Don’t have an idea? You don’t have to have one. Buy one.
Don’t know how to code? You don’t have to. Use revenue to outsource development.
Just finished @ryanckulp’s new course “How to Buy, Grow, and Sell Small Companies”
https://t.co/wcX0zFXHgL
Here are some main takeaways + my verdict 👇
Don’t have an idea? You don’t have to have one. Buy one.
Don’t know how to code? You don’t have to. Use revenue to outsource development.
Capital is not an excuse.
Namely:
- Validated demand
- Leverage debt/equity partners
- Focus on going from 1-10, not 0-1
Acquiring a business that has paying customers saves you the time and energy you would have spent trying to figure out if there was demand for it in the first place.
Acquiring skips that step altogether.
It’s easy to be blinded by your infatuation with your idea.
Acquiring forces you to take a truly unbiased and logical look at a business.
Buying a business doesn’t mean you have to fork over a big pile of cash or empty out your savings to buy outright.
In fact, it’s probably best if you don’t.
Use the profits to pay down debt and float until you can pay yourself and/or pay off your debt.
Going from 0 to 1 — building, validating, and launching something from scratch — isn’t everyone’s forte.
If maintaining, optimizing, and growing is though, acquiring might be a better option for you.
Maintaining, optimizing, and growing a business requires tried and true processes.
https://t.co/AJhvBIHkvX
Managing multiple businesses makes this ring even truer.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
— James Clear (@JamesClear) October 4, 2018
Getting ready to sell can act as a forcing function to optimizing your business in ways it should have before.
Who knows the passwords? Yeah, that needs to be stored somewhere safer.
Spaghetti code? Yeah, that’s a liability.
I love the approach outlined in the course.
100% worth it. I follow the rule that I don’t have a budget for books — I buy whatever book looks interesting because if there’s ever something to overspend on, it’s on enabling and bettering yourself.
And that applies to courses too.
Get it: https://t.co/wcX0zFXHgL
Also excited to join the Rainmakers Club: https://t.co/hUy8DgUl5x
More from Startups
There are a *lot* of software shops in the world that would far rather have one more technical dependency than they'd like to pay for one of their 20 engineers to become the company's SPOF expert on the joys of e.g. HTTP file uploads, CSV parsing bugs, PDF generation, etc.
Every year at MicroConf I get surprised-not-surprised by the number of people I meet who are running "Does one thing reasonably well, ranks well for it, pulls down a full-time dev salary" out of a fun side project which obviates a frequent 1~5 engineer-day sprint horizontally.
"Who is the prototypical client here?"
A consulting shop delivering a $X00k engagement for an internal system, a SaaS company doing something custom for a large client or internally facing or deeply non-core to their business, etc.
(I feel like many of these businesses are good answers to the "how would you monetize OSS to make it sustainable?" fashion, since they often wrap a core OSS offering in the assorted infrastructure which makes it easily consumable.)
"But don't the customers get subscription fatigue?"
I think subscription fatigue is far more reported by people who are embarrassed to charge money for software than it is experienced by for-profit businesses, who don't seem to have gotten pay-biweekly-for-services fatigue.
On a serious note, it's interesting to observe that you can build a decent business charging $20 - $50 per month for something that any good developer can set up. This is one of those micro-saas sweet spots between "easy for me to build" and "tedious for others to build"
— Jon Yongfook (@yongfook) September 5, 2019
Every year at MicroConf I get surprised-not-surprised by the number of people I meet who are running "Does one thing reasonably well, ranks well for it, pulls down a full-time dev salary" out of a fun side project which obviates a frequent 1~5 engineer-day sprint horizontally.
"Who is the prototypical client here?"
A consulting shop delivering a $X00k engagement for an internal system, a SaaS company doing something custom for a large client or internally facing or deeply non-core to their business, etc.
(I feel like many of these businesses are good answers to the "how would you monetize OSS to make it sustainable?" fashion, since they often wrap a core OSS offering in the assorted infrastructure which makes it easily consumable.)
"But don't the customers get subscription fatigue?"
I think subscription fatigue is far more reported by people who are embarrassed to charge money for software than it is experienced by for-profit businesses, who don't seem to have gotten pay-biweekly-for-services fatigue.
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**Thread on Bravery of Sikhs**
(I am forced to do this due to continuous hounding of Sikh Extremists since yesterday)
Rani Jindan Kaur, wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh had illegitimate relations with Lal Singh (PM of Ranjit Singh). Along with Lal Singh, she attacked Jammu, burnt - https://t.co/EfjAq59AyI
Hindu villages of Jasrota, caused rebellion in Jammu, attacked Kishtwar.
Ancestors of Raja Ranjit Singh, The Sansi Tribe used to give daughters as concubines to Jahangir.
The Ludhiana Political Agency (Later NW Fronties Prov) was formed by less than 4000 British soldiers who advanced from Delhi and reached Ludhiana, receiving submissions of all sikh chiefs along the way. The submission of the troops of Raja of Lahore (Ranjit Singh) at Ambala.
Dabistan a contemporary book on Sikh History tells us that Guru Hargobind broke Naina devi Idol Same source describes Guru Hargobind serving a eunuch
YarKhan. (ref was proudly shared by a sikh on twitter)
Gobind Singh followed Bahadur Shah to Deccan to fight for him.
In Zafarnama, Guru Gobind Singh states that the reason he was in conflict with the Hill Rajas was that while they were worshiping idols, while he was an idol-breaker.
And idiot Hindus place him along Maharana, Prithviraj and Shivaji as saviours of Dharma.
(I am forced to do this due to continuous hounding of Sikh Extremists since yesterday)
Rani Jindan Kaur, wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh had illegitimate relations with Lal Singh (PM of Ranjit Singh). Along with Lal Singh, she attacked Jammu, burnt - https://t.co/EfjAq59AyI
Tomorrow again same thing happens bcoz fudus like you are creating a narrative oh Khalistan. when farmers are asking MSP. (RSS ki tatti khane wale Kerni sena ke kutte).
— Ancient Economist (@_stock_tips) December 5, 2020
U kill sikhs in 1984 just politics. To BC low IQ fudu Saale entire history was politics.
Hindu villages of Jasrota, caused rebellion in Jammu, attacked Kishtwar.
Ancestors of Raja Ranjit Singh, The Sansi Tribe used to give daughters as concubines to Jahangir.
The Ludhiana Political Agency (Later NW Fronties Prov) was formed by less than 4000 British soldiers who advanced from Delhi and reached Ludhiana, receiving submissions of all sikh chiefs along the way. The submission of the troops of Raja of Lahore (Ranjit Singh) at Ambala.
Dabistan a contemporary book on Sikh History tells us that Guru Hargobind broke Naina devi Idol Same source describes Guru Hargobind serving a eunuch
YarKhan. (ref was proudly shared by a sikh on twitter)
Gobind Singh followed Bahadur Shah to Deccan to fight for him.
In Zafarnama, Guru Gobind Singh states that the reason he was in conflict with the Hill Rajas was that while they were worshiping idols, while he was an idol-breaker.
And idiot Hindus place him along Maharana, Prithviraj and Shivaji as saviours of Dharma.
