One night, my wife and I created a website for a services company that we joked about running.
We wanted to just envision and experiment with SEO, and also local targeting. To our surprise, someone found it and shared it on a large Reddit thread and we got bombarded with real life people needing the service.
We had created an automated booking system, along with payment system. So one day we checked our backend and we saw we had around 15 people booked.
Once we realized this, we quickly reached out to everyone and rebooked them and started providing the service.
The problem is: I already have a job (not as decently paid as this service), and my wife has a full time job. We both don’t really have it in us to grow or run a business.
We’re stuck. I really enjoy new projects but I already have many, plus I’m back in school. We get new referrals each week but we don’t have the capacity to take it on.
What should we do? Part of me wants to grow it a bit more and try to sell it to someone who does what to grow it. But the other rather give it to a co-op that just started that is doing similar services. This co-op is part of a non profit that helps folks grow small businesses.
We just can’t keep up but getting new clients every week makes me feel like I shouldn’t drop the ball on it.
Anybody every been on this situation? Tbh I would rather do some Sas than service business.
Edit: In person Translation services but with a specific niche.
Posted by Electrical-Key907
14 Comments
Honestly? Take the plunge man. You got an opportunity here most people wish for for years. Unless you’re super risk averse and prefer stabillity, dont waste this chance at building a business
Hey man rlly interesting stuff. Dropped you a dm lets chat
Honestly sounds like you need a co-founder to run the business while you and your wife work. Congrats and finding a niche. do you mind sharing a little more?
What’s the niche ? Cleaning?
Maybe you can set the system up to track when people want to book, but only allow certain times that you’re actually able to perform the service.
Similar to how OpenTable lets you pick a time but then only shows you the open time slots near your specific time.
Can you hire it out?
Find a co-founder to run it and let them pay themselves well, agree on a division of labour, and division of revenue/profit. Set out a deal where you can be hands off but paid and maintain a decent stake, but also be fair to the new founder. Have an exit clause if they don’t live up to obligations.
Best case they grow it and you get a cut for very little time invested, or you can jump ship and work on it if it explodes to a point that it’s even better than now.
Can exit services businesses as well as SaaS but at a lower multiple. That said service businesses often can lead to a SaaS business, I wouldn’t let go of that kind of stickiness, people spend 10 years trying to get that kind of engagement.
I would personally try and find someone to run it for you, if the money is that good there won’t be a shortage of candidates with experience and interest. I’m sure this Sub will have 10s of interesting people to talk to.
Don’t let fear kill a great opportunity.
I have a few thoughts for you. Just DM me.
If you’re overwhelmed but don’t want to drop the ball, you might consider finding a co-founder who can run the day-to-day operations Also, you could set up your booking system to only allow times when you’re available, similar to OpenTable
Another idea is to potentially pivot into something less labor-intensive like SaaS My startup, Starman AI, is currently in free alpha testing It helps validate business assumptions quickly and could be a great tool if you decide to explore new tech-based ventures We’d love your feedback You can check it out at [starmanapp.ai](http://starmanapp.ai)
Sell it for a profit. That may be your ticket to retirement 😀
Wow, this is an exciting problem to have! I’m 19 and haven’t started anything like this yet, but it’s inspiring to see how something that started as an experiment can turn into a real business. I think it’s a good idea to consider selling or passing it off to the co-op, especially if they’re aligned with your values and can take it to the next level. It sounds like you’re already juggling a lot, and finding a way to let someone else grow the business while you focus on your other projects (or explore SaaS like you’re more interested in) could give you some peace of mind.
Plus, by selling or partnering with someone, you might still be able to keep a hand in the business or get some financial return without the day-to-day stress. Either way, congrats on the success so far, and good luck deciding where to take it next!”
It’s extremely simple, hire a co-founder/agency to deal with EVERYTHING on the backend, or drop your job. I don’t think you understand how extremely rare it is to find 15 people that need your service that quickly, and you didn’t even actually do insane market research on the service you’re providing, you got lucky.
When the universe gives you luck, and you reject it, expect to never receive any luck again. I run my own agency so this could be biased in saying so, but if you find a good agency that can take on this issue I’d trust them over a random co-founder who is self interested in profit rather than reputation.
If you decide to quit your job to pursue, just know it’s not gonna be ‘fun’ or easy, making money is fun, the work to get there is not and it’s also difficult and taxing on your mental.
So if you have enough spare money to hire an agency, I’d recommend this above all else, I know nothing about what you’re service is, or what niche you are in, or how much you make per client so I cannot even give you an estimate on what I’d charge if my agency took upon this task. If you do go down the agency route try and find one similar to me who charges much less than the actual price should be for the first month to prove capability, or better yet exactly what I do and don’t charge anything (personally towards me and my team, if there’s an ad spend necessity the agency will always need you to fund it) until AFTER the guarantee they give you is complete. In your case it would probably look something like ‘We guarantee to close 8-10 of your bookings or you don’t pay us a dime.’
Final note so you understand this is NOT an opportunity to drop; “We just can’t keep up but getting new clients every week makes me feel like I shouldn’t drop the ball on it.” Mate. You have found an acquisition system that WORKS BY ACCIDENT, this is EASILY the hardest part of ANY business, you sell a product or service, great! Now do you have a constant stream of clients coming in? Aw no, looks like I need to work REALLY hard and put loads of stress into finding a SUREFIRE way of acquiring a stream of clients permanently. Guess what, you’ve completely skipped this extremely tedious and mentally draining aspect of running a business, please for all of us who have struggled in our businesses with these very aspects, DO NOT give up on such an incredibly awesome opportunity man.
Sell the leads to another business that proves the service
Just run it and see if you can make proper money. 6 months of pain for lifetime of freedom…