When you run a successful business, you start to see opportunities everywhere for making more money. You develop a sense of what will work. It's pretty neat, but that intuition is not always 100% accurate.

I once saw an opportunity in the market for a service that would authenticate (validate) certifications for online courses. There was one major player in the market, and they were still pretty new. The timing was perfect. So, I started building this complementary business. I would integrate it first with LearnDash then extend to other learning management systems.

The market was huge, and I was excited to run a traditional SaaS business! The business was SimplyCertify (I spent $2,000 on that domain name).

I created a few sales pages, early adopter sign-up forms, and then hired someone to start blogging. Some people started to sign-up, which was encouraging. Then I started a Facebook Group. During this time, I hired a well-respected developer to create the initial prototype. I spent around $30,000 for it.

In the end, it never launched.

The project never saw the light of day. Not because it was a bad idea. It was a great idea. I simply did not have the energy to turn that start-up into a successful business.

One reason I knew SimplyCertify would be profitable was because I could leverage the success of one business to feed its early growth. I was going to upsell the existing customers into this new product.

Even create a pricing tier in LearnDash that would include SimplyCertify. I did this once before with a non-SaaS product (ProPanel, a reporting tool for LearnDash).

This would allow current LearnDash customers to help round-out the feature set in SimplyCertify before taking it to other markets. Sujay Pawar is someone who does this incredibly well. His flagship product Astra Theme is the foot-in-the-door for all his other products (such as Starter Templates).

I learned the value of focus.

When you have success, you need to focus on really refining that success so that it is optimal, then you can leverage it to make more money. Avoid the temptation to start something “entirely new” just because you see an opportunity. Find ways to use the work you have done already.

Maybe I was doing too much at the time. In hindsight, I probably should have had someone else take on that project to see it through completion. But you know what? I don't regret that experience.

First, the individual blogging for SimplyCertify (Laura) started to write for LearnDash and the blog took off! She's incredibly talented at what she does, and I'm grateful that she became part of the LearnDash team.

Secondly, I learned a lot about what it takes to get a minimal viable product out the door for a SaaS. I paid for that education. I took these lessons learned and applied it to the LearnDash 3.0 launch — the most successful (and profitable) update done for LearnDash.

The update changed the trajectory of the business entirely with the revenue growth. If you hit a dead-end with a project that you're working on, don't consider it a failure. All of your learnings from the process will make you better.

Experience isn't something that you can buy, and it's incredibly valuable.

#entrepreneurship

I have learned a lot by being an entrepreneur – especially how to compete.

For me, being an entrepreneur means you are continually looking out for opportunities and advantages. If you have an online business, then it’s pretty well-known that the barriers to entry are practically non-existent.

Given the competitive nature of starting & growing a successful company, I really struggle to see the benefit for publicly sharing sales data – especially if you’re not required to as you would if your company was publicly traded.

This is something that has become part of a growing trend in today’s entrepreneurial landscape. It’s very much part of the ethos of the “building in public” movement.

And look, I am not trying to say that transparency posts aren’t inspirational, educational, and fun – because they are! Seeing how other people overcame challenges in their business can be incredibly helpful to others. I have friends who write some fantastic transparency reports, and I thoroughly enjoy them.

I just think it’s okay to ask some questions about this practice. I know that I have over the years.

Are sales numbers actually relevant?

Transparency reports are quite common in the WordPress industry. Some plugin and theme developers will share their revenues with a commentary of what they found worked (and didn’t work) with business decisions made over the course of the year.

These articles are actually very insightful, especially if you’re in a similar space. But are revenue figures actually needed to emphasize key lessons learned?

Personally, I don’t think the key takeaways lose validity if exact figures aren’t included. I think saying something like: “we implemented this new policy and our revenues increased by X percent” is just as credible and helpful.

The only business reasons I can think of for sharing actual numbers are:

• To generate visibility from people who are curious about your sales. Impressive figures help validate your product (note that “impressive” is completely subjective so that may backfire). Revenue posts can go viral, increasing visibility.
• To establish credibility in certain verticals.
• To build trust from those who are either currently a customer or might become one. Transparency reports can translate to increased trust.

I suppose an outlying explanation for companies sharing their sales data is that they just don’t care if people know. That’s a legitimate reason too and perhaps makes this entire commentary a moot point.

You risk a lot by sharing too much.

This isn’t paranoia. This is business.

Whether you subscribe to it or not, business is one massive competition. In a competitive environment, every advantage helps (no matter how small).

Sales data aside, why reveal your entire playbook?

You are practically inviting strangers into your home by letting others know what works, what doesn’t work, and how much you make from what works. One of the strangers is likely to have very deep pockets, and they’ll be able to move quickly on this information.

Think it’s a long-shot?

Well, I have personally taken advantage of a company’s transparency to nullify their entire value proposition.

That company is now out of business.

Their transparency is not the main reason why they no longer exist, but it certainly didn’t help them.

Just remember that the ones who are being quiet aren’t doing so because they don’t have something to share. Instead, they are simply observing, collecting data, and making business moves accordingly.

Transparency reports may serve a great purpose for boostrappers.

I will concede that transparency reports seem to do best for bootstrappers, in particular as a form of self-motivation and accountability.

When we put something “out there”, it suddenly becomes real. It leaves our head and goes out into the world. Other people know about it and we feel an obligation to hold ourselves accountable now.

This is actually really great for budding, bootstrap entrepreneurs. The scariest part is “taking the plunge” from idea to implementation. It may sound silly, but so many people never make it to this stage. At most, they tinker with setting up a website and then stop after a month or so.

The great thing about progress transparency (using Twitter to give updates for example) is the ability to receive encouragement from peers. Entrepreneurship is a lonely road, and it’s motivating to have people cheering you on, especially during the early days.

Here is how I would use transparency reports that included revenue data.

If it’s not clear already, I wouldn’t go down the road of transparency reports personally. But if I were to use transparency reports, then I would set a goal and make it time bound.

In other words, I would encourage people to follow me as I tried to reach “X” dollars by “Y” time. I like this approach for two reasons:

1. Once I hit the dollar value, I’m not obligated to keep sharing.

2. It holds me accountable to reaching that goal in a specified amount of time.

As I mentioned, transparency reports are a good way to get interest in your project (and encouragement) early on in the journey. You may even get some publicity that you otherwise wouldn’t have received otherwise.

But at a certain point it won’t make sense for you to keep sharing this data. If your goal (challenge) is met, then you can stop sharing without any worries. Your audience who valued your transparency won’t see you as a fraud. You can do a new challenge instead.

The time component is probably my favorite part though. This puts your feet to the fire as an entrepreneur. Just like sharing your idea in public makes you accountable, sharing your timing is that extra level of motivation.

So should you use transparency reports in your business?

Can sharing too much info hurt your business? Yes.

Can sharing too much info help your business? Yes.

I recognize that the whole transparency approach depends largely on your personality. In the end, you have to do what you’re comfortable doing in your business.

Don’t feel obligated to share info just because you see other successful people do it. Just because you like reading transparency reports doesn’t mean that you too have to partake.

If after you read this you still feel justified in your transparency report, then that’s great! I am not trying to say everyone should stop transparency reports or that they are inherently bad. Just understand that there are both costs and benefits to them.

#entrepreneurship

Have you ever been tricked out of your money?

I know that I have.

When I was a teenager I fell victim to the internet marketing hype, handing over whatever money that I had so that I could learn “the secret”. The sales messages, the stories, the glitz… it was all so hypnotic.

I’m not embarrassed that I fell for these scams when I was a teen. In life you sometimes pay for an education, and these were valuable (priceless) lessons that I got to learn from an early age.

Today I view these stereotypical internet marketers differently. I don’t care about their products, I care about their methods!

The truth is that these people are actually very good at what they do. They are expert copywriters, relatable, unshakingly convincing, and just down-right great at B2C sales.

I decided to learn from The Dark Side.

It was like any other normal day. I was taking a break from my standard work tasks to do a little research.

Specifically, I like to keep tabs on what the current trends are in the online marketing space, especially the men and women selling “programs” and “secret methods”. I find it worth studying their ways because clearly they know how to sell. There is a method to the madness.

I can’t help but laugh a little because while I am convinced each of these programs thinks that they are original, they all just say the same exact thing. It’s the same stuff that I fell for back in the day. Yet truth be told they don’t really need to change anything because human nature will always be the same. Sure the “methods” they sell may change with the times, but the messaging is consistent.

Even though you may stay far away from the internet marketer types (like the ones who sell get-rich programs), I find that it’s worth looking into their sales process to see if you can learn anything. I did this some time ago and applied it to my own business.

The result? More revenue.

Tools change, but the strategy is still the same.

When I do my research into these get-rich program, I watch some videos of an internet marketer that I have known of for some time. The last time I did this, he had a new product – or at least a new marketing campaign. This was great because I could see him in action, particularly his funnel.

At the top of the funnel was a “live” webinar. You and I both know that this webinar was not live at all as he was using an automated webinar program instead.

That’s not the worst of it though…

• He shot his video in selfie-mode on his phone next to an expensive car and big house. This was part of his lead generation to get you to sign-up for the “live webinar”.
• He offered “free training” which is really just a sales pitch.
• He attempted to get anyone watching to agree at multiple points in their webinar or video. Phrases like “press 1 if you agree” or “have you ever experienced”. This is because psychologically if you start agreeing on small things you will agree to bigger asks later.
• He outlined a typical scenario of someone trying to make money online, then went on to say he was just like everyone else at one point but “cracked the code”.
• He presented random testimonials from the training which is void of any actual context, just someone saying they made money.
• He mentioned “hustle”.
• He showed his PayPal account, but “not to brag”.

The hype was real. But all that washed off of me, because behind those distractions I could see the real secret behind all the madness.

Before these folks can sell their products, they have to establish trust – and they are so. damn. good.

I am not kidding you, this guy put on a masterclass of establishing casual trust in a very little amount of time.

The main reason that his messaging worked was because he knew his audience, and he knew what motivated his potential customers. All he has to do is to show them how he can help them accomplish what it is they really want. Once he does that, the sale is made.

It was so impressive, I immediately copied him.

I’m not in the business of lying. But just like this guy, I am in the business of people and emotions.

I realized that this person knew his audience thoroughly, and I too needed to do the same so that I could craft the messaging just right. I’ve done this exercise a few times now in my entrepreneurial career – I created highly (overly?) detailed User Models.

In this process, I created the persona of the individuals who would be looking into my products. I gave them a name, background story, and described their personality. I found that the more detail that can provided into a User Model, the more pointed and relevant I could make my messaging.

This is important, because the next step after establishing a user model is to walk through a Buyer Journey in their shoes, addressing each phase in a way that will resonate with this fictitious person.

At each one of these stages, you need to think from the perspective of your User Model archetype.

What are they feeling?

Logic helps to a point, but purchases are emotional. You need to understand the ultimate desires of the people looking into your products, and craft the messaging accordingly to address those emotions. This is exactly what the “Get-Rich-Quick” guru does, and does well.

You may be thinking that this seems… hard. Well, yes, it does take a little work upfront. It’s not hard as much as it is time-consuming because it takes a lot of thought and creativity.

For me, it took a few weeks because I had created a handful of different User Models. From experience, I would say that you should try to come up with at least three, and up to five.

Once you have these vetted out, then you need to make sure that you are creating content with the User Models in mind, on every single section of every single page on your website. Your value proposition for each model should be apparent.

I’ve done this a number of times now, most recently (and in the most detail) with the last LearnDash refresh. Every section of every page is designed with the User Model in mind.

And just like the “Make Money Online” Internet Marketer I admired, the site does a great job establishing credibility and connection, while simultaneously answering the relevant questions for these individuals along the Buyer Journey.

For example, based on one of my User Models, there was a part of the customer journey that I wanted to address. It had to do with getting started with WordPress and LearnDash.

Out of that particular requirement came the “Getting Started in 4 Easy Steps” section of the homepage, where we reinforced how the software was powerful, but not difficult to start using.

This has helped the company in a variety of ways, least of which being that there are no longer as many pre-sales questions around the topic of getting started with WordPress and LearnDash. It also lets people know that they too are capable of using LearnDash, even if they don’t that they are tech-savvy.

It’s so good that it didn’t take long for one of my competitors to copy it!

So let’s boil this down.

It’s pretty easy to overthink this, so let me wrap-up by summarizing this entire selling approach in a succinct way.

Nailing down your User Models lets you proactively address the questions that will arrive along the Buyer Journey. As you answer these questions, you need to:

• Establish credibility
• Outline benefits (end-state) that customers care about
• Proactively answer their questions, which further validates that they are in the right place so that they feel good about making the purchase

Said another way…

Simply explain what’s in it for your customer if they choose you.

In order to do that, you need to know your customer’s story. If they arrive to your site, and they feel like they “belong” (i.e. you are speaking to them directly) then you’ve accomplished the hardest part. You gained their trust and the sale is yours.

This is literally how every successful “Make Money Online” internet market has ever operated, and you too can use it to skyrocket profitability.

#entrepreneurship

Not everyone is prepared for the realities of entrepreneurship compared to working an office job.

To be quite honest there are times that I miss some of the perks associated with working at a large corporation. But, if you’re called to entrepreneurship then those perks won’t cut it in the long-run.

The day I put in my notice to my employer was the greatest day of my professional career. It was a mix of excitement, hope, and a little bit of healthy fear. I wouldn’t ever go back to that life now even knowing the sacrifices that have to be made.

Thinking about giving entrepreneurship a shot? Go for it! Here are 10 things you can expect when you do make that leap…

• Family won’t support you. When you tell your immediate family of your decision to go out on your own then there is a good chance that they will voice their concerns rather than encouragement. Just know that in most cases this comes from a place of love. Not everyone has an entrepreneur mindset. But there is good news because…
• Family will eventually support you. Over time they will be quite proud of you. So don’t be discouraged at the onset and stick to your decision to go out on your own!
• Vacations don’t really exist. Gone are the days where you can take off work and completely disconnect. Sure, you can find some days to get away every now and again (sometimes for even a week), but you’ll be glued to your computer each day.
• You learn more than you want to know about healthcare. The great thing about working at a big company is that healthcare is so cheap and presented in easy to understand plans. I remember having a little bit of “sticker shock” the day I had to shop for my own healthcare plan.
• You will feel like an impostor. At many points along your journey you will fall victim to “impostor syndrome”. This is just self-doubt and we all deal with it. When you fell this way just recognize what it is and keep moving forward.
• No more water-cooler talk. I went from traveling the country consulting with a bunch of very intelligent people to working at a home office, alone. The silence was deafening at first. You can get over this by attending conferences and other local events.
• Weekends are now weekdays. Initially you will work Saturday and Sunday. You just will. Over time though you will get a better idea of how to detach. However, if your business gets customers 24/7 then expect emails and messages sent your way any day (and time) of the week.
• There is no such thing as taking a day off. You will eventually give yourself a Friday off from work. Sounds great, but the universe will say otherwise. Honestly, whenever I attempt to take a day off I coincidentally receive a barrage of direct messages on social media.
• Your work is often thankless. When you work for a company and you have a good boss, he or she will give you feedback on the work that you do. As an entrepreneur you have to learn to be content without this kind of external recognition. If you are someone who needs validation from others, then you will find this difficult about entrepreneurship.
• You’ll never be happier. It’s true. The trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship can be stressful at times but it is worth it to be working everyday on your passion. As an entrepreneur you will never be more content than when you are working on own business. Time just seems to melt away as work never really feels like “work”. 🙂

#entrepreneurship

Eventually there comes a moment when you serve your business instead of the other way around.

In just one week I have attended two conferences, been booked as a guest on several podcasts, delivered pro-bono consulting to someone close in my network, hosted my own webinar to help a colleague with the visibility of a project, and delivered a training webinar on e-learning development.

Yes, much of this was quite enjoyable. But I didn’t do it for me. I did it for the business.

Oh, and of course between all of this, I am doing day-to-day tasks required to run a business. You know, the stuff like talking with customers, holding team meetings, speaking with potential vendors, and brainstorming other ways to expand our products & brand.

As I look at my calendar at what is coming up, I am left wondering: how did I get to this place?

Because I can assure you that things weren’t always like this. I wasn’t always this busy and booked-up with constant demands on my time.

In fact, it used to be quite the opposite.

There was once a time when I didn’t have any employees, no one was calling to have me as a guest on any webinar, podcast, or publication. No conferences, meet-ups, or masterminds. My day literally involved answering some pre-sales and support tickets and then going for a run. Simple.

Pushing for More

Like any ambitious entrepreneur, I wanted more. I worked my ass off, and when that “more” was realized, it became obvious that my relationship with the business had forever changed.

Starting a business is like starting a relationship. Everything is exciting at first. You get that “butterfly” feeling in your stomach with the smallest wins, and your day is completely ruined with the smallest setbacks.

As you get used to the entrepreneurial highs and lows, you begin to take everything in stride. What used to matter doesn’t anymore. It is just more stable, and there is comfort in that stability. But like any long-term relationship, keeping the flame alive and well takes effort. If you get too comfortable, then the business suffers. You have to find new and creative ways to stay motivated.

I think this is something any successful business goes through, and if you have dreams of entrepreneurship, then this could very well be your reality… and you might not like it.

Your daily tasks will change, as will your role. As you bring on team members you will have to learn to give up control on things that you have always been responsible for. Trust me, this is hard. It’s something that I am still working on to this day as I learn and grow with the business.

I have now realized that at some point, my business stopped working for me, and I instead have started working for my business. The business is bigger than any one person now. That’s actually a good thing, but it has been an adjustment.

This isn’t really talked about in entrepreneurship. Controlling your time is just a fantasy that entrepreneurial publications pitch. If you care about business growth, then this will be short-lived. Enjoy the moment because soon everything will change. Not for the worse, but it will change.

#entrepreneurship

The secret to getting someone on the phone to discuss business.

This is a topic that isn’t written about enough, so I figured I’d write a quick post to perhaps help those of you out there who seek time with someone, but you’re not sure how to get it.

In two days, just as many people asked me to get on the phone to discuss questions they had related to their business.

Now, it’s not that I don’t want to help people where I can. If time allows, then I certainly will do some consulting, which is why I replied in kind to each message asking for more details. I also included a modest consultation rate, just to ensure that both parties were prepared to spend the time productively.

I never heard back.

Time and expertise are valuable to both parties.

I’m sure you have heard it before: If you don’t value your time then no one will.

Time is a very personal thing, as we only have so much of it. When it’s gone, it is gone forever.

When I am asked to “jump on the phone for 15 minutes” (sidebar: there’s no such thing as a 15-minute phone call), then it’s more than my time that is being requested. The individual(s) requesting the call want to benefit from my expertise. They want to tap into the many years it took for me to acquire the knowledge I have in the e-learning, online courses, and WordPress space.

There is nothing wrong with that. That’s the entire point of consulting. That’s also why consultants have rates.

For me, if someone that I don’t know comes out of the blue and asks for my time (and I happen to have availability) then I expect them to pay my hourly rate because I know that I will save them a significant amount of time and money over the life of their project.

How to ask for someone’s time.

Asking for a meeting is a bit of an art. Even if you offer to pay someone their rate, they may still say “no” because their schedule is full.

If you are calling because you need their consulting expertise for a project, but they don’t have availability, then try to schedule a short meeting initially (~20 minutes). The point of the call is to just give an overview of your situation, but not to actually get all your questions answered. This shows the individual that you are serious about them and their time.

Naturally, you are compensating them for this short discovery meeting. It’s also important to make it clear that you want to continue working with them, even if they can spare only 30 minutes a week. If they still can’t do it, then ask if they can recommend someone in their network that may be able to help.

If you are requesting a call in order to discuss a business opportunity with someone, then you have a much more difficult task at hand. You can try using the strategy above to get your foot-in-the-door, but getting that person to say “yes” will be a lot more difficult.

To increase the chances of a meeting, make the discussion all about how you can help them, and not the other way around.

A few key points:

• Avoid phrases like “mutual opportunity”. It’s a red flag, and you’ll get shut-down pretty quickly.
• Don’t be cryptic. Say exactly what the opportunity is.
• Be specific and concrete in the benefits you would offer in the deal.

For the last point a good example would be to say something like:

“I’d like to promote your product to 20,000 people, and we normally have a conversion rate of 2%”.

That is more likely to get their attention than a mystery inquiry where a call has to be scheduled in order to “learn more”.

Last but not least. Avoid the NDA crap for the first few meetings. If you need one, then get it signed after both parties agree to take talks a bit further.

One last thing to remember…

Remember that in business, as in life, you will face rejection. What you don’t want to do is take the rejection personally. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about the person’s time – their most personal (and valuable) possession.

If the person you want to have a discussion with denies your request, then keep your head-up and move on. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your own time. 😉

#entrepreneurship

Just like “lifetime support & updates”, renewal discounts are becoming a thing of the past.

When LearnDash first started there were no renewal discounts because, well, there were no renewals.

It’s hard to believe but that was where the WordPress industry was at the time. You paid once for your products and you had lifetime support & updates.

Today you will be hard pressed to find any business running this kind of pyramid-scheme pricing.

Unless of course the business is a pyramid scheme.

Renewals are now common in the WordPress plugin & theme space, but for many years it was normal to provide a discount on the renewal purchase.

I will admit that I have never really questioned why this was the case. If I were to guess, I think that renewal discounts were implemented because the WordPress folks pioneering the renewal pricing structure weren’t sure how people would react to having to renew a license. So, they tried to “soften the blow” a bit by offering a discount.

But just as the WordPress industry needed to evolve away from “forever” pricing, it must also evolve to eliminate discounted renewals.

Discounting renewals unfairly devalues your offering.

When you really think about it, offering discounted renewals doesn’t make business sense.

What I realized is that the discount on our renewals was essentially devaluing our future work. That wasn’t fair to our team who worked so hard on creating and supporting the new functionality.

Now, one argument is that the support burden decreases in year two. I completely disagree with this sentiment for two reasons:

1. New features elicit new support inquiries, no matter when someone purchases.

2. There are people who will always ask for support whether it’s year one, two, or five.

I only speak from our experience but I suspect those of you with software products can attest to a similar trend. I think this trend is part of why WordPress oriented theme & plugin providers are shifting to standard annual renewals.

Full-priced renewals are necessary for WordPress products.

Today we see so many WordPress products shifting to the SaaS sector. I’ll admit that I too have been tempted.

Why?

Because support is far more difficult for WordPress plugins and themes than SaaS offerings.

The number of possible plugin and theme configurations coupled with hosting specifications means that troubleshooting can take a terribly long time for a support rep (and possibly developers should it require deeper investigation).

Just consider this (very common) scenario: you push out an update to your software. Person A updates and is super excited about the improvements. Person B updates and suddenly their theme’s CSS is no longer rendering properly on certain pages. They are mad.

Same update. Two different experiences. Two different reactions. This is common place for WordPress and a reminder of what life is like when you don’t control the technical environment.

To bypass this headache plugin and theme shops have decided that they want to control the environment by SaaS’ing their functionality. While this can be good for both the business and the consumer, it also takes away one of the most attractive things about WordPress in the first place: feature flexibility.

Plugins and themes need to remain non-hosted in order to preserve the core value proposition of WordPress. However, this means higher support costs to the business. The logical conclusion is that the renewals need to be full-priced to offset this burden.

This is a major reason why the discounted renewal program was retired.

Who is doing full-priced renewals?

Actually WordPress businesses of all sizes no longer offer renewal discounts. If anything LearnDash was late to the game…

Off the top of my head:

• GravityForms
• WooCommerce
• WPForms
• HeroThemes
• ThriveThemes
• WP SimplePay Pro
• AffiliateWP
• Restrict Content Pro
• MemberPress

And many, many more.

If you are a plugin or theme provider then have a look around yourself and you may be surprised to see how many companies have shifted their policy. You won’t be alone. Quite the opposite. You will actually have some very visible company (see WooCommerce).

The company experienced practically zero friction in this change. In our case the new policy doesn’t impact existing customers. We honor the contract they agreed to upon purchase as long as they remain with us. Should they end their business relationship, then their legacy pricing expires as well.

I can also put your mind at ease on one thing: removing renewal discounts has had zero negative impact on new customer acquisition.

Not so long from now I suspect that we will all look at renewal discounts in the same light as we look at lifetime support & updates, as an unsustainable policy that hurts both consumers and providers.

#WordPress #entrepreneurship