HN Explorer

Help - I have too many customers

6 points by nikeywilson ↗ HN
I recently had something explode (in a good way) on me, and I have 1000 people who want to be my paid customer. Since each one requires about 3 hours of work to get going with (no way to streamline this), I obviously can't do this myself.

Anybody have good insights in how to handle this sort of thing?

Think something equivalent to wordpress customizations. Sorry I can't be more specific, there's a stealth-mode component to this (not actual stealth mode as I mention in the thread, just can't mention exact details here).

25 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 66.8 ms ] thread
adelevie
Can you say what you'd be doing for most of those three hours?
nikeywilson
Consulting and Graphic Design mostly. My personal network is oversubscribed, so I obviously need to outsource a lot for this.

But since there are more people than I can even follow up with, here comes trouble.

jeggers5
Hire some employees, that's the most logical thing to do.
andrewstuart
Perhaps explain politely to them that you are a small business and you cannot scale to meet the demand. Thank them for their interest and let them know that much as you would love to help them out, you are far too busy.
nikeywilson
Don't think I can let myself do this :).
andrewstuart
If you take the work but cannot service the demand then you will have killed your standing with those customers.
nikeywilson
Of course. I'm just trying to think up a way to service the demand.
andrewstuart
We might be abe to help if you can identify what type of work it is that needs to be done.
pacifika
Up the prices until there's enough left to handle?
fezzl
Increase your price until just enough demand exists.
nikeywilson
I like this. I haven't discussed money yet but seems like a good option.
allwein
I don't understand how you can consider yourself as having 1000 paid customers if you haven't yet discussed price.
nikeywilson
They all know a base price, and that it might shift upwards. The issue is how much it might shift...
fleitz
I don't understand, you're a consulting and graphic designer (labour) yet your in stealth mode with a service that can't be scaled beyond one person?

Seems like a silly thing to be in stealth mode about, plus it doesn't even sound like you have a product. (Not that a service business isn't a good thing)

Why are you even asking for help if there is no way to streamline it?

trin_
sounds like some form of prototype/landing page / mockup design service. dont really know why that would require stealth mode.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
nikeywilson
Sounds funny I know. I'm not in actual stealth mode, but need to keep everything off-record so am in stealth for purposes of this thread.

It's a service-business based off of customizing a product I have (think wordpress).

fleitz
Then build the customization into the product, also, are you sure they really want to spend three hours with you? Can you not do the Henry Ford method of any color as long as it's black?

If the customization is purely the skin, then create a system for skinning, and get local designers to make skins. Then create a market place for them, and hire a bunch of people to make skins. (I assume it's skinning b/c your a graphic designer).

As an aside: I used to do custom wordpress themes but stopped because it was so much easier to have nice printed themes. Walk into the client with nice glosssy prints. I could buy the theme for $35 bux and resell for much more rather than deal with the nuances of the customer. Most customers just want it to look like some other guy's site anyway so why not provide that?

They actually would pay more for a standard theme because I could turn it around faster, and they were happier because it looked like everyone else's site. As a designer I never understood herd mentality, as a business man, I love it.

nikeywilson
Not sure they'd want to spend 3 hours, but there always is some handholding entailed so I'm planning for the worst.

A template marketplace is coming, but it will take a little bit of time. Ideally I should be almost entirely removed from the equation once that happens.

As far as goes with the local designers, I've been going through an auditing process. The one problem is that since they'd need to deal with the clients directly, I need to be sure they are somewhat personable themselves.

jdietrich
Double your prices, then double them again.

Outsource any task that you don't add unique value to.

epaga
Figure out how many people you COULD handle, and auction off that many orders to your 1000 people.
andrewstuart
1000 people who have expressed interest is very different from 1000 people who have placed a cash up front order.

Ask for the cash-up-front orders and then come back and tell us how big your demand problem really is.

nikeywilson
Very true. I imagine that even though 1100 will commit, some will flake leaving me with 800 or 900 (or maybe half that).

However, I'd like to prepare for that demand problem in case it does arrive whole hog.

andrewstuart
Your conversion assumptions are ambitious.
nikeywilson
Possibly, but they are actually being directly passed to me from another organization's pipeline. So they are already paying customers and my services become an add-on to their bill rather then a separate bill.

Regardless, I have to prepare for the chance that every last one becomes a paying customer. Not optimistically, but pessimistically :).