How much money do you need, by when and for what? In order to figure this out, you’ll need to start by setting some goals, initiatives, and timelines.

Setting goals

Now that you have identified who you are and what your purpose is as an organization, you can move your attention to your goals and efforts. Start by describing your goals and then the tasks and efforts that will allow you to achieve them.

Goals

Setting goals helps you understand where you want to go and on what timeline. This helps you “steer your boat” and helps you specify and allocate budgets.

Your goals must align with your vision and mission. This is central to attracting partners and sponsors. For example, if you want to build an organization that focuses on local social inclusion and then you suddenly stop working in that direction and start prioritizing elite Counter-Strike teams, you will lose your credibility and the trust you have built with your partners.

An example of a goal is, “We will open an esports organization and have 5 coaches and 50 paying members (players) before X date (6 months from today).”

Initiatives

What tasks and initiatives are missing in order for you to achieve your goals? Creating a plan will be really helpful, even if you end up deviating from your original timeline or tasks. You may want to consider the following as inspiration for initiatives:

• A steering committee for the esports project
• Esports coaches
• Training and match concepts
• The games for which you offer training and matches (and how often)
• A target audience for the organization
• Facilities for training and matches
• Equipment — can you borrow or buy esports equipment or build your own esports room/facilities? Or should players bring their own equipment or play online?
• Budget and finances
• Cooperation with parents and families
• Your stance on game ratings (PEGI/ESRB) and ethics
• Volunteer management and rewards
• Communication and initiatives towards anti-bullying, health, physical activity, performance models, etc.

Internal and external initiatives

You will have goals and initiatives that you can manage within your esports organization. For example, developing an exciting concept around training and matches. We call these “initiatives that require internal efforts.”

You will also have goals and initiatives that you cannot immediately manage within a team. It could be about finding facilities, purchasing equipment, special events, boot camps, travel for tournaments, insurance etc. We call these initiatives that require cooperation from external partners “initiatives that require external efforts.”

For many esports organizations, it will typically be the initiatives that require external efforts where sponsors and relevant partners can come into play.

An example

It’s helpful to see your goals and initiatives as two separate concepts. See the example below, and try separating your goals and initiatives into the two following categories:

Idea or goal

Create an esports organization where kids in the community between 8-14 years old can practice and play computer games. At the same time, we will create a safe, social space for board games, doing homework, becoming a part of the community and making new friends.

Aim or initiative

To offer activities on our own premises three times a week and have 10 working esports stations in the room by X date.

Idea or goal

To have an esports organization with a Counter-Strike team ranked among the Top 100 in the world in 12 months.

Aim or initiative

To offer an organization training, matches, and tournaments for five players and a coach (and win X% of every game played) before X date.

Your job is to set the goals, where do you want to go – and then set your “need” – what do you need to get there?