3 great articles I read in 2019

I often turn to mentors and other shareholders for advice, but my most trusted friend is Mr. Google. Whether it’s personal or professional, I google my worries.

2019 was a particular rollercostery year for our company. My browser history will testify to this. It ranged from «how to increase revenue with less resources» to «how to make successfull startup hires». We started the year with an empty checking account and ended it with more investors and revenue than ever before. So I wanted to take the time to share some of the articles that helped me.

Fixing motivation

In the beginning of the year, my days seemed to grow longer and longer and I was missing the general motivation and kept procrastinating every little task.

Our fundraising goals seemed impossible and I was beating myself up about not reaching it. But sometimes, just realizing why you feel a certain way, makes it easier. And that’s what I did through this article: 8 reasons why you lack motivation and how to fix it

If you like this article, Mark Manson’s pop psychology book “The subtle art if not giving a f**k” can also serve a similar soothing purpose for an overwhelmed mind like mine.

Exploring pricing models

After I had picked myself up, I realized that to reach our goal we needed to make more money with less resources. While our current business model was an all inclusive membership where you could have as much success as you wanted for a yearly fee, we now needed to earn more money per customer. In addition to the membership, we added a «no cure, no pay» option for Non Members where we required less commitment and a fee per success.

This ended up being perfect for those who had been considering WA.works for a while, but never became members. They were willing to pay a higher price for a guaranteed result, rather than risking no result in a membership. And for others, the membership suddenly seemed very appealing and cheap! So we were actually an my business model research, this was one of the articles I found useful: The 7 key SAAS pricing models explained

Hiring great people

With this new business model and growth, we reached our investor goal and now ready for scaling. Having had to downsize in the beginning of the year, we now were in a position to hire some much needed resources within development and sales. Here’s a great article on what qualities I looked for in our new coworkers: 9 traits of a great startup employee

Some other great resources I used in 2019 were:

• Sales tactis by Hubspot: 25 closing phrases
• Presentation skills by Charisma on Demand: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLefV978fp07dajKW7YG3l0vyxsLdSs5qz
• Inspiration from Gary Vee: https://www.youtube.com/user/GaryVaynerchuk/videos?view=0&sort=p&shelf_id=11