During the start of the pandemic, I was laid off from my position as Esports Coordinator at Western Michigan University. As a result, I slipped back into a depression of sorts. I didn’t know what to do or where I was going to get money from, I was in a constant state of anxiety and depression. Despite my circumstances, I refused to quit and decided now was the time to start working on my own business.
I reached out to old contacts and started looking into how I can start my own business. A year and a half later I’ve stumbled my way to success. I coach various games for various organizations, such as universities all the way to high schools. I’ve taken everything I’ve learned in life and have put it into getting clients both big and small. I’m extremely proud of how far I’ve made it and I’m excited about my future.
In my most recent podcast episodes (below), I speak on a few lessons learned from Running an Esports Business this year.
Learning how to scale
When it comes to running an esports program, one person can only do so much. At a certain point, one must learn how to delegate. However, before you can delegate, it’s important to have a recruiting and delegation process. We chose to focus on the training aspect first so that when we did recruit staff members we already had a training process in place. By no means is it perfect but it has greatly reduced the stress I have of letting go.
If you’re like me, you enjoy being part of every facet of the process. When you scale that becomes far less possible and you have to let go of control of every little detail. Propper training can help reduce the stress and/or anxiety one feels during the delegation process. The more I’ve been working on this process the more I realize how important it is to get and stay organized.
Getting Organized
Organization has never been my strong suit, ESPECIALLY when it comes to note-taking and/or documentation. One of the things I’m currently learning is, it’s important to revisit the notes and documentation until committed to memory. To me, this feels extreme, but I currently don’t see another way of staying organized, and/or getting more organized. This goes well when creating or improving a process.
Creating a Workflow/Process
The more I work on improving the process the quicker and more efficient I become. It’s been challenging but I’m now starting to see the improvement. The consistency is a huge part of the equation that I’ve struggled with but I’m getting there.
Managing my time
On top of creating a process, managing my time is another part of the equation. Getting faster means I can better manage my time. Also, the more concise I am the fewer decisions I have to consider, and I can just do. Slowly but surely I’m getting there.
Improvement takes time, but it also takes consistency. If you want to be better at something(s) having a specific process, managing time, and being organized is going to help in the long run.