Have you ever imagine being given the chance to eat only once in your life, then no more meal whatsoever, you have to live on, and die?
As biological being, we consume resource, and dispose waste. We do not stuff ourselves so that we will live on for the next week. Instead, we store the food, and eat it up for the next few months. Human have learned the ability to foresee and predict their food resources. And now, it’s time to transit that ability to wealth and business.
You don’t want to make money once. You want to make money everyday.
Making money by charging a lot of people within a long period is scalable. You can afford to lose money as well. If you can build the technology that back the tech, it is very easy to impress people and make money. There are a lot of people who are not technical. And you should help them. Say it, I want to help non-technical people!
Margin: the difference between how much you spent to maintain your business versus your revenue out of it.
To increase the margin: + Lower the cost + Increase the revenue + Lower the cost and increase the revenue
Unicorns are the one who could handle the 3rd situation.
For what it’s worth, definitely know you deserve what you make. Doing something you enjoy doesn’t mean you are not qualify for the payment. Someone has to do it, and it’s best have the guy who enjoy doing it. And choose to be paid more than less, and blame the economic of using money for it, rather than cursing your employee in the long run.
Make friends and ask them how much they charge. The community game has to be played, either publicity or in stealth mode. Understand that the sale guys and the guy who develop the tech are equal. Even tho the tech guy might have spent more time making the shit work from the beginning, the tech guy should not dismiss the important of the sale guy. And vise versa, sale guys looking to establish a startup should not underestimate the value a tech guy will bring. Respect each other.
The reason people cannot uphold this balance in respect is due to these story:
Tech guys creates the tech and transitioning into the sale guy and eventually make an unicorn company that shine for ages. (BG and MZ) This spark the DIY/DIO philosophy amongst young engineer, which is good…
Sale guys came up with a great idea, scouts for some great tech guy, make the stuff, got funded, then got big. By the time they reached some $M in value, the tech guy (now CTO) eventually got replaced.
Sale guys learn tech, and work on team and eventually get everything working.
Haven’t seen a good story where the tech guy and the sale guy agreed on a balanced term. Maybe Apple?…
Expectation need to establish before a business is started.
However, when it comes to family and friendship, keep it warm and close as you wish. But the moment you start a business, do expect diligent.
Always read the term of contract. You do not want to lose the ability to do something just because a startup is exploiting an easy system to work on some stuff.