Walling on Selling vs. Automating

Table of Contents

Grow it or Start Over?

The option to automate your startup tends to be the best approach
You spent months building your application and bringing it to market
- If it’s profitable and you spend no time on it, why sell?
Once automation is in place it’s almost as if the first product falls off your radar and you are freed up to start another
- You can do this without selling or closing it down
By having a product portfolio you diversify your income, and thus diversify your risk
Knowing you can….move on to another idea in 6 months….once you get it automated frees you up to take more risks
I find it more interesting on a day to day basis to work on multiple products
Only when you begin to feel like you have a lot of free time while your first product continues to generate revenue…
- ….should you consider making the move to Serial Micropreneurship
Three areas that will require ongoing maintenance:
- Support
- New Features
- Marketing
Every time you receive a support request, your first thought should be “how can I make sure I never receive this question again?”
It’s likely you will be able to hire domestic to handle your front-line email support
- You will pay more for someone in your own country, but they will be fluent in your language and better able to provide higher-quality support
Once you’ve found keywords that convert and ads that work,
- ….you only have to adjust as your competition changes
If you monitor your traffic using Google Analytics and compare month over month…
- ….you’ll notice when there’s a decline for a specific keyword and you can investigate
If automation doesn’t work out, selling your product is a good fall-back plan
- You’re not going to get as much as you feel that it’s worth
- Valuations are based on multiples of profit
- A website or domain name typically sells for between 6 and 24 months of net profit
- The other factor….is how much time is required each month to maintain your product
Key metrics you should track:
- Traffic Stats – I recommend using Google Analytics
- Revenue and Expenses
- Monitor Your Domain and Business Names using Google Alerts
- Track every minute you spend working on your product, broken down into development, support and marketing
Don’t use open source or third-party code that could raise licensing issues down the line
If you decide to sell your product, your best bet is your professional network
- Your first option should be to email colleagues and float it to your LinkedIn connections
- Mention the following:
  - Your Price Range
  - Non-Disclosure Requirement
Prepare Your Sales Kit:
- Detailed summary of product in PDF:
  - Product Overview
  - Customers
  - Technical details
  - Positive reviews and high-profile links
  - Revenue
  - Expenses
  - Partnerships
  - Personnel
  - Competition
  - Website traffic
  - Assets included in the sale
  - Price range
  - Future plans (surely you will have a list a mile long)
  - Non-compete – Mention whether you are willing to sign a non-compete in this space
Escrow.com facilitates the exchange of your product once funds are deposited in an escrow account
The eBay of website and software sales is Flippa