Since I started working full-time on creating and selling web businesses, I developed some basic principles to follow.
They remind me how I want to work, optimizing for both joy and output. I reread them at the beginning of each month.
Here they are:
1. Focus only on topics that matter to you.
• This may seem obvious until you realize you are pursuing money or launching a project simply because of new technology.
• It takes months of self-discovery to identify what your areas of interest are. A long-term strategy.
• I am passionate about yoga, investing, and deep thinking. I understand the significance of these elements in my life and actively practice them. Developing projects serve to enhance my comprehension of these topics.
2. Always search for non-obvious ways to do things.
• When solving a problem, creating content, looking for a distribution channel, or figuring out a business model, don’t blindly copy others.
• Instead, speak from your heart and be true to the world.
• I found mental models significantly changed my view of the world. My goal is to familiarize people with these ideas, but not through blog posts, a newsletter, or a book. That is not my style. I am creating a tool mentalwalk.com for this purpose.
3. Launch within a month or never.
• Create a simple product using no-code tools or collaborate with a technical partner.
• Developing the majority of MVPs generally takes 1-2 weeks.
• Allocate an additional 2 weeks to implement a basic marketing campaign.
• Identify 5 channels and create 10 micro-campaigns for each to have a total of 50 opportunities to attract users.
• Have multiple business models ready to experiment with upon launch.
• Maximize automation.
4. Minimize your budget.
• My preferred toolkit consists of Google Sheets + Apps Script, Trello, Gmail, Netlify, Carrd, Mixpanel.
• Not more than $100 per month for all experiments.
5. Devote 80% of your time to customers.
• That includes support, marketing, and sales.
• If you have a technical partner, 80% is a feasible expectation. If not, aim for at least 50%.
6. Monitor on autopilot.
• I find it counterproductive to constantly monitor statistics.
• Instead, I have a recurring email for every project with significant metrics. This helps me keep track of the progress even if I’m not actively working on the project.