2 builders who never spoke to each other

Make your own hours the number you optimise

Track hours long enough to know what an hour of the business returns, because the decision about how to scale depends on that figure and nothing else. Holding total time deliberately low, support included, also stops you over-polishing a product that was never the constraint.

The method

1. 01

   Track your hours long enough to know revenue per hour before choosing how to scale, because the decision depends on that number.

2. 02

   Make minimising your own hours the headline metric of the early business, support included, and deliberately keep the product low priority so you never over-optimise it.

3. 03

   Audit where your working hours go and check whether you are building support structures for a business that does not yet have enough demand.

4. 04

   Watch for the crossover point where the product earns more per hour than your consulting rate, because that is the moment the maths favours the product.

5. 05

   Judge a side product by revenue per hour worked, not by revenue alone, since income that is decoupled from ongoing effort behaves differently from wages.

What it returned

• 10

  The author held Storemapper to 10-15 hours a month in total and credits the constraint with producing a better product and happier customers

• $116

  A week with $116 of place card revenue and under half an hour of work on it was the first time the product beat Zue's hourly consulting rate

• $590

  Place Card Me's best month came in just under $590, passing $3,000 all-time, at a lifetime hourly rate around the US minimum wage; Chat Stats made $100 in its second revenue month, up from $80

• 2019

  In 2019 Place Card Me returned $19,918 at $275 an hour and Chat Stats $1,747 at $235 an hour, while newly launched Pegasus returned $4,126 at $17 an hour, for a blended $75 an hour.

Sources

• Episode 147: “I can't get past €10k/month Freelancing…” — Solving $100k→$200k/yr Bottlenecks, With Delia Monk - Double Your FreelancingZach Swinehart · doubleyourfreelancing.com · AI-Generated Summary: · 2024-10-01
• [Video] This freelancer almost lost out on *9 new leads a month* (!!!!) due to premature “scaffolding” - Double Your FreelancingZach Swinehart · doubleyourfreelancing.com · [Video] This freelancer almost lost out on *9 new leads a month* (!!!!) due to premature “scaffolding” · 2023-06-06
• Storemapper: Bootstrapped to $50,000/year in 2 years (with live metrics) - Tyler TringasTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · Minimizing time suck · 2014-08-23
• The Master PlanCory Zue · coryzue.com · Side Project Income · 2020-01-01
• Week 39 RetrospectiveCory Zue · coryzue.com · Time · 2017-12-18
• New month, new beginningsCory Zue · coryzue.com · The month past · 2018-06-04