The Editing Mouse Sample Request - Blog Post WITH MARKUPS. Why I will never touch a project services business again

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1 The Editing Mouse Sample Request - Blog Post WITH MARKUPS Why I will never touch a project services business again After starting several project-based services businesses in creative mediums like web design, copywriting and video production; I promised myself I d never start one again. Here s why: I was sick of creating time-consuming custom proposals which required building things from scratch, only to find the client was never really serious or just fishing for the best ideas. I was tired of the annoying back-and-forth dance of trying to court clients and negotiate deals only to have them go quiet or be told they have chosen another agency I was sick of offering the same thing as other creative agencies and not having a truly unique selling point (USP). I was sick of having the business and clients be reliant on me or a project manager who I just couldn't afford. Now I could have fixed those businesses at the time, with a productised consulting offering. However, by the time I stumbled upon this revolutionary idea of 'productised consulting', I had closed my business and, to be honest, I was just over the whole creative services industry. I wanted to try my hand at an entirely new niche. Deleted: services Comment [1]: The repetition of projectbased services businesses and services was causing the opening sentence to sound muddled. These changes allow for better flow and clarity. Deleted: a project based services business again Deleted: which are time-consuming and Deleted: s Deleted: your Deleted: client Deleted: on you Comment [2]: Not all your readers will know exactly what a USP is. Deleted: USP Deleted:. Deleted: and Here are more reasons why my project-based service business was a poor choice of business model: It was too 'high touch'. I did almost everything in the business as a freelancer and clients wanted to deal with only me. It was inefficient because every project was created from scratch. There was no standardised process because every project was different. This meant there was no system to follow to complete work consistently or efficiently. It was hard to scale. There are poor economies of scale with project-based service businesses compared to software or productised service businesses. Deleted: is I Deleted: since Deleted: t Deleted: since Deleted: ing Deleted: H Deleted: t

2 The high costs of sales (mainly manpower). Especially when paying for local service providers. I could have outsourced more to overseas staff to lower costs. Feast or famine revenue due to the fact that projects were mostly once-off, like building a website, meaning I had to search for new clients continuously It was hard to differentiate since I was just another agency with a traditional business model and no real USP. So after another attempt at a failed business, I was feeling disheartened. I was pretty over the whole B2B industry at the time (not realising the problem wasn t B2B but my business itself). Coming out of the shitstorm of crappy business models, I came up with new compulsory criteria of what my next business had to look like. Later I will show you exactly how I applied this new model to my new business and the results so far. The Filters Before we dive into my list of filters, I should preface it by saying that I decided on what my ideal lifestyle looks like. That is, to be a digital nomad working anywhere on a flexible schedule, not confined to the traditional 9 to 5. Deleted: H Deleted: e Deleted: Deleted: P Deleted: e Comment [3]: Continuously works more efficiently here because it shows the unceasing nature of the process Deleted: ally. Deleted: H Deleted: it Deleted: that was the problem, Deleted: my Deleted: ) Deleted: had come up Formatted: Centered, Line spacing: 1.5 lines With that said, here is what my criteria for choosing a dream business idea: 100% online - Sure the coconut-beach-laptop lifestyle is a cliché, but I want to be able to work remotely should I choose. Standardised offering / no consulting - No projects or customised offerings. Recurring revenue / subscription model - It is no secret that consistent, predictable revenue makes a business more valuable. The higher the lifetime value of a customer, the more profitable your business. Simple business model - Project and customised services can make running a business complicated. Creating a simple offer that can easily be pitched in a single sentence and be delivered by simple systems makes life easier for everyone (you, your staff and your customers). Not confined to traditional office hours - I don't want to man the phone or be restricted to any particular time zone. Quickly validate and launch the business - It is too risky to sit in a batcave and tinker on building something that no one wants. I have made this mistake too many times and will never do it again. I have started and failed at too many businesses built on false Deleted: cliche Deleted: e for Deleted: Deleted: this

3 assumptions along with an 'if you build it, and they will come' mentality. This decision filter rules out software and physical products. Reasonably low touch (no project management or sales team) - Customers need to be able to sign up and purchase directly on the website without relying on cold calling (yuck!) or in-person meetings. ecommerce - My requirement was that there be no manually sent invoices or chasing payments. Payment is 100% automated online using e-commerce. Automation all the way. Scalable - Project-based services are tricky to scale. Productised consulting, wherein you offer a standardised off the shelf service, is easier to scale. Sure, not as scalable as products, but a standardised approach is better than projects. Global Niche. While finding a small profitable niche is all the rage, I don t want to choose anything too small or locally based. Sellable - If I ever move on from the business, I want to have built an asset that I can sell. It is likely that one day when I am emotionally ready to take the next step, I want to have that option. Once-off project clients, historical revenue and businesses that rely on the founder to close sales, and manage projects, make it harder to sell a business. Recurring revenue and building an automated machine that runs itself is more valuable. Solutions Comment [4]: Using the full quote from Field of Dreams works better because it has that memorable ring to it that you want when you use it in this way. Deleted: and Deleted: no sending manually Deleted: and Comment [5]: Discussing the benefits of ecommerce could be beneficial here. Just a brief sentence because it ll help the reader understand why ecommerce is a more attractive option. Deleted: Comment [6]: Maybe explain why here. This section is all about the decisions / criteria you have enforced for the perfect business model (or your ideal business model) and your readers will want to know why you make these specific decisions. Especially if they want to use your post as a foundation for their own business criteria development. Deleted: will be Deleted: move on from the business Formatted: Centered, Line spacing: 1.5 lines There aren t many business models that fit these criteria. Software businesses seem to be the perfect scalable recurring business model but generally require heavy capital to start. They also have a long lead time to build and validate which makes it riskier than a service-as-a-service business that passes the quickly test and launch filter. There are two feasible solutions: Productised consulting which can be monetised virtually instantly. Creating informational digital products and online courses, which are pretty scalable but may be hard to build long-term recurring revenue from. Deleted: reccuring Deleted: ing Comment [7]: Watch out for sentences that get a little too long winded. Your conversational tone works well with the piece but you don t want it to lead to sentences that are difficult to process for your reader. Deleted:. Deleted: long term. My Next Business Over years of trying different business ideas (mostly jumping from one to the next with a severe case of shiny object syndrome), I've decided to launch an unlimited copyediting and proofreading subscription service for small businesses. Inspired by Dan Norris from WP Curve Formatted: Centered, Line spacing: 1.5 lines Deleted: the

4 and other similar unlimited service models like Russ Perry s Design Pickle, I believe I can solve a more significant problem than the traditional freelancer and agency business models. This led to the birth of the idea of The Editing Mouse. Deleted:. Never say never, but I m am pretty sure I won t ever get into a project service business again. Now I d love to hear what you think about this. Do you run, or have you run, a project-based business? Have you experienced these challenges? Have you thought about moving to service-as-a-service or productised consulting model? Deleted:. Let s keep this conversation going in the comments. Feedback The informal and conversational tone of the piece works to bring the reader in and helps with the accessibility of it, especially because the piece may be read by those who are not entirely experienced in running / setting up small business models. I ve noted some points where you may want to adjust the language to accommodate those inexperienced readers and also moments where the general writing could use some editing for sentence length. The main section that could use some work is just overall criteria for your dream business idea. This is where your most important information lies and the decisions you ve made could use some explanation. This is so that your reader can understand why these ideas constitute the perfect business model and therefore why they should aim to include these ideas into their own ventures.

5 CLEAN VERSION Why I will never touch a project services business again After starting several project-based services businesses in creative mediums like web design, copywriting and video production; I promised myself I d never start one again. Here s why: I was sick of creating time-consuming custom proposals which required building things from scratch, only to find the client was never really serious or just fishing for the best ideas. I was tired of the annoying back-and-forth dance of trying to court clients and negotiate deals only to have them go quiet or be told they have chosen another agency I was sick of offering the same thing as other creative agencies and not having a truly unique selling point (USP). I was sick of having the business and clients be reliant on me or a project manager who I just couldn't afford. Now I could have fixed those businesses at the time, with a productised consulting offering. However, by the time I stumbled upon this revolutionary idea of 'productised consulting', I had closed my business and, to be honest, I was just over the whole creative services industry. I wanted to try my hand at an entirely new niche. Here are more reasons why my project-based service business was a poor choice of business model: It was too 'high touch'. I did almost everything in the business as a freelancer and clients wanted to deal with only me. It was inefficient because every project was created from scratch. There was no standardised process because every project was different. This meant there was no system to follow to complete work consistently or efficiently. It was hard to scale. There are poor economies of scale with project-based service businesses compared to software or productised service businesses. The high costs of sales (mainly manpower). Especially when paying for local service providers. I could have outsourced more to overseas staff to lower costs. Feast or famine revenue due to the fact that projects were mostly once-off, like building a website, meaning I had to search for new clients continuously It was hard to differentiate since I was just another agency with a traditional business model and no real USP.

6 So after another attempt at a failed business, I was feeling disheartened. I was pretty over the whole B2B industry at the time (not realising the problem wasn t B2B but my business itself). Coming out of the shitstorm of crappy business models, I came up with new compulsory criteria of what my next business had to look like. Later I will show you exactly how I applied this new model to my new business and the results so far. The Filters Before we dive into my list of filters, I should preface it by saying that I decided on what my ideal lifestyle looks like. That is, to be a digital nomad working anywhere on a flexible schedule, not confined to the traditional 9 to 5. With that said, here is what my criteria for choosing a dream business idea: 100% online - Sure the coconut-beach-laptop lifestyle is a cliché, but I want to be able to work remotely should I choose. Standardised offering / no consulting - No projects or customised offerings. Recurring revenue / subscription model - It is no secret that consistent, predictable revenue makes a business more valuable. The higher the lifetime value of a customer, the more profitable your business. Simple business model - Project and customised services can make running a business complicated. Creating a simple offer that can easily be pitched in a single sentence and be delivered by simple systems makes life easier for everyone (you, your staff and your customers). Not confined to traditional office hours - I don't want to man the phone or be restricted to any particular time zone. Quickly validate and launch the business - It is too risky to sit in a batcave and tinker on building something that no one wants. I have made this mistake too many times and will never do it again. I have started and failed at too many businesses built on false assumptions along with an 'if you build it, and they will come' mentality. This decision filter rules out software and physical products. Reasonably low touch (no project management or sales team) - Customers need to be able to sign up and purchase directly on the website without relying on cold calling (yuck!) or in-person meetings.

7 ecommerce - My requirement was that there be no manually sent invoices or chasing payments. Payment is 100% automated online using e-commerce. Automation all the way. Scalable - Project-based services are tricky to scale. Productised consulting, wherein you offer a standardised off the shelf service, is easier to scale. Sure, not as scalable as products, but a standardised approach is better than projects. Global Niche. While finding a small profitable niche is all the rage, I don t want to choose anything too small or locally based. Sellable - If I ever move on from the business, I want to have built an asset that I can sell. It is likely that one day when I am emotionally ready to take the next step, I want to have that option. Once-off project clients, historical revenue and businesses that rely on the founder to close sales, and manage projects, make it harder to sell a business. Recurring revenue and building an automated machine that runs itself is more valuable. Solutions There aren t many business models that fit these criteria. Software businesses seem to be the perfect scalable recurring business model but generally require heavy capital to start. They also have a long lead time to build and validate which makes it riskier than a service-as-a-service business that passes the quickly test and launch filter. There are two feasible solutions: Productised consulting which can be monetised virtually instantly. Creating informational digital products and online courses, which are pretty scalable but may be hard to build long-term recurring revenue from. My Next Business Over years of trying different business ideas (mostly jumping from one to the next with a severe case of shiny object syndrome), I've decided to launch an unlimited copyediting and proofreading subscription service for small businesses. Inspired by Dan Norris from WP Curve and other similar unlimited service models like Russ Perry s Design Pickle, I believe I can solve a more significant problem than the traditional freelancer and agency business models. This led to the birth of the idea of The Editing Mouse.

8 Never say never, but I m am pretty sure I won t ever get into a project service business again. Now I d love to hear what you think about this. Do you run, or have you run, a project-based business? Have you experienced these challenges? Have you thought about moving to service-as-a-service or productised consulting model? Let s keep this conversation going in the comments.