#52 Weekly Dan — 4 Doomsday Scenarios for MakerBox

Hello there

This is the #50 Issue of Weekly Dan.

Every Tuesday, I share an actionable essay for Solopreneurs.

Today let’s talk about the possible future of MakerBox.

Indie Entrepreneurs already know their weaknesses.

We just are not ready to embrace them. I have a framework to fix it.

Imagine that you go 6 months in the future.

Your business is shut down.

What could be the reason?

Here is how I use this mental model to ensure MakerBox is safe.

We get sales from Twitter. We get support on Product Hunt launches from Twitter. We build partnerships on Twitter.

And lately, it’s turbulent as crazy. If it continues to be this way, we risk losing our best acquisition channel. The worst part — we don’t have a decent alternative.

What can we do to prevent it from happening?

• Double down on SEO

• Grow and nurture an email list

• Build an audience on LinkedIn (cringe and painful)

I love one-time payments. “Pay once and use the product forever” is the ultimate cheat code to convince users.

But it’s also constant uncertainty — how much will we earn this month? It can be $10 000 or $1000.

What can we do to prevent it from happening?

• Launch a no-code product with a subscription

• Launch a paid newsletter

• Launch a high-ticket marketing coaching

I always struggled to narrow myself down. The same thing happened with MakerBox.

We do everything: landing pages, positioning, newsletters. And for some people, that’s a huge plus — a vertically integrated product to fix every problem. One-stop shop.

But for most people, it’s an objection — Are you really good at everything, or maybe I should find a specialist for each issue?

What can we do to prevent it from happening?

• Focus on marketing only for Solopreneurs

• Pick one marketing area and focus on it

• Decrease the number of offers

To illustrate the point, we have:

• Weekly Dan newsletter (Substack)

• MakerBox Blog (Ghost)

• Customers + Future marketing newsletter (ConvertKit)

That’s three email marketing services in the two-person business. And it’s happening with acquisition channels, content marketing funnels, and operation processes. Messy.

What can we do to prevent it from happening?

• Simplify marketing funnel

• Stop doing marketing campaigns that generate <20% of the results

• Decrease the number of tools we pay for

That’s it!

I hope now you want to implement this framework in your business. It’s not pleasant because it forces you to think of negative consequences. But it’s better to think about them than to experience them.

Thank you for reading this issue. It means a lot to me 🫶

Mind to give me some feedback?

See you on Friday with 5 golden nuggets for Solopreneurs ❤️

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