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OP note: This is in the same vien as Mixergy, SaaS Bootstrappers, Jason Fried, Etc. if your looking to build a real sustainable software business this course challenges the way you think about software business and how you come up with solving painful problems in businesses. I pulled this directly off her server back in 2012, so this is the 2011 course. Still at 2 years old it's years ahead of anyone else.
Do you want to break out of working by the hour? Do you want to create your own products and really be your own boss? How about crafting an independent income you can live on — and never have to freelance again?
You absolutely can. I know, because in 2008 to 2009, I did it.
In 2008, I had a career crisis. I was able to charge a very good hourly rate for interaction design consulting… but I loathed it.
I kept telling myself, “At least the money is good!” and wondering what was wrong with me that I didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning and work. Client meetings, proposal writing, wireframing, dealing with committees, watching my work destroyed by internal power struggles at my client’s office… it blew.
After inadvertently spending nearly a month off work, it hit me: I didn’t want to go back. I hated consulting. There had to be a better way.
I made a commitment to myself: I would find that better way, and I would throw myself into making it happen.
Cue montage: I researched. I strategized. I used everything I learned from my 10-year business book addiction. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, late nights and work hangovers. There was also a lot of slicing up my dreams and plans into their tiniest possible pieces, so that we could do them on the side without giving up our sole source of income (consulting, naturally).
With my plan, my husband and I worked our asses off for almost an entire year. It was thrilling, satisfying, and totally exhausting. It rocked, but it also kinda sucked. I was exhausted.
But you know what? It worked. By the end of 2008, we had two products to ship: Freckle, our first SaaS (shipped Dec 3, 2008) and javascript Performance Rocks!, a very beta ebook (shipped Jan 21, 2009).
Neither of those products was anything close to “finished.” If you compared those very first versions to what we’ve got now, you would scarcely believe they were the same products. But I had learned my lesson from years of failing to ship anything on my own — and ruled those initial feature sets with an iron fist, and shipped before I felt anything like ready.
And, like I said: it worked.
We went from earning $0 from products in 2008, to $85,000 in 2009, to $240,000 in 2010. In 2011, we grossed $549,000. (Learn more about my numbers from 2010). As of Q1 2012, our gross income from products has been over $890,000.
Can you believe it? Sometimes I can’t. Seven years ago, I accepted a job offer of $55,000 a year with no benefits, and at the time I thought that was a pretty good deal.
Now, I know I’ll never have to work for anyone else again. Never have to compromise on my beliefs because I need a paycheck. Never watch a client butcher my work because I need the contract. And, of course, I’m able to live a much more pleasant life.
And it all started on the side, with a little ebook and a little time tracking subscription app, crappy first versions, and a whole lot of tricks I taught myself to get shit done and get it out there and ensure that our products would sell from the very first day.
I built myself a system, and tested it in the field, and it worked. It’s battle-hardened — and after all that, so am I.
Wouldn’t it be nice if, 2 to 3 years from now, you could say the very same?
If you want to do your very own Year of Hustle, and start changing your life… if 2 years from now, you want to be able to look back and say to yourself, “I’m so fucking glad I sat down and bled and sweat and made this happen so now I can quit my job, quit consulting forever, and do what I want,” then I can teach those tricks to you, too.
That’s what the 30×500 Launch Class is all about: Systems that create predictable success. That get you to a paying product by the shortest route possible. That help you free yourself.
The 30×500 Launch Class is here to Pump You Up!
Yup, 30×500. What’s with the weird tongue-twister of a name? Simple: It’s a formula.
The way to success is aiming small. Those numbers — 30 by 500 — are magical numbers that multiply up to $180,000 a year. All you need to do is create $30 worth of value a month for just 500 customers — just 500 customers, from anywhere in the world, from the whole damn internet.
Seems pretty damn achievable when you look at it that way, doesn’t it?
That’s the power of thinking systematically.
And: You’ve gotta agree, $180,000 a year ain’t too shabby. Just think what you could do from there, what opportunities & freedoms that kind of money could open up.
You don’t have to invent the next Twitter to have a blast building products you believe in. You can build this kind of income on the side, without funding, and be beholden to no one.
Getting There
“Okay, Amy,” I hear you thinking, “it all sounds nice and easy when you put it that way. But how do you ensure that you can create a product that will bring in even 500 customers? How do you know what to build? How do you know which of your many ideas to build, or how to have those ideas in the first place? How do you reach your customers? How do you sell to them? How do you manage to actually build something on the side without going absolutely batshit crazy?
How do you finish and ship something when you’re terrified, or at best, chronically disorganized?”
Well, I’m glad you asked, because that’s exactly what the class is about.
You know the 30×500 formula now. The Launch Class will get you to the point where you can implement it.
What’s this class exactly?
It’s an online class, lasting about 3 months (plus a break around the holidays, cuz let’s be serious), starting this November.
Just like a university-level class, you’ll get a huge-ass syllabus, weekly internet meetups, and homework — and, unlike at university, you’ll hands-on support from someone with real-world experience. (Chiefly, yours truly, and several awesome alumni.)
You will learn:
how to avoid becoming an idea’s bitch
how to have only profitable ideas
how to escape the depressing cycle of Idea Quicksand
how to secure customers for your product before you ever commit a line of code, or write a single page, or record your first minute of video
crafting a business model that’ll play to your strengths (even if you can only work part-time)
why you should never bother making an iPhone app
how to come up with a plan for your very first version — and stick to it
how to break a large project down into easy bites
how to build a product by yourself, without making yourself miserable
how to beat procrastination
how to keep on track even when you’ve got a day job
how to find your customers
how to get your customers to come to you
how to write sales copy so your customers will listen — with no previous copywriting experience
how to launch your product to immediate sales
(and more)
These lessons include practical workbooks full of guiding questions and formulas that help you decide what to do, and for whom, and how, and when.
Lesson Plan:
Lesson 1 - Why Things Are Broken
Lesson 2 - Crafting Your System
Lesson 3 - Crafting Your System, Part 2
Lesson 4 - Failure & the View From Here
Lesson 5 - The Business You'll Make
Lesson 6 - The Gold Rush
Lesson 7 - The Knobs
Lesson 8 - Your First Sales Safari
Lesson 9 - Sales Safari Debrief
Lesson 10 - Name Your Audiences
Lesson 11 - Find the Watering Holes
Lesson 12 - Lurk & Learn
Lesson 13 - Sales Safari Debrief, Part 2
Lesson 14 - Money Multipliers
Lesson 15 - Pain Killers
Lesson 16 - The Pitch
Lesson 17 - Pitchfight
Lesson 18 - Constraints and Ideas
Lesson 19 - Creative Atom
Lesson 20 - Raw Materials
Lesson 21 - Featuritis
Lesson 22 - The Plan
Lesson 23 - Planning Cheat Sheet
Lesson 24 - Workin It
Lesson 25 - The Road
Lesson 26 - Oh What a Worldview
Lesson 27 - Worldview Workbook
Lesson 28 - Value Math
Lesson 29 - Marketing
Lesson 30 - Copywriting MsSVig
OP note: This is in the same vien as Mixergy, SaaS Bootstrappers, Jason Fried, Etc. if your looking to build a real sustainable software business this course challenges the way you think about software business and how you come up with solving painful problems in businesses. I pulled this directly off her server back in 2012, so this is the 2011 course. Still at 2 years old it's years ahead of anyone else.
Do you want to break out of working by the hour? Do you want to create your own products and really be your own boss? How about crafting an independent income you can live on — and never have to freelance again?
You absolutely can. I know, because in 2008 to 2009, I did it.
In 2008, I had a career crisis. I was able to charge a very good hourly rate for interaction design consulting… but I loathed it.
I kept telling myself, “At least the money is good!” and wondering what was wrong with me that I didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning and work. Client meetings, proposal writing, wireframing, dealing with committees, watching my work destroyed by internal power struggles at my client’s office… it blew.
After inadvertently spending nearly a month off work, it hit me: I didn’t want to go back. I hated consulting. There had to be a better way.
I made a commitment to myself: I would find that better way, and I would throw myself into making it happen.
Cue montage: I researched. I strategized. I used everything I learned from my 10-year business book addiction. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, late nights and work hangovers. There was also a lot of slicing up my dreams and plans into their tiniest possible pieces, so that we could do them on the side without giving up our sole source of income (consulting, naturally).
With my plan, my husband and I worked our asses off for almost an entire year. It was thrilling, satisfying, and totally exhausting. It rocked, but it also kinda sucked. I was exhausted.
But you know what? It worked. By the end of 2008, we had two products to ship: Freckle, our first SaaS (shipped Dec 3, 2008) and ja
Neither of those products was anything close to “finished.” If you compared those very first versions to what we’ve got now, you would scarcely believe they were the same products. But I had learned my lesson from years of failing to ship anything on my own — and ruled those initial feature sets with an iron fist, and shipped before I felt anything like ready.
And, like I said: it worked.
We went from earning $0 from products in 2008, to $85,000 in 2009, to $240,000 in 2010. In 2011, we grossed $549,000. (Learn more about my numbers from 2010). As of Q1 2012, our gross income from products has been over $890,000.
Can you believe it? Sometimes I can’t. Seven years ago, I accepted a job offer of $55,000 a year with no benefits, and at the time I thought that was a pretty good deal.
Now, I know I’ll never have to work for anyone else again. Never have to compromise on my beliefs because I need a paycheck. Never watch a client butcher my work because I need the contract. And, of course, I’m able to live a much more pleasant life.
And it all started on the side, with a little ebook and a little time tracking subsc
I built myself a system, and tested it in the field, and it worked. It’s battle-hardened — and after all that, so am I.
Wouldn’t it be nice if, 2 to 3 years from now, you could say the very same?
If you want to do your very own Year of Hustle, and start changing your life… if 2 years from now, you want to be able to look back and say to yourself, “I’m so fucking glad I sat down and bled and sweat and made this happen so now I can quit my job, quit consulting forever, and do what I want,” then I can teach those tricks to you, too.
That’s what the 30×500 Launch Class is all about: Systems that create predictable success. That get you to a paying product by the shortest route possible. That help you free yourself.
The 30×500 Launch Class is here to Pump You Up!
Yup, 30×500. What’s with the weird tongue-twister of a name? Simple: It’s a formula.
The way to success is aiming small. Those numbers — 30 by 500 — are magical numbers that multiply up to $180,000 a year. All you need to do is create $30 worth of value a month for just 500 customers — just 500 customers, from anywhere in the world, from the whole damn internet.
Seems pretty damn achievable when you look at it that way, doesn’t it?
That’s the power of thinking systematically.
And: You’ve gotta agree, $180,000 a year ain’t too shabby. Just think what you could do from there, what opportunities & freedoms that kind of money could open up.
You don’t have to invent the next Twitter to have a blast building products you believe in. You can build this kind of income on the side, without funding, and be beholden to no one.
Getting There
“Okay, Amy,” I hear you thinking, “it all sounds nice and easy when you put it that way. But how do you ensure that you can create a product that will bring in even 500 customers? How do you know what to build? How do you know which of your many ideas to build, or how to have those ideas in the first place? How do you reach your customers? How do you sell to them? How do you manage to actually build something on the side without going absolutely batshit crazy?
How do you finish and ship something when you’re terrified, or at best, chronically disorganized?”
Well, I’m glad you asked, because that’s exactly what the class is about.
You know the 30×500 formula now. The Launch Class will get you to the point where you can implement it.
What’s this class exactly?
It’s an online class, lasting about 3 months (plus a break around the holidays, cuz let’s be serious), starting this November.
Just like a university-level class, you’ll get a huge-ass syllabus, weekly internet meetups, and homework — and, unlike at university, you’ll hands-on support from someone with real-world experience. (Chiefly, yours truly, and several awesome alumni.)
You will learn:
how to avoid becoming an idea’s bitch
how to have only profitable ideas
how to escape the depressing cycle of Idea Quicksand
how to secure customers for your product before you ever commit a line of code, or write a single page, or record your first minute of video
crafting a business model that’ll play to your strengths (even if you can only work part-time)
why you should never bother making an iPhone app
how to come up with a plan for your very first version — and stick to it
how to break a large project down into easy bites
how to build a product by yourself, without making yourself miserable
how to beat procrastination
how to keep on track even when you’ve got a day job
how to find your customers
how to get your customers to come to you
how to write sales copy so your customers will listen — with no previous copywriting experience
how to launch your product to immediate sales
(and more)
These lessons include practical workbooks full of guiding questions and formulas that help you decide what to do, and for whom, and how, and when.
Lesson Plan:
Lesson 1 - Why Things Are Broken
Lesson 2 - Crafting Your System
Lesson 3 - Crafting Your System, Part 2
Lesson 4 - Failure & the View From Here
Lesson 5 - The Business You'll Make
Lesson 6 - The Gold Rush
Lesson 7 - The Knobs
Lesson 8 - Your First Sales Safari
Lesson 9 - Sales Safari Debrief
Lesson 10 - Name Your Audiences
Lesson 11 - Find the Watering Holes
Lesson 12 - Lurk & Learn
Lesson 13 - Sales Safari Debrief, Part 2
Lesson 14 - Money Multipliers
Lesson 15 - Pain Killers
Lesson 16 - The Pitch
Lesson 17 - Pitchfight
Lesson 18 - Constraints and Ideas
Lesson 19 - Creative Atom
Lesson 20 - Raw Materials
Lesson 21 - Featuritis
Lesson 22 - The Plan
Lesson 23 - Planning Cheat Sheet
Lesson 24 - Workin It
Lesson 25 - The Road
Lesson 26 - Oh What a Worldview
Lesson 27 - Worldview Workbook
Lesson 28 - Value Math
Lesson 29 - Marketing
Lesson 30 - Copywriting MsSVig