Bootstrapped Digest With Ashley Baxter

I've finished shooting my last wedding ever! I talk about some of the factors that influenced my decision to quit wedding photography. Wedding photography helped me fund the design and development costs of building With Jack, but it's time to say good bye to that part of my life.

I talk about the importance of positioning. From my early days where I didn't know or specify who my product was for, to now where I'm laser focused on a small group of people. This allows me to focus my messaging, marketing, customer experience and products. This episode is all about the power of positioning.

In this episode I speak to Chris Armstrong, designer and founder. Chris started Niice as a side project 5 years ago. It's now a SaaS app with 100K+ users. We talk about launching at 2.30 in the morning, how he figured out who his target audience was and learning how to talk about his product in a way that would appeal to them.

I used to dive straight into my code editor without talking to potential customers. This lead to a lot of failed projects. Today I share two experiences. One where I built my project in secrecy and kept my cards close to my chest. The other project where I started small, built in public and talked to my customers. It's no coincidence the latter is the project that's made money from day one. All of this leads to me sharing why I think it's important you talk about your idea.

How has the journey to 250 customers looked for me? In a world where TechCrunch articles celebrate the overnight success story, I share my journey of slow and organic growth. It's important we remember growth doesn't look the same for everyone, therefore we must not give up if we fail to hit 6 digits in 48 hours.

It's been a stressful few weeks, but I got through it thanks to a post-it note from 2013 reminding me why I started this business. In this episode, I share the rollercoaster ride of building a start-up. I talk about my original mission with building With Jack and if—1.5 years into launch—I've managed to achieve it.

I talk through the tweaks we made to the customer journey that lead to a 14% increase in sign-ups. These are simple and quick wins that took With Jack's conversion rate from 26% to 40%.

I launched an insurance company in 2016 without instant quotes. For the past 200+ sales I've been manually processing everything. In today's episode I make the argument for launching with the simplest version of your product or service, which sometimes mean manual processes.