What are you making? Explain it to me like you’d explain it to a domain expert; I’ll ask for help if I don’t know any words. Be as concrete as possible. You said “platform”; what does that mean in real life? You said “app”; web, mobile, etc? You said “marketplace”; what type?
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While friends in Silicon Valley model the world like “Everyone knows a collection of startup facts”, there are many paths to entrepreneurship which don’t go through startup culture and therefore invent some of the same mistakes (goodness knows I did), and also education is hard.)
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You’ve told me you are building a services business. Awesome: have you ever sold an engagement? If yes, great, you likely have everything you need on the delivery side of the business and let’s just talk packaging, price, pipeline management, and sales. Your price is too low.
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You will henceforth ask, immediately at the point where the gig is on and then again after delivery, for: 1) Referrals, referrals, referrals, seriously this point is much more important than the other ones 2) Logo rights 3) References 4) “Can we write up a case study? You OK it”
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Do you have an explicit cadence of repeat engagements? Do you have retainers? Let’s start getting both.
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Do you have written contracts? With an acceptance period? Does your acceptance mechanism default to indecision or default to acceptance? Let’s change to latter; it’s huge.
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“Client shall make a specific written objection to deliverables within N business days of delivery or they shall be deemed accepted.” Lawyer it up but that’s the business process you want.
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(Decreases by 90% the amount of time you spend chasing Jim who is out on vacation who Taro said is the decision maker with regards to UX issues who Mary said gets a veto because you shipped customer-facing features.)
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How do we position you as a boutique offering for discerning clients near the top of the market, and charge an appropriate premium for that?
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Do you have a peer group of founders? Your life will get much better once you do, particularly if there are a small set you can talk to regularly about your challenges. Find people who want the same things; predict you’ll have the average experience of this peer group.
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After years of orbiting or participating in multiple communities I can’t say this loud enough: pick your peers *very* carefully. You will discover a magic ability to reproduce their successes, failures, and issues which they complain about to their therapist/etc.
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End of conversation
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