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6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

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Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#41

Post by reificator »

rcfox wrote: post #21
tr352 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related to this: I wonder if the days of founders naming their companies after their own (family) names are ever coming back. There’s something wholesome about it and it inspires confidence. Who is more trustworthy: someone attaching their name to their business, or someone who hides behind WeeBlee or BlooBloo or whatever it is they came up with?

I've always dreamt of doing that, but someone else already used my name: Fox. Even if there weren't probably some kind of trademark issue, there's definitely a negative sentiment associated with it.

There's a reasonably popular streamer named Michael A. L. Fox, his URLs are his full name and in casual conversation he's referred to as MALF.

It doesn't seem like there's been any association between him and the company Fox. In fact it doesn't even seem like there's any association between him and Michael J. Fox.

My personal advice would be to brand around the imagery of a remote controlled fox and not bring up other things with the same name. The comparisons will happen but if you don't call attention to them I'd bet it happens less than you imagine.

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#42

Post by DoreenMichele »

wolco wrote: post #34
DoreenMichele wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised at how often the "About Us" isn't actually "About Anyone", there's no names, it's all just "Us" and "We". That's something I often get instructed to use when doing freelance writing. It is considered "professional" and "corporate speak." The other thing is that women and minorities sometimes intentionally hide or downplay their personal details. One guy with a very "foreign" sounding name legally change…

I would recommend hiding your gender. You'd be surprised at how awful women can be to each other. The only people I see activity holding back women is other women. I just don't understand it.

You'd be surprised at how awful women can be to each other.

LOL. No, I wouldn't be surprised. I'm well acquainted with the phenomenon.

The only people I see activity holding back women is other women.

This framing may be on the mark, but my observation has been that the primary way men are a problem is that men mostly don't want to engage a woman too much if they aren't looking for a sexual relationship and this is a huge barrier to networking, getting referrals, etc. I don't think most men are intentionally, actively and on purpose trying to keep women out, but it's a big, big problem that they don't want to talk too much to a woman for fear that it might lead to an affair or a really terrible misunderstanding or gossip.

For serious business people, a good reputation is worth a lot of money, so I think a lot of businessmen don't want to take the risk of talking overly much to a woman for fear of pointlessly sullying their reputation. In most cases, they don't strictly need to network with women to further their career, so it's just not worth the risk involved to them most of the time.

I just don't understand it.

I think I do, at least to some degree, but this is not really the time or place for me to natter on about it.

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#43

Post by projproj »

roughfalls wrote: post #16

This looks great and I'm inclined to give it a try. But do you have a privacy policy? I try to avoid services that sit between me and my financial institutions, as I worry they're building analytics off my spending patterns and selling it to third parties.

I felt the same way, and it's part of why I made spendweek.com (a privacy-first, easy-to-use competitor to Lunch Money, YNAB with a single focus on saving money instead of keeping track of all your accounts). I am sort of proud of my privacy policy, so it's a link right at the top of the home page.

Here's the basic manifesto of the SpendWeek framework in case anyone's interested: https://www.spendweek.com/blog/you-need-a-different-budget/

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#45

Post by DoreenMichele »

whatshisface wrote: post #36
wolco wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would recommend hiding your gender. You'd be surprised at how awful women can be to each other. The only people I see activity holding back women is other women. I just don't understand it.

Women being hit on anywhere they show a picture is pretty common. In western culture it's the men that are supposed to do the approaching, and if you're attractive and a lot of men can see you, well, the same thing always happens. This is fine for Victorian parlors or whatever but not ideal for business!

That's a fairly obvious problem, but I think the larger problem is what I said in my other comment: The lack of strong business connections.

It is a self-reinforcing nightmare because it sets women up to assume that if a man is taking a strong interest in her, there is only one reason he could be talking with her. If she then reacts with flirtatious behavior or trying to make sure he understands whether or not she is romantically interested, etc, this can drive off men who would like to make a business connection and don't need some woman threatening their marriage, etc.

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#46

Post by DoreenMichele »

clemParis wrote: post #35
DoreenMichele wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try reading this: https://johnnycupcakes.com/pages/about Then sit down and "tell your story" in writing as if you were telling it over beers at a pub to a few new-ish friends who don't all equally well know your backstory. Get someone to read through it before publishing it. Good feedback is very helpful. Also, grammar check, spell check, etc. You want to be somewhat entertaining, but more importantly you want to cap…

I agree with the "tell the story as if you were telling it over beers at a pub" part but please don't make your page 9Mb like in the first example ;)

Someone at a meeting recently quoted some historical figure about "If you want me to write a speech of 5000 words, that will be a thousand dollars. If you want me to write a speech of 500 words, that will be ten thousand dollars."

Writing concisely is a virtue, but getting in all the details often matters more. It's fine if the first draft is wordy. If you can reach a point where it tells the story well and is also concise, you probably have something "worth its weight in gold."

It can take a lot of time to get there. Good writing can take a lot of time. This is often not at all obvious.

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#47

Post by whatshisface »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #45
whatshisface wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Women being hit on anywhere they show a picture is pretty common. In western culture it's the men that are supposed to do the approaching, and if you're attractive and a lot of men can see you, well, the same thing always happens. This is fine for Victorian parlors or whatever but not ideal for business!

That's a fairly obvious problem, but I think the larger problem is what I said in my other comment: The lack of strong business connections. It is a self-reinforcing nightmare because it sets women up to assume that if a man is taking a strong interest in her, there is only one reason he could be talking with her. If she then reacts with flirtatious behavior or trying to make sure he understands whether or not she is…

Part of the reason we're stuck in that nightmare is that there are so many workaholics out there that for many people, braving the obvious risks and downsides of doing relationship stuff "on company time" is their only path to not dying alone. It would be so much easier if we could all agree to divide the sterile from the personal right down the 5pm line, but there are too many people that have nothing on the other side of 5pm.

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#50

Post by DoreenMichele »

whatshisface wrote: post #47
DoreenMichele wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fairly obvious problem, but I think the larger problem is what I said in my other comment: The lack of strong business connections. It is a self-reinforcing nightmare because it sets women up to assume that if a man is taking a strong interest in her, there is only one reason he could be talking with her. If she then reacts with flirtatious behavior or trying to make sure he understands whether or not she is…

Part of the reason we're stuck in that nightmare is that there are so many workaholics out there that for many people, braving the obvious risks and downsides of doing relationship stuff "on company time" is their only path to not dying alone. It would be so much easier if we could all agree to divide the sterile from the personal right down the 5pm line, but there are too many people that have nothing on the other s…

I think it's inherently tricky for reasons I tried to explain in an old blog post, recently republished here:

https://witnesstodestruction.blogspot.com/p/the-gray-zone.ht...

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