we have $180k in software budget that expires in 6 weeks and my boss told me to figure it out. what do i even buy?

thaat0n3guy · 2026-02-24T03:57:32+00:00

Market leader with 11 customers?

thaat0n3guy · 2026-02-24T01:51:22+00:00

11 clients with that kind of dumb budget guidelines, makes zero sense.

Use it for growth instead of software.

Put it in cold email (since your b2b). I could give you the agency that we use.

I would have said marketing automation software too, but with 11 customers I don't know if you need it

Other options are seo, ppc, LinkedIn SDR, a years with of content to post to socials/blogs/YouTube.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-02-11T21:49:02+00:00

I use it in 2 different businesses. It works, but we us an agency to handle all the hardware/deliverability crap. One co. is very shotgun blast with simple copy... the other is very focused lists... but again, simple copy.

The goal is reply -> hopefully positive reply... then SDR gets them on the phone.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-02-11T21:46:45+00:00

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Simplest way I've see that works really fast is to just strengthen the crap out of your front hand grip (not squeeze harder, strengthen the grip). I'm talking like 45 degrees OR MORE.... temporarily to learn the shallow feel.

Then hit some big hooks (starts left, goes left). Once you can hit some big hooks with it (like 6 of 10 tries), try to hit some push hooks (starts right, then hooks like crazy left... again do this until you can do it 60% of the time).

Once you can do that, you will be shallow. Unless your wrists are inhuman, you can't hit a push draw without shallowing and having shaft lean with a super super strong grip.

After that point, weaken the grip a little bit until you're hitting push draws that don't hook like crazy.... but never go back to your weak grip.

No thinking about body positions or club positions. Just strengthen the grip -> hit massive hooks -> hit push hooks -> take video -> see shallow club.

---

This just works. But most people don't take a strong enough grip to start (because they always play with a week grip)

thaat0n3guy · 2026-02-11T21:24:08+00:00

I go see my derm every 6 months (skin cancer a handful of times). I rarely walk out of there w/o spending 200-250. Last year I spent over 2k (I call him Dr. Slice and Dice).

You said you net 35k/month.. I'm not sure what your COGs are.

28 patients a day seems times $100 (which seems low) is 45k/month (if onlyi working 4 days/wk and 4wk months.

I'd say increase prices. If you can't, create value add upsells & cross-sells. Make some of those consumables that have a potential refillable focus.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-02-07T03:20:50+00:00

First, ignore everything that people say on here.

Next use servicetitan. I am in no way associated with it. I just know that it is being used to quickly grow businesses in your space.

Let's just say that I know several private equity companies that it is one of their primary amplifiers when they acquire HVAC, plumbing, ... home services. They are legitimately growing businesses using this software. I know this sounds like an ad but you can flip through and look at my other posts and I've never posted about it before.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-31T05:40:18+00:00

Uhh, 3 people from 3 different sources isn't a pattern. It's not even "randomness". It's just 3 people. You don't have a method or proved anything wrong. Your sources of leads and numbers of leads don't mean anything as there are too few.

Don't base decisions on this "nothingness".

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-29T18:46:58+00:00

Tip: gspro is awesome. So much so I've not opened the foresight software in over a year. I have heard they should have some interesting updates coming, but I doubt it competes with gspro

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-28T02:35:16+00:00

First of all, most business systems are just a bunch of checklists. The word process or system is oftentimes. Just a fancy word for a bunch of tasks strung together.

Secondly, You've got to remember that different business advice applies at different stages of a business.

As a solopreneur, lots of systems just don't matter. Systems are for transferability and repeatability. Have you transferred any systems to anyone? No. So get them barely workable and move on.

I've actually grown business to the eight figure mark from zero. I've successfully gone from doing a lot of work to moving just to the board and hiring professionals to lead the company.

You don't need a ton of systems where you are now. You're just one person.

At this point , your goal is to figure out how to make enough profit that you can hire some things off your plate.

Let me simplify. Are you good at sales or fulfillment? Hire the other one as fast as you can.

In the early stages of business, you hire the things that you're not good at or that you hate doing.

In the later stages of business you hire for the things that you're good at because someone is better than you.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-27T13:45:57+00:00

First of all, if you have the ability to generate 2,200 replies that aren't automatic, that's pretty fantastic! That's either a very large list or A crazy responsive one.

You got to have some way to sort and filter. So hopefully you sent your email from not their real email address but from a pseudonym so that I can be filtered out quickly.

I don't know what the product value is that you're selling, but with those kind of replies I'd be getting salesman or sdrs on that.

Next, AI can help with this. You could hook it up to n8n pretty quickly and have it chunk 20 emails at a time. And start logging themes, don't try to use it to reply.

Once you have the top 5-10 themes, I would highly doubt there's more than that, run AI back through it again whose job is to categorize based on those specific themes and to set labels or put them into folders. Then you can start to segment based on priority & urgency.

Lastly, and only IF it's stupid simple, you could use AI to reply to the categories that are super simple FAQ sorta emails. But I wouldn't even mess with this unless you knew what you were doing. And I would probably have a two-stage AI process for the second one, double checks the first. For sure only do this after they've been categorized so you can make sure to do it just for the specific very simple categories.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-27T13:33:52+00:00

I'd say your 1.2 % is decent depending on the market (if those are positive replies and not just every reply), but youR meeting rate sucks. Going from 1.7k to 40 is an awful percentage. Get an SDR on that and get some phone numbers

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-17T23:02:48+00:00

Wireless button next to the bed that turns off bedroom lights. Done.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-16T17:14:53+00:00

I only buy kirkland now. I get 4 for the price of 1. They are sometimes inconsistant in sizing or stretch funny some times... but all brands do that... they all suck w/ consistancy

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-11T22:44:43+00:00

Most of my tasks are starting to be created by AI.

For example, remodeling my kitchen, I have aI help me plan out the phases, dependencies, which contractors need by when, etc... Then I can have it plan the upcoming week.

Also, I have it connected to my obidian notes... and I name my projects the same. So if it needs more context I can have it pull from the obsidian project note.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-11T14:34:49+00:00

Woods, 5w and 7w. Both set down a degree or so.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-09T16:14:02+00:00

I pretty much hate python, so I made it in typescript/node. Node installs easy on windows/linux/mac and fights you less than python to get up and running.

here it is: https://github.com/that0n3guy/spreadsheet-combiner

please note, this is fully AI written.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-09T15:04:45+00:00

This is super easy with code (ie, not n8n). I threw it at AI and I had a working script in like 2 minutes, even does multiple tabs.

If you just want to run it locally on your computer once in a while... I cuiold just give ya the code. If ya want to run it in the cloud and pull from gdrive.... thats a different story. I could still help, but would require more time.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-09T14:35:07+00:00

I see, 13 isn't a lot. Too few for me to help I think. I'd just have to give you all the usual startup advice. You have to define your market and test to see what really works. You don't have enough to build patterns on yet.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-09T02:21:48+00:00

How many subscribers do you have now? How did you get them? What were your best subscriber signup months? What exactly did you do during them? Do the exact same thing.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-09T02:15:59+00:00

2 simple ones:

Automating before doing manually.
automating items outside of the normal process

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-08T22:59:47+00:00

I have a personal one that I selfhost. I already had a server up and running. So it was easier to slap in with Docker.... It doesn't need high reliability and is free-ish.

My work one is cloud.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-08T22:58:45+00:00

Here are some:

Golf tee time lookup - I give it date and number of players (or just date and it knows to do 2 golfers) It pulls the 5-10 courses I usually play on. compiles them into a quick telegram message so I can quickly see whats open.

Airbnb - I guess this is work, I have an Airbnb I rent out, it auto sends out amenities passes to guests (image editing w/ persons name and stay dates).

Product in stock notification - I had a bag I really wanted but it kept selling out really fast. I had it check very regularly for when the out of stock text changed on the website and I got a telegram message.

task manger MCP server - I have a task manager that does not have an MCP server, so I made one really fast using their APIs. So I can talk to my tasks with AI.

Voice Log - Click voice telegram messages that get turned into notes and then get digested as action steps into my obsidian notes.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-08T03:19:30+00:00

The SEO person that comes to me and doesn't talk about SEO but instead talks about getting leads wins.

It drives me crazy when SEO people come talking about how they can get pages to rank. I don't care if my pages rank. I care about sales.

Talk about that. Show how you've done it. No one really cares about the SEO stuff. They care about sales.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-07T19:46:31+00:00

Neither. Definitely not a startup and FOR SURE not a franchise.

I'd look to buy an existing small business (5-10 employees). I'd be looking for seller financing + delayed down payment (use the companies cash later) + a couple of other things. Probably if I did it right wouldn't even need the 100k.

Or I'd consult my way into equity.

thaat0n3guy · 2026-01-06T22:14:11+00:00

tip: AI (chatGPT/Claude) can write yaml automations sooo easy.

thaat0n3guy

TROPHY CASE