Greetings, fellow bootstrappers! I’ve been building a product called Snip since January 2011. Snip lets hair stylists see their schedules from anywhere, and it does automatic appointment reminders to help cut down on time spent doing confirmation calls.
I have a modest 3 customers now, with a 4th in the process of getting (hopefully) on board. I did a lot of high-touch, in-person sales in the beginning and had some success with that, then I switched to online marketing and had some successes with that, and starting in October I’m planning to switch back to the “brute force” of door-to-door sales because although it’s not very scalable, I do know that it’s effective. Once I have some profit from door-to-door sales I plan to reinvest that into better analytics, SEO tools, design, etc. and pick back up with the online marketing. I need 2 more salons (5 total) to be profitable.
I had a full-time job when I started building Snip, and then I got laid off, then I went freelance, then I got another job, and in October I’m going freelance again. I’ve found that it’s easier to do sales when I’m freelance because my schedule is then flexible enough to visit salons on the salon owners’ schedules. I have a wife and two kids, ages 4 months and 3 years, both boys.