Amanda Bouzanquet, Co-Founder & CMO, Playa3ull Games
Most entrepreneurs start their businesses after gaining years of experience working for someone else. But yet, experience is not the only factor that determines success in the business world and no one knows better than Amanda Bouzanquet. Amanda is a self-made businesswoman who launched her own company at the age of 20. She is a multi-award-winning fashion designer with 30 years of experience in various aspects of SME business from product development to manufacturing, specializing in the rag trade.
Amanda Bouzanquet is today synonymous with entrepreneurial success, but her story has a humble beginning. “In my twenties, I was working while my friends were partying. In my thirties, I started my second label when my kids were 1, 2, and 3 years old, so there was no time for anything else for many years when they were young.”
Amanda has proved that determination and hard work pays off by building two solopreneur businesses from nothing to over 250K annual turnovers. The serial entrepreneur has won several international design competitions and was also featured as one of Cosmopolitan Magazine’s 30 most successful women under 30 in 1997 and in Business Class Magazine in their top 30 entrepreneurs under 30 in 1999.
Along with a natural understanding of all aspects of an SME, Amanda’s design acumen is interwoven in everything she does. She has a different and creative approach toward work, clients, and projects. “Since the beginning of 2020, my focus has been on alternate income streams specializing in e-commerce, paid conversion advertising, and long-term organic lead generation,” asserts, Amanda.
Her experiences have led Amanda to develop a philosophical approach to life. She shares, “You live for the successes; the wins are what get you out of bed every day. Weekends for entrepreneurs are not a thing. However, it is the ‘failures’ that shape you, and the earlier you can learn that failures will happen and are obstacles you must overcome. The more you overcome, the better prepared you are for the long haul. Face those ahead-on. Also, you have to face them with the same enthusiasm that you had at the beginning with the idea itself.” She adds, “When you have an idea that is worth sharing, you feel the responsibility to share it with others, forging new paths, new ways to look at the world or to solve problems.”
Story of PLAYA3ULL GAMES
Amanda embarked on the entrepreneurial journey leaving no stone left unturned. She has a gamer husband and together raised three gamer kids. “Our youngest son then was earning money playing for others and left school to do that full-time. He then invested in NFTs and began flipping them for an insane profit. It became clear to us all that the nature of gaming as we knew it, was changing and we wanted to be at the forefront of that change informing the process for the betterment of all,’ shares, Amanda.
The game industry is like many other traditional industries where change is resisted by many who believe it needs to stay the way it is and maintain the status quo. Gaming is going to be a part of all our lives from a young age and we, as parents and game developers, now have an opportunity to design gaming in a way that creates the right balance between time spent on games and other aspects of life. Aligning her work with passion, the biggest challenge Amanda faced is resources, especially money. She shares, “Funding your idea, while surviving, is a massive challenge and very stressful. Bootstrapping ideas is painful and laborious. Setbacks will happen. However, it is much easier now, in the digital age, to test ideas than it was 30 years ago.”
Currently, Amanda is the CMO & Co-Founder of Playa3ull Games. Playa3ull Games was founded with a mission to create games that transport you to a different place. The company directs the ownership, design, and economy of these games to the people who play them and reward those players with in-game assets they own. Playa3ull Games grew so quickly and acquired a community of investors that delivered its first two years of income within a three-week timeframe.
Amanda strives to create a healthy workplace for people to work in where they can solve the play to earn riddles in gaming, creating financial assistance and in some cases financial freedom for gamers, their families, and their communities.
Perseverance is the Key to Success
It’s effortless to preach about the value of perseverance, but it takes a lot of courage to actually fail and keep going. According to Amanda, true entrepreneurship is to have the unrelenting drive that forces you to try again and again even after consistent failure. One must have the ability to take those failures and use the learning for future successes. In addition, the entrepreneur must also have the ability to listen and understand what your staff and community want. They must be fair and compassionate while maintaining strength and discipline.
She suggests, “Have a plan but know that it is not set in stone. Agility is your friend and can save your life. Say what you are going to do and do what you say. Back up your words with actions and never expect someone to do something that you would not be willing to do yourself. No task is beneath you. If you have a larger business, go back to the frontline often to check-in. Many things can be learned from stepping into someone else’s shoes even for a day.”
Advice to the Upcoming Leaders
Amanda’s personality and unconventional business style have made her very successful in the business landscape. When asked about what advice she would like to endow onto budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the entrepreneurial space, she says, “Take the time to get to know yourself. Get all the information, the good and the bad. Acknowledge the things that you’re good at, knowing your strengths are a starting point. Learn the things you are not good at, acknowledging those is a great starting point. C.A.N.I. is a daily activity (constant and never-ending improvement). Some of the things you aren’t good at will be worthwhile working on and for other things, it will be better to hire that expertise.’ Listen and learn from those who have come before you.
From Amanda’s perspective, business and entrepreneurship are about people not about money. Money is the by-product of the project and not the driver. If you are driven by money and make decisions in fear of losing it, you are not making decisions for the betterment of the people, only the business. Look after your people both within and outside your organization and the money will take care of itself. If it doesn’t then a rethink is required. She adds, “At some point in your journey it’s going to feel like you’re doing everything for free. I often say if you would do it for free then it’s probably something that will sustain you. Mutual respect for the people you work with and your community is how we measure success.”
In her future endeavours, Amanda wants to mentor the next generation to come through so they have the skills to push forward. “I have a project that I have been waiting for the right time to do so I hope to be able to start that in the next 12 months as a side project that has philanthropy as its core. I am looking forward to being able to give back at this point of my career/life,” she concludes.