We only have single-shot customers. When should we start worrying about building a sustainable/repeatable business?

AAnonymous ·October 9, 2014 ·2 answers

We recently started to get some paying customers. That’s great for morale, because before we didn’t get any 🙂 Also and especially b/c we are bootstrapping the company: we’re 2 founders, we do have a working product, but no funding and thus day jobs to get food on the table. Our product is quite niche.

Problem is: all of our customers are single-shot ones: they’re willing to pay to buy the product, but not for it’s usage.

So I’m not sure we’re building a scalable/repeatable business here. Is this a problem we should fix, and when should we start to worry?

2 answers from the community

AAnonymous· Oct 10, 2014

Just keep going. This is usually a function of market segment. Ie., SMB are often very resistant to subscriptions and require one time purchases.

As you move up market, that issue tends to resolve itself. However, to move up market, you have to invest in product, marketing and sales for a long time.

AAnonymous· Oct 11, 2014

Totally agree. We are working through this problem. Customers resistant to subscriptions so we get repeat and add-on sales. Focus on these for now to establish market fit. Two years in we're seeing some repeats. You also have to pursue repeats with tenacity. If you solved a problem once you can solve it again

We only have single-shot customers. When should we start worrying about building a sustainable/repeatable business?

2 answers from the community

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