Law of effection: It scares the shit out of me.

[circleme]

My SaaS company is growing slowly, but it is growing. Only now have I crunched the numbers and realized that due to the low subscription prices, a significant increase aka magnitude won't be feasible. The solution: scaling through more subscriptions/customers (scale). So far, so good.

Based on my calculations, however, the numbers ahead of me seem absolutely surreal and quite intimidating when I compare them to my current status. How am I supposed to handle, say, 5,000 or 10,000 subscribers?!

I'm already setting up everything in the form of systems. Almost everything is a kind of predefined process that, at least in theory, anyone with similar skills could take over. In my business, this primarily involves customer support and bug fixing.

I've been looking for solutions to my current problem, or rather my current fear, and I've found quite a few. The common denominator: always focus on the problem right in front of you. Nevertheless, the thought of managing/sustaining a business with tens of thousands of subscribers paralyzes me.

How have you dealt with this issue?

Recently, I read that MJ has sold at least 1 million+ of his books. He also wrote that he's a one-man show. Maybe it's different with books compared to a SaaS business, but with a million+ people, there must also be countless messages, questions, contacts, etc., right? How can that be managed solo?

I would be very interested in your input.

 

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[Ajbuck68]

My SaaS company is growing slowly, but it is growing. Only now have I crunched the numbers and realized that due to the low subscription prices, a significant increase aka magnitude won't be feasible. The solution: scaling through more subscriptions/customers (scale). So far, so good.

Based on my calculations, however, the numbers ahead of me seem absolutely surreal and quite intimidating when I compare them to my current status. How am I supposed to handle, say, 5,000 or 10,000 subscribers?!

I'm already setting up everything in the form of systems. Almost everything is a kind of predefined process that, at least in theory, anyone with similar skills could take over. In my business, this primarily involves customer support and bug fixing.

I've been looking for solutions to my current problem, or rather my current fear, and I've found quite a few. The common denominator: always focus on the problem right in front of you. Nevertheless, the thought of managing/sustaining a business with tens of thousands of subscribers paralyzes me.

How have you dealt with this issue?

Recently, I read that MJ has sold at least 1 million+ of his books. He also wrote that he's a one-man show. Maybe it's different with books compared to a SaaS business, but with a million+ people, there must also be countless messages, questions, contacts, etc., right? How can that be managed solo?

I would be very interested in your input.

I'd say you already have the answer "always focus on the problem right in front of you".

While I don't have a business of my own yet to bring this experience from, I've worked for a startup from about 20 employees to now over 120. My team specifically is expert consultants who implement the startup's product for customers. So while our team of 3 was 100% utilized 2 years ago, what could we do? A. Worry about utilization and scale back selling more projects. Which also means scaling back on selling licensing deals. or B. Sell more projects and we'll figure it out

B is the right answer. So what happened when we had a fully utilized team and just sold more work? We hired, we trained, and we succeeded. That's daunting. But it's less daunting when you have a half a million dollar contract for a year of your team's time in front of you. And now where are we? We now have a team of 12, on track for $8MM in revenue from just our team this year, and probably going to end the year with a team of around 20.

Channel your inner Paul Atreides. Remember, fear is the mindkiller. (google the reference if you don't know it. I think it's actually a good concept)

 

[Jeix]

The answer is one at a time.

The numbers look daunting because you are very far from them. If you have 50 subscribers, think on how to manage 100 and get there. Then onto 200 and so on. At some point (maybe 300 or 500) you'll need a new system, external help, employees or community managers. Who knows? Not me, not you (yet) and not anybody.

Cross the bridge when you get there. Think on how to get to the bridge now.