Small, frequent milestones

(1/30 of 30 daily writing pieces)

There’s this advice in the nutrition world about having small, frequent meals. I’m reminded of this today when I reflected back my attempt this week to hire and train a young person to do my data engineering tasks.

This young person is so untrained that she knows zero shortcut keys. Not even Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. And yes, she uses Windows. So, not only do I have to train her to do my tasks, I also have to train her in the basics of keyboard-ship.

And in this case, where I have an utterly clueless, but willing learner, I need to break up the cognitive load into smaller, more bite-sized chunks of new information morsels. Bite-sized enough that she can absorb per session. I have no big design upfront regarding how to break up the information. There’s a lot of deciding as we go along aspects to this. So far, we are only into 3 sessions. Today, I took some time to reflect upon my training of the hire, and I realized I actually treated this new hire with more respect than I treat myself.

I don’t break up my own goals the same way

I have set out for myself this year 2021 a goal to build a SaaS as a side project since I have established some baseline stability in my revenue for next 2 years until end 2022. What I’m gradually realizing is that I cannot attack that goal directly. My Django skills are still not up to the level where it’s a unique strength I can use to slingshot into a Django-based SaaS product. In fact, I think I have zero assets I can use to slingshot into a Django-related SaaS product directly.

Exploiting your existing competitive advantages when building a SaaS product is not news. I do have an asset I can rely on. I have built for myself a business where the monthly revenue (revenue, ok? Not profit, and certainly not the salary I pay to myself) is now just 2.5x the Singapore’s 2017/18 average monthly household member income. (Yes, I also find it annoying that they don’t show median instead, which would be lower given the inequality of income. I mean, even Wikipedia shows median income for the US. Not average.)

Figure 1: A screenshot of the infographics that SingStat provided on monthly household income

That business has many flaws. It is not product-based, nor is it scaleable at this point. A simple analysis will easily show the business is vulnerable given 100% of the current revenue relies on one major client using the system I built in two different country offices.

But it’s still an actual business. A business that I pay corporate tax for profits made. A business that pays me a living wage. I have no boss to answer to. I am the boss. I can negotiate directly with my users, and buyers about payment terms and feature scopes. I have more autonomy than I would have given a traditional job. And it’s a fact not many people have the same autonomy I have right now. Because I want to target Django developers (or at least Django-familiar audience) for my SaaS, I need to point out that my software business currently derives 60% of its revenue on Django-based systems I wrote. That’s the one asset I can use to slingshot into something bigger. It’s just that I cannot slingshot directly into a SaaS product immediately.

Which brings me back to the topic of breaking up of my goals into smaller, more digestible intermediate ones.

Part 1 is parlay my edge into something bigger that’s not SaaS

Nathan Barry initially wanted to build a SaaS for lawyers. Then he realized his competitive edge in teaching and marketing mean he’s better off focusing on email marketing instead for a SaaS. Applying the same analysis, my conclusions are different. I shouldn’t change the direction of my SaaS.

What I should change is to not aim at building SaaS directly. For now, I should aim at parlaying my edge into something that’s 1) bigger than what I have now, 2) less than a Django-based SaaS and yet, 3) directionally would lead to a SaaS eventually. This way, my approach towards an eventual SaaS is more sustainable and my offering to my target audience is more believable and authentic.

For now, all I know is that the next intermediate goal has to appeal to the target audience of Django developers or Django-familiar people. This is already bigger (and scarier) than what I am used to.

Let’s see what happens next.