3 builders who never spoke to each other

Treat your own product like a client project

Block the hours in the calendar, accept the billable income you are giving up and hold a date, because a product without a client behind it always loses to client busywork. Design it on the assumption that you are not the one delivering, and accept mess in the code rather than letting perfectionism stop it reaching anyone.

The method

1. 01

   Run your own consulting discovery process on your business: gather the financial and demographic facts, rank the projects by value and risk, then write yourself a scoped proposal with a timeline.

2. 02

   Treat building your own product exactly like a paid client project: block the time in the calendar, accept the billable income you will forgo, and hold a date for it.

3. 03

   Design the productized service on the assumption that you are not the one delivering it, using people and documented process, so your hours go into building the business instead.

4. 04

   Accept some mess in the code and get the thing finished, because perfectionism is what stops side projects ever reaching anyone.

What it returned

• 2011

  Dunn founded Planscope in 2011 and sold it in early 2016, and says marketing work he knew would grow it kept losing to client busywork.

• 2013

  Three months on his project Raw Gains in 2013 produced a product under 5% finished, because he was writing spec tests and chasing clean code instead of shipping.

• Casel's rule was that if the business needed him to do the delivery work, it was the wrong business for him.

Sources

• Bringing Back The "Be Your Own Consultant Challenge" - Double Your FreelancingBrennan Dunn · doubleyourfreelancing.com · You know, the sort of questions I ask all the time when working with clients! · 2017-02-18
• The Mindset Shifts That Took Me From Freelancer to Productized Business Owner - Double Your FreelancingBrian Casel · doubleyourfreelancing.com · Not Doing The Work · 2015-09-02
• I quit my job to work on Fathom Analytics full time - Fathom AnalyticsJack Ellis · usefathom.com · I quit my job to work on Fathom Analytics full time · 2020-04-27