$100k Software Projects don't happen overnight.

But…

Setting these 4 tiny rules, we started to feel like it’s just around the corner:

Here's the rules that saved us:

We started with $1000 projects and quickly learned financial freedom and joy are never near. It always felt like we were chasing new projects while being penny pinched/scope creeped by the previous ones.

We paused and evaluated, at this rate we were never going to make it, what was the point of starting an agency if we were going to be stressed by it.

Rule 1: Work with projects that are long term and exciting, vs short term.

Now that we had more time on our hands to deal with client requirements, our curiosity led us to deep dive into learning from the amazing entrepreneurs who we were working with. We learn all about how different businesses manage cash flows, how taxation affects payment terms, we also learnt what Cost of Capital means and found a new respect for the capital we had.

Rule 2: Immerse yourself in how your client makes money

Now that we were less busy and could spend at least 1 day a week with some of our customers just talking about their business and day to day operations, it suddenly clicked! We were able to come up with optimisations and simple tools that could be implemented to make their day suck a little less, even better help them make a little more money, with a little less headache.

Rule 3: Make something your client values, suck less!

Doing this for years taught us a lot, made us value the real world problems and constraints more, helped us question our decisions and revisit them every few years (remember Long Term Projects only!), made us wiser. Now every time there was a pitch there way only one more rule to implement.

Rule 4: Talk about all the learnings in the next pitch and bump up your price +33%

Running hardcore technical engineering services for a decade was no joke. having to also deal with the business side of things only made it harder. I made all the mistake I could and for longer than I should have. Hope this helps you in your journey.

$100k Software Projects don't happen overnight.

$100k Software Projects don't happen overnight. But… Setting these 4 tiny rules, we starte

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