I just completed my first real survey to better understand my customers, website users, and target market. Though I haven’t sent it out to anyone other than my mom, husband, and kids, I have a heavy boulder-like feeling of anxiety in my chest.
This is going to sound super cliche (or like I stole it from Nelson Mandela), but I am starting to consider the fact that I am not actually afraid of people’s negativity, criticism, or disinterest in my company – I think I am afraid of letting them all down.
Over the course of the last month or so as I began to feel brave enough to separate my emotions from my company and really listen to what people had to say about my startup and its offerings, I have discovered that people have some pretty amazing suggestions, advice, and feedback for attracting and sustaining customer interest.
I feverishly write it all down and gratefully absorb every granule of input. Sometimes I ask our graphic designer to mock something up and sometimes I even ask my husband to code a change to the site. But mostly, the feedback sits in my stack of startup learnings and waits for me to take action.
Being bootstrapped, broke, and bombarded with babies means most of the brilliance that people throw my way doesn’t get to materialize. Someone could literally hand me the be-all end-all of marketplace success and I still wouldn’t have the resources to implement it right away.
Okay. That really sucks to hear myself say that out loud. This is where I take a deep breath and realize that there is no one holding a gun to the back of my head telling me to go! go! go! I will get there. I continue to make progress. I am inching my way along. And I still need the feedback.
I do need to know what people want because without this, I won’t be able to earn enough revenue to pay for things like talent, childcare, and resources. So I am making a strategic decision to seek out validation in numbers. A piece of great advice from one person is awesome. That advice, when backed up by many other people, could actually help me create a roadmap that will guide me on the path to sustainable revenue.
So with that said, below is a link to my survey. I will be forever grateful for your honesty and time. And in return, if anyone out there ever needs to “interview” or survey me for their startup, send those requests my way!!
From Welfare to Millionaire 