Success Stories

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Growing Business - Confident Games

A team who launched their new board game in September 2018 is selling nationwide in John Lewis stores following support from the Enterprise Steps programme.

Co Founders Ceri Price and Natalie Podd incorporated the company in January 2018 and launched the game the following November with the support of their Enterprise Steps mentor Neil Leslie who worked with them through the process.

“We sold out of our first print run of 2,100 copies, and now we've just published our second print run and 2 new expansion packs” Explains Ceri. “Our core product is selling in John Lewis nationwide, some Waterstones and dozens of independent retailers. We were just selected by the Telegraph as one of the Best 10 Family board games for Christmas 2019! We're looking into expanding internationally next year.”

 

The fast track success of the company has meant that co-founder Ceri is now working in the business full time and the team have been able to add two expansion packs to the original game.   The team are proud to have created a unique game product that appeals to all ages and is easy to learn.  However, before deciding to launch the product in 2018 the team faced a dilemma. They were 90% happy with the product – should they launch to benefit from the lucrative 2018 Christmas market?

“We decided to go for it. We could have pushed it back until it was 100%, but what worked for us was getting it out there quickly, and getting feedback from our 1st edition that we fixed for the second.” Explained Ceri.

Ceri and Natalie are clearly focused on the next 12 months of growth with their sights set on securing more UK national retailers and with international versions launched in USA, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

 

“It’s been great to have a mentor to talk through our plans. This gave us the confidence to test our idea quickly and cheaply – we wouldn’t recommend spending loads of money until you've proven that it's something customers want and will pay for.”

 

“For our game, we created very cheap prototypes and play-tested loads, refining the gameplay and rules as we went along. It wasn't until we knew we had a winning format that we were willing to pay for design and branding. A lot of people do it the other way round - they think they have a great idea, so they spend a lot of money to get designs and branding done, but it's way too soon.”

 

https://www.confidentgame.com/


Take the next steps with your business
Enterprise Steps has developed an innovative programme for London-based pre-start up, start-ups and established businesses to support them in growing to their full potential.

Find out more here, and about our latest workshops and events here.

 

The Enterprise Steps programme is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).