With 2022 coming to an in depth, and the final working day of the 12 months working out of steam, I needed to mirror on the great and unhealthy we skilled as a workforce. Personally, I see it as a strategy to course of what we did nicely and never so nicely previously 12 months and as a springboard to maneuver ahead with.

The wins

We turned 10 years younger! No unamazing feat given the previous couple of years in financial phrases and when you have a look at enterprise on the whole loads of firms disappear nicely earlier than hitting this milestone. I’m actually glad to have crushed the statistics and hope for one more 10 nice years.

Well 2022 held some superb wins for us, we acquired 2 software program firms:

• My Digital Office – the beginning of what see as a metaverse for work that we need to make a great place for people to do their greatest work
• MillionMind – a quiz and gamification platform permitting firms to actively entice new leads in enjoyable methods, to which we’ll add extra sport codecs

The acquisitions have been enabled by some individuals believing in us sufficient to make these instruments shine and return funding for them. Whilst we’re nonetheless engaged on the latter, we’re grateful for the funding and perception in us to develop the software program subscriptions and construct them into worthwhile streams of revenue for the corporate.

We welcomed a number of new shoppers onto our books, who got here to us for the next causes:

• Attracting new workers of a really particular type
• Engagement of shoppers in a digital area with video games
• Encouraging app customers to do extra and work together with the app extra to realize their shopper’s objectives
• Strategy work for quite a lot of shoppers to include gamification of their app, their onboarding, their recruitment, and their studying
• Explored board sport and digital sport creation for a studying organisation
• Designed a number of video games for model promotion, recruitment, and lead era

The sizes of shoppers various from cellular and desktop app house owners with small groups to multinationals and authorities businesses.

The losses

Every 12 months has its challenges and this 12 months isn’t any totally different. We misplaced out badly financially when a crypto shopper we have been creating a number of video games and digital area initiatives for didn’t dwell as much as their obligations. We nonetheless have a few of their video games on the market in case you are in any respect available in the market for a drag racing sport, a on line casino metaverse with some video games in it, or a collection of arcade video games.

Due to the monetary knock-on results which have stored on rippling by means of the 12 months, we additionally misplaced some superb workforce members and one provider who we valued working with. As an proprietor, it all the time hurts when this occurs, however typically you actually don’t have the means to show the state of affairs round shortly sufficient to fulfill some individuals. Either manner, we want them nicely of their future endeavours.

I spent a lot of the 12 months on the search for funding, $6M USD to be precise about it, and failed to realize this quantity. We did entice some funding curiosity which helped generate among the wins and a few have been holding out for a lead investor, which we by no means secured. We have been very shut twice with 2 totally different buyers promising to foot the entire quantity, just for different causes to make them pull out. As a knock-on impact of this, we misplaced out on some acquisitions and I didn’t realise my full imaginative and prescient in a single go. Our metaverse imaginative and prescient for MyGNation will take longer to grasp than initially envisaged, which I discover a disgrace however given the state of the financial system is probably not a nasty factor within the lengthy haul.

The classes

When you’re bold as a enterprise proprietor and also you don’t hit your massive objective, it’s simple to beat your self up about it and lose monitor of the belongings you did obtain. For me, that is the toughest factor to return to phrases with. A sensible mentor mentioned sooner or later, if you goal for the moon and also you land among the many stars, you’re nonetheless a part of the way in which there and that additionally must be applauded.

From a philosophical perspective with hindsight data, I ponder if I had put the identical effort in chasing gross sales as I did in chasing funding, would I’ve been in a greater place both manner? I clearly don’t know a definitive reply to this, however my hunch is we is perhaps in a greater place on the very least financially. In the funding world ladies nonetheless solely obtain 1-2% of all the cash out there even with protected enterprise fashions reminiscent of software program as a service, so ultimately, I knew it was a much bigger battle after I began out, however one I labored laborious to win. Add to that, that the finance wanted was getting used for acquisitions provides extra limits to the buyers. So we are actually revising and rethinking our manner ahead. Either manner, I realized loads of new terminology from happening the investor lane and what buyers search for. For subsequent 12 months, I’ll shift my concentrate on gross sales to get to the particular reply to this philosophical query.

From a really sensible perspective, we now have a but once more revised cost coverage the place we search for an ever greater deposit of recent and doubtlessly dangerous shoppers. We additionally going ahead will cease being a finance firm for giant multinationals who’ve cost phrases of as much as 120 days, which is just not sustainable on our enterprise mannequin, the place we depend on some freelancers who should be paid upfront. Sometimes I want that individuals working for giant gamers perceive the affect on a small enterprise of limitless credit score and limitless adjustments. Anyway, we’ve been tweaking this coverage yearly to make sure we will nonetheless maintain ourselves and our individuals, however 2022 was not the 12 months the place we acquired this proper. It can be one of many most important driving forces to maneuver from an company mannequin in direction of a subscription mannequin in order that we will have extra predictable income and extra sustainable work for our in-house workforce.

As years go, this one has been a problem, however what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. So let’s hope and work laborious at making 2023 the place we flip the ship round and set sail for a lot of happier horizons.

Thank you

I want to thank all of our prospects and buyers for the belief and perception you could have positioned in us in 2022. We will do our greatest to make the initiatives an excellent success in 2023 so all of us reap the rewards we deserve.

Most of all I want to thank the workforce members at Gamification Nation, who’ve caught with me for this moderately bumpy 12 months, with out you I couldn’t have achieved what we did this 12 months. I sincerely hope to have you ever with me for a very long time to return and to maintain constructing what we got down to do with nice rewards to share round.

Each 12 months closed is a e-book filled with experiences each good and not-so-good, filled with reminiscences that make us richer. Each begin of a brand new 12 months is a model new chapter of a model new e-book hoping to be crammed with glad reminiscences, let’s make 2023 an excellent one!!!!

Happy New Year!