What happens after your first paying customer... an open discussion about scale

When it comes to going from 0-1, there's no shortage of great resources out there.

Communities like Indie Hackers have commoditised this part of the maker journey.

But what about going from 1-10, or even 10,000?

I wanted to have an open conversation about my current experiences...

Over the years, I've had plenty of experience trying to validate ideas and source initial customers.

I was always so focused on trying to build something that people actually wanted, that I never put thought into what happens next...

Now that I have a product that's consistently generating revenue, it feels like I'm starting from the ground floor again.

I'm finding that there's not a great ordeal of resources out there with advice on how to approach this next phase - but for a good reason...

You see, going from 0-1 is a binary. You have validation or you don't.

There's a set of well-structured guidelines you can follow to help streamline this phase.

0-10,000, however, is an open game that's completely different for everyone.

Every business has its own unique set of distribution channels and product strategies that work for its circumstances.

As another business, it's almost impossible to replicate these and find similar results.

When you're working on 0-1, you almost have nothing to lose.

But with 0-10,000, your decisions can either make or break any existing progress you've created.

Every day, I find myself worried that I'll royally fuck this up.

Sticking to what works 📈

I was recently chatting to Alex West from Cyberleads about some potential ideas & pivots I had in mind to help my product grow.

His advice...

"Don't waste your time trying to reinvent anything. You're getting distracted. Stick to what's working and double down on it".

Thanks Alex 🙏

As much as I want to experiment with new ideas and strategies to accelerate growth, I need to remember that I already did the hard work of finding customers and a distribution channel in the 0-1 phase.

If I play the long game, this will naturally scale over time.

In summary 👇

Stick to what's already working and don't get distracted by shiny objects!

If you're a maker who's currently going through the same phase as myself, I'd absolutely love to get in touch 🙌

If you're interested in following my journey, you can follow my Twitter where I publish more content about life as a maker.