The 1 lesson that helped me grow to $150k ARR

I ran an in home haircut startup that I bootstrapped to $150k arr.

But first I struggled for about a year.

Then I realized, after speaking to users that they found me only when barber shops were closed.

I used that insight to stop all ads and double down on keywords on google ads for "barber shops open now" and so on.

That’s when it clicked: Growth isn't about more traffic; it's about proximity to intent.

It wasn't a nice to have.

They needed a solution and were willing to pay.

Here's the framework to find this for your business:

1. List all channels at your disposal:

   • Cold outreach

   • Paid social media ads

   • Pay per click ads

   • Social media content creation

   • Partnerships

   • Events

   • SEO

   • Social media engagement

1. Score each on the following criteria

   • Probability: given your knowledge of your customers/users, how likely is it that this channel will be effective (1 being low, 5 being high)

   • Impact: how many customers can you get from this channel realistically (1 being low impact,

   • Resources: how much $ and energy does using this channel cost per customer acquired (1 being affordable, 5 being expensive)

2. Rank them

   • Score and rank from top down using this equation: (probability * impact) / resources

   • For example: 3 (probability) * 4 (impact) / 3 (resources) = 4

3. Run a 2-week experiment with a kill criteria

   • For example, if I spend $150 per week for two weeks on Google Ads targeting people who need a haircut, then I will close at least 5 customers a week at $30 CAC.

4. Evaluate if you hit or miss the goal

5. Repeat

While Google Ads worked for my local service, I found that for my digital products, the lowest-cost channel was finding people complaining on Reddit.

Missing these low hanging fruits hurts.

It was originally hard to find mentions of keywords -> read each to see if it was relevant -> write a helpful response that also shared my product.

Then I built an internal tool that I opened to the public called InReach that finds mentions on autopilot, scores them based on intent and relevance to your business, then helps start a response draft right from the Reddit website itself.

You get 5 mentions + unlimited replies for free.

Here's the link: www.useinreach.com