Constructed Adventures Update: How We Grew Traffic 19% YoY
This is a follow up story for Constructed Adventures. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 7 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
Hey hey! My name is Chris Waters, founder of Constructed Adventures but I go by “The Architect” (Started as a joke, and now it’s on my business card).
The main “product” I offer is custom-built Adventures. People hire me for special occasions (Proposals, birthdays, team builders), and I build out a wildly elaborate Treasure/scavenger hunt. Some days revolve around a single person. Other days are large raucous group competitions where hundreds of people compete to find the finish line.
Between events, consulting, affiliate programs, and sales in my shop, I bring in around 5-10k/per month.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Business has boomed since mid-2021. I still travel so much that I don’t have a home. It’s wild, fun, and slightly stressful. I’m also rapidly growing the other side of the business: Creating a hub for people to visit if they’re hoping to build a hunt of their own.
Between blog posts, the toolbox, and the ever-growing shop, there are a lot of resources to bring people in! Here is a breakdown of all the resources:
- Blog with both high-level conversations and simple tips
- Youtube channel with similar content
- A toolbox with a couple of scripts that will encode ciphers for you
- A subreddit with people posting recaps of the Adventures they’ve built
- A discord channel where people solve super tricky puzzle hunts and focus on the puzzly side of things.
One of the most popular blog posts was this one. Ways to incorporate music into puzzles.
My favorite toolbox script will build a custom wordsearch complete with a secret message.
Regarding revenue, The vast majority still comes from events but the consultation side is rapidly growing (By end of the year last year it was around 75% / 25%).
I’m hoping to get it to 60% / 40% by next year.
Events bring in a lot of revenue but also take so much time, energy, and focus. It’s hard to work on anything else when I’m staring down the barrel of a giant Adventure in Paris.
It’s no secret that multiple revenue streams are helpful. But this is even more important for me after 2020. I had all my eggs in the “travel somewhere and build a custom bespoke event for a special occasion” basket and the pandemic completely shut that down for a year and change. I hope to have lots of different streams so I don’t get crushed if one dries up.
I haven’t taken any new employees but I’ve begun contracting out some of my duties. I have a group I call “The Agency” consisting of the most active members of the community. I bring them in to help with puzzle/design as well as blogs/posts
I’ve noticed that Instagram is dying. The new features being pushed out solve problems for meta at the expense of burdening the user. I’m working on a full shift over to Tik Tok.
I’m currently in the process of a complete rebrand as I continue to pivot from travel/Adventures to community/Consultation.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
The biggest issue for me is juggling the current stage of the business (traveling full-time/building events) with what I hope to be the future.
As you could imagine, it’s hard-working on ordering/fabricating/selling merchandise (Cryptexes, cipher wheels, hats shirts) While also staring down the barrel of an impending event deadline.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
One of the biggest lessons learned is the difference in marketing for a big-ticket event vs selling a $20-$50 product.
I’d become so used to doing big publicity stunts and then booking out for a year that I did realize that to sell small products, I need to push so much harder. I don’t have too much advice yet. I’m still working on it!
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
I will be running Adventure no. 100 as the final Adventure of the year. I always promised myself that I would be in the middle of a pivot for the business. Here I am! I continue to raise the rates of single-serving Adventures. This allows me more time to focus on building the brand and community.
The endgame vision of Constructed Adventures is to be the 1 stop shop for anyone trying to build a treasure hunt, scavenger hunt, or surprise for a loved one.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
The Reality Escape Podcast is a must-listen for anyone even remotely interested in the industry.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
Just start. In the words of the great Ted lasso, “Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse. If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong.”
Past that, I think it’s really important to pick a lane.
I have a lot of proteges and a decent amount of people who reach out wanting to start something similar. But they haven’t given any thought to their audience or the style of event they want to create.
Figure out what you want to do. Once you’ve got that down, then you can start to expand.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Always looking for blog writers and puzzle designers! Hop in the communities and make yourself known!
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
