I need help figuring out why my businesses always fail 😪
We hear lots of happy stories here and it's time for my depressing business story. First off I keep losing more and more hope. I started my online journey on December 30th, 2017 when I bought my first ever website domain and I named it after myself. (sewellstephens.com) Since then my so-called businesses has been failing. Yes I have several software products I've developed and I'm finally getting real signups for my product Rototer (https://rototer.com), but the new problem is nobody continues their journey after signup. If somebody could figure out why my signup process drops off either after the signup form or the landing page, that would be great. I advertise it with Google Ads and EasyHits4U.com. Its sad seeing more and more money go down the drain and I recently downgraded sewellstephens.com from Wix to a custom HTML and CSS site made from scratch in order to save me money.
Heres the link to Rototer: https://rototer.com
Indie hackers selling to indie hackers?
Sorry if you already did this, but can I ask if you read and went through the books The Lean Startup and the Startup Owner Handbook? Both you can find available online with an easy google search.
Seems like you're missing the essential.
This book is awesome, absolutely try it. Helped me a lot to understand why my projects were failing.
never read them
Well, I guess now you know where to land next 😉
I suggest that you take the time to prepare yourself for this journey. You have time 😊
It will be much more enjoyable if you do so. Focus on enjoying the journey, not on arriving "there", simply because there is no finish line.
All there is, is the journey.
There is so much to pick apart here and in the responses below:
First - This is specific to Rototer:
Your pitch is that you solve GDPR compliance right?
Yet at the bottom of your pages you write "we can't guarantee that our solution will make your website fully compliant"
So essentially what you are doing is pitching a solution that may or may not solve my problem. GDPR compliance is a tough problem. If I am not confident you can help me - why would I sign up?
Second:
I would echo what a few other people have said. You need to get out and talk to people.
I understand that you dont feel comfortable doing that - but talking to your customers is the only way you will know what their problems are. In business, its not about you - its about your customers.
Third:
"I'm almost fully self-taught and I guess that's why I'm so unsuccessful."
I used to dig holes in the ground for a few bucks an hour. I taught myself everything I know. I dont dig holes in the ground anymore, and I make a really good living. There is no connection between being self taught and success or failure. What matters is what you do with that knowledge.
Overall takeaway:
There is no "follow step a, b, c and reach success" in life. All of our paths are different, and we all reach "success" in our own ways. I think your on the right path in that your putting your frustrations out here and asking for help. That is a great way to learn - but only if you try out what people suggest instead of doing the same thing and expecting different results.
Great work in doing the work and building so far. Keep at it!
Hey Sewell, sorry to hear you're having some troubles. First, don't panic - it's a marathon, not a sprint - you will ultimately learn from all of your experiences now.
Second, how are you approaching your projects? Sometimes it's worth taking a step back and thinking about the problem you are trying to solve. You've probably seen that this community is quite big on idea validation and building in public. Have you spoken to users about their problems (without pitching your idea)?
Happy to chat through the process of getting projects off the ground with you
This comment was deleted 3 years ago.
Mobile version is not working correctly.
I'm aware of that. I'm not targeting mobile devices, I'm targeting business owners.
If a website doesn’t look well on mobile you’ve already lost crendentials as a business. Small details like that really matters to a user. I’m also viewing IH on my phone and the site is broken in a few parts. Business owners have smart phones as well.