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34 Comments

When Will My Time Come?

Days and nights go by and you're wondering "when will my time come?"

"When will someone pay for my software or idea?"

"When will I get to post about the time I signed in to my Stripe account and saw the first of many paying customers? "

Those are the same questions I asked myself...

I even set up a Slack integration so that I would be notified when the first customer pays me 24/mo to use my Saas, Cartfuel.

But for the last weeks, it was crickets.

I started to doubt myself and my team in what we are building.

But I never gave up. I made a plan, iterated that plan, and executed it.

And today, my time came. I logged into my Slack and saw that message that I have been hoping for...

"New Customer" "Invoice charge succeeded"

I can't even tell you how happy I am today.

After all the hard work, there is a sense of validation and motivation that burns deep.

It wasn't all for nothing.

So if you're wondering when your time will come, keep going.

Don't give up.

Make a plan. Iterate. Execute. Repeat.

Your time will come!

  1. 2

    @jelanisince94 - super interesting product, and great UI/UX on your website.

    I'm planning on setting up a landing page site using Carrd for a product I'm trying to launch in late Feb/early Mar, and just might use Cartfuel as the eCom/shopping cart. So you might just have another customer very soon!

    I don't need the upsell part atm, which brings me to a suggestion I'd like to make.

    I think there's a lot of value in the upsell capability, but IMO I feel like there's more value in the easy cart capability Cartfuel offers. I was watching your video, and for the first 8:30 you talk about setting up a product. Upsell doesn't even come into play until after that.

    So it's possible that you're focusing on the wrong initial messaging. Right now it's about One-Click Upsells for any platform, but I'm wondering how important that is to existing eCom sites.

    Meaning, if I'm running Shopify or WooCommerce, I likely can find a way to do one-click upsells using some extension. If that's true, then your addressable market for "upsells" can get pretty small.

    What if Cartfuel was primarily "Dead Simple eCommerce for...."?
    Dead Simple eCommerce for Carrd
    Dead Simple eCommerce for Webflow
    Dead Simple eCommerce for WordPress

    From an SEO standpoint, I think that might generate more traffic/leads than simply promoting Upsell capability.

    Then separately, if you wanted to explore the upsell capability, you could possibly create apps/extensions and put them in the Shopify, WooCommerce, and Wordpress.org stores.

    Thoughts?

    1. 1

      Wow. First I would like to say Thank You!!!

      I see what you're saying and that has crossed my mind before, but seeing someone else write it out and the way you formatted the idea, makes perfect sense.

      It's something I am going to think about today...I like to move fast so don't be surprised if the headline completely changes today haha

      But in all seriousness thank you Mike for bringing a different perspective! I really appreciate it.

      1. 2

        Love it Jelani!
        GSD 👍

        If you do that, don't forget to update your SEO-related stuff (page titles, H2s, copy in different parts of your site).

        Then maybe add in some new pages with titles like:

        1. eCommerce for Carrd (or Shopping Cart for Carrd)
        2. eCommerce for Webflow (or shopping cart)

        Then on each page build out some content related to that.

        If you need some additional ideas on the SEO stuff, let me know :)

        1. 1

          Absolutely. Have you ever heard of programmatic SEO?

          1. 2

            I definitely have heard of programmatic SEO, but I've never tried to implement it personally.

            I've done it the old fashioned, manual way :)

            Primarily because:

            • I'm not a coder (I'm a Product guy)
              and
            • I like to make sure the reader has a good experience, and search intent is addressed

            Getting good articles written for you isn't that tough -- and I think it's important to provide value to the reader.

            I assume some of that can be accomplished by programmatic SEO, but since I've not personally done it yet, I couldn't say for certain.

            1. 1

              Makes sense. I'm also not a coder haha but I think my team can probably do it. Just curious thanks!

  2. 2

    I'm happy for you @jelani

    I went live with https://skilledup.life on 1st August and thought I could sign up 100 volunteers within a month or two given we trialled this concept under a different brand before. The needle wasn't moving and I ended up hiring my first employee as I was busy elsewhere.

    We finally reached 100 volunteers on 19th Jan. And we added 26 in the next 10 days. Now on the march for the first 1000. Hoping to get there before the end of the year.

    Good luck.
    Manoj.

    1. 1

      Keep crushing it! Thank you for the kind words!

      1. 2

        Thanks. I use https://superpayit.com/features but do not have any upsell capability.

        I started https://deallite.uk/#pricing with the first plan. Now need to approach the few customers I have as we soft relaunched Plan 2 on the 20th.

        I've asked the chaps from https://superpayit.com about how to upsell. But glad to see you are already offering this.

  3. 2

    I really appreciate authentic stories like these @jelanisince94. I'm rooting for you, what's your product btw? Link please!

    1. 2

      It's https://www.cartfuel.io - still some work to be done on the landing page. Thanks for rooting for me!

  4. 2

    Made my morning, thank you for sharing awesome Jelani 👍🏼

    1. 1

      So happy that it brought joy to you!

  5. 2

    Love the story Jelani! Super inspiring! 👍

    1. 2

      Thank you so much, Brayden! Just the beginning!

      1. 2

        ...and nowhere near the end :)

  6. 2

    Congrats Jelani and your landing page looks nice. I'm launching soon and definitely starting to feel this, excited and hoping this day comes for me also.

    1. 2

      Thank you! I just recently redid it. It used to look like this: https://cartfuel-old.webflow.io/

      I realized that it needed a complete makeover and I'm so glad I took the time to do it.

      I'm a firm believer that with consistent action you will find results, no matter what it is. You'll get there, keep going!

      1. 1

        New one looks much better to me.

  7. 2

    Congrats! This is great news!

  8. 2

    I feel unable to find my idea even, having that I am in software domain for 10 years, I don't know what can I do with the knowledge I have in the domain. and don't know also what prevents this mind from generating ideas. I though of some ideas wrote them in google keep but then I stopped.

    1. 8

      First, I think you don't "find" ideas. They come to you. You need then to catch them.

      It's just a question of habit. If you stop putting your ideas in google keep, that's fine. Don't push yourself down. Just try to do it again when you think about it. More you'll do it, more you'll have ideas.

      If it still doesn't work, try maybe another way. I love writing my ideas into a mindmap for example, I can then link them with one another, which brings other ideas. I have many ideas now in my idea bag, but I've been doing that for years.

      In short: you're not different than anybody else. Accept that you're not perfect, that you'll make mistakes, you'll forget to write important ideas, or you might even stop doing that for weeks or months. That's fine. Just be patient and try to trust yourself.

      1. 4

        Excellent point Matthieu!

        My two cents are: think of ideas as problems you can solve. What in your life is not working great and what can you do about it?

        I follow this process:

        1. Write down the areas you have strong interest in (i.e. hobbies, passions, expert knowledge);
        2. For each area write down the positive and the negative - what are the wins and what are the struggles.
        3. Brainstorm of potential solutions to those problems.
        4. Go to different groups and forums where people share the same interest. What do people write about? What are their challenges? Is there a recurring theme?
        5. Once you identify such a theme, how can you solve the problem?

        If this doesn't work, go take a shower. I get my best ideas there when my mind is working on something in the background.

        1. 2

          These are excellent point indeed. I have a precise amount of pomodoro each week for going into forums and other communities and just look what they are speaking about. I try to help at the same time, exactly what I'm doing right now.

          In general, adrenaline gives you idea. The shower works great, exercising too.

        2. 2

          I also get really good ideas in the shower haha. Great points here!

    2. 4

      I feel unable to find my idea even

      I hope this will help you.

      How to find product ideas:

    3. 3

      I totally agree with Matthieu!

      Write down your ideas. Do research on your ideas and then pull the trigger. It's okay if you fail, as failure is nothing more than a learning opportunity to do better the next time.

      Don't be too hard on yourself.

      If you find an idea I would recommend pre-selling it first before building it to see if there is traction. Then if people buy the presell or sign up for it, then you know you have something worth building.

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