Do you feel like you've validated your business now that you have a six figure income?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!
Do you feel like you've figured out what it is your product 'is'? Or do you still feel like there is work to do to refine what it is that you offer?
Ah yes, validation.
I felt that we had a validated business when we had the first yearly subscribers. That level of commitment for a young product such as FeedbackPanda two months intoniert existence showed us that people wanted what we made and were ready to put their money on it.
However, I think validation is always a temporary state. Your business can be validated only „for the time being“. Competition, a changing regulatory landscape, human error, bad press, changing preferences can always derail a working business.
We always kept an ear on the pulse of our community. We screened public forums and groups for complaints and new developments.
In the SaaS world, we have continuous integration. I think we should also have the concept of continuous validation. Every now and then, assess where you are in terms of still being in touch with the market. Are you still solving their most painful problem? Did that change? Are there new issues that you didn’t encounter before? That will keep you on your toes. And your customers happy.
Thanks for sharing. How might you measure 'continuous validation' personally and for the business?
To me, continuous validation is the practice of assuming that every product is an iteration of trying to solve a shape-shifting problem.
Today, a business might need to solve a certain problem (let’s say selling time machines), but a few months or years later they may need to shift their core business and product strategy (let’s say to grandfather paradox resolution as a service).
Every few months, figure out if your business is still solving the problem it set out to solve. Some products are over-engineered for particular use cases. Those might shift. Industries adopt new practices, and workflows change. Talk to customers and see if they find friction where there was none before.
Every few months, figure out if you are still solving the biggest problem your customers have. Was something introduced that makes your solution less important? Is their problem less urgent?
With these two sanity checks every once in a while, you are continuously validating your business.
Now on a personal level, this is important as well, as it is a different kind of validation.
The above points were about validating that you are working on the right things. Now, it’s about validating that you are still working on the things that are right for you to work on.
Every few months, look inside yourself to see if you are still feeling passionate about your vision. You set out to make the world a better place for someone, in some way. Do you still care about the same people? Is there maybe a subgroup or a new audience that you discovered that is even more relatable? Is there another way of getting them to their goals that you have found while solving their problems?
By validating the problem-solution-fit, answering the biggest-problem-question, and checking your passion for how and for whom you work, you will make sure that you always do meaningful, valuable, and impactful work.
Wow, what a thoughtful response. It seems like periodically checking that "you are still working on the things that are right for you to work on" should be common practice, I wonder why it isn't.
I think about the same concepts through the lens of alignment. It's an ongoing process for individuals, teams, and larger organizations to stay aligned with their mission.
Yeah, alignment is the actual implementation of the goals you set out to achieve. I also wonder why it’s so rare, but from my own experience I recall that I was just so swamped with the day-to-day that I missed the small, incremental changes that would require realignment. It’s expecting a gigantic wave where there are thousands of little ripples. So it is often a perspective problem that keeps people from introspection.
Interesting question! I started writing that it's both yes and no, but I change my mind – I say yes!
If you can build a business that allows you to pay yourself a healthy 6-figure salary (assuming it's from revenue), then yeah, isn't this what the definition of what a business is?! Is the work done? No. Is there more to validate? You bet'cha. But this is a strong signal that you're doing something right. 🙌
To be honest, I felt somewhat validated after we made our first dollar! 😅 The fact that someone is willing to pay for our product means that it provides value to them. That validated the work we put in.
Making it to six-figures shows that the problem we're solving is something a lot of businesses feel (we're B2B).
That said, we still feel like there's a lot of work to go—both with our current offering and upcoming plans to expand it.
Something I've written before about "six figures" is that it's a great income, but it's a terrible business.
One of the biggest shifts has been around mindset to realize that if you're making six figures off a business, but you still have to run it - you don't have a business, you have a job.
I've been working hard to remove myself from the day-to-day opps of things and it's honestly more of a mental challenge than it is a financial one.
I feel like the product <> market fit has definitely been validated, but I still feel like the business opps has a ways to go.
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I can understand @MrImpossible's perspective, I went through something similar.
I was at £300/400k annual revenue (for Ministry of Testing) and I felt so burdened. Sure, it was a business, but it was all on my shoulders. And I hated it. It was at that point that I (slowly) focused on figuring out how to make it so it didn't rely on me. I had made some attempts, but I kept failing. The E-myth book actually helped me give that focus.
So now, it's less profitable, but it runs mostly without me. It's also now a 'seven figure company', so has made huge progress without me being directly involved.
That's exactly what I meant :)
Agreed. There are countless small businesses doing everything from food service to fixing cars to whatever that would be very satisfied with 6 figures of profit. Those are real businesses. To me the difference between owning a business and having a job isn't about how much you earn or how many hours you put in... it's about how much control and commitment you have.
That's not what I was saying at all. It's not even about money. It's about freedom + time.
I would second your take, @primer. There’s nothing wrong with good hard old-fashioned work. My goal is never to “not have to work”. What else would I do? Atrophy?
I always think there is work to do...
BUT it IS validated in my eyes. It's just what is the next opportunity for growth, new avenues for revenue etc.
I feel like I'm trying to climb a neverending mountain.
I know what my product is, but it's hard to nail down the scope. Still doing crazy amounts of development 10 years in...and I'm no slouch.
Always looking over my shoulder at competitors with new ideas etc. Always trying to grow and remove myself from the business.
Sales is mostly word of mouth - I definitely don't believe I've cracked it yet.
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Bear in mind this post is in context of being in a 'six figure' annual revenue group.
I'm personally curious as to whether people/companies feel like they have achieved some kind of stability in their product validation at this stage of their business, or if they are still adapting and figuring out things as they go.