Since high school, I’ve run a few businesses and micro-businesses. I started having my own business by providing on-site IT Support, setting up small home networks, being a task rabbit, a dog walker, and more. In recent years, I’ve run digital and virtual businesses; all have never individually made more than $3-5k/yr. In 2021, I promised to evaluate everything I am doing wrong in business and make changes in 2022.
Here is a breakdown of what I need to change or improve
🎯 Audience + Market
After conducting competitive analysis having meaningful conversations with similar indie hackers, I’ve realized I went too niche and this was part of the downfall. Companies with similar structures but broader audiences prove that I have the right structure, wrong audience, and Market.
📊 Sales
The biggest realization I’ve had in the last six months is that if you don’t have a large following, you need to 10x sales and outreach.
💵 Raise Pricing
After 4years+ of free work and very low-cost pricing, I’ve learned this holds back your business. Having such low pricing also signals that your product or service is not quality, and attracts the wrong customers and clients. It’s a formula for burnout and failure and makes it nearly impossible to scale.
🗣Transparency
I never talked much about my companies, projects, or work because I’ve been in survival mode for close to 5 years. I was worried that if I talked about all the different work I’ve done, I would appear all over the place. I also am someone who isn’t fond of shouting my work or wins; another reason for lack of success.
👩🏾🏫 Courses
I spent a considerable amount of money on courses, books, and consulting over the past year. I’m going to focus on consuming less and implementing more. I’ve read 100books, most of which were business-oriented and provided actionable advice. It makes me feel equipt to make changes as an entrepreneur, to cover basic operating expenses; aka finally reach ramen profitability,
🤝 Relationships
I plan to build professional relationships with folks in my field of IT and Security and join more founder and entrepreneur spaces, especially those that are non-technical.
⚙️ Systems
I used to have systems put in place for everything. However, being in survival mode, I’ve drastically fallen off and have been much less organized than usual. Working multiple full-time and part-time jobs simultaneously, I found myself in constant autopilot mode and abandoning repeatable systems.
📋 Documentation
Similar to systems, I went too long following a figure-it-out on-the-go workflow. I found that this had made it hard to accept and receive help because, truly, no one can read your mind. As an entrepreneur, if you want to expand your team; every aspect of the business needs documentation, processes, and systems.