Scratch your own itch?

[Andy Black]

Scratch your own itch?
(Originally posted in my INSIDERS progress thread here.)

I was recently talking to an AdWords freelancer who was thinking of building a reporting tool for the AdWords data because it would speed up how he works. He also felt it could be a good product for him to work on.

I didn't say it, but felt uneasy about creating a product this way - because you create one of those "scratch your own itch" type of products.

As an AdWords guy/web techie/graphic designer/(insert technical speciality) we can create tools to help us do our job better. And YES, there can definitely be a market out there who would be interested in using or buying that tool.

"Scratch your own itch!" - we hear this a LOT, and it's almost the defacto ideal way to create a product.


I don't like scratching your own itch for the following reasons:

• It doesn't (directly) help your CURRENT clients/customers - it's helping YOU get better at what you do for them. I've made so much better progress when I focus on serving my customers and not serving myself. Building products to help yourself turns your attention inward. What chances to better server your customers are missed because you've half an eye on building something for yourself?

• Your market now becomes other people who do what you do, rather than the people you currently serve.

• You're now selling shovels instead of using shovels. The people who got the richest in the gold rush weren't the guys selling shovels to the miners - it was the miners who dug up the gold.

• You're entering a market you don't know how to sell to (yet?). Sure, you could crack it, but you're now dividing your attention between two markets. Are you now getting LESS focused?

• Because you are scratching your own itch, is it even easier to seccumb to the belief you already know what your market wants?

• Are you ultimately helping your competitors to serve your current market? Does this mean you're first business is going to suffer if you succeed in your second business?

Scratch your customers itch?

• We've been trying to better serve our clients/customers.

• They don't want "traffic", they don't want website visitors either. They want calls, that turn into sales. We've been helping them convert the visitors into calls.

• So we've added a new productised service that may end up as a SaaS play (or may not if we choose to continue to serve the DFY market).

• We're creating (mobile first) landing pages for our current AdWords clients, and for totally new clients who were looking for a new website. This is a new add-on service that helps our current market (small businesses that want more calls and sales). And those businesses are biting our hand off for these pages.

• This COMPLEMENTS what we're already selling. This is a cross-sell opportunity for us - a chance to increase our average customer life-time-value.

• We're selling to exactly the same market who we were selling to initially, so we don't have to learn how to reach a new market.

• We don't have the challenge of creating our first route to market for a brand new market, instead we have the opportunity to create ANOTHER route to market for the market we already serve.

• New clients of the landing page service can be cross-sold to the AdWords service. New clients of the AdWords service can be cross-sold to the landing page service.

What do you think?

 

Don't like ads? Remove them while supporting the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Nicoknowsbest]

Nobody gives a damn about you.

Being selfish never works. At least for me.

The shovel sellers didn't get as rich because they were too lazy to do the hard work of digging themselves.

By losing focus, you give up the driver's seat and move to the passenger's seat.

Instead of acting, you react.

Great insights Andy, thanks for sharing.

 

[ZF Lee]

• We're creating (mobile first) landing pages for our current AdWords clients, and for totally new clients who were looking for a new website. This is a new add-on service that helps our current market (small businesses that want more calls and sales). And those businesses are biting our hand off for these pages.

• This COMPLEMENTS what we're already selling. This is a cross-sell opportunity for us - a chance to increase our average customer life-time-value.

• We're selling to exactly the same market who we were selling to initially, so we don't have to learn how to reach a new market.

• We don't have the challenge of creating our first route to market for a brand new market, instead we have the opportunity to create ANOTHER route to market for the market we already serve.

• New clients of the landing page service can be cross-sold to the AdWords service. New clients of the AdWords service can be cross-sold to the landing page service.

Brilliant!
The extra reinforcements of quality will make customers love me more...and the word-of-mouth campaign will be further weaponized FOR FREE.

So the business school way of making large elaborate marketing plans with millions of dollars on the stake is good as garbage????

 

[G-Man]

Your market now becomes other people who do what you do, rather than the people you currently serve.

I'm trying to figure this out at the moment. I figured out the redneck that sells the equipment in our industry is the only one making any damn money. He's selling $4,000 shovels. He's a beautiful slow talking mustachioed genius.

It's a mindset switch that I clearly haven't fully ingrained yet. There's a certain part of me that would still be the guy that joins the MLM instead of starting it.

 

Don't like ads? Remove them while supporting the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[eliquid]

I disagree with a lot of this @Andy Black

The people selling the shovels got rich as hell. Not every miner pulled out gold. Of those that did, many of them didn't pull out enough gold to cover their shovel.

Also, if you are scratching your own itch, it's mostly because you are your own customer ( you work in the same industry, do what they do, etc ) and you know the industry well enough to know there is no solution like this... so you make it.

This is only an issue when you sell outside your industry.. AKA, an Adwords guy with Blacksmith clients.

However, what about an Adwords guy that now sells to Adwords people his "solution" that came from scratching his own itch.

SERPWoo was started exactly like this, I needed to scratch my own itch to make me a better SEO to my clients. Not only was I able to make more money doing this and using my own tool with my clients, but now I sell the shovel to other SEO's and agencies.

In the end, my client list or SEO business wasn't impacted.

Matter of fact, my "shovel" created several moats around my business and has people searching me out to do their SEO work. I can't really talk about it on the forums, but selling my shovel has put me in an authoritative place with my SEO clients for various reasons such as them "seeking me out" specifically and other stuff.

There is a lot of authority around people who write books on topics. Same is true with a tool/SaaS. That's a moat....

 

[Andy Black]

I disagree with a lot of this @Andy Black

The people selling the shovels got rich as hell. Not every miner pulled out gold. Of those that did, many of them didn't pull out enough gold to cover their shovel.

Also, if you are scratching your own itch, it's mostly because you are your own customer ( you work in the same industry, do what they do, etc ) and you know the industry well enough to know there is no solution like this... so you make it.

This is only an issue when you sell outside your industry.. AKA, an Adwords guy with Blacksmith clients.

However, what about an Adwords guy that now sells to Adwords people his "solution" that came from scratching his own itch.

SERPWoo was started exactly like this, I needed to scratch my own itch to make me a better SEO to my clients. Not only was I able to make more money doing this and using my own tool with my clients, but now I sell the shovel to other SEO's and agencies.

In the end, my client list or SEO business wasn't impacted.

Matter of fact, my "shovel" created several moats around my business and has people searching me out to do their SEO work. I can't really talk about it on the forums, but selling my shovel has put me in an authoritative place with my SEO clients for various reasons such as them "seeking me out" specifically and other stuff.

There is a lot of authority around people who write books on topics. Same is true with a tool/SaaS. That's a moat....

I agree with a lot of this @eliquid.

I just sometimes wonder who's left in the mines now that everyone is selling shovels to everyone else.

One of the current gold rushes seems to be selling shovels (actually, it's probably "startups" selling shovels) ... and similarly only a few will make it.

Only a few will make a SaaS work, and they are likely jockeys who aren't on their first rodeo. Like yourself no doubt.

Anyway, I only meant to make people think, and give people permission to use their shovel if they want, rather than sell it.

Oh, and think about adding more value to their current clients.

Rest assured, if I can come up with a way of selling an AdWords shovel to other AdWords guys that makes more money than me using that shovel then it will.

Thanks for posting.


EDIT: Hmmm... I provide a lead generation service. You could probably say I'm already selling shovels, and my clients are doing the hard work extracting the gold.

 

[eliquid]

I agree with a lot of this @eliquid.

I just sometimes wonder who's left in the mines now that everyone is selling shovels to everyone else.

One of the current gold rushes seems to be selling shovels (actually, it's probably "startups" selling shovels) ... and similarly only a few will make it.

Only a few will make a SaaS work, and they are likely jockeys who aren't on their first rodeo. Like yourself no doubt.

Anyway, I only meant to make people think, and give people permission to use their shovel if they want, rather than sell it.

Oh, and think about adding more value to their current clients.

Rest assured, if I can come up with a way of selling an AdWords shovel to other AdWords guys that makes more money than me using that shovel then it will.

Thanks for posting.


EDIT: Hmmm... I provide a lead generation service. You could probably say I'm already selling shovels, and my clients are doing the hard work extracting the gold.

I get what your saying. I actually got what you originally meant too in the post.

I think it depends what industry are you in. Are you only in the "client" industry, or are/can you be in both the "client" and "your" industry. Basically, can you be an Adwords person who help Blacksmiths more, or can you help both Blacksmiths and Adwords people.

Really, it just comes down to who do you want to serve?

Personally, I like to make money on both sides... Kinda like how @MJ DeMarco does with options. It hasn't hurt my original business and has added extra cash flow and even some special perks and moats to what I do.

In the end, we all make money... right?

 

Don't like ads? Remove them while supporting the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

The people selling the shovels got rich as hell. Not every miner pulled out gold. Of those that did, many of them didn't pull out enough gold to cover their shovel.

Agree.

What do you think?

Andy, I generally shake my head up-and-down at most everything you post, but I have to disagree with you here.

When you engage an industry, you get insight into problems that need solutions. These are the most potent of needs and opportunities because they involve domain experience.

When this happens, "scratching that itch" is solving a need that begs to be solved.

Now I'm not saying drop everything you're doing and focus on that, I'm just saying that when this happens, you might have just uncovered a potent need just waiting for its solution. In the end, I believe focus is important, not diversification. So "scratch that itch" could be a billionaire opportunity, or a distraction. We decide which.

 

[Andy Black]

Agree.



Andy, I generally shake my head up-and-down at most everything you post, but I have to disagree with you here.

When you engage an industry, you get insight into problems that need solutions. These are the most potent of needs and opportunities because they involve domain experience.

When this happens, "scratching that itch" is solving a need that begs to be solved.

Now I'm not saying drop everything you're doing and focus on that, I'm just saying that when this happens, you might have just uncovered a potent need just waiting for its solution. In the end, I believe focus is important, not diversification. So "scratch that itch" could be a billionaire opportunity, or a distraction. We decide which.

Yeah. I think the shovels comment could have been saved for another post - just wondering where all the miners had gone. (I think that's a great title for a post to go viral btw "Stop selling shovels" ... not that that's my bag.)

This was also a first attempt at being a bit contrarian/polarising for a change and getting some conversation going in a thread.

Oh, and probably the first time I've genuinely wondered about something.

Great feedback from @eliquid and yourself, so thanks.



The example I keep thinking of is how the next play for

• plumberseo dot net

is to create

• sevenfigureagency dot com

They're an SEO/Social Media agency that has maybe 150 clients paying $2k/mth for SEO & Social Media services.

Since they are applying their skills to client sites, the assets they've built are their IP on how to do SEO & Social Media successfully, and their IP on how to grow an agency of that size.

They're next play is a course on how to grow your own local agency, for people who aspire to be where they are.


Whereas a company like booking.com has the internal resources and skill set to also create an agency serving clients, in the hotel industry.

Except they decided to own the assets such as the domain and the AdWords/FB accounts.

They've used their skills to build a brand in the hotel vertical, while plumberseo has built a brand in the agency vertical.

Consumers looking for a hotel know about booking.com, but only plumbers and plumber agencies know about plumberseo.



Shovels wise, booking.com built some huge shovels and are scooping the gold out. They built them, own them, and are using them with gusto.

And is plumberseo now in the selling shovels space?

(Maybe the shovels is confusing things a bit.)



A better distinction in my mind is to work out who owns what assets.

Clients of plumberseo own their own domains.

Booking.com owns its own domain.

Booking.com is a route to market that a business who wants to access both consumers and hotels would buy.

Their brand is worth so much more.



Maybe my first post was a bit clumsy, but that's ok if it brings out great feedback and clarifications.

It's likely a bit clumsy because this is where I'm at in my current business, and I'm not looking back in hindsight (aka I'm making it up as I go along).



The reality is I *have* scratched my own itch.

Client landing pages have been a bane of my life for *years* since they mostly suck big time.

So we've finally come up with a service to scratch this itch, and it just so happens it actually helps our current clients, rather than other AdWords folk.

Except maybe it will help other AdWord folk because they have a similar problem serving their clients - crap landing pages mean they can't generate the ROI they need for their clients.

So I could easily have written the post from the other angle.

TBH, that post was actually an internal memo for my team just explaining why we're building stuff to help our clients (Blacksmiths) and not stuff to help people who aren't our clients (AdWords freelancers). Like you say, to keep us focused on our current market instead of being distracted by another market.

Oh, and we do feel we're onto something much bigger than we first thought.


Haha... another brain dump.

Interested in your thoughts as always.

(Enjoying this thread too.)

 

[vinylawesome]

Great discussion thus far. I remember 37 Signals (Now called Basecamp) initially created Basecamp to "scratch their own itch".

"""
Andrew: Fair enough. Let’s take a look. Base camp. I think we all know why you built base camp. You talked about it in the book and on your site. You scratch your own itch, you needed a project management application for yourselves and you built it.



Jason Fried: We wanted to build something simple and small, that worked really well for us. And now it’s turned into something that’s quite big. But it didn’t start that way.

Andrew: How did you decide what to put into that initial version?

Jason Fried: We built it for us, so we decided to build just what we needed, which was basically Messages. Originally, it didn’t even have To Do Lists.

Jason Fried: Now I’ve always wondered, how do you make it useful for yourself, but not so personal that it doesn’t make sense to anybody else? And we’ve all seen websites that people have built to scratch their own itch. It fits them exactly, with every tool that they perfectly need, and only they could understand it and use it. And when I look at it, I can’t even figure it out.

Jason Fried: Right.

Andrew: How do you make it useful for you, but also makes sense and useful for other people?

Jason Fried: The way I think you do that is to make it as simple as you can. I think things become less useful as they add more and more features. And this is sort of counter-intuitive, but when you try and build really specialized tools that solve very, very, very specific sort of detailed problems, that’s when things are only useful for certain small groups. But when you build something that’s very generic, BaseCamp’s very generic, Messages can be used by anybody. Everyone needs To Do Lists, and everyone needs to keep track of when something’s due. And that’s all we needed. And so that’s kind of why we built that. If we built very specific features that were only for web design, for example, because we could have, because we were a web design firm, we could have done like, you know, client design reviews, and approval checkoffs, and all these other things that have been very specific to web design, I think we would have cut off a huge market. And I think this is where a lot of companies go wrong is they they that the more features they have, the bigger their market. I think it’s just the opposite.

I think the fewer features you have, the bigger your market, and the more generic, the bigger your market. And that’s kind of how we approached it.

""""

Source: The Biography of 37signals, Whose Web Apps Are Used By 3 Million People - with Jason Fried - Mixergy

 

Don't like ads? Remove them while supporting the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[JoeB]

In Gary Vaynerchuk's most recent book he highlights one of his early errors as not 'scratching his own itch'.

When he first started selling wine via ecommerce there was no way to automatically contact customers who had abandoned their cart. He paid a developer to code it for him and he used it on his website and sold more wine..

He has since realised he could have made a lot more money selling that solution to other etailers, over how much extra it made him in wine sales.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Build software for yourself
A great way to build software is to start out by solving your own problems. You'll be the target audience and you'll know what's important and what's not.

That gives you a great head start on delivering a breakout product. The key here is understanding that you're not alone. If you're having this problem, it's likely hundreds of thousands of others are in the same boat.

There's your market. Wasn't that easy? Basecamp originated in a problem: As a design firm we needed a simple way to communicate with our clients about projects. We started out doing this via client extranets which we would update manually.

But changing the html by hand every time a project needed to be updated just wasn't working. These project sites always seemed to go stale and eventually were abandoned. It was frustrating because it left us disorganized and left clients in the dark.

So we started looking at other options. Yet every tool we found either 1) didn't do what we needed or 2) was bloated with features we didn't need — like billing, strict access controls, charts, graphs, etc.

We knew there had to be a better way so we decided to build our own. When you solve your own problem, you create a tool that you're passionate about. And passion is key. Passion means you'll truly use it and care about it. And that's the best way to get others to feel passionate about it too.


Scratching your own itch
The Open Source world embraced this mantra a long time ago — they call it "scratching your own itch." For the open source developers, it means they get the tools they want, delivered the way they want them. But the benefit goes much deeper.

As the designer or developer of a new application, you're faced with hundreds of micro-decisions each and every day: blue or green? One table or two? Static or dynamic? Abort or recover? How do we make these decisions? If it's something we recognize as being important, we might ask. The rest, we guess. And all that guessing builds up a kind of debt in our applications — an interconnected web of assumptions.

As a developer, I hate this. The knowledge of all these small-scale timebombs in the applications I write adds to my stress. Open Source developers, scratching their own itches, don't suffer this. Because they are their own users, they know the correct answers to 90% of the decisions they have to make. I think this is one of the reasons folks come home after a hard day of coding and then work on open source: It's relaxing.

—Dave Thomas, The Pragmatic Programmers

Getting Real: What's Your Problem? (by 37signals)


Expanding on @vinylawesome previous post by 37signals.