Now

One year later!

What a co-incidence.

How much has changed in a year!

(I really should be updating these more often)

1. I resigned from my job
2. I started freelancing for a few months (to take a bit of a break)
3. I got injured, and couldn't run for almost a year (just started running again now after a hip operation).
4. I started a startup studio.
5. I'm about to start building a B2B Saas business!

Here's what I'm busy with right now:

1. Skippa. We're a product launch studio. We help fintechs and financial services businesses launch new products super fast.
2. BuildWithNoCode is a place where founders and innovators can go to learn how to build startups without code.
3. Reviewr is a B2B review tool that helps business owners in the hospitality industry get the feedback that their business needs to thrive.
4. A whole bunch of exciting new products and projects that we're working on over at Skippa.
5. My body. After a hip operation (kitesurfing accident), I am on the very long and slow rehab path to running again (finally).
6. Re-kicking-off my writing over hirr on SimonBlogs. Probably going to change the name. I hate "blogs".

See yah!

3 Things

These are the three things taking up most of my time.

Currently, if I am not busy with one of these three, I'm probably sleeping.

Work - Main

I am currently working at a fintech company in Cape Town, as the Head of Product. We have a few different 'products'.

I am currently running one as the "CEO" - a business finance marketplace.

I am also busy developing two others: An automated document collection solution, and a financial health tool.

I spend the majority of my time doing this work, currently around 11-12 hours a day. I'm enjoying it, learning a lot, and it pays the bills.

Running

I have just started a 10 week training block leading up to one of my favourite races of the year: Ultra Trail Cape Town.

It was the first 100km trail race I did, back in 2018. I missed 2019 due to a conflict, and then 2020 didn't happen because... ya.

Back this year, 3 years later and feeling a lot less 'green' than I did back then, and with a few more kays under the belt, too.

Off the back of a disappointing last 100km at Ultra Trail Drakensberg, where I pulled out after 76km and a black-out on the trail - I'm head down in this training block.

Race date: 27 November.

Projects

I am also on a mission to try and diversify my income a bit through technology.

I also want to nail the process of starting a business in as short time as possible, so I can teach other people to do it. I am a huge believer in two things:

1. Learning through doing, and
2. Small businesses as a poverty alleviation tool.

That's my main motivation for doing this. I am writing about all of my Startups here.

But... I do have an issue with ideas. I have way too many of them, and too often get started on one convinced it will be the one I stick with - only to be distracted by another at a later stage.

I've come to the conclusion that I will focus on one project at a time - for a month. At the end of each month they should be earning revenue - or scrapped (unless there are circumstances which warrant the continuation of them).

I'm not trying to build huge businesses here. Something that brings in $1k of extra income a month would be valuable. I used to make that through my newsletter, but I stopped writing it and now don't. It was handy to have.

Current Project: Automation as a service.

I'm loving no-code tools at the moment, and built this Partner Portal for the business finance marketplace above using Bubble. Had a ton of fun.

I want to do this for small businesses. I am 100% sure it will work.

There are two things I need to do to do that:

1. Find the time.
2. Find the clients.
3. Convince them they need to automate parts of their business.

I'll be documenting the progress, here.

Current Concurrent Project: Marketplace for Founding Teams

I know, I know. I said I'd focus.

I am going to do this though.

Next steps are scoping calls with two members of a niche community I'm part of for entrepreneurs.

Goals

I want to buy an aeroplane. I love flying, and I would love the process of building my own plane even more.

I want to run UTMB in Chamonix in 2023. Main reason for the long timeline is qualification and then getting a ticket.

I want to have my own business which is worth $1M+ by end 2022.

SimonBlogs.com

I have neglected this site in the last few months.

I wont be doing that again, and committing to adding one piece of content to the site every week. This is the second of the week.

The first is here.

I'll also be slowly updating and consolidating as I try

Reading

I'm currently reading (almost finished) I Am Pilgrim.

It's the first novel i've read in a while, and well well worth it. I have loved every second.

I'm also listening to The Great CEO Within on Audible.

This is how all non-fiction books should be written:

• No fluff
• Only as long as it needs to be
• Lots of external input
• No preaching

Next up: Derek Sivers' How to Live.

Thinking About

This is what's currently on my mind.

Focus

I am trying to work on one thing at a time, to improve my productivity. So far it's working wonders.

I'm blocking out 2-3 hour slots where I only work on one thing.

B2B Lead Generation At Scale

We're currently trying to work out how to create demand on the supply side of the business finance marketplace.

It's difficult because it's not traditional large LTV B2B lead gen, so the strategies normally used there don't apply.

I'll probably write about this next.