At Sendible, our growth completely stalled from 2016 - 2018. I entered experimentation mode and tried everything I could to move the needle again.
I ended up wasting $325k trying to chase fast growth. 🙈
These are the 3 biggest lessons I learned:
1) Ads don’t work in every market
I hired a Google ads specialist and gave him a massive budget, but he couldn’t make it work. Then, I outsourced to an agency and they couldn’t make it work either. We spent thousands before realizing that our target market all use ad blockers, so it was never going to work!
2) Outbound sales reps always demand more money
I recruited two expensive outbound sales reps. When their attempts at cold calling failed, they asked me to buy a leads database. When that didn’t work, they convinced me they needed a booth at a trade show. It cost me $150k before I realized it was time to cut my losses.
3) Outsourcing development will cost more than you think
I thought a new mobile app would boost our growth so I hired a remote contractor to build it. He promised it would only take 3 months. I reluctantly paid him the huge day rate he demanded. Then he missed the deadline and disappeared. So I had to hire a new contractor for another 6 months to finish it off. It cost 3X more than I had budgeted!
I believe strongly in experimentation and testing new channels. But building a business is a marathon, not a sprint.
You need to test slowly, measure, and review before you throw too many eggs in the basket and make costly mistakes.
Until next time,
— GH
P.S. I'm on a mission to help founders build a big business with the smallest team possible. Reply to this email if you're looking for a business coach.