3 builders who never spoke to each other

Bound your own commitment so you can hold the price

Name the ceiling before you start: the hours a week you will give it, the revenue that counts as enough, and the income you keep elsewhere while it grows. Being able to turn work down is what makes a high number safe to quote, because pressure is what makes people discount. A productized service is often the least resistant bridge from billing time to selling a product.

The method

1. 01

   Decide your own ceiling before you launch. Kahl capped Podline at 20 hours a week including support and marketing, and named mid five figures of recurring monthly revenue as enough to keep it and a mid seven figure price as the point he would sell.

2. 02

   Keeping other income while you build means you can turn work down, which is what makes holding a higher price possible.

3. 03

   Use a productized service as the bridge out of hourly work rather than jumping straight to software, because it is the least resistant path from billing time to selling a product.

What it returned

• $50,000

  FeedbackPanda sold at around $50,000 MRR, which is the benchmark Kahl uses for what he considers enough

• 2012

  Casel set out in 2012 expecting the switch to take a year: it took three, and ended in a productized service business he sold for a six-figure exit.

• William has turned down more work than he has taken, and says the lack of pressure is what lets him decline without nerves.

Sources

• The Mindset Shifts That Took Me From Freelancer to Productized Business Owner - Double Your FreelancingBrian Casel · doubleyourfreelancing.com · Productized Services · 2015-09-02
• Student Success Story with William Durkin - Double Your FreelancingWilliam Durkin · doubleyourfreelancing.com · What’s been most challenging thus far? · 2015-06-19
• Fear-Setting my SaaS: What’s Enough? – The Bootstrapped FounderArvid Kahl · thebootstrappedfounder.com · 2023-12-22