How Not to Build a Golden Hamster Wheel

Hey friends of the online entrepreneurship world.

It’s been a while, but I have some sauce for you today.

Hope this will make you think about your current approach to your business.

My new business, Setter AI crossed $10k last month.

Besides the other businesses that I run.

An awesome milestone ngl.

But I discovered something weird.

Reaching that milestone made me feel… nothing.

I’m closing single deals worth $4500/month.

But I feel more excited about an ebook I created on Bangkok Condos, that I sell for $19.

Wtf?

Selling a digital product vs a digital service:

• The ebook sells automatically (while I sleep)

• The ebook solves a personal problem of mine (how to find good condos in Bangkok)

• Setter AI is detached from myself, an own asset (which can be great of course)

• Setter AI needs a lot of effort: sales calls, offer writing, email follow-ups, negotiation, and customer support.

—> Setter AI feels more like an agency right now and not a software that can run for itself. And it does not feel like it’s worth the time invest.

—> Digital products (like an ebook) are highly leveraged income streams

—> Products with customer interaction are way more effort and feel like they are not worth your time.

Conclusions for you

1. Solve your own problems, you will be 100% more passionate about your product and it will be better.

2. Make it a digital product or software with zero cost of replication & that you create once and then sell without extra effort (ebook, paid newsletter, community, software)

3. Identify what gets you out of the bed in the morning. If that is a new ebook sale for just $19, do that. It’s just the start, you will discover more income streams over time.

4. Leverage: Use content & audience. You will work fewer hours, have more freedom, and actually “make money while you sleep” (I hate this term but it is what it is)

What’s now with Setter AI, are you gonna quit it?

No of course not, the goal is still to build a $100k/month software asset over the next year. And there’s a lot of demand.

Software is an S-tier business model, as it’s sellable at a very high price.

But we are gonna take a vastly different approach.

Over the coming months, we will build it into a complete self-service tool.

No sales calls, no email threads, no onboarding calls anymore.

Just pure SaaS.

This has so much more leverage, because:

1. We can grow from content

2. No annoying calls, emails, and support anymore

3. We have more time to build the important features

4. Customers can use the tool immediately and don’t have to wait for a sales call

5. Our time is detached from product growth

This was it for today, my friend, I hope one or the other thing inspired you.

What decisions are you facing on your business journey right now?
Just reply and let me know.

Cheers,
Timo

PS: I have 267 $1M Niche Startup Ideas. But no time to execute them. If you want to receive these trending ideas + execution plan, subscribe to this exclusive newsletter. The first issue is dropping this Sunday. Sending out 5 highly vetted ideas + execution plan every month!