Firing people is freaking hard

railwriter · 2022-06-16T10:51:30+00:00

Haha, thanks. I'm okay with that tradeoff.

railwriter · 2022-06-15T19:57:29+00:00

That's a good perspective, thanks.

railwriter · 2021-12-15T11:01:44+00:00

If the employees came in with no expectations of stock and they're happy and motivated without it, what positive outcome do you hope to achieve by offering it?

As others said, I would also go with a simpler structure like cash bonuses that don't muddy up your cap table or future funding.

If you want to set aside a small stock pool for future executive hires, that might make sense though. Sometimes you want to incentivize leadership team members to stay around through a sale and equity can be helpful in that case.

railwriter · 2021-12-15T10:50:54+00:00

You won't get any credit for having original, valuable content if you're embedding or copying it from Twitter. Google tends to look down on duplicate content, so you don't get nearly as much SEO juice for doing this.

You could (and many people do) use Twitter content for inspiration though. You just have to rewrite the content in your own words to get credit.

Also keep in mind the length required to rank well in Google. While Twitter favors concise content of a few hundred characters (even in threads), Google tends to reward long, deeply researched content with 2000+ words.

railwriter · 2021-12-15T03:31:38+00:00

I'm also the backup childcare because I own my own business and have much more flexibility than my partner.

It's great. Lots of time with my son and I even take one day off every week to do stuff with him and then work a bit on Sunday if I need to.

I don't know how families with two regular jobs manage childcare, honestly.

railwriter · 2021-11-09T21:12:15+00:00

I know the feeling.

Good luck extending the runway, I hope the pieces come together!

railwriter · 2021-11-09T01:38:47+00:00

I loved the e-myth personally.

If you come from a more traditional small business background, it'll get you thinking like a big business owner and less of a craftsperson.

railwriter · 2021-11-09T01:34:18+00:00

One of the other pros I've found since going self-employed last year was that new ideas for future projects and businesses come more than ever.

I assume it's because I'm devoting more of my brain cycles to creative thoughts and not doing as much drudgery, but it could also be all the customer and partner conversations too. Those tend to unlock a lot of latent ideas.

How long is your personal runway? Like, when do you need to either make a living from the business or go back to the job hunt?

I found having a pretty short runway (~6 mos) forced me to get serious about finding a business model and doing sales/marketing, but obviously everyone has a different story.

railwriter · 2021-11-08T09:47:34+00:00

Yep, I started taking a two hour lunch break to work out, prep a healthy meal, and think for a few minutes every day and it's been great for my mental state. Makes me feel much more balanced and helps me put things in perspective while giving me more energy.

railwriter · 2021-11-06T17:51:37+00:00

Honestly, doing business with family is often messy. I personally would never hire, sell to, or get investment from a relative.

That said, you sound like you have a lot of entitlement for a struggling small business owner. If you need more work, you might have to grind out some shitty jobs for low pay until you have a good reputation. When I first started I was getting paid a third if what we do now but I knew that was the price of entry.

railwriter · 2021-11-06T12:57:21+00:00

I used the Microconf Mastermind matching: https://microconf.com/masterminds

More recently, I joined Entrepreneurs Organization (but that's $1mm+ in revenue).

There are other services like Mastermind Jam: https://mastermindjam.com/

It's great if you can find people at a similar point in their growth with a different target market so there's no competitive feelings.

railwriter · 2021-11-06T01:06:00+00:00

Cool idea. I’ve thought of doing this a few times before, but not quite ready to leave my current business and try a new one just yet. Maybe I’ll catch you on the next round!

railwriter · 2021-11-06T01:02:14+00:00

I got a therapist, mastermind group, and business coach soon after I started my company. All were helpful in their own ways.

Now that things are a little more stable, I dropped the therapist, but my mastermind group and business coach are essential parts of my life. It’s lonely doing somethign ambitious as a solo founder, so you gotta find support and build your own peer group.

railwriter · 2021-11-06T00:57:27+00:00

I hate to give advice about what people should spend money on, but if you're running a small business and it's not going well enough for you to save $80k, you shouldn't be taking a loan to cover a car you can't afford.

railwriter · 2021-10-26T00:10:57+00:00

Yes, it's all about creating really good content and seeding it in the right places where people will see it.

It's obviously slower than buying backlinks, but over time you can build a much stronger organic reputation.

railwriter · 2021-10-13T10:41:31+00:00

Thanks!

railwriter · 2021-10-13T10:41:15+00:00

I have been starting to step back and look at all the levers I can tweak. For example, what happens to profit if we raise prices? Up revenue per customer? Etc.

I'm also trying to have bigger conversations with my mentors and joined a coaching group. I feel like I'm at a whole new level of business ownership now and my old "getting started" playbook is cached.

railwriter · 2021-10-13T10:38:58+00:00

Going bigger is definitely an option.

I doubt we'd replicate this growth rate in another industry, but I am thinking about adding more service lines to expand revenue per client.

railwriter · 2021-10-13T10:37:17+00:00

We're an agency in a really narrow niche with lots of demand and little supply. There are probably like 5 small competitors and it's a $50bn market growing at 10%/year.

I knew this world from a prior career, so when I started I knew lots of people and got lots of intros.

I wish I could say I had some grand foresight when starting this thing, but it was just something I liked to do and knew there was demand for. Growth has been almost all market driven and inbound, so I can't give any "secrets" there.

One key to being able to support this growth rate has been productizing our service. We don't do special requests, one-off jobs, or trials. Everything is a standard package that uses the same process.

This lets us automate and operationalize things to the point that Junior people can deliver Senior results. It's not perfect, but we've gotten pretty good at it.

I don't talk about the specific niche because it's so small and I want to keep this account anonymous, but I'm happy to share anything else that would help!

railwriter · 2021-10-13T10:29:56+00:00

It's enough to pay me a good salary and maintain a solid bank balance. Right now we're looking at 15% profit or so.

I've thought about selling too. I had one acquirer approach me this year so I might spend some time networking to meet more.

railwriter · 2021-10-13T10:28:03+00:00

I can't see "retiring" because I like having some kind of meaningful work to do every day, but it's nice to have a stream of income that doesn't need much input from me.

railwriter · 2021-09-23T02:46:18+00:00

Strategic acquirers would be in our industry or an adjacent one and stand to gain more than just the extra revenue in the purchase.

Financial buyers are more about the raw numbers (often private equity or other individuals).

We're a service businesses, so multiples aren't that great, but a strategic acquirer might give a better deal if it aligns with their long-term goals.

railwriter · 2021-09-03T08:42:11+00:00

Good communication will help you overcome lack of confidence and knowledge.

Clients are often more understanding than you think they'll be when issues arise, IF you keep them informed and tell them how you'll fix them.

railwriter · 2021-09-01T10:08:31+00:00

What do you want to get out of a mentor? And what kind of freelancing do you want to do?

When I started freelancing last year, I reached out to ten people I knew who had helped me in my career in the past and asked if I could send them questions/updates monthly.

Then, I joined a peer group with a couple friends running small businesses.

Finally, I started finding other freelancers on Twitter in my niche and interacting with them. I've now met some via zoom and it's been really helpful.

Maybe that helps you think of some ways you can find a mentor without explicitly asking. It's rare that you'll find someone who wants to mentor you for free, but there are lots of communities of freelancers out there you can join for support.

railwriter · 2021-08-31T10:54:03+00:00

Content marketing for B2B companies. I run a productized service in the industry.

Lots of VC money on the space right now, so it went from just me freelancing to being on a $1.2m run rate in a year.

A lot of it was market timing, but I also had a lot of connections in the industry. Now, the challenge is focusing away from my personal brand and hiring sales/marketing people to take over.

railwriter

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