Episode 778 | Pricing Pilot Projects, Niching Down, Skipping Stairsteps, and More Listener Questions (A Rob Solo Adventure)

Being an entrepreneur is making calculated gambles. When I hear derisk that feels like hedging. It feels like I'm gonna have a contingency. The contingency is to pivot. The contingency is if there's not enough demand that you either figure out how to generate the demand or if the niche isn't big enough or the market isn't big enough or the total reachable market isn't big enough, then you expand later. You're listening to Startups for the Rest of Us. This is the podcast that focuses on helping founders build incredible businesses that don't make a dent in the universe, but might just change your little corner of it. And while you're building that incredible business and maybe you bootstrap it, maybe you raise funding, it kinda doesn't matter. You're not sacrificing your freedom, your purpose, your relationships, your sanity, your mental health in order to grow it. It's not growth at all costs but it's build incredible businesses that provide us with an incredible life and also improve the lives of those around you. I've been recording this podcast for more than fifteen years. This is episode 778 and today I'm gonna be answering listener questions. Some great questions in the queue and if you have a question you'd like me or me and a guest to answer in a future episode, you can go to startupfortherestofus.com and click ask a question in the top nav. Audio and video questions tend to go to the top of the stack although this time it looks like I have a question from x Twitter and also more advanced questions tend to go to the top of the stack rather than how do I get started early stage stuff. Today is gonna be a mix. It's gonna be fun. We're gonna have a great time. Before I dive into my first question, I wanna tell you about MicroConf Connect. It is the best paid community for bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped SaaS founders in the world. You can head to microconfconnect.com if you wanna check it out because building a startup can be lonely. And if you join Connect, you're gonna be surrounded by like minded founders. This is our extension of our MicroConf hallway track. In addition to the forums, the conversations, the d m's, you get access to live events. So for example, on June 19 which is next week, Matt Heyman is a sales expert. He's gonna be doing a one hour session about using LinkedIn as a sales channel. And it will be a live virtual event, meaning you can join via, I don't know, what is Zoom or whatever we use. But you're there in real time and you can ask questions. If you wanna apply because we do not let everyone in, we are pretty quick on the draw to not let folks in who are trying to, infiltrate and let's say reduce the value of the community by them trying to sell stuff or being whatever. …