[Progress Thread] Scaling Websites

[ugudango]

Back from the slumbers

Yesterday marked my last day at work: I am officially unemployed free!

Feels very good with a pinch of scary: No more lazy office days, scrolling Fastlane Forum on the lazy bag, etc. If I'm lazy, it somehow feels different, more costly - like I'm giving up on myself.

What's happening:

- Major update: I became a co-founder of FoxyApps!
After a networking event of a SaaS group, apparently I left an impact and the organizers called me in a few days later. I sat with them and they explained how they'd love to work with me and take me in their mentorship group. They told me that this meant I'd become a co-founder of FoxyApps, a tool that helps build Ai lead magnets with no-code.
For now, they'll match my salary (which, since I'm moving home and later to Thailand, will pack a much better punch considering the lower cost of living) and when we cross $10K MMR, I'll get a % of the company. I'm very happy about this partnership, the guys are great and I've already started to learn a lot. This will probably be my main focus as I've had a growing interest in SaaS for quite a bit.

- New projects:
1. I partnered with a small software consulting company and I'm currently doing a website for them. After paying the designer, my share is $2000 for a small, simple website. I initially said $4000, but their budget didn't allow it but we agreed on $2k for a smaller project. We're in talks of a mutual partnership and overall, the project is very low-stress.

2. The client I mentioned who I have an ongoing partnership with was happy with the website, however, we chose the wrong platform - WordPress is very slow and clunky for the website we created. That's why after the project I mentioned above, I'll be redoing their website with a much faster platform. I take partial blame on this and that's why I'll offer them a low price for this, pretty much to cover the cost of work. They're a very good client, and I'm actually taking them for a trip to my country

- Other stuff:
The projects I already had with the client i mentioned are going well, but I realized I underestimated the work needed and charged a pretty low price. I'm still okay with it, it's honestly much better than working 9-5.

I am going to introduce the gym more. I realized I am not in my best physical shape, considering I was a pretty big gym rat a year / two ago. I've already planned out my integration of gym time when I move back and will A/B test my focus and energy for work and gym timing.

I need to work on my attention to detail and quality. My quality in the last few months has been subpar, with many avoidable mistakes. I'm well aware and am working on this, since it costs me a lot of time and frankly I look like a dumbass sometimes.


Goals review:

2024 GOALS:
- Quit 9-5 Job ( Expected in Feb 2024 ) - COMPLETED!
- Make $10k total from the business by 1st half of 2024 / $20k by 2nd half of 2024 - On track
- Get to $1k MRR - Kind of completed, but let's review this at the end of the year.
- Move to Southeast Asia ( Expected in May 2024 ) - POSTPONED to September, most likely. Reason is family and capital
- Get an office space - Possibly going to be removed, most of the places I saw in SEA have coworking spaces.
- Start actively networking and going to networking events - Won't say completed but definitely actively doing. Rewards from this have been fantastic!
- Get 10 Clients - Possibly going to be removed, depending on the SaaS business
- Hire a developer - been thinking about it, and should act on this soon. I could use a dev for web development and work on the SaaS.

Thanks for reading!

 

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[ugudango]

Popping back here with some new updates:

I'm now officially back at home with my parents as planned and will be staying here for a couple of months. First realisation - it's too comfortable . I have planned a daily routine for back home and safe to say it did not realise when I actually moved back. There's too much going on here, friends, family, holidays, just the culture of the place is much different. I've accepted this and adapted as much as I can, and I'm using this time to improve other things since working on the business is pretty difficult considering the circumstances.

- I've prioritised fitness for the time being: I wasn't working out properly for the last year almost, and it definitely started to show. I've went back to being fatter without much muscle, and started to become pretty uncomfortable with my body. As I've made the move, I've connected with my old gym buddy that made me start and we're back to it, and it feels amazing. My muscles are back, I'm active again and feel so much better in my body. I take care of the food I eat, and I walk much more.

- I'm in the process of terminating the Co-Founder partnership/mentorship: I had a much different idea about this but after 2 months, I've realised that this is something I do not enjoy (at least not in the current setting). Essentially, the primary problem is doing 2 things at once - I still do the websites/software through my agency, and I thought switching out my 9-5 to the Co-Founder partnership would feel the same but it definitely didn't. The 9-5 was low stress, low effort whereas this is high stakes with a chore list that is never ending, and I honestly do not enjoy the work on that project which is the secondary problem. It feels like doing chores as an intern, fixing bugs and creating features for a product I have no emotional investment in, and each day there is a new full task list of things I need to do. I understand this is pretty much software development, but I can do that on my own too, with a product I believe in and actually look forward to building (exactly what I did with a friend a month before this partnership, and learned much more). I wanted to learn more about business, scaling and owning a SaaS, but I just got bugfixing.

- Therefor, I'm doubling down on my agency: The work on this side has been nothing but fruitful and honestly much less stress than the SaaS. Sure, there is a chance we scale and sell but I honestly much rather build something of my own and help people directly & build partnerships. I recently had the most important client fly out to my country for the goal of solidifying the relationship & networking (which of course meant consuming inhumane amounts of alcohol and eating very tasty food). I loved this because:
1. We solidified the relationship so much that now we are not only in a great, mutually benefiting partnership, but a great casual relationship grew out of that and work feels so much more relaxing.
2. I spent a chunk of money to take care of them in many ways and make them enjoy their stay. We closed another deal on the trip, yielding so much more than the "investment", which I would do in any case since they were guests of mine. The trip was "profitable" haha.
3. It was fun as hell!
I know this won't be the case with every client, but I like to do things a bit more personal with my partnerships.

In any case, I am drafting a plan for the agency and how the things will look from now, what I will/ will not offer, prices, process, etc. so that everything can be ready when I make my move, where I will work hard on this. I have chosen Bangkok as my destination, a huge city and from what I've seen around, great business potential. A lot of networking going on there and my client acquisition process relies a lot on networking in person.

This is a sum-up of recent changes, and now for a new goal completion:

Make $10k total from the business by 1st half of 2024 - Completed!

My first $10k! What seemed like an impossible number realised itself this month and I'm really proud of this, but this is only the beginning. I have learned so much on the road to $10k that I feel like the roads further on will be much simpler. I still have the goal of making $20k by 2024 which I am working towards, but I want to increase my MRR too.

Current average MRR is around $3.3k for the year 2024 (with the 9-5) which is fine and honestly, pretty insane to think about. $10k MRR honestly doesn't feel that far anymore, it feels pretty realistic, close even.

Let's see how things will move from here, thanks for reading!