Topics in ‘Bootstrapping’

The Ship by September Challenge

Let’s talk about That Thing. You know, That Thing you want to work on. That Thing you dream of finishing. That Thing that’s sitting, unfinished (or unstarted) on your desk or your hard drive. Or, uh, a vague dream only in your head. You keep saying you “need to find the time” to work on… Read more »

The sounds of self-sabotage

I skipped the steps and it didn’t work! It will never work! It’s a lie! I’m a failure! I suck! This sucks! Screw everything! … I can’t set a price on my book… I’ll make my potential customers do it! I’ll set up Pay What You Want! … I’m gonna re-start my newsletter! There will… Read more

The 24-Hour Book Challenge — A Six Month Update

On December 2nd, I sat down and started writing. 24 hours later, I launched the first (beta) version of my first biz book, Just Fucking Ship. After a couple more weeks of work, I shipped the final(ish) version. Then I put JFS on a shelf for a while in favor of more urgent/demanding things. Now,… Read more »

Be Your Own Angel – a revenue model for slow startups

Yes, recurring revenue grows sloooooowly. How do you, founder of a baby bootstrapping biz, survive the lean year or two before it can pay all your bills? Well, I have a strategy. I call it Be Your Own Angel. Last week, I gave a talk about it — in greater detail than ever before! —… Read more »

What does ’30×500′ even mean?

April, 2010. The party bus was rolling down the highway from Dublin to Kilkenny; it was upholstered in sparkly red and orange vinyl and full of my favorite kind of nerd, and I was perched on the stool in front with a mic clutched in my hand. I had just finished an impromptu little story… Read more »

What I learned making a living on eBay

Scene: A fancy tapas restaurant. Dark wood tables and candle lighting. Me and my business partner, Alex. As the ham croquettes arrive, I whip out my iPhone and tell Alex, “Just a sec, I need to bid on an auction.” He laughs at me. He calls me a crazy chair lady. I laugh too, because… Read more »

“Nobody will pay $10,000 for an Apple Watch!” & other reasons you can’t sell shit

Are you going to spend $10,000 on the new Apple Watch Edition? No, right? Me either. Maybe you can’t afford it. Maybe you could drop $10k on a device but it seems repugnant or simply ridiculous. Maybe you don’t wear a watch at all; I sure don’t, and at this stage I don’t intend to… Read more »

From “Oh, I shouldn’t charge money for this…” to a $20k launch

“The idea that, oh well, I shouldn’t charge money for this because… some reason. Justin Weiss spent years noodling on side projects. He made every excuse in the book for not charging for them, including some we haven’t often heard: At the time, it seemed like, ‘Why should I charge money for this? This is… Read more »

So, you’ve got some Safari and ebombs. Now what?

ebomb, n – our special 30×500 term for actionable educational content marketing. Yeah, cuz that’s a mouthful. So drop a knowledge bomb on ‘em. Ebomb ‘em. “So, I took the 30×500 Bootcamp in November of 2013 and learned a lot. The main thing that stuck out in my mind as this Giant To-Do was the… Read more »

“I just need someone to hold me accountable.”

“I just need someone to hold me accountable.” “If only there was a community where I could get advice…” “Let me tell you my plan…” Have these phrases ever passed your lips? And then you failed to execute your plan take action on the advice you received, or be accountable? I’m going to assume the… Read more »

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