Larry was the boss of an outsourcing company I worked for.
Every time I did something that saved money or helped him earn more, he said:
”You should clone yourself!” - then we both laughed.
The little I knew at 23!
To me, it was funny. To him, it was math and fantasy.
Cloning is the ultimate way to scale an outsourcing software business.
I output a high-quality code at $30/h, which the company resells at a generous $60/h to the client.
And my clone, Akos II. will do the same thing for the same money. We both have a revenue of $30/h.
But what happens to Larry’s revenue?
So far, he was buying my hours at a generous discount of 50%, but now he also has Akos II. to buy from!
Larry now generates not $30 but $60 extra revenue.
Find your productive people. Copy-paste them. Win!
I mean, win for Larry.
However, I heard cloning is messy. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal, too, so don’t do it.
In about 10 years, I went from making $300 at Larry’s to $10 000 a month as a software developer and hit the magical 6 figures in a year.
If there’s one thing, and one thing only, that I should have as a conclusion from the past 10 years is this:
Hourly rates don’t scale.
I hear someone in the back saying:
”But you can always raise rates and make more money.”
You see, the problem is not that you can’t raise rates. The problem is that it is the only leverage you have over how much money you’re making.
At some point, you’ll be physically limited by how many hours you can work. And I beg you, don’t reach this limit. Or if you reach it, don’t do it for long.
So instead of spending the next 10 years of my life asking double or triple the rate that I was asking so far, only to realize that when I’m not working, I’m not getting paid, from now on, I’m consciously declining every offer that has hourly compensation.
The last batch of freelancing projects I accepted was with a fixed price and fixed scope. I wrote more about my fixed-price endeavors here.
So what’s the big idea?
The big idea is to transition from an hourly-priced model to value-based pricing.
And to do this not with software development - which would arguably make the most sense because that's what I’ve been doing for almost 20 years - but with writing.
Why writing?
Writing is versatile.
Writing plays well with everything.
Writing is the multiplier card in your hand.
It doesn’t really matter if I do software or design, the same rules apply.
In the next 3 newsletters, I’m going to answer the following questions:
1. How I’m making money right now?
Breakdown of my 6 figure business
2. What are some ways I’d like to make money in the future?
Sources of income I see doable in the next month that are writing-based
3. What are the tools I’m going to use to achieve this?
My toolbelt: my social media leverage, my blog, my past writing experiences
I’ll be living off of 1) until I figure out how to make 2) work with 3).
How this continues, and the next topics will depend on you and me.
But until then…
I appreciate every minute you spend reading this newsletter.
I hope it inspires, motivates, makes you think, or even entertains you.
Thank you!
- Akos