Week #2: Am I climbing up the right mountain?

A couple of weeks ago I decided to build my online solo business by becoming a Shopify expert.

This endeavour is a big commitment which will take years to take-off properly.

To make sure I am committing to a business path that is worthy of my time I've done some quick analysis regarding my decision.

🌈 Vision

I began by laying out my vision for this business. It's simple.

I begin by building a Portfolio, which will include a personal website offering freelance services, 2 themes and 2 blog posts aimed for merchants. The goal of this milestone is to attract freelancing gigs later on. This should take 3-6 months.

The next step will be to actually start Freelancing. I will use platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. The goal of this milestone is to build a network, get experience and get in touch with real world Shopify scenarios. This should last approximately 1 year.

The next/adjacent step is to become a Digital Maker, by which I mean to actively sell Shopify themes and apps on platforms like Shopify App Store or Envato ThemeForest. The purpose of this milestone is to build a repertoire of Shopify products that generate passive income and to learn, learn and learn. This will go hand-in-hand with freelancing.

The final step is to become a SaaS founder. Given my Shopify experience gained through freelancing and the expertise gained throughout being a digital maker, I'll see patterns and problems that I can solve with an automated SaaS solution. I assume this level take the most years: 3 to 5.

Then, I'll have to reach my target MRRs. I will define milestones, and go step-by-step. Among my first goals will be to reduce my daily 9-5 job to 4 working days, then 3, then to quit.

That's the plan from bird's-eye view. Currently I am 33 years old, meaning that by the time I hit 40 I should have a working SaaS, passive income from digital products and freelancing gigs if I wanted to.

🅱️ Plan B

If I decide to quit, I can decide in-between the milestones. If I fail to build a portfolio or come to a deal-breaking realisation, I have wasted 3-6 months. If I quit after doing some freelancing gigs, then I have wasted a year. Same, if I realize that selling digital products is not that easy or fun as I expected.

Since the heavy time investment comes when I try to make it as a SaaS founder, there is no big risk up until then.

However, I strongly believe that with this strategy, by the time I try to make it with a SaaS I will be backed up with expertise and experience that will help me not wanting to quit.

🚚 Transferrable skills

If I do decide to quit, here are the transferrable skills I can take elsewhere. If the reason of quitting is Shopify itself, I can simply take the whole model to a different platform. I'll have knowledge of:

Building templates for website builders with templating languages (applicable for Framer, Wix, Squarespace etc.)
Knowledge and expertise of freelancing platforms
Knowledge and expertise of digital marketplaces (e.g: Envato)
Knowledge and expertise of designer tools (Affinity, Figma, Penbot)

Freelancing and selling digital products can be replaced by each other, however I believe both provides great expertise that'll support my SaaS endeavour.

📊 SWOT analysis

Then I continued at looking at my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

💪 Strengths

I am a generalist. I like to design, code, write, collaborate and perform on stage. This is a good skillset to become an online entrepreneur.
I am a performer. I like to speak on stage, which can be used as leverage..
I am an experienced web developer. This makes me more relaxed and focused.
I consider myself an "optimalist". This means, I'm good at going with the good-enough iteration instead of the best one (used to be a perfectionist, not anymore).

🤒 Weaknesses

Can get distracted easily. I am guilty of chasing cheap dopamine. Even though, this distractions are related, they are still productivity killers. These include:
- Looking at personal brands and analysing them
- Looking at new, simpler, cheaper tools and analysing them
- Theorising with AI, looking for reinforcement
I am a quitter? In the past I have experimented with various business endeavours, each one leading to this one right here. I'm not 100% sure this is a weakness, because I believe serious commitment needs to be preceded by thorough experimentation. Anyways, this weakness is the reason I am doing this analysis upfront this time.
I am sensitive to feedback. I have to admit this one. When people who I consider layman criticise my work I tend to explain it by not having the necessary expertise. I have to work on this one.
I am a lone wolf. I love working creatively on my own. In order to succeed as an entrepreneur I have to learn to reach out at poke the world.

💡 Opportunities

Public speaking at events. Since the Shopify freelancing business seems to have a lot of competition, I can try to stand out by recording and uploading public speaking presentations at events. I love performing on stage, so this might be something that's both fun and beneficial.

🔥 Threats

Spending too much on passive learning. New information is only useful when it's being put in use. That's why I'll apply project-based learning. From Monday to Friday every morning I will work on a project, and I'll gather knowledge that is required to the success of that project.
Too little progress so I gave up. If I focus on the wrong tasks, my projects will not progress. That's why I'll focus on one single project at the time. I'll also reduce my media consumption to a few creators, to condition my unconscious too (see below).
Too much distraction. I need to control my focus and note when I get distracted. This applies to distractions WITHIN my work too. For example, when I write, I tend to scroll up and down to read various parts of my piece, instead of focusing on the current paragraph. This is a substitute-activity, chasing cheap dopamine to escape the work.
Burnout. Pushing it too hard will make me hate it. That's why I draw clear boundaries (see my next point).
Too little family time. One of my biggest fears is to become a burned-out, always-busy dad, who never has time for his family. That's why I'll draw clear boundaries: work is not allowed after 18.00 (6 pm) and on Sundays. I'll only talk about my side-hustle if people are interested with the exception of intermittent short mentions.

🥷 Choosing mentors

To condition my subconscious to focus on problems that advance my projects, I'll reduce my media consumption to a few creators. I consider these people to be my remote mentors.

These are the following:

Dan Koe. He is a modern thinking individual, who mixes philosophy, psychology with entrepreneurship. He seeks for meaning and purpose, which tickles my high level thinking.
Rob Walling. SaaS expert. He runs a conference for bootstrappers, podcast, YouTube channel, he himself is a successful indie hacker. He knows his game. He has seen patterns. He is more practical than Dan and more theoritical than the next gentlemen.
Coding With Jan and Ed Codes: two YouTubers who build content for Shopify developers and designers. These are tutorials, interviews, practical guide.

This way I have a 3 level structure of education:

Philosophy and psychology with Dan (high level)
SaaS with Rob (mid level)
Shopify development with Jan and Ed (low level)

🛵 Weekly progress of week #2

The second week of my Shopify Partner career was about getting practical hands-on experience. I have worked a lot with CSS and Liquid to grasp the techniques.

✅ I have created and used my own color schemes in my Theme
✅ I have obtained a deeper understanding of how asset and CDN images are used
✅ Learned about product categories, types and tags
✅ Learned about the cookie consent modal
✅ I have realised that I'll build my next theme with an even simpler starting template, so I have to remove less code that I don't use
✅ I have created an Envato Author account and finished the onboarding process
✅ Overall, the home screen looks sleeker now

My first theme in 2nd week: Coffee World

Unfortunately, I have not my initial goal, which was to submit my first theme into a store by this week. I won't even be able to do it for next week. The learning curve is not that steep, but it does require time.

I've also came to the realisation that Shopify Theme Store is too strict for me. Since my goal at this time is not profit or status, but small successes that keep the boat afloat, I decided to go with Envato Marketplace instead.

⏭️ Plans for next week

☑️ Finish footer section layout
☑️ Finish catalog page layout
☑️ Finish collections page layout
☑️ Finish contact page layout
☑️ Finish about section page layout

🎨 Bonus - cool designer tool: Penpot

I have stumbled upon a new, hip, open-source designer tool: Penpot. Runs in the browser, free, simple. I love Affinity Designer, but primarily it is not made for UI design, and have way too many tools that I never use, therefore I'll give Penbot a go for my next theme.