Lately I have noticed an influx in teams calling themselves ‘Professional Build Teams’ while either recruiting or not showing any previous work or clients. This article is to let people in on how the Build Team I am a part of has gone from building for smaller clients to obtaining the ability to build with some of the biggest Minecaft names on Youtube in 3 months of existence.

We do not call ourselves professional even though we have some big clients and charge for our work; we are offering services to others who need them and know there are and can be better builders and teams out there.

Here are just some pointers of how we managed things to get to where we are today.

Building and recruiting the team:

When building a build team it is key to know what you want the team to be, who you aim to build for (client base) and what kind of people you want in the team.

Setting a goal for the team can setup the standards and type of people you recruit. A goal like “Providing quality builds and services for small servers in need” would be a great goal to a team wanting to help the little guys out there along with states a client base you aim to work with.


The next big step is recruitment. The PI Creative Team was recruited from a very seasoned and talented creative server. The server we are on (Pwegoserver) has been around for just over 3 years and has many talented and committed players.

Recruiting from within your own server or group of friends in minecraft is often the best option you have. This is due to you knowing you can trust them and if they are long serving members of your server you know they are committed to the aspects needed to make a great team.

Looking at a persons building skills, maturity and how they can handle stress along with taking orders is also key in the team. A user that has advanced building skill but can’t take orders or stress’ out at the drop of a hat may not be a viable option for your team. You may wish to go with someone who has lower quality but the ability to work well with others and take advice and orders on their work over this advanced builder.

Little things like this can make and break a team, since if the team cant work together and follow the team leaders orders / guidelines for a job there may be issues in the final project or in the team resulting in it splitting up.

Gathering a Client Base:

The Pi Creative Team found ourselves ‘lucky’ with doing work for a client that was working with a developer who knew some big names in the Minecraft Youtube Community. The way we stood out from the crowd was to produce a high quality project in little to no time while having a reasonable price that was relative to the work we did. There were many aspects of obtaining the work for these clients but it all started by finding a client who understood that even though we were new the price we were ‘bidding’ on their project was fair and would benefit them.

We found our first client who came on our server after seeing posts on pmc and youtube asking if we build. We talked to him after he spend a few good hours flying around our server looking at builds then came to a price fair for both parties.

After this we had the builds done in 3 days (decent sized hub and decent sized prison both with high detail). Due to this the client was happy and the developer he hired saw our work, heard how we handled the commission and the speed we did this all in and then he proceeded to contact us.

In the end we didn’t need to look for work BUT we have gone out and often look at posts on pmc and minecraft forums asking for services that suit our builds and timeframes we can supply in.

The point I am making here is, Get yourself known by showing off builds you have made previously. If you haven’t made any as a team work for a good month or two getting a few build up that you can show to potential clients (not just single builds but a proper hub, spawn build or themed build).

Advertising yourself and your clients.

The PI Creative Team has the benefit of having myself who handles advertising through websites, youtube videos and pmc. I am able to create websites and decent graphics along with YouTube videos for the Team.

Due to this when getting clients we offer to advertise their projects if allowed to and link off to their websites, servers and social media. These both get your teams name out there along with advertising your client. Sometimes the clients advertising power may be better than yours but every little thing counts.


Posting a project (with no download) on PMC and the Minecraft Forums along with posting a video on Youtube, advertising on Twitter and posting on facebook are great steps to getting your and your clients name out there.

Summary:

In summary the key points to get your build team off the ground and running to be successful and provide quality work for the client base you aim for are as follow.

• Have an Action Plan / Goal for your team that is clear and outlines the type of people you want to build for
  
• Recruit players you know would work well together, have experience and can be committed to the team even in down times and through project issues. Ideally do not recruit through websites such as PMC and Minecraft Forums
  
• Gather a client base within your range of skill and do not over price yourselves. It is better to sometimes have many clients paying less than few clients paying more.
  
• When looking for clients be sure to provide previous work or an example of builds your team has done TOGETHER
  
• Advertising is key to getting your name out there, post regular and offer clients advertising on your website or in latest posts to increase relations between you and your client base and community.
  

Remember the key points on this article when starting a build team, following them before publically advertising yourself is recomended as the more you have to show the better you will go.