cjwinans79

Yep; some certainly do. Not every small or large company makes a great customer.

I've found that most small customers will open their wallets if you can clearly show value and tie it to outcomes.

I can appreciate that. It's how most of us start out. And there are plenty of small software services firms out there that operate this way.

But, if those small firms want to get bigger and capture the value they help create, hourly billing sends the wrong message. That's where this list truly hits home.

Apologies to burger flippers everywhere.

It's not you. It's the stereotypical role. Extremely manual with minimal thought needed to perform the job to be done.

Have you embraced processes in your business? Why or why not?

It's the insidious nature of expenses. Spending comes easy. When you look at expenses before your desired profit, you cover up all sorts of bad habits.

Yet when you flip the script and prize profits, it requires you to justify every one of them and look for ways to make your business work at the profit level you've chosen to target.

You'll have to justify every hire, every recurring expense, and either cut them or find replacements. The end result is a healthier business.

This won't happen overnight but it will work if you're diligent. It's also an excellent path toward innovation - creating new ways to achieve more with less.

Do you own a software services business? What have you done to go from no process to a great experience?

What was your last onboarding experience like?

How have you leveraged value pricing for software projects?

Agreed; 7-figures is part vanity metric and part value realization exercise. There is a path to it that preserves his lifestyle. Getting to a few million in the bank would allow him to live off the interest for the remainder of his life, provided he invests it well.

Regarding his risks on going it solo, you're spot on! In his AMA he called out attempting to hire but pulled back afterwards. I'm assuming it was a poor hire so I'd focus on learning what went wrong and trying it again. Even at just a couple employees, he could grow while preserving his massive profit margin and gain the ability to take time away or weather an illness or family mishaps.

He even mentioned he maintains a full-time job to hedge his bets. If he's keeping it because he wants benefits, I'd think it would make more sense to invest in those himself. If he's keeping it because the work is minimal and the reward (pay) is high enough to offset the revenue from what X number of additional clients would generate, I'd say that could make sense as well. Very specific circumstances.

What stands out to you with this business? Do you think it could hit 7-figures as a solopreneur effort?

I saw this happen to my wife. She had stayed at home to raise our kids for a number of years and then built a part-time business.

When our youngest was 13, she decided to get a job but feared she was no longer qualified. Fast forward 4 months and she's a critical employee in a 30+ person software startup transitioning away from a design agency. The skills that come natural to her have opened doors she never felt would open... definitely not that fast!

What are your experiences? Did you look "unqualified" but someone took a chance on you? Or have you seen someone become a great hire that didn't have the paper credentials?

I was pulling from experience. In that instance, you are correct, they did realize it was a team effort.

But what I failed to share will hopefully clear up the confusion. They didn't call that out during the hiring process. They talked themselves up as if they could succeed single-handedly. It wasn't shared until they were failing to show progress and then it became an excuse. It wasn't possible to give (or hire) them a team. In the end, the person was let go to find a bigger company with the resources and capacity they would need to succeed. No hard feelings... just not a fit.

Does that clear everything up?

Hi. No self-promotion whatsoever. I seek to share.

My motivation here was to share what I've learned. To benefit from my mistakes. Sidestep my missteps.

Ideas are great and necessary, but even great ones are only valuable if they can be acted upon. In a small business, an ideas-only person will have trouble succeeding. Being able to also (at least) kickstart the effort is critical.

Yep. In a small, scrappy business, people that can kickstart an effort are highly coveted. When you couple that with great ideation... priceless.

How so? I wrote from my gut here and am not one to think I have all the answers (far from it).

I wasn't attempting to dismiss leadership in any way, shape, or form. Merely calling out the difference between personally "doing" (in the sense of small business) versus the "orchestrating" that is more typical in a larger company.

I've worked in both and have seen how people that spent their career in a large company may struggle in a small business setting. No shame. Just a (often overlooked) distinction.

Devil is in the details.

That's why I was quick to call out that ideas have little true value without execution.

Ideas are born and die every day. We're naturally creative but we also (generally speaking) don't tend to follow-through. That's the real and hard part.

Agreed. There is some room for someone that can provide great ideas, however, small businesses need to (at least) pair them with someone capable of executing. This is more "exception" than rule though.

Easy to get snowed though if you don't know what to watch out for. That was my motivation for writing this. I've been kicked a couple times by (good intentioned) people that did not realize their success (ideas) had been team efforts.

Very worried. Sounds like unnecessary effort.

Why would influencers on Twitter seek to rebuild on Clubhouse when a viable alternative exists (or will)?! Outside of the timing which will be a moot point shortly...

Book - Delivering Happiness by the late Tony Hsieh

Newsletter - The Service Zealot (https://servicezealot.com), a weekly advice column for service business operators fed up with the status quo.

Overall, the emphasis was on thinking differently than most people likely approach their careers. I know so many people that struggle to learn these lessons and instead focus on what is holding them back. That mindset is self-fulfilling.

Who doesn’t want a big customer with a big appetite? It looks like easy money and a sure-fire way to grow your business. The holy grail of business wins is landing a massive customer. A company with impressive brand recognition and deep pockets.

At least, that is what social media and business books love to portray. Yet they do little to highlight the dark side.

I needed autonomy and room to be creative that I had never found working at any company.

If true, ouch! Intel seems to be getting kicked every which way these days. Too complacent when they once ruled the roost.

This feels so overdue. With the consolidation that is likely a consequence of Nvidia and ARM combining, we could use more competition. Just not sure how effective it will be with Intel years behind in graphics and process technology.