I'm not planning to work all that hard

[GigMistress]

I know this will likely bring a chorus of "give up now" type messages (or, at least, thoughts), but I'm also hoping for both some thoughtful discussion and that some may benefit from how my plan does or does not pay off.

Quick background: I'm 53 years old and self-employed as a niche ghostwriter and content marketer. Past efforts to scale have not so much failed as played out not to be the service I want to offer; due to an unusual combination of skills, knowledge, experience, and ability to interact successfully with my niche market, it turns out that the big thing that sets my business apart from others in the same niche is...well...me.

We all know the downside to that.

I haven't given this issue serious attention in the past because I make a full-time living in part-time hours doing work I like. But, I'm getting older and very cognizant of the fact that my ability to work could be interrupted. I also employ my daughter part-time (the one who is working on building her own business). Her business is currently very "labor only I can do" intensive, and although she has a long-term plan to move beyond that, I expect that it will take years. Thus, I'd like my business to continue to support a part-time income for her even if/when I cut back on my own work activity, so that she can afford to make the necessary investment in the creative and foundation-building aspects of her own business.

I have come up with a plan to productize a piece of my business. I know there is a market for what I plan to provide, and I know that many in my target market don't currently take advantage of this opportunity because the existing options are both more expensive and lower quality than what I plan to offer. In addition, existing options may become outdated, and mine will be evergreen. After creation of what I will (for lack of a better word) call prototypes, someone other than me can handle everything from order fulfillment to customization and updating. In the beginning, I will sell mainly through affiliate relationships with well-connected, high-end providers of related services in my industry (I have a strong existing network and a couple of commitments already).

Thing is, I'm in my 50s. I have chronic high blood pressure (due to a congenital malformation, not the kind I can manage by eating well and living stress free), and I'm living comfortably working about 25 hours/week. I am not at a place in my life where I am willing to invest 60-hour weeks now to make this happen.

My plan is that starting in January, I am going to take one week/month away from my regular work to work on building the "protypes" and putting other foundation pieces in place. My daughter will also work on this product during that week if I have need of her assistance. I anticipate that using that system, I will be ready to go to market in 6-9 months without significantly increasing the number of hours I'm currently working or the way I schedule work.

 

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[Supa]

Understandable that you want to do it this way. I'm following this

 

[NMdad]

I hear ya. We're part of a club of self-employed who've built a job for ourselves (where our expertise is difficult to delegate), but want/need to transition from hours-for-dollars--especially as we get older.

You might consider:

• Instead of devoting 1 week/month on a prototype (i.e., 25 hours), what about 1 hour/day? That'd be roughly the same amount of hours invested over a month for your prototype, but without any decrease in your day-job revenue. Plus, the consistency will likely be helpful.
• How could you pre-sell one of the prototypes? That way, you validate before building, get paid to build it, and have no decrease in revenue or increase in work hours.
• There probably are pieces of your day-job that you can carve off and delegate. I've found this to be true for my work--which requires years of very niche-specific technical expertise: I hire contractors who are better than me at the technical stuff, and then hand off pieces after I've scoped with the client & chunked the project into sub-tasks. It can be time-consuming to document the tasks & manage contractors, but the revenue is similar (or more), and it does free up my time.

 

[Kid]

You might train somebody at what you do that makes "you".

How could you pre-sell one of the prototypes? That way, you validate before building, get paid to build it, and have no decrease in revenue or increase in work hours.

This. Test before you build.

 

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[GigMistress]

I hear ya. We're part of a club of self-employed who've built a job for ourselves (where our expertise is difficult to delegate), but want/need to transition from hours-for-dollars--especially as we get older.

You might consider:

• Instead of devoting 1 week/month on a prototype (i.e., 25 hours), what about 1 hour/day? That'd be roughly the same amount of hours invested over a month for your prototype, but without any decrease in your day-job revenue. Plus, the consistency will likely be helpful.
• How could you pre-sell one of the prototypes? That way, you validate before building, get paid to build it, and have no decrease in revenue or increase in work hours.
• There probably are pieces of your day-job that you can carve off and delegate. I've found this to be true for my work--which requires years of very niche-specific technical expertise: I hire contractors who are better than me at the technical stuff, and then hand off pieces after I've scoped with the client & chunked the project into sub-tasks. It can be time-consuming to document the tasks & manage contractors, but the revenue is similar (or more), and it does free up my time.

I specifically chose the one-week block because my obstacle to completion while working in the past has been that it's not a project that works well in small increments, and I'm a total-immersion type of creator. So, what would take me one 10-hour day might well take me 20 hours to produce in pieces (and quality might suffer).

I don't want to pre-sell, but I will be building the "prototypes" one at a time, and will very likely have one done the first week that I commit to this. I'm hesitant to offer it for sale, though, because I think having only one weakens the offering. I have no data to support that, but it seems akin to opening a grocery store but saying "I'm only offering canned peas at this point." I'm interested in other views on that. There is one prototype that is likely to be the only offering in its sub-niche, so perhaps it makes sense to get that done and then target only the sub-niche for an earlier sales push.

I actually do delegate a fair amount of my non-creative work. My daughter works for me half time, and she handles most of the administrative aspects of my business. She also cleans up my dictation, prints and organizes source material for me and that sort of thing, so that my "work" has been reduced almost entirely to the knowledge-based creative aspects. That is something I wish I had learned a lot sooner.

 

[GigMistress]

You might train somebody at what you do that makes "you".

That was my plan for a long time, but it turns out to be more challenging than I anticipated to find people with extensive experience in both of my fields who is also a great writer AND wants to pursue this particular career path. I have tried working with smart and skilled people from each side of the fence thinking I could bring them up to speed on the other side and there just seems to be a ceiling.

I'm open to the possibility that the failing is in my efforts to teach/train, but I have a pretty strong background in both areas, so I don't think it's that. I think it's just that it's a rare combination of strengths, and while there are undoubtedly other people out there with the same intersection of knowledge, experience and talent, they're not easy to find (and are probably already thriving doing their own thing).

This. Test before you build.

I know that makes sense in general terms, but what I'm creating is something that I am often asked for by clients and the time and cost of custom creation is their main obstacle, so I am virtually certain that there is a market waiting for the off-the-shelf version. Also--and this may be even more important--if it turns out that I'm wrong, very little of this effort will have been wasted, because I can easily re-purpose most of what I've created in another area of my existing business.

 

[SkyLake]

Usually, it's massive execution.

In your situation, leverage everything you can. Experience, network, money, skills.

 

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[Kid]

it turns out to be more challenging than I anticipated

I see. Side idea:
Write a book - slap a title "I'm making $xx,xxx doing xx in part-time hours". Maybe it won't bring those skilled people to your doors but it might create income for you.

I know that makes sense in general terms, but what I'm creating is something that I am often asked for by clients and the time and cost of custom creation is their main obstacle, so I am virtually certain that there is a market waiting for the off-the-shelf version. Also--and this may be even more important--if it turns out that I'm wrong, very little of this effort will have been wasted, because I can easily re-purpose most of what I've created in another area of my existing business.

Oh, ok - i assume this counts as a idea validation in your situation.