157: Downshifting to a Delightfully Part-Team Team with Laura Roeder
What type of business would you build if you no longer needed the money? After a life-changing exit from her previous company, Meet Edgar, Laura Roeder’s answer: a fun one.
She is now more focused than ever on building a business that is bootstrapped, agile, asynchronous, joyful for all involved, and powered by part-time team members who love what they do. In this conversation, we discuss why Laura downshifted from a structure with 30 full-time employees to one that’s leaner, saying no to the Business Ops Police, the perks of part-time team members (for you and them), and why “winner take all” markets are a myth.
More About Laura: Laura Roeder is a lifelong entrepreneur and founder of several multi-million dollar bootstrapped companies. Her current two focuses are Paperbell and CoachCompare; prior to that, she built and sold MeetEdgar, co-founded Marie Forleo’s B-School, and ran LKR Social Media.
🌟3 Key Takeaways:
Look for people who get tremendous satisfaction (even if not passion) from the work you need done. What types of problem-solving and projects do they find inherently fun?
“Your business is your utopia” (Derek Sivers): The reason you work for yourself is to have greater control and freedom.
“The inside of your business should be as beautiful as the outside.” How can you build systems and employ software that engenders a sense of relief for all involved?
📝Permission: To enjoy your business! Drop any shoulds you’re carrying from the Business Ops Police.
✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Is your current software stack causing stress or making you sigh with relief? Make sure each tool is helping more than it’s hurting, replace any that aren’t, and even better still—see if any new tools can combine what separate ones are doing.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't by Verne Harnish
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur by Derek Sivers
Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top by Bo Burlingham
🔗Resources Mentioned:
Laura on the web, Paperbell, CoachCompare, Instagram: @laurakroeder, Twitter, LinkedIn
Article: Exactly How I Cold Emailed My Way to A Life-Changing Exit (and You Can Too)
Videos: The Pre-launch Strategy That Built MeetEdgar a 100k List - Laura Roeder at Converted 2016, Laura Roeder: How She Grew MeetEdgar Into A Multi-million Dollar Business speaks at LTV Conf 2018, Gail Goodman on The Long, Slow SaaS Ramp of Death (~25 min in)
Tools: MixPanel, SalesForce, Meet Edgar, HelpScout, ClickUp, Notion, Dubsado, Kajabi, Practice, DuckDuckGo, Hootsuite
Podcasts: Laura Roeder on They Got Acquired, Built to Sell #344: How to Make Your Email List Worth 7-Figures, The Art of Newsletters 069: Laura Roeder – Building the Best Brand in Your Niche, Matt Mullenwig on Making Sense #194 — The New Future of Work (Blog post recap: 5 Levels of Autonomy), Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong on The Tim Ferriss Show
🎧Related Podcast Episodes:
145: Tips for Training Part-Time Team Members with Kaneisha Grayson
131: Scaling Joy While Streamlining Business Overhead and Navigating ADHD with Kaneisha Grayson
113: Pivoting from Breather to Practice While Setting Better Boundaries with Julien Smith
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