Topics in ‘Bootstrapping’

Twas the night before launchmas…

An original poem by Amy Hoy Twas the night before launchmas, and all through my brain Expectations were growing, and popping champagne The buttons all hung from the sales page with care In hopes that cha-chinging would soon fill the air Yes my copy was written, waiting just to be read All needed saying had… Read more »

Are you thinking, or only farting?

Thinking is supposed to be a question mark. But most people treat it like a period. Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors ever. Why? Well, he sees the entire human experience for exactly what it is… and he laughs, indulgently, at the punchline. You think you’re picking up a parody novel and it… Read more »

Make your customers beg you to charge more

In Part 1, you learned how to avoid your customers’ ire — and raise your prices the easy way. In Part 2, I told the story of how I raised prices for our existing customers… and convinced them to choose to pay more. Now it’s your turn. Here’s how… First, remember why customers get furious… Read more »

How I raised prices… by customer request

In startup years, I’m a granny. A SaaS granny. We launched our app, Freckle Time Tracking, waaaaaaay back in 2008. That’s 41 in Startup Years. Yeah. Old. Way back then, our plans went $12, $24, $48. So young, so naïve, so cheap! Those are not our prices any more. We’ve raised them many times since… Read more »

One weird trick to raising your monthly price without a customer revolt

YOUR FRIEND, ALOUD “OMG did you hear the news? SomeStartup has dramatically increased their prices and their customers are in active revolt.” YOU, THINKING Oh no. I wanted to raise my prices… but my skin is soft and vulnerable to torches and pitchforks so I guess I will just… you know… tootle along at this… Read more »

Confessions of a (reformed) whiner

Hey guys! This is a guest post by 30×500 alum Ryan Castillo, author of 7 Recurring Revenue Recipes for Freelancers and reformed procrastinator. Hi. My name is Ryan and I am a whiner. Or at least I used to be, but we’ll get to that in a minute. For the past three years I’ve failed… Read more »

The 3-part 30×500 Taste Test

OK, dudes and dudettes… t-minus 6.5 hours and counting til we close registration on the 30×500 Academy. Time to break out that neglected browser tab you set aside for later and choose, no… or yes. To help you decide, if you’re the type who likes to try before you buy… we got you covered. With… Read more »

The Ebomb Recipe That Works (free lesson)

The internet is full of hand-wavy advice. Not even bad advice, necessarily, but vague. The kind of advice that makes perfect sense in the moment, that makes you FEEL good, but then when you sit down to actually try it yourself… Pffft! Nothing comes out. How do you actually do it? You don’t know. They… Read more »

Making huge projects work: Implementation

In my last essay, I totally pulled back the curtain on the planning + design stage of the (huge) brand new 30×500. The next step? Action, baby. And the key takeaway? Work has an interface and experience all its own… and YOU get to design YOURS. Do it right, and it’ll pay you back. Typically,… Read more »

Making huge projects work

You know I always tell you: you should do a tiny project first. You know I always advise that you must accept that good things take time, work incrementally, and keep stacking the bricks. Buuuut… sometimes you need to go big. You can build a lot of things nibble by nibble, but sometimes you need… Read more »

Hey, why not get a shiny
Freckle Time Tracking
account?