When I started Dizzy Otter, the goal was the same as it is for most first time business owners: do whatever it takes to get clients in and start making money.
I had bootstrapped a business in an industry I had no experience in. No clients, no money for ads, no salespeople. So the model was simple. Take money up front to build any software, for any price, for anyone.
It was chaos. Say yes to everything and figure it out afterwards.
What saying yes to everything got us
Over the last year we have turned over around a quarter of a million pounds this way. We had no ways of working, no specific software we built and no industry we went after.
It has taught me why people niche down. They solve one specific problem really well before they expand. I did not have that luxury when I started. Or maybe I am just convincing myself of that, and in reality I made things harder for us than I needed to.
Either way, we went after revenue as quickly as possible, so that we could pay ourselves, scale, and eventually have an ad budget.
What I learned
Two things. Recurring revenue is king, and software projects never end.
Trying to scope a project end to end from one onboarding call was always the wrong shape for something that goes on forever.
The new model
So we have become a development partner. Clients now pay a monthly retainer with a floor of 20 development hours a month. The hours go on building their platforms, improving their current systems, building integrations, training their staff, or advising on the tools they should be using.
We can do that because over this year we have used pretty much every useful software tool there is, built systems for over twenty industries, and learned a thing or two about what software actually helps most businesses.
The goal
The goal is now recurring revenue, and the number is £100k a month. I do not know how long it will take. I will do everything I possibly can to get there.
I am going to post about it on social media and here. It is very much building in public, as cringe as that phrase is, but it is a good way to hold yourself accountable. I think it will be a fun thing to document.
The bit I am less sure about
It will probably get stressful, chasing a number this publicly and being this open about it. Scaling a business that much comes with serious challenges.
I am not sure whether documenting something so publicly will work in my favour or just add to the stress.
Anyway
I will be filming a lot for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, and updating this blog every week. Nobody is going to read it, because I do not share it anywhere yet, but it is interesting for me to write these thoughts down and look back on them week to week.