each new product, including the line item "update your GGIC database") the guys at GGIC were willing to make the fix despite being HOURS from going to press. Talk about "nimble"; that is an AA Turn Mode if I have ever seen one!
Players have asked if we would ever do color-laminated cards. We will have to see if sales of Briefing #2 would make that a workable proposition. If so, we will! If not, we're considering a plan to sell color PDFs of the ships. That would probably involve taking some number of orders before any are shipping, so that somebody doesn't put the PDFs on Internet (a violation of law impossible to stop, and giving them clear PDFs makes this so easy somebody does it within hours) and kill the sales.
It is said that the advantage small businesses have over large ones is that they can make decisions faster and respond to changing markets, and have a closer connection to their customer base (smaller though it may be).
It is well known that I am the most-accessible game designer in the industry. It is also well-known (and much admired) that ADB, Inc., has the most fanatically-loyal customer base in the wargame (adventure game) industry. It is not well understood just how much effort ADB, Inc., has given toward educating its extremely intelligent customers into how business works. Having done so, we can reap the reward of an educated customer base.
We noted some weeks ago that in planning for products for 2009, we wanted to emphasize books we could print on our own equipment. These kinds of products are good for our cash flow. This is why we are encouraging Jean Sexton to generate at least six RPG books during 2009, and why we are seriously considering the SFB Master Starship Book, as well as the first two FC Borders of Madness books.
Knowing this, our industrious and ingenious Federation Commander customers came up with an idea (by way of a discussion led by Mike West, the Q&A guy and principle staffer for Federation Commander). Their idea was to do "paper" FC expansions for areas of the Star Fleet Universe that have lower sales potential but higher demand for new ships.
Mike West and his happy-go-lucky band of gamers came up with the idea of using the not-yet-defined FC Briefing #2 as a book for The Middle Years, a period of time before the General War. (The ships in Federation Commander have all of the "refits"; the Middle Years uses the un-refitted ships which are more challenging to fly due to thinner shields, fewer weapons, and less power.) Mike needed about 72 ships to make Middle Years work, which would require FOUR "attack" products for Federation Commander, and would cost players about $200 including the boosters. Doing a paper product will cost those players only $20.
He submitted this plan, and I took it to the Board, which immediately (and enthusiastically) approved it. So, in the space of three or four days, a new product was not only conceived but approved. Mike West wanted 96 pages (Briefing #1 was 64). Leanna said she would approve this increase in page count ONLY if we could get the revised price ($19.95) into the Greater Games Industry Catalog in time. Fortunately, I had made it a point to be friends with the guys who run GGIC, and since I had done them a favor (I published an article encouraging all publishers to have a "Finish Like A Professional" list for each new product, including the line item "update your GGIC database") the guys at GGIC were willing to make the fix despite being HOURS from going to press. Talk about "nimble"; that is an AA Turn Mode if I have ever seen one!
Players have asked if we would ever do color-laminated cards. We will have to see if sales of Briefing #2 would make that a workable proposition. If so, we will! If not, we're considering a plan to sell color PDFs of the ships. That would probably involve taking some number of orders before any are shipping, so that somebody doesn't put the PDFs on Internet (a violation of law impossible to stop, and giving them clear PDFs makes this so easy somebody does it within hours) and kill the sales.
posted by Federation Commander at 5:32 PM
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