Grow Your Business - The Startup Index
A few lessons along the way
Hey all! Its been a while since I sent out an issue, but I have been hard at work growing my own business — ActionForms — and I wanted to come back to this community to share what I have learned.
In the spirit of being a newsletter about startups I want to bring to you insights every week (or month if I get distracted again) about running a business as a solopreneur. I am learning so much along the way, and I think we are all tired of general marketing bullshit. I want to get down in the dirt with you instead of spitting out some ChatGPT drivel like everyone else.
So from here on out we will travel together on building this business. I will share my stats, books I am reading, blogs I find interesting, and any other insights that I think could help you.
Current Stats
For the last few months I have grown paying subscribers from 5→10. MRR has gone up 35%, but still far from where I want it to be. The current driving forces behind user acquisition is organic google searches. ActionForms comes up for searches (in certain regions) with keywords like “free html form builder”, “form backend”, and “easy form backend”. The growth plan now is:
Finding newsletters and blog that my target customers use and advertise there
Write more blog content related to uses for the product
Engage in spaces where other entrepreneurs are present
Everything is an iteration so we will see how it goes and I will report back.
Lesson
Customers don’t care how much effort you put into building something, they just care if it solves their problem
I had spent a few weeks on a huge redesign of the web app, and the first thing I heard was a customer complaint. It’s ugly and it doesn’t work the way they want. My first reaction was anger and disappointment, but after talking to them it became clear it just wasn’t meeting the need they had. They had a very specific workflow they couldn’t do anymore so after I made a few tweaks they were happy again.
Its hard to not take things like this personally, but you have to remember the customer doesn’t really care about you — they care only about the value you provide.
Next week I will share some books I have found really helpful and more lessons from this journey.
Contact me anytime at sam@fdsa.me.
- Sam
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