As a solopreneur, how much time do you spend building vs. marketing?
Bren Kinfa 💎 SaaS Gems
15 replies
As a solopreneur, you've got a lot on your plate.
Building.
Marketing.
Support.
And that's just the surface, to be honest.
Especially in the early stages - if you don't yet have the resources to delegate or outsource, you'll be doing lots of this stuff on your own.
That then begs the question...how much time do you spend building vs. marketing? Do you go through phases and cycles? Spending different days of the week per activity?
Curious to hear your approach!
Replies
Danni Emanuel@danni_emanuel
As a solopreneur, managing multiple tasks is indeed a significant challenge. Balancing building, marketing, and support responsibilities is crucial, especially in the early stages of a business when resources for delegation or outsourcing are limited.
In terms of time allocation, I often find myself going through phases and cycles, dedicating different days of the week to specific activities. For instance, I may focus on building and product development for a couple of days, then shift my attention to marketing efforts for the next few days. This approach allows me to maintain a level of consistency while also ensuring that each aspect of the business receives the attention it requires.
By structuring my time in this way, I can effectively manage the various demands of running a business as a solopreneur.
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We have no paid customers yet so I've forced myself to stop building until we have customers giving us feedback :)
i think marketing is what we do after the product is a usable stage, before that i think creating awareness of the product is important which could be done via community like PH and spend some hours regularly. Marketing is lead generation for sales which i think can only be done when there is a ready product. Hope this make sense. Thanks ( :
@istiakahmad For my personal experience, marketing is not only about shout out to the world about what you built. But in it's core, it about talking to user, launching soon, and see how the world feedback to your product (even when it is just a rough MVP). These kind of activities are crucial, more important than building thing, I believe (I was a solo tech founder, who used to sit all day in the lab building stuff myself)
I focused on building something small and specific that is good enough to speak for itself. Once I had that, I focused on consistency and content marketing - providing value without asking anything in return.
I hope to maintain a 50%:50% balance between marketing and building.
I've realized that in the early stages of a product, marketing and user communication are more important than refining the product. Premature optimization is the root of all evil.
Once there is a sufficient user base in the later stages, more time can be allocated to refining the product.
Of course, this is just my personal opinion, and its correctness still needs to be verified over time.
80% building, 20% or less marketing
It may take many months to create an application, but marketing is a very important thing and in parallel, my team works on marketing from the very beginning of creation.
The balance between building and marketing as a solopreneur can vary based on your product's stage and goals. In the early stages, prioritize building to create a solid foundation. As you progress, allocate more time to marketing for visibility and user acquisition. A common guideline is an 80/20 split early on (building/marketing) and adjusting based on evolving needs and feedback. Adapt the ratio based on your product's growth stage and priorities.
Balancing building and marketing as a solopreneur is a continuous juggle. I allocate specific days for each, ensuring focused and efficient work. For example, Mondays and Wednesdays might be dedicated to building, while Tuesdays and Thursdays focus on marketing efforts. Weekends allow for reflection and planning. Structuring my time helps maintain a rhythm in both creating and promoting the product. How about you? Are any specific strategies that work well for your solopreneur journey?
Not solo, but we are small and lean so will share my exp and thoughts.
1. I am going into cycles.
Building cycles, where 3-4 days are fully on building, and the rest marketing/outreach.
Feedback cycles. 3-4 days focused on outreach / marketing 50-50 the rest building.
2. Cycles changed based on milestones and primary bottleneck.
- no clarity what to build, going in feedback mode.
- gathered enough feedback, than building.
3. Still feels that marketing is underdeveloped on our end 😓