How Rapid Growth Killed My 6-figure Start-Up

Hey guys,

I thought I'd create a post on some points I recommend to all new start-up CEO's learn as soon as possible when starting a business.

My first company I started was called ContentPixel - A YouTube Network that allowed YouTuber's to earn money from advertisements on their videos. We grew to roughly 1,200 clients and peaked at 50million views collectively per month. But we sadly crumbled due to our inability to pivot and innovate over time. So here are some tips I've learnt to make sure your business doesn't crumble.

1. Don't be afraid to spend $$
   When I started ContentPixel I was incredibly frugal with money. And eventually came to learn that investing into your business (instead of out of it) helps tremendously. Once we started investing into our clients we saw a huge boost in applications for ContentPixel. We went from processing 1-10 per week to about 10 per day.

2. Don't be afraid to spend $$
   Not a typo! But the same point. ContentPixel failed to grow further as we DID NOT invest in hiring support staff. Once again, only I am to blame for not seeing this sooner. My attention was too focussed on investing into our clients that I had totally become oblivious to the fact that we were beginning to scale rapidly. To put this into perspective, we went from about 10-20 support emails a week to 10-20 per day (300-600/month). I, like an idiot was so busy working "harder" that I burnt out and crashed.

3. Make Customer Support A Priority.
   So although we crumbled by not hiring extra support, ContentPixel was built on really great support (to begin with). We ensured we replied to users in a timely fashion and did our best to delight our clients. Always be thinking about how you can impress/delight your customers. You'd be surprised, even a simple "Happy birthday" email on their birthday makes them feel super special.

4. Communicate Effectively.
   One thing ContentPixel failed to do was communicate our transfer to a new payment system for our clients properly. And it really came back to bite us. Since we moved to a new payment processor, it meant payments were delayed, which lead to our small/big clients making videos about us claiming we had "scammed" them. (If you google ContentPixel, you'll find a few "Scam" videos) - As you can imagine, this tears me apart as someone who founded a company for creators.

With that said, if you ever have any issues or improvements that COULD affect your users, make sure you tell them well in advance, and have processes in place to deal with clients of all sizes.

1. Accounting
   When I started my company I was just 18 years old. We incorporated in the UK and I had no idea what taxes were, how to file them or when they were due. So I hired an accountant, who just confused me even more. However after studying for a few years (I am now 22 and launched my new company - avoranow.com), I can tell you a few things you should be doing are these:

• Keep tabs on your expense (outgoings / incoming revenue).
• Understand revenue. (gross revenue = revenue before expenses are taken out - & Net revenue = revenue left over after your monthly expenses, including salaries are paid).
• Write these down to make your accounting process a WHOLE lot easier.

Those who know their financials thrive!

1. Alone Isn't feasible.
   If you're a solopreneur working on a project, everything is fine and awesome until you begin to scale. When it comes time to scale, ensure that you have documents outlining your processes for the company. What I mean is, make documents (or videos) showing how you run certain aspects of the company, e.g. customer support, sales, marketing, product updating, etc, so that when you hire someone, they can get to work as soon as possible.

2. Always be innovating - (Create your own market?)
   ContentPixel failed to reach "EXPONENTIAL" growth because of our lack of innovation. We simply provided something 100 other companies had, which just wasn't enough. Customers like innovation and something new. So ensure you're ALWAYS pivoting and redefining your industry somehow.

I hope you found value in this! If you did comment below! Would love to give whatever advice I can!