7 tips for Solopreneurs that sound stupid but they actually work
Sick of hearing the same advice "talk to your customers" over and over again?
Same here.
That's why I picked 7 tips from our MakerBox journey that initially seem stupid. But I can guarantee you will grow on them.
1. Don't listen to the feedback
No matter what you do — somebody will think it's terrible.
This rule applies to landing pages, SEO articles, product videos, and marketing emails. People will find weak points that are "stopping you from growing x2 faster".
But in reality, most of these weaknesses can be ignored. Yes, it's not perfect that they exist in the first place. But they don't impact your business that much.
Solopreneurs should ignore 80% of the feedback. This is the way to build a calm business. Anxiety-free.
2. Don't acquire more users
This myth deserves to be busted.
- You don't grow by acquiring more users
- You grow by getting more activated users that understand your product's value
Getting thousands of website visitors with a poor marketing funnel will result in... nothing. People will just stare at your landing page for 10 seconds and leave.
Instead, focus on your Activation. Learn to communicate your product's value with free trials, product videos, social proof, freebies, and other formats.
3. Forget about tactics
Every week somebody on Twitter runs a giveaway of the secret tactic to scale any SaaS to $10K MRR.
Don't get distracted by shiny object syndrome. Tactics, frameworks, and templates come and go. Foundation rules and channels stay.
SEO didn't go anywhere. Email lists are not dead. Social proof still sells like crazy.
Pay attention to marketing principles that worked 10 years ago and will work in the next 10 years. They are boring, but they do the job.
4. Lose customers
Don't try to please everyone. It's not just impossible. This mindset will actually harm your growth.
Do you have the ideal customer profile? Perfect. Write copy and optimize your sales offer for them.
But go further. Find your worst customer profile. Ensure your copy, features, and offer will push these users away from your product.
This focus will convert ideal customers better. Because they will see that you are ready to sacrifice other segments for them. What a romantic and convincing gesture.
5. Don't plan
Creating a 12-month marketing plan with every possible campaign is so appealing. But does it really make sense for Solopreneurs?
In short, no. There are 2 reasons why:
Market is changing too fast. Your plan will be off in a few months. There is no point in planning things that won't happen.
Your powers are flexibility and speed. You can adapt way faster than corporations. The more rigid your plans, the less you will leverage this strength.
Have a flexible marketing backlog for each month. But be okay with changing it.
6. Sell before building
Imagine you have a new product idea. And let's say no matter what you do; it will fail. Even with the finest execution, you won't be able to make it profitable.
What would you prefer?
Waste one weekend creating an early bird landing page to test the demand
Waste one month creating an MVP to test the demand
If people are unwilling to buy (or at least sign up on the waitlist) your product without seeing it — it's not worth building.
7. Read less
I am shooting myself in the foot on this one. But it needs to be said.
Stop bookmarking Twitter threads with startup tools. Stop listening to podcasts with famous Solopreneurs. Stop subscribing to marketing newsletters.
Sure, it's definitely helpful to get new ideas and challenge your status quo.
But you know what's better? Doing the work.
Less FOMO. More results. Highly recommend it.
Conclusion
These 7 tips are my unexpected learnings from building an Indie Business.
I see their limitations and exceptions. But they worked perfectly for me.
Use them as starting points to challenge your current mindset. If you find some idea irritating, try to think, "Why?". Maybe it's high time to try something new.
I have mixed feelings about these tips. While some of them may work for certain businesses or situations, I don't think they are universal principles that can be applied to all startups. Here are my thoughts on each tip:
Don't listen to the feedback - I agree that not all feedback is valuable, and that you should learn to filter out the noise. However, completely ignoring all feedback can be dangerous, as it may prevent you from addressing legitimate concerns or improving your product.
Don't acquire more users - I disagree with this tip. While it's true that acquiring users who don't understand the value of your product is not helpful, it's also true that you can't grow without acquiring new users. Focusing on activation is important, but it should not be done at the expense of user acquisition.
Forget about tactics - I agree that marketing principles are important and timeless, but tactics can also be useful in certain situations. It's important to stay up-to-date on new tactics and evaluate whether they could be effective for your business.
Lose customers - I think it's important to focus on your ideal customer profile, but actively trying to push away other segments may not be the best approach. It's possible to have multiple customer segments and still provide value to all of them.
Don't plan - I agree that plans should be flexible and adaptable, but having a general roadmap for your business can be helpful in staying focused and achieving your goals.
Sell before building - I think it's important to validate your product idea before investing too much time and money into building it, but creating an early bird landing page may not always be the best approach. There are other methods of validation that can be more effective depending on the product and market.
Read less - I agree that it's important to focus on doing the work and getting results, but learning from others can also be valuable. It's all about finding the right balance between learning and doing.
The commonality between both your and OP's advice is really: listen to your ideal customers. For example, don't listen to feedback from random people from Product Hunt or Hacker News or Reddit (unless they're your target market).
Wow, that is some really good stuff here. I 100% agree!
Thank you for sharing! 🙏
glad that yo liked it!
appreciate it 💪
Absolutely, I haven't yet launched anything yet. However, I had similar thoughts and your post kinda validated a few of my points, so thanks to you, I will stick to my guns :)
And right now, I'm at a point where I want to just get something out there even if it does not work, just for the satisfaction of getting it out there and want to do it my way. So thank you again :)
I would say, the 7th tip is not for beginners.
If you're just starting out as a solopreneur, you need to absorb as much knowledge as possible. You can't just wing it and hope for the best.
You need to learn the fundamentals of building a product, scaling it to reach more customers, and selling it effectively.
That's why you should consume a lot of content from different sources: Twitter threads, podcasts, webinars, Youtube videos etc.
They will help you create your own roadmap and vision for your product.
Plus, you can benefit from the wisdom and insights of successful solopreneurs who have been there and done that.
They can save you from making common mistakes and wasting your time and energy on things that don't matter.
yeap, wrote about it here — https://dankulkov.substack.com/p/46-weekly-dan-why-does-most-marketing
One of the best suggestions I've read that are not bullshiting...Great advice!
wow, thank you 🤩
I'll do you another controversial one:
Focus on the product, marketing is an afterthought.
Guess which one moved the needle for me...
Engaging on Twitter, sending emails, writing blog articles, etc.; or
...actually improving the product and giving my users the features they want.
You need users to give them what they want, and you have to get them somehow 😂
Yes haha, get some initial users first.
this could give user reviews too which is good for marketing
Absolutely!
That's how I get my reviews.
Try my best to delight, then ask them respectfully to leave an honest review.
that's a truly controversial tip 😂
Also another valuable lesson is to learn from what's making money and NOT what's just popular. A ton of popular products don't make any money (unfortunately).
Check out here if you're in a niche or category where others have already built successful apps- http://microsaasdb.com/
Bookmarked this. Wait ... did I just ignore Rule #7? Sorry, but this one is really good!
This can be an exception? XD I agree with almost everything. I wanna keep it in my notes
That's incredible
❤️
#7 is me but with YouTube videos 😂
and podcasts too!
Really useful tips here 👍
appreciate it!
This is a good post.
thank you!
Wow
thanks
100%. Just build and deliver!
Don't try to sell air!
I just published what might be #8 to your article:
Code Hard, Ship Harder: Just make it easy as hell to deploy what you're creating as soon as possible. Nothings outweighs real user feedback.
Thanks for your list, It needed to be said!
That is some really good stuff
This was very helpful and I learned something new. Thanks for sharing Dan! 🙌
If you're looking for inspiration or ideas for your next post, I'll appreciate it if you talk more about item #6 (Sell before building) (clearly I do not agree with item #7 😁)
Thanks!
That's a valuable lesson
@kronop I fully agree with your points. Now, we need to absorb these things if we want to succeed. I really like your idea about the marketing plan. I have seen many companies make their long-term digital marketing plan and put a lot of time into planning, but when it comes to execution, they never execute half of the plan. I'm not saying it's bad, but I agree that having a long-term plan in a few lines and making quarterly plans that are easily executable is better.
We have implemented this approach in the past for our SaaS customer retention tool Churnfree. We now make short plans and execute every plan. We focus on the flexibility of the plan because we know that time is constantly changing, as are the trends. We try to focus on current trends.
Thank you for sharing these amazing points.
Forget about tactics, I needed to hear that one today!
Forever bogged down in the numbers and the 'this should equate to that' so 'if I can hit this that that will happen'.
Sometimes you just have to go for it!
Some great tips here. For those early in the startup journey - everyone wants to offer you advice. The thing that differentiates you from the pack (for better or worse) is your own instinct on the market you are trying to win. Trust your gut.
It's a little like giving tips to a learner driver on how to win in an Formula One car. Too much information and you lose sight of the original goal (like just getting your driver license for starters!)
I'd always listen to your customers but everyone else should be filtered.
Sell before building is 1000% working one! It's the basic foundation of building in public, I think.
Thanks for sharing🐲
product market fit is product market fit.
if you have it, you know it and none of this matters tbh.
if something isn't working and you don't have validation super fast, take the pill fast and move on. life is too short to pursue sluggish ideas.
test multiple ideas in parallel. some people say "you have shiny object syndrome, focus on one thing", screw that you actually have winners mindset. fact is most ideas fail, this increases you chances of hitting a homerun.
to have a constant inflow of ideas use market research tools like Ahrefs, Google trends etc. also i use 3rd party market researchers to augment my research; like trends.co ($200/year) and explodingideas.co (free). both send weekly reports with market research on new trending niches and keyword opportunities to create businesses around.
in the last month I tested 4 ideas. 1 worked so i'm running with it aka getting a few subscribers every 5 minutes. killed the other 3. it hurts for 10 minutes but that's ego, put it aside and be ruthless about what you actually pursue.
I like the idea #6
So at some point in order to sell before selling you have to show your idea in public.
Let's say you post on indiehackers and have 50-100 subscribers. Would you start a project?
What defines successful idea confirmation- I mean when would you start then?
Great Ideas. These rules are all golden. I couldn't agree with you more. Also the 12 Marketing Rule by Dan is very helpful. Thanks!
Less FOMO Foster JOMO! Once you unlock the privilege of enjoying being alone and make it productive, no one can stop you. Also it really is better for your mental health than wasting time with people who are not in the same mindset as you.
#7 is the most important. I fall into this often - you think its productive, you think what you learn will be actionable, but really, you're procrastinating the REAL work.
Uncommon advices but brutally true 😄
Thanks for sharing.
"Read less" hit hard... Been reading and contacting so many people to understand if my product is a good idea.
This is enough convincing that I need to start actually working on the project. Thanks
https://govtjobstake.com
As someone just getting started, these tips are a breath of fresh air! I have to say that personally I am building my first product before a proper product page. But my product is something I intend to build regardless of demand existing so it seems like a waste of time to focus on that at the moment.
Definitely relate to #7. I've spent too much time working and preparing for a perfect business because I would find a Twitter thread about a certain framework, marking strategy, or course.
Working on becoming more actionable, less prepared, and iterating fast.
Thank you for sharing Dan.
Everyone explain you what to do, but this post exactly tells you what not to do. Thanks @kronop
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#6 really got me... I've planned to finish the demo platform so then i'd start selling it... Amazing article!
definitely agree with sell before building anything. a very good strategy for idea validation. https://founderscafe.io/post/get-paying-customers-before-building-anything
-- I think here there are different cases - if you already have customers who want to pay you - have a good will towards you, you can account - not necessarily actionable, but outsiders likely have sum negative effect - overly optimistic or negative, without being any sort of stake holder.
I think it is matter of perspective if there is some more market behind what people are asking for - this is a bullet to put on board, otherwise it is a bulled to put in pile of suggestions, below the board to keep track of.
Thank you for sharing
Thanks for the tips. I really like the #2 and #7. Having the mind to focus on the quality of what your users want and deliver value as soon as possible.
Interesting insights and I agree with all of them especially #7, I think too many people (including myself) feel like there achieving something by engrossing them selves in education, yes it’s good to learn new things but actions speak louder than words we should all aim to get those reps in.
I’d like to add to #6 aswell, I think speed is also important to get ideas out quickly and iterate on them quickly is a great way to see if your product or service is viable and sells. Let me know your thoughts on this
Great post Dan 👍🏻
With every new Google update, people say SEO is dead
#6 is #1 for me. In terms of the mindset shift involved.
Thanks for sharing 👍🏽
Working on #1 & #7.
Non-users and followers have the most to say about projects. It stings when you get low engagement, but proves an idea is not worth the time.
Love you lost. Will follow.
where do you get your initial ideas from? do you subscribe to sites like trends.co or explodingideas.co to get your initial idea?
curious if these are good tools worth exploring?
still trying to do #6, as a developer, it's hard for me 😂
I'm on the same boat dude... I got like 90% of my marketplace done but I really know that I should dedicate my time to sell the idea before finish it...
Very good, but what about the implementation?
Sell before building. How? When no followers, can't post links on groups and subreddits.
How can bootstrapping fresh beginner sell before building even a simplest of MVPs?
Sell before building is probably is best one. Or just giving advice on selling in general.
Months before we launched Evoke (AI API for image gen), I was filling product hunt, twitter, reddit, and indiehackers with marketing posts and comments
And it worked out great for launch day, especially when we launched on product hunt!
In addition, this was co-founded too!
just curious, you can submit to product hunt without a product?
I was referring to posting comments
The best post I've read on here. Every point is excellent. Thank you for writing it!
All are so good- literally the more I listened to conventional marketing, the less I made. Great thread.
Really Nice tips except for the 6 one, I guess for me as a developper. I wanna my app to be a product marketing that mean the product itself will show the value of the app.
Also I can't sell a landing page with nothing after so that why I prefer deploy my app good MVP, do some comunication like launch on Product Hunt, my last app was Beedone rank 12 bring me 150 users, I hope 10 or 20% of them will be active user. 😅
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the best advice i have ever read
#7 is the gold. Spend more time adding value than consuming :)
Totally agree “read less” and just build the damn thing