Oh hey there -
I’m kicking off a series of monthly catch-ups to share what I’ve been up to. Think of it as a casual, async coffee chat about my journey with the workflow company, the workflow automation agency I launched last month, plus what’s top of mind for me.
Not that you ever did, but please don’t expect Pulitzer level material here. My emails won’t be the most interesting nor the most informative piece of writing you come across every month - but I promise to try to keep them unfiltered and straightforward.
These notes will be as much for me as they are for you. When you're bootstrapping a business all on your own, the quiet can get loud, and the echo chamber of your thoughts, even louder. My plan is to hit pause once a month, step back, and share my progress. Hopefully, it's a win-win: I’ll walk away with some clarity while providing you with a little peek into the behind-the-scenes of WFCO and whatever else I got going on.
If this isn’t your jam - no hard feelings, hit the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.
You may have also noticed that I’ve changed the name of this publication to “Joe’s Emails” - the vague naming is by design as I still haven’t quite figured out what this newsletter will become one day. But we’re officially moving on from the Ops Hacks branding, which lives on only in our memory and Substack’s archives.
Alright, that's enough housekeeping. Let’s dive into what happened in October.
The launch
Alright, let’s talk about the launch. In early October, I pushed the website out into the world and dropped the announcement on LinkedIn. To be completely upfront, the site was far from polished and I whipped up the LinkedIn post on the morning of and decided to stop fussing over every detail. Perfectionism was starting to look a lot like procrastination.
Thankfully, the flaws I was fixated on didn’t seem to register with anyone else. The Spotlight Effect is real, and despite what the frequency of my Linkedin posts might tell you, I deal with it all the time.
Anyway, the LinkedIn post picked up some traction, and the inquiries started rolling in, which was both unexpected and pretty amazing.
A heartfelt thanks to everyone who liked, shared, or commented to amplify the announcement.
The pilot program
With so many things to figure out in the business but wary of making wrong moves, I decided to start with a pilot program. The phrasing gives me a lot of wiggle room to experiment and iterate, both psychologically and in actuality.
I’ve got a small group of initial clients that are looking to streamline and automate a workflow in their business. While I'm framing this as a pilot program, in essence, the service rendered is very similar to what’s to come. So what is different? Let's talk about the terms:
1. Name your own price
Not a typo - I’m genuinely handing over the pricing reins to my clients. Wild, right? Sure, I might be leaving money on the table. And yes, there’s a good chance I might kick myself for it later. From a strict revenue standpoint, it's not exactly textbook strategy.
So this approach might seem unorthodox, \but here's why I think it makes sense for me right now:
First off, it removes pricing as a variable in the buyer’s mind. No more head-scratching over whether my service is worth X or Y amount because they get to call the shots on that. It removes perhaps the biggest risk factor in one’s purchase decision, which helps expedite the process and builds momentum for my business.
Then there’s the insight I gain from how clients react to this. It’s a great litmus test for compatibility. One of the perks of running my own business is the ability to choose who I work with - teammates and clients alike. If a potential client is dragging their feet or haggling despite the deal being a steal, it's a red flag for me.
And if all's clear on that front, any hesitation might just point to a hitch in my offer. Why would someone pass on a seemingly no-brainer deal? This helps me refine my offer.
2. Testimonial + case study
So the client gets to name their own price, and in return, I ask for a testimonial and a case study. Both pieces of content will go on WFCO’s website and social media to (hopefully) attract more clients.
Social proof is the most important thing to establish as a new business, so I’m willing to forego short term revenue in return for a solid foundation of satisfied early customers that are willing to vouch for WFCO.
Beyond that, I'm genuinely eager to showcase tangible, real-world applications of automation that any business could integrate. I’m hoping this will land with prospective clients in a way that compels them to think about what automation could do for their business.
3. Time-bound, one-time automation
One of the most difficult aspects of running a service-based business, whether as an agency or a fractional exec, is finding new clients. For that reason, I’d want my regular service offering to be recurring in nature - an ongoing partnership. I’ve been mulling over eventually switching to a monthly subscription model, but I’ll save that for another time.
For now, the pilot is about delivering an automated solution for a single workflow with a tight deadline. This is just to safeguard against scope creep and to manage expectations.
Early results
I’m excited to share that I’ve started working with two clients, with a few more in the pipeline.
One client is a Series A startup who is launching a new line of business and needs data visibility on it ASAP. So we are building an automated dashboard and internal tooling inside of Google Sheets, in a way that’s iterable and scalable as the new business takes shape.
The second client is firmly in the traditional brick-and-mortar SMB space - a specialty meat butcher with a delivery service. They manage out-of-town deliveries and are looking to streamline their customer communications. Automations will update customers on pick-up points, timing, and delivery delays, among other details.
Two wildly different businesses, but both needing automation to streamline their operations.
Top of mind
Below are a couple topics that have been top of mind for me over the past month.
1. Show, not tell
A side benefit to selling workflow automation as a service - compared to most other areas of operations, it’s easier to showcase your work. Compared to, say, stakeholder management or KPI setting, you can show your automation work in a visually compelling way.
So I’ve been considering the most effective ways to demonstrate my work. I spend the most time on LinkedIn as it’s the platform of choice for most prospective clients. I’ve experimented with video content there, but the platform seems to favour text - it garners more views and interactions, with far less effort involved.
So I’m thinking Youtube could be interesting for automation walkthroughs. But I'm cautious about overextending myself across various social media platforms.
Alternatively, considering the time investment required for video, I could showcase automations through screenshots and text, albeit less effectively.
Not sure what the right path is at the moment, so I’ll continue to experiment in a non-committal manner.
What do you think?
2. Niching down
My current tagline is “we automate manual workflows for SMBs and startups”. It’s really quite broad.
My aim is to narrow this down, perhaps to a single industry or a cluster of related sectors. The benefits are clear: more targeted marketing, sharpened sales pitches hitting industry-specific pain points, and the ease of building a focused brand.
This specialization could streamline my operations - less diverse problems mean more standardized solutions, a consistent tool stack, and hence, a reduced learning curve. Which ultimately leads to a process that lends itself well to systematization and delegation 🤩
But I don’t want to jump too hastily and pick an industry for the sake of it.
I’m optimistic that ongoing client interactions and project experiences will organically steer me towards that niche.
Wrapping up the first month
It’s been both an exciting and confusing first month at the workflow company. I’m grateful to already be working with clients solving real problems for them, but there’s still so much of the business that I have yet to figure out.
In those moments when I find myself lost in endless reflections, I bring my focus back to the now, to the elements under my control. I remind myself that everything can and will be figured out.
With all that said, what would you do? I love hearing from you all. Let me know your thoughts by replying to this email.
Joe