Why annual plans are a win win and I’m building features for nobody

Hey. So this is episode five, and I'm actually at home today. Got the day off. So I'm working on Upscribe today. And I got I just got off a call with, with Corey from Bearmetrics.

So he's a the guy kinda running their the marketing show over there. And and it was just, like, massively helpful. And and so I wanted to record this, in part just just for my own sake so that I can remember because I didn't record the call. And and, I mean, I took notes like a madman. But but, anyways, wanted to go through because there's a few concepts I think that are extremely huge that, I feel like it's like I should have known.

It you know, it's like I feel like the great ideas, when you listen to somebody who really knows their stuff, they say something. And, you may have heard it a thousand times, but it just couldn't click. It just wouldn't click for you. So there's a few things in this conversation that really clicked for me that, are extremely helpful. So the first thing was the first thing that he said right out of the gate was he's like, I I I'm after working at Barometrics for a while, I'm starting to notice the difference between companies that really have have it together and are are moving in a good direction with their product because they are doubling down on a few features.

They know their customers really well. They're having conversations with their customers, and so they know they know which features to work on. And the companies that don't, that aren't moving in a good direction or aren't moving at a good pace, are building a they're they're he's floundering was the term he used. So it's like, they're these they're they're building all these different features, and they you can tell they don't really know what people want because they're trying too many things. And and and he's describing this, and I'm like, oh, shoot.

This is totally me. And I've and I've heard I've heard the description of these companies so many times, but have never been able to connect the dots and realize that, like, that's exactly what I'm doing. So so hopefully hopefully, you're listening to this podcast, and I'm and maybe it's a couple years from now and Upscribe is in a good place or or or I'm working on the next product that's in a really good place and you're listening back to this and going like like, hopefully hopefully I actually, you know, figured this out and you're able to listen to this and go like, don't worry, Josh. You made it. But anyways, that was a really important thing for me, and I think it's really gonna help me move forward.

Because the there's a there's a couple of different dynamics to that that just change the game. And this is why I love SaaS and bootstrapping so much. And it's because generally in the bootstrapping world, doing it right is easier. It's and it's it's less overwhelming, it's less stressful, and there's less guessing. And it that feels counterintuitive.

Like, you feel like it should be hard, and you feel like it should be stressful, and you feel like it should be overwhelming. And if it's not, then you're doing something wrong. But what he's describing is, like, if you're talking to your customers, so he he recommended at least 10 people should be getting on calls with when you're doing a round of getting a round of feedback, and just asking them questions about what they're doing. Like, you're trying to help them. You're trying to figure out what their issues are and and and how you can provide value to them.

If you know this well enough, then you can work on a couple of features that are very helpful. It's easy to work on just a couple of features. What I've done with Upscribe is I've tried to integrate with all these different tools and add all these different features that I'm guessing people will like because, you know, in some cases, and I think this is a trap that we all fall into, it's like, oh, this company has built this feature. So, like, I built pop ups for Upscribe because there's a company called Wise Pops that just got to 1,000,000 in ARR. And I was like, man, like, that's awesome.

If they can do it, maybe I can add pop ups and it's gonna explode. When in reality, like, there's so many issues with that. Like, for and the most important one is that my customers are bloggers and his cuss and WisePop's customers are in ecommerce. And so in this case, I I just added a feature because I saw somebody doing it really well doing really well with it. And I didn't stop to think, like, do my existing customers and the customers that are coming in through my existing marketing channels need pop ups, and they don't.

I've got very few customers that use it. And I think the ones that do are just kind of like, hey. This is something I can use. But it it doesn't mean that it's so valuable to them that they wouldn't leave Upscribe if I dropped pop if I, yeah, if I drop pop ups. So yeah.

So it's just like that that actually gives me, like, rest. It's like, okay. I need to sit down and talk to customers and then simplify, get rid of all of the all of the features in Upscribe that I'm that my my customers don't need. Because then I don't have to maintain them, and they're not providing value anyways. So yeah.

So that's what I love about that's what I love about bootstrapping. In venture capital, you know, it's like you need to make billions, it needs to be it needs to work for as many people as possible. So you need to figure out how to to cover this wide array of of use cases and features, and and and you have to be bringing in tons of people or tons of revenue. And and I I mean, I'm I'm sure that in some cases, enterprise and stuff, you're able to niche down with capital, like, even if you're in if you're or taking venture capital. But in the case of, like, the type of product that I'm trying to run and the majority of, like, b two b as well, I feel like this is it's it's it's easier to think about the fact that, like, it doesn't need to be for everyone.

It needs to be for a specific group of people, and those specific group that specific group has, like, a list of things that they really need. So I'm not actually gonna go into the other pieces in this call. I'll just one more, actually, because it's quick, hopefully. The the other thing that he was talking about was that we talked about was pricing. So the the pricing that I have on HubSpot right now, because it's just an embeddable form tool, like they're just embeddable forms, it's like and and the customers are bloggers.

They they're not making money on their blog, and so they don't wanna spend a lot of money. And so the lowest tier at $9 a month is still people are still canceling and saying it's too expensive. And and it's a I I mean, I've spent a lot of time on this tool. It's like it's it's a it's a full on form builder, like, application that that in any other in any other industry, it's like it's this is like a heavy doodle duty form builder. But to them, it's just like it's it's it's just too expensive because they just don't have the money to spend.

And or the the money to justify spending because they're they're just they're they're writing for as a hobby or, you know, eventually, wanna do it as a career, but right now, they're not. And and so so what we talked about was how annual pricing becomes much a a much better option for a much more of a win win for for those type of customers because it's one payment, and they don't have to think about it for the rest of the year. And for me, it's one payment, they're gonna use the product for the rest of the year because they paid for it. And even if they leave at the end of the year, it's still money that I wouldn't have made because they they weren't gonna make it that far, maybe. And so it really works well for both of us.

It's not it's and and I've never looked at annual that way. And I also, to be honest, was starting to feel like how can you ever have a product or or sell a product with this low of of a pricing low of pricing. And and so so yeah. So we talked about a few things that we can do with that I can do with Subscribe to to make the annual pricing more make more sense for bloggers. So we'll see what what changes, but I think I think something something I know for sure in the next few weeks, I'm gonna be removing a lot of a lot of taking cutting a lot of the fat out of the the product and removing a lot of features that I'm having to maintain because I thought it was a great idea, but nobody's using.

So, yeah. So this this has been that was super value for valuable for me. Hopefully, I didn't just sound like a crazy person on, like, drugs or something, because I'm clearly on a, like, you know, little bit of a high. But I definitely, I didn't take drugs. Just had a great conversation.

Man, I wish I had the time to to edit this part out. Anyways, that was that. Have a good one. Talk to you next time.