Run your own business?

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I'll concur.. I've worked for clients across the country; many of which I've never seen in person.
Websites such as elance and odesk are good sites to do this.

But not one that people will pay for.

I appreciuate the vote of confidence. I used to make multimedia, but then had ten years away from the industry, and my old skills are nothing special. What I can do now is produce finished products: none of my individual skills is world class, but I can do enough programming, art, design, music, etc. to take something from an initial idea to an online game or similar product. But my downfall is that I don't connect with other people. I spent those ten years making games, only to finally admit that there is no market for the games I make, and I would be very bad at making conventional games (as I don't enjoy playing hem).

My business advisor recommends that I find out what others want and then make it, but that means understanding what others want, and then networking to sell it: my two weakest areas. Hence this thread: if I could get someone else to just say "make X" then I have the skills to make X, I could then get paid, and everyone would be happy.

Games on mobile platforms are quite popular.
Not sure what kind of game doesn't have a market but even if you're giving away your apps and just receiving ad revenue it would be worth it.
Your skills are a moving target - pick up a book, take a class, etc and fill in the gaps.
Lots of old school languages are alive and well - don't discount your knowledge and experience.

How do to get past the specialism problem? I registered at odesk, but they only seem interested in narrow specialists. To get anywhere (i.e. to apply for more than 1 job, or to look good) you need to take online tests on particular software packages. The average score for these tests is very high, as people only take tests in their specialist area. But I am a generalist: I would score below average on every single test (because the average is so high), and there is no way to prove my real skill: being able to do the whole package. I.e. I can produce finished product from scratch. But on odesk I will always appear to be the worst of the bunch.

You seem to have a fixed mindset about things; it's not like you can't become exceptional at ANYTHING. The green lights in life are never all green.. just get moving
Take it more than once until you get a high score.
Pick one, pre-study, and become exceptional... then move to another.
As long as you're willing to work hard and not give up when things get tough you'll do well in the long run.

My games aren't.

Granted, you have to open a browser to use them on a phone or tablet, but mobile users could use them if they wanted. They just don't.
Judge for yourself:
http://enterthestory.com


I used to make Windows adventure games, but moved to browser based (long story). I've started to treat them as educational tools instead of games. But there is no existing forum or user group for things like this. I have to somehow market it from scratch, and get feedback so I know how to change them. i.e. it's all about networking, a skill that I don't have.

I looked at your site. It seems put together well; just not very fun.
Try focusing on a younger audience and perhaps make learning games.
OR just take on whatever project you find and learn whatever they need.

My mum and I run a home daycare. We both specialize in different things. My mum does the flyers and we both go around and post them through town. I do the advertising on the Internet and the e-mail responses. My mum usually does most of the phone calls and talking with the parents. I have my ECE diploma so I do all of the programming. My mum and I both do the lunch menus and we both take turns preparing lunches. We both share the cleaning and we have a schedule for that. I make up the daily schedule and my mum and I both made up the daycare philosophy, handbook, contract and paperwork. We both take care of the children although we have different age groups that we favor. My mum prefers babies and toddlers while I prefer preschoolers and the 4-5 year olds. I don't mind some of the well behaved school age children as well. My mum does all of the accounting and payment stuff because I'm horrible at anything that has to do with numbers. This is just a short-term plan for me right now though. I plan to go back to college in September for Library Tech.

My solution is to ask and keep asking. What do you want? How do you like this? and so on. If the feedback is negative, don't take it personally. Work out how fix the problem.

Take your site for instance. Some people must visit it so at the end of the game have a little optional questionnaire asking what they liked and didn't like. Maybe start a forum or mailing list. You say there aren't any similar forums or user groups. Try widening your search. There must be some stuff broadly similar to what you are doing. If you find one, join up and participate in the discussions. Don't spam but it is usually OK to mention your own stuff occasionally. Watch what people like and don't like then try to use that to improve your stuff. If that means tearing it apart and starting again from scratch, that is what you have to do.

Have you thought about exhibits and advertising demonstrations? A local museum has several exhibits that have a touch screen display next to them, giving more information and games. The style and layout of your website would lend itself well to that sort of work. A while back I was involved in an audio project for that museum. It was great fun and paid well. The finished product ran 6 different exhibits from one computer. That is the only time I've ever filled every slot in a computer with sound cards!

That's an excellent idea. Thanks, I'll do that. Feedback is my biggest need (and specifically feedback from the target audience, not from regular gamers). A feedback form at the end is obvious now you mention it. I'll add it today.

That whole site is your doing? I think you have nothing to worry about. I wish I had someone like you to do some site design for my last business. It has been a long time since I seen a site built to such an intricate artistic degree.

You mentioned you do not know where to promote your site. Well the sort of games you make are very similar to a serious of books we used to have when I was a kid back int he 80s called "Choose your own adventure". They were in a sense printed versions of the sort of thing you are doing now. You basically read the story and decided what to do by turning to the pages next to the decision you made. Given that they wrote hundreds of these I am sure there is at least a small fallowing and possible some forums that discuss this sort of thing out there. They might still be making the books today. If you go to fan sites for these sorts of books you might have a book place to find people interested in the sort of thing you are doing.
Just look around for anyone else who has or is doing anything remotely close to what you are. Then find the fan base.

All in all you have a decent talent for multimedia work. I think if you can get noticed that you will find plenty of opportunities out there for freelance work. I had an idea for a game site some time ago and its still floating around. If I ever decide to go ahead with that I will probably look you up for some serious theme based web design.

my wife and i (both aspies, alas) run our own business, but we're fortunate enough to work at home and to deal with customers almost entirely via the internet. we've been at this for over 10 years, but it certainly has it's drawbacks. i'm sure it's easy enough for the average jane or joe working at home to find themselves distracted, but it tend to get severely lost in my head and fixated on things while my wife puts in such freakish detail in the work to the point that it doesn't make sense money-wise. still we wouldn't trade it for anything (and i can't hold a regular job to save my life).

we're at a point where we need to really organize things down to the wire and schedule every little thing to get ahead.

Thanks. Positive feedback means a lot to me.

This is probably just an aspergers thing - I find it very difficult to tell people about it, or to know how to, but I now have a friend who's contacting people for me, so here's hoping.

Just don't let some minor setbacks stop you in your tracks..
learn from whatever so called mistakes you make and move on!
The key is to keep adapting until things start working.
I've learned a lot just figuring out whatever clients needed me to do and being willing to stick with it until I've climbed the new learning curve.

I've co-founded five businesses. One spawned three different entities over time as it evolved (and one was folded back into one of our earlier ventures) ultimately leading to a total of seven. So far my partners and I have sold four of the seven. The remaining three are in various stages of operation (one old, established, and currently for sale; and two that are start ups).

I've never operated a business that was so highly specialized that you just hang up a shingle and customers come. I don't think very many successful businesses are able to operate that way. But, the degree of specialization does play role in how you go about finding customers, as do other factors.


What I've found is that I am good at certain parts of the customer acquisition process, and not particularly good at other parts of the process. If it involves interacting with people (ASD or "NT") who share one of my special interests (which many of the businesses tend to revolve around), then I can interact with customers and potential customers as a subject matter expert. I can also interact with these people in generating customer leads (say at a conference).

On the other hand, if it involves trying to convince someone who does not share the same interest (or perhaps has not discovered it), then I am not the best at convincing them that they should be interested in product X or service Y. For example, one business sold research to investment managers. In order to get one person to look at the research service, a sales person had to speak to roughly 30 people. I don't need that kind of rejection. So I find people who thrive on that scenario and pay them on a commission.

While I'm not particularly good in that second scenario, I can see why some Aspie's could be. For example, some Aspies may thrive on convincing others that they should be interested in their area of interest. If that happens to be the product or service they are selling, then they could do quite well at it I imagine.



I don't think you have to know exactly what people want. You have to be close and then refine what you do over time. In order to get close initially, you can survey potential clients or research existing businesses that provide something people want.



You do need to know where to find potential customers. But that doesn't mean you have to look for a physical place where people congregate. It could be a virtual place where people congregate (like a forum, facebook, etc). Another option is to purchase access to a database of potential clients. Yet another is to do your own online research to find potential members of your target market.



You do need to be able to communicate in a way that customers will understand and respond to (not necessarily "like" though... they might respond due to dislike ). If your business revolves around a special interest, this will likely be easier. On the other hand, if it does not, you may struggle. Whatever the case, do some competitive analysis to see how others communicate similar offerings. No sense in reinventing the wheel.



I wouldn't focus on whether competitors are "NT" or any other brain type. That's not likely to be productive IMO. Moreover, just because someone is a so-called NT person, that doesn't mean they will be better at marketing what they do. They might make some really significant mistakes that only someone who thinks differently (like one of us) can see.

What I would recommend is studying your competitors and identify what they do well and where they struggle. Where they do well, borrow from them. Where they struggle, improve upon them.



For me the answer is/was "yes" in all but 1 of the 7 businesses. Traditional sales bores me to death. So there's no way I could do it well. (That's not to say that there aren't some aspies who are obsessed with "selling" and therefore do amazingly well.) So, when it comes to the sales process, I have generally limited my role to that of subject matter expert. It's a role that is well suited to an Aspie, as long as it is a subject s/he is interested in. All you have to do is be able to talk about something you like, and sound intelligent about it.

In the latest venture, however, the subject matter is so near and dear to my heart that I'm taking a shot at managing the sales process myself. That said, if it comes to point where we need a sales staff, then I'm resigning that role immediately.

Thanks for the thorough reply! I am coming to the conclusion that my problem is that I just don't want to be in business badly enough. You see, my area of interest dominates my mind completely, and changes how I see everything. I don't just feel like I am on a different planet socially, I am on a different planet in terms of values, priorities, goals, approach to money, etc. That's why I need my marketing friend to handle all the business and customer side, while I just create the content. I'm just too alien.