My Entrepreneurial Ack! Story (Part 6)

Before I talk about my formal introduction to the DNN Community at large... I feel the need to share some of the business ack-specs with which I struggled at the time.

During the lonely years offering DNN I had been extremely cautious about who I talked to about DNN. My fears were unfounded. Meeting with people every Friday for three years had proven that no one local knew about DNN... until I told them about it. And even though I could talk about what a great platform it was for hours on end, I still had not found the right business model. I still felt trapped, living from one project to the next. Although I enjoyed the freedom of being an entrepreneur, success, true success seemed as elusive as ever.

I was still treading water and I hate treading water... I have a recurring nightmare about drowning at sea, all alone. (Just this morning before waking up, I was on a sinking boat... and when it went under, the weight of my clothes, my boots, pulled me under the water and I was looking up at the surface, I was sinking. It's a dreadful feeling... knowing if you try to swim up, you can't because of what you are wearing. And if you try and take off your clothes and boots, you know you'll run out of air before doing so and drown just the same.)

I thought about quitting DNN and shutting down AWF is how bad I felt... I voiced my concerns to Mark Saunders. I was extremely discouraged. I expressed how exasperating it was, to land a project, get paid, but then spend months and months developing, working with module coders to build back-end office systems. And it was during these talks (that often ran all through the night) that we determined a new path. Mark suggested I stop doing complex jobs (it had never really crossed my mind to simplify, it seemed such a waste of what the DNN platform had to offer, and to offer DNN as a CMS only. My mind rejected the thought... I mean, that's like having a space shuttle that people just park out front. Yes, it was easy to brand, make it look as if it was owned, but I wanted to send people to the moon.

Mark also suggested something else that made a lot of sense; he suggested I use PayPal subscriptions to automate payments from clients. I had always been lousy at collecting payments... often falling behind months, until my growing bills demanded that I reach out to late-paying clients. I hated collecting more than any other part of the job. In fact, I still hate the money part of business. Yes, I know it's essential, but I still hate it. I've always paid my bills on time, and so I resented people who owed me money... and found it extremely demeaning to have to contact people to remind them about their overdue payments. Ugh, it makes me sick just thinking about it. I would rather not collect if it means I have to prompt and prod... I'd rather "chalk it up to experience" and simply cut them out of my life.

Building simple websites was an Ack! moment because:
1) I wasn't investing 100s or 1000s of hours.
2) I wouldn't be liable for a business going "offline", which is what happens when a back-end office system goes down (for whatever reason, a power surge or interruption).
3) I could get more clients.
4) I could write the proposals faster.
5) I could quote faster (12-120 hours for a job).

Using PayPal subscription services was an Ack! moment because:
1) I wasn't waiting for cheques all the time.
2) I hated going to the bank.
3) I could forecast my income.
4) I could offer additional DNN services and better support clients because I didn't find myself resenting clients who faithfully paid.
5) I could build the relationship, prove my worth and thereby retain clients.
6) I could match the setup with the support. For example, a 12 hour setup or conversion would warrant a 12 hour annual support contract.

Offering client service support plans was a Ack! moment because:
1) The relationship didn't stop after the development work was done.
2) I could now call Atlantic Webfitters a "relationship firm" with I.T. services.
3) I could help clients when they needed help, without documenting the time, like a lawyer.
4) I could offer SEO packages, social media assistance, content writing, ongoing advice.
5) I felt good, I was back to what I loved about building websites as a volunteer, I was helping people.
6) I could measure ROI. If a sale is worth $1000 net to the client, and it takes 10 leads to get a sale, I could prove my 10 leads were worth $100 each.

Typically, after finishing a job, I would only charge for hosting. But by offering clients ongoing service support, I could bury the cost of hosting in the plan we chose.

I determined that I would set my sights on the goal of getting fifty new clients willing to pay a minimum of 12 hours annual support each. I would become far more focused on service.

I began to fall in love with this business model... and I began to fall in love with my clients. It was easy to answer the phone and say, "Let's start with 12 hours setup and 12 hours annual support... and re-evaluate in a year. If you need more support, we can add more support." Most importantly... my clients started to fall in love with me.

This began the golden era of AWF. Growing my client base, loving my clients and soon the joy returned.

I could finally put the money equation to rest. Ack!

To be continued...