Software As Service Metrics Applied To Small Business Growth With Justin Jackson

You don’t have to look like the other businesses in your industry to learn from them.

In my work as a CFO, I've have had the privilege of looking behind the scenes of a lot of different companies in a lot of different industries. And what I've found is that most tend to look toward businesses that are similar to their own for ideas on how to operate.

This is something that has always been my goal on this show – talking to service business owners about how they run their business in the hopes that it sparks something inspiring for you.

But often, the best ideas come from businesses that look nothing like your own. While standard practice in one industry can be disruptive and unconventional when applied to another, often the best, most creative, ideas come from unexpected places.

Today, I am talking to Justin Jackson, co-founder of Transistor.fm, a 2-person bootstrapped software company that does podcast hosting and analytics for folks like Basecamp, Taylor Otwell, VH1, and, incidentally, this show.

Justin and his partner, Jon Buda, have decided to do things differently than other businesses in their industry. And because they have decided to fund themselves as opposed to taking investor money, measuring growth is incredibly important to them.

Justin and I talk about some of the key data that they measure at Transistor.  We talk about how to track monthly recurring revenue and churn – two fabulous metrics you can look at when measuring the health of your business.

And we talk about how their strategy of being profitable and maintaining margins gives them the latitude they need to carefully consider their growth instead of just jumping on the next wave that comes along.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How to identify business opportunities and what to do about them when they come your way
• How to build margins into your business
• How to approach the analytics of podcasting and what kind of impact this has on our understanding of who the listeners really are
• How paying attention to what part of your revenue comes from recurring versus one-time projects can be a great indicator of the health of your cash flow
• And why Justin and his partner decided to share their numbers and why they decided to stop

Links:

• Transistor.fm
• justinjackson.ca
• Build Your SaaS Podcast
• Justin Jackson’s Weekly Newsletter
• Baremetrics Open Startup Project
•  Scalespark Dollars + Decisions Roundtable
• Twitter @ScaleSpark
• LinkedIn @thesusanboles

Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here