End of Year report (Patreon)

So it's the end of the year, and that means we get to look back at 2018 and forward into 2019!  Since it's only fitting let's look at the former first and then move on to the latter.

So 2018 was the first official year of Smilodon Studio being a thing, and as far as everything goes I think it was quite the success.  There was a bit of trouble when our cash flow was restricted due to a past mistake suddenly rearing its ugly head and that caused growth to slow, but we persevered and are now better for it financially.  My mate has gone from being in an entry-level position to an elite member of her team and that has significantly helped the bill paying portion of this endeavor, which will now and for the future mean that more funds that are collected here will actually be reinvested in the business.  Though my commission queue has also been stacked to the nines it has been quite the learning experience and has allowed me to revamp it into a more streamlined and better maintained experience.

Aside from commissions the main source of funds and the driving force behind Smilodon Studio has been this patreon.  It has had its highs and lows, from finally breaking our second goal recently to almost being shut down previous to that.  With the increase in my mate's ability to provide for our daily needs I can focus more on the Patreon then before and do more things to expand the content provided here.  We've also got our Visual Novel out of it, Rain and Shine stalling a bit on the back stretch but hopefully going to charge strong into 2019 with the additional time being put into it.  We also got our CUF this year which means that I can actually track the growth of my Patreon without having to factor in the dozen or so bots that would bombard this page to scrape the content.

We also had a fairly decent run in Dealer's Den, dealing in five conventions and despite not quite making it to our predictions we learned a lot from it so that we can continue to improve.  We created a lot of content for our booth including three comics and a dozen books as well as a number of prints.  As I said it was definitely a learning experience.

Finally we come to Twitch, which has been by far the most surprising thing to come from 2018 business-wise.  I can't stress enough how amazing it is that you guys all have managed to take something that I was just going to do for a bit of fun and turned it into something that is a legitimate side trade for my business.  I feel like we're just at the tip of the iceberg too, that if I keep putting effort into it that we could actually keep it growing up and to the point of being a twitch partner.  That's all a huge thanks to furries like you guys.  ^. .^

 On a personal level 2018 has had a number of ups and downs for me.  Financially it's been quite a roller coaster with a few nailbiters thrown in there for good measure.  I've also had a few personal accomplishments in my life that I've been rather excited about, including being named as the Guest of Honor for IndyFurCon which I'm super looking forward to.  I also decided to audition in America's Got Talent and though I didn't get to proceed it was still a very enjoyable experience and hope to see myself in their little cutaway reels when the show airs.  Also made more friends and such than I can count and thanks to Twitch I can keep up to date a little better than before.  It also appears my sabredrone concept is taking off as well thanks to it and I"m really looking forward to seeing where that goes. 

Using that as a transition we're going to look ahead at 2019, which will hopefully be the year of growth.  As I've mentioned before the main goal is going to be shrinking back the time put into commission writing and expand Patreon and Twitch instead.  We're also going to pull back on our convention presence this year and keep using that time and money to focus more on projects that we can start making for the future.  I fully believe that by 2020 we can have this patreon in the four digit range, and I think that we would be growing even now if not for a few limiting factors that has happened.

While Twitch will also get a few upgrades and modifications it will still be a part-time endeavor for me, especially with the ideas we want to put into place for the Visual Novel games that we have.  Right now it's mostly Novel but if we can we'd like to find a graphic artist to get art done to be put into the game, which will not only boost the play-ability but also entice more people into the patreon in order to get more funds to make more games etc. etc.  I also want to finally get around to doing those hypno files and try to get into the territory of making card games as well as potentially another comic series besides Void Protocol.  If my mate continues on the growth path for her career a lot more things become feasible in the future that will help to grow the business even more.

I want this to also not only be a year of business growth either, but also personal growth as well.  Our biggest goal in this new year is debt reduction; there is still a lot of dead weight hanging off of us and the more we clip that away the brighter our future becomes.  I also have a few personal books and video games that I've been wanting to make but can't because I've been working for fourteen hours a day six days a week, as well as pick up a new skill other than writing, coding, and performing.  We'll see if that actually happens but one thing that is definitely on the list is losing weight and getting in shape, a pretty typical resolution I know but I really want to get into an ideal form for if I can swing a new fursuit or finally get something with rubber.

That's really about it for the end of the year report.  I will probably post two more stories today and maybe the military plot for Rain and Shine, though that may take a little longer since I had taken a bit of an impromptu vacation for the holidays.  Expect to see a lot of action happening in January too, it's going to be a month of buckling down and getting the nose to the grindstone.  In any case  I look forward to seeing you all in 2019 and hope that you have a Happy New Year's!