So I quit my job back in August 2021 to work for myself. With some raw ideas, 24 months of runway, and many more months of hope!
Sadly, hope doesn't buy food 😅
So I had to figure out other ways to make money soon. Which I did..
I started with freelancing and consulting, then moved to building digital products, and now I run a SaaS business and host a tiny community.
The path so far has been a fun and scary roller coaster. Here are 3 harsh truths I wish I had known before I started -
1. An audience is a poor marketing channel
From very early on I was sold on the idea of "build an audience, and sell a product to them". I still do a version of that, but I've realized that it's such an ineffective marketing channel.
By definition, this method will only work for 1 in a million people.
Most of the other 999,999 people are better off learning and cracking other marketing channels - they are easier, more effective and scale better. Took me a while to understand this.
2. Services don't scale
I know it sounds obvious, and I'm dumb to not get this earlier, but selling my time for money is very similar to having a job. It still has perks, you can choose your clients, work on your own schedule, but you don't have much leverage.
Only way to create leverage is by hiring other freelancers and getting them to do the work. Which I failed at initially, and then gave up because it was increasingly starting to look like a job which I had just quit.
So I quit again!
3. You can't do EVERYTHING you want
I have so many ideas of products and services to launch. Everywhere I look I see opportunities, and now I even have the freedom to do anything I want.
And I tried doing it - there was a period when I launched 25 products in 25 weeks. Guess what happened? I got burnt out and failed miserably.
Truth is - you can do anything you want in life, but you can't do everything you want in life.
To make substantial progress on any project, you must learn to focus, to say no, to see new ideas for what they really are - distractions!
A profitable, sustainable business is on the other side of a 24-36 month period of focused effort. I can't look away from that fact and hope that my 10 half hearted projects will be successful in 6 months.
Hope after all, doesn't buy food!