I felt the need to share this…and I hope it will help you if you are pre-product launch or in pre-sales mode.

Also note, this probably doesn’t apply for VC backed startups…

but if you are looking to fund your startup…you’re probably screwing it up already, so you can stop reading now…

For those who know not to raise money for your startup…

Bootstrap that motha-truckin idea of yours and start selling ditty mow!

Screw having a product. Start selling before that!

A friend emailed me who is in the pre-sales stage and pre software launch (I’ll keep their name out of this for privacy reasons, again, just want to share hoping it will help others)…but they were basically asking about getting published in a major magazine so they would get tons of sales and how to do that…

My response:

You don’t need to be published.

You need sales.

Getting published in INC, Forbes, Techcrunch, etc does NOT equal sales…at least not for your little startup.

If you do get published this early, it does equal headaches and a wasted opportunity.

Concentrate on nothing else but sales.

One at a time.

You need intensity.

Pretend you are out in the wildnerness, cold, shivering…and you are going to die unless you SURVIVE.

So what do you do?

You f’in survive.

First, you need a fire.

Note: the “fire” is a metaphor for your business…I know. I’m deep.

But how do you build a fire from nothing?

Well…

If you have no knowledge of how to build a fire…you’re dead.

In other words…FIGURE IT OUT!

So…it’s cold…you are going to die if you don’t get a fire going.

So what do you do?

You start rubbing sticks together with ferocious INTENSITY.

Don’t stop until you have a teenie tiny baby coal that you are going to nurse to life like it was your own f’in baby. Think Tom Hanks in that movie with his volleyball lover (what you didn’t know they were lovers?)

Ok, you’ve killed yourself trying to get this little ember started…

Now…add gasoline right?

Hell NO STUPID!

Do you remember how much work it took to get that little baby ember of a coal started?

If you were to pour gasoline on right now…it might light the gasoline…probably not, but if it did, it would probably burn off in a flash and leave you with nothing…you’re Dead…and you wasted the only gasoline you had.

Getting published in a major publication should be later on…after you’ve built your fire up…you add gasoline to a really big bonfire that’s already raging and the fire will continue to burn with or without gasoline…

it’s too early for pouring gasoline on the fire…you’re literally rubbing sticks together right now trying to get a spark…sweating like crazy, cursing under your breath, doubting yourself, wanting to quit and maybe even thinking about giving up and dying, but you keep going because you cant quit and just DIE…so you keep sweating, keep rubbing those sticks together…and at this point…if you pour gasoline on this little baby coal, it would extinguish all of your efforts thus far…

so KEEP GOING…with vigorous intensity…in the right direction…rubbing sticks together, making pre-sales…until you do get a spark (which equals your first pre-sale)…then nurse it to life (keep selling and get to at least 10 customers with your launched product in their hands and on-boarded)…then keep building the fire (keep selling!keep selling!), build a reserve pile of wood to keep it going trough the cold nights ahead (this is your MRR, build it! decrease churn, increase CLTV), then, and only then, start pouring gasoline on the fire, but remember, gasoline is not what MAKES the fire or keeps it going…

but it is super cool to throw on the fire and just plain fun to watch I will admit.

This stage you are in now is survival mode and it is not fun. It’s hard ass work. Sweat, blood, and tears. Literally rubbing sticks together to make fire. That sucks…but it’s worth it to have a nice fire and get out of the cold.

Once you have built a good fire…it’s gets easier to build another one (sell other stuff to your existing customers!)

Hope this helps.

If you liked this and want more…you can Follow Me…

Whatever that means I honestly don’t know…I just saw a blank screen and started writing and blacked out for awhile. What just happened?