Paywithsteem : The Journey in Founding PayWithSteem (Weekly Newsletter Week 2)

paywithsteem (63)in #paywithsteem • 7 years ago

Paywithsteem : Weekly Newsletter (Week 2)

Hi guys, it's @sam.hsuu here and I'll be writing this week's newsletter from a personal POV. I figure that when @btcvenom and @zord189 launched Paywithsteem, the initiative set off plenty of business ideas among many Steemian entrepreneurs, myself included.

Seeing that Paywithsteem is the first to commercialize STEEM, I thought it'd be helpful to share with you my learning curve and some important lessons I've learned from being part of the founding team.

First, it's barely been 2 weeks ever since we launched Paywithsteem and we've already made so much progress. If you've missed our previous announcements here, let me summarize them for you:

You can now buy things on AMAZON through Paywithsteem
We released our official I ❤ PAYWITHSTEEM Merchandise
Our Christmas Flash Sales are selling fast!
We became the OFFICIAL LICENSED RESELLER for some of the coolest Pop Culture Merchandise on the Internet!
We are trying to make our service available in the UK and reducing delivery time
We are in the midst of negotiating reseller’s license for some major brands

With these in mind, we'll move on to 5 lessons I've learned from being part of the founding team at Paywithsteem.

#1 Decisiveness is a tragically underrated skill.

We are spoilt with choices and options. Never has there ever been a generation before us that are blessed with the Internet/free ideas/free advice. No wonder everybody thinks that they can start a business right? Suddenly, everyone is an entrepreneur; big dreams, more ideas, more side projects… because every idea seems to have so much potential in making money.

I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but what exactly made this platform take off and spike in sales was the team's ability to remain decisive and disciplined in our next move at all times. It’s so easy to call someone with 99 ideas and side projects an ‘entrepreneur’, but all of that means nothing if there is no commitment into growing your brainchild. Don’t be sidetracked, don’t be distracted. Go deep, not broad. Foster the ability to STICK TO A PLAN, and always prioritize the growth and development of the project.

Some examples you can follow are:

Consistency in updating your followers (newsletters, announcements, etc)
Consistency in making improvements to your website
Consistency in engaging with your followers and customers (in our case, it's discord)
Never deviate from your original business plan (like starting a side business before you established your foundation)

#2 You must think for the long-run.

I'll give you a case study which the team at Paywithsteem encountered 3 days after launching the website. At this point, about 90% of the commentators and Steemians who joined our channel on discord applauded our initiative and are giving constructive feedback on our site. Some of the feedback include suggestions like listing branded products (Apple, Razer, Sennheiser, etc) on our website for sale and do away with dropshipping products. The concern raised in the discussion was that having these big brands on our site will raise the quality offered by Paywithsteem, while dropshipping isn’t exactly impressive.

The team was thrilled with this idea, but there was a licensing problem; listing those brands without an expressed consent from the brand itself will likely result in the suspension of our business.

I say 'likely', because many resellers actually got away with it and never got caught.

Now, when presented with a crossroad like this, please note that it's always tempting to take the risky shortcut for the instant boost in branding image and revenue, especially when there are statistics to prove the saying of "thousands never got caught, so why would you?"

We say, don't ever take risks with breaking the law. There's always a door to any barrier to entry in any marketplace. In our case, our door was simply to obtain licenses from brands, legally. And that is what we're doing right now.

#3 Organic may be dead on mainstream social media, but not on Steemit. Make full use of it.

Social media marketing is my forte, it's what I do for a living in the real world. I've helped companies spend 100k a year on Facebook marketing for whatever branding and selling purposes, and like everyone else... I thought that's the way to go. But holy shit, STEEMIT IS A GAME CHANGER because right until now, we have not spent a single cent on any marketing effort, and we've already got over $200 in sales and counting.

Pour all your effort and energy into your marketing strategy on Steemit, if you're going to start a business that trades in STEEM and SBD. If you want to start e-newsletters like we do, go ahead. Want to make a tutorial video? Do it! What makes organic advertising on Steemit so powerful, is that right now the demand for initiatives like Paywithsteem is much higher than the supply (hey, it's just us now... *waavvve *) and there is little competition on the platform.

#4 Communicate, communicate, communicate.

There is no room for assumption when it comes to teamwork and business. Especially in the case of startups and collaborations, transparency is a decisive factor for trust and dealing with problems and conflicts in an open and honest manner. In the early stages of establishment, we make it a point to update each other on a daily basis our job scope, progress, and the challenges we may face.

Be clear about your strengths and weaknesses. If you guys live on the other side of the word, talk about the time zone and manage each other's expectation of the speed of delivering your work. If you're in the project for a slice of the $$$ pie, SAY IT. If you don't feel appreciated enough, tell your team that you'd like to hear a 'thank you' or a 'great job' once in a while.

At Paywithsteem, the team has cultivated a healthy habit of thanking each other whenever a task is completed, and we encourage you to do the same.

I can't emphasize more on just how important communication is! Feelings snowball, whether they are good or bad ones. If you catch the good feeling and chemistry with your team members, awesome! We are happy for you! But you must remember to address everything ASAP because in a startup, everything is moving very quickly and we all just want to get shit done.

KONG 38.png

#5 Procrastination. Just no.

Oh, don't we all? Let me tell you that I'm writing this at 2.20am in the morning and I still have to get my ass into the office tomorrow at 9am! I can always come up with a legit excuse to say that I'm busy with my day job to tell the team that I can only deliver this week's e-newsletter tomorrow.

But I don't. And that's because what @perennial told me about integrity has stuck with me until today.

"Anybody can have a bad day. But I have a promise to keep."

Whenever you procrastinate, you are directly telling your team members that their project is secondary. Lack of commitment is the biggest no-no in any startup and is the single biggest killer responsible for the deaths of many startups. Passion is NOT commitment; discipline and grit is.

How about this as a benchmark; when it starts getting uncomfortable and you managed to overcome the temptation of giving lame excuses to delay, you're halfway through breaking the vicious cycle of procrastination.

We hope this article gave you an idea about what to expect when you kickstart your next big project!

Good luck, friends! Feel free to give @btcvenom and @zord189 a PING on discord if you'd like some advice. We also welcome any constructive feedback and discussion on how to improve our service and take our business one step further.

Enthusiastically,
@sam.hsuu
Director of First Impressions

‘Spend Where you Earn’

The Team at Paywithsteem wishes you Happy Holidays

‘Pay with Steem, Fulfilling Dreams’