Rob Walling

And the problem is there's problems with it, right? A, your customers might get a little miffed. If there are other options that are one-time use that are cheaper, they'll go use them. They will often complain, oh, I used it once and then maybe potentially do a chargeback, ask for a refund.

And the problem is there's problems with it, right? A, your customers might get a little miffed. If there are other options that are one-time use that are cheaper, they'll go use them. They will often complain, oh, I used it once and then maybe potentially do a chargeback, ask for a refund.

You know, there's a bunch of challenges with that, but it is an option that I wanted to throw out in the spirit of brainstorming and getting all the ideas out there. And I think from a high level, those are probably the three things that I would consider.

You know, there's a bunch of challenges with that, but it is an option that I wanted to throw out in the spirit of brainstorming and getting all the ideas out there. And I think from a high level, those are probably the three things that I would consider.

And probably in your shoes, I would try to make this subscription by building other stuff and seeing if it works, if I had the energy and kind of the excitement and the motivation to do it. And if it doesn't work, then I would do plan A, which is just leave it as one time and use that to stair step your way up. I don't know if it'll work or not.

And probably in your shoes, I would try to make this subscription by building other stuff and seeing if it works, if I had the energy and kind of the excitement and the motivation to do it. And if it doesn't work, then I would do plan A, which is just leave it as one time and use that to stair step your way up. I don't know if it'll work or not.

I don't know if there are other features, other things you can cater to that these folks are trying to do on an ongoing basis, because I just don't understand the business well enough. And if you have absolutely no ideas for how to do that, and you've asked your customers and they have no ideas for you, and you ask your mastermind or a co-founder,

I don't know if there are other features, other things you can cater to that these folks are trying to do on an ongoing basis, because I just don't understand the business well enough. And if you have absolutely no ideas for how to do that, and you've asked your customers and they have no ideas for you, and you ask your mastermind or a co-founder,

or an advisor, or your spouse, or a good friend, or this podcast, and no one has any ideas, then yeah, there are tools that really just shouldn't be subscription, and that may be the case. I, of course, always like to at least try to invest some elbow grease into it first. I actually did this with .NET Invoice back in, I don't know, whatever, 2005 or 2006, where it had peaked.

or an advisor, or your spouse, or a good friend, or this podcast, and no one has any ideas, then yeah, there are tools that really just shouldn't be subscription, and that may be the case. I, of course, always like to at least try to invest some elbow grease into it first. I actually did this with .NET Invoice back in, I don't know, whatever, 2005 or 2006, where it had peaked.

It was a one-time sale as well, $300 worth. one time with like 20% maintenance a year. And it had peaked between like 3,000 and 5,000 a month. And so in any given month, it was great. It was making my house payment plus a car payment, which I didn't have because I had big cash for the car. But you get the idea. It was just a nice side income as I worked full-time during the day.

It was a one-time sale as well, $300 worth. one time with like 20% maintenance a year. And it had peaked between like 3,000 and 5,000 a month. And so in any given month, it was great. It was making my house payment plus a car payment, which I didn't have because I had big cash for the car. But you get the idea. It was just a nice side income as I worked full-time during the day.

And I really tried to grow that business. I was like, I want to get it to 10K, 12K a month so that I can quit my day job. And I spent about a year, nights and weekends, trying to do that before I realized this is a step one business. Now that term didn't exist then. I hadn't come up with the stair step method. That would be, what, seven years later maybe?

And I really tried to grow that business. I was like, I want to get it to 10K, 12K a month so that I can quit my day job. And I spent about a year, nights and weekends, trying to do that before I realized this is a step one business. Now that term didn't exist then. I hadn't come up with the stair step method. That would be, what, seven years later maybe?

But in retrospect, it was something that I never regretted putting that time in and trying to grow it. I learned a lot during that time about what worked, what didn't work. And when I got to the point where I was out of ideas and out of motivation, then I put it on autopilot.

But in retrospect, it was something that I never regretted putting that time in and trying to grow it. I learned a lot during that time about what worked, what didn't work. And when I got to the point where I was out of ideas and out of motivation, then I put it on autopilot.

And autopilot's not real, realize, like every 18 months, Google would slap it, a competitor would come up, something, I'd need to update the code. You know, there were all these things that would happen. But as autopilot as you can make it, and then I moved on to my next thing. And that is actually when I built out a portfolio of products.

And autopilot's not real, realize, like every 18 months, Google would slap it, a competitor would come up, something, I'd need to update the code. You know, there were all these things that would happen. But as autopilot as you can make it, and then I moved on to my next thing. And that is actually when I built out a portfolio of products.

Now with a portfolio of products, never try to grow more than one at a time. You focus on one, you get it to grow, and you get the, basically that recurring growth traffic that then builds hopefully recurring revenue and then get it to the point where it's stable and maybe you autopilot that one too.

Now with a portfolio of products, never try to grow more than one at a time. You focus on one, you get it to grow, and you get the, basically that recurring growth traffic that then builds hopefully recurring revenue and then get it to the point where it's stable and maybe you autopilot that one too.