It Ain't Easy. First Roadblocks. - Issue #2
![It Ain't Easy. First Roadblocks. - Issue #2](/content/images/size/w960/2022/12/-2.png)
Hope y'all are happy and healthy.
When the world keeps giving us lemons, ๐ have the juicer ready.
Question this week: How have you failed recently?
Would love to hear from you.
Creation Is Not the Problem. Distribution Is.
Last week I shared that I'm working on turning my first online course ramen profitable.
So far, so good. Now comes my Failure of the Month.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/revue/items/images/008/290/263/web/Screenshot_2021-03-17_at_22.31.28.png?1616016713)
32 people have signed up. Some have paid more than others. But not a single one has completed the course.
This is a typical early-days business challenge. It's not working and you are trying to figure out why.
To add a bit more color:
- The course is a self-paced online course
- It's ~5 hours of video
- The course teaches how to build and maintain successful brands (more context here)
My problem: I don't get data points.
No completion means I don't know what (value proposition) is useful and to whom (target customer).
Rest assured, I'll be doing a couple of experiments in the coming weeks.
I'll be documenting my troubleshooting attempt in the twitter thread below ๐
Course creation is not the problem. Distribution is.
— Art Lapinsch ๐ ๐ณ ๐ก (@artlapinsch) March 17, 2021
Launched my self-paced course 2.5 weeks ago. 30+ ppl signed up. Not a single course completion.
$$Rev aside, it is difficult to collect data and improve the product.
Something needs changing. Here a couple ideas ๐
Automating Freelance Finance
This topic is tangential.
To be able to focus on product development and distribution, I want to save time wherever I can.
This week: uploading invoice attachments from GMail to GDrive
As a freelancer I incur deductible expenses.
I have 2 separate freelance businesses. Invoices for both need to be separated (i.e. not a shared folder).
In order to deduct those, I need to:
- Identify the relevant bills
- Collect them in a folder
- Send them to my accountant
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/revue/items/images/008/290/145/web/Screenshot_2021-03-17_at_22.17.48.png?1616015971)
I set up a Zapier automation to send attachments to 2 dedicated GDrive folders. Here's the Zap I set up.
Ok, thinking out loud here:
— Art Lapinsch ๐ ๐ณ ๐ก (@artlapinsch) March 10, 2021
Ideal Scenario:
1) Bill is paid
2) Receipt is sent to a dedicated email address (email+type1@gmail.com vs email+type2@gmail.com)
3) tagged automatically
4) uploaded to GDrive
It's a small fix - probably saves me 10-20 seconds per invoice.
You gotta start somewhere.
- Do you have any accounting-related tips on your own?
- Do you want to talk about this?
Hit me up.
...
Anyway, all of you are legends!
Have a great rest of the week and hope to hear from you.