What a day.
I feel like I’m coming out of a weird, tech-infused hybernation.
And that’s because I spent most of the day doing testing for our new immigration tech tool.
You all know by now that my main hustle, Visto.ai, builds immigration tech.
And since I’m the lawyer, it means I get to work with our developers to design the products, but most importantly, design the logic and legal requirements that go into the backend.
So for example, in this case, we’re building a tool that helps international students apply for their visa in Canada. And that means filling out different forms, gathering different documents, etc.
The problem is that those forms and documents differ depending on your age, country you apply from, whether you’re bringing family, travelling with family, and more.
So we had to build an algorithm to spit out your custom tasks, based on all of the above.
And once the developers build it all, I get to help them test it to make sure it’s perfect.
Spoiler: the first version never is!
Not because our developers aren’t good, but because there’s so much that goes into some of these software products, there are bound to be issues (bugs).
So yesterday I spent a solid 4+ hours just testing, with my headphones in, rocking the Pomodoro Technique to try to test as efficiently as possible.
To be fully transparent, this part can be pretty boring. But it’s essential to make sure the product is good enough for when we get it into the hands of our first beta users.
I also had a good demo call with a potential beta tester for our new tech.
Now if you’re anything like I was a few years ago, you probably didn’t understand half the words in that last sentence.
Demo, Beta, Tester?
What kinda lawyer am I? A pretty cool one I guess.
Anyway, demo basically means showing off your product, and beta basically means launching a product to a select few users to try it out and get feedback before launching it out to the world.
The demo went really well, but we also did some catching up about how his immigration business was doing, and how he has been growing more organically (probably a lesson in there about why it’s good to shmooze/become “friends” with potential clients).
He was saying how he wasn’t doing any social media marketing, paid ads or anything like that. Referrals were starting to roll in and help him grow his business.
And I said that especially in the immigration world and as a solopreneur, “the best marketing you can do, is to do good work”.
Because if you do good work and get your clients their approvals, they’re your best friend for life. And naturally, they tell all of their friends and family, because you helped them start a new life in Canada.
This doesn’t have the same effect in the world of high growth tech companies, but if you’re trying to grow a service business, it’s so true.
One of the easiest ways to get new clients is through a referral, and the happier your clients are, the more likely they are to refer you to others.
It’s a beautiful virtuous cycle.
Don’t forget to do marketing and/or sales, especially when you’re starting out, but also don’t forget to do great work and make referring people to you easy.
And lastly, I usually keep you updated on books I’m in the process of reading.
But haven’t in a while. A mystery, some might say…
Not actually – here’s why:
As many of you know, I love reading non-fiction books about business, famous CEOs/founders, etc.
If you want a list of some of my favourites, you can check out my top business book recommendations here.
But every once in a while I traverse back to my original love, which is fiction novels.
I say original love because I grew up reading a lot of fiction – Harry Potter, John Grisham, Lord of the Rings, Artemis Foul, you name it – and only developed a love for non-fiction when I got into entrepreneurship.
While I have spent most of the last 5 years reading more business and personal development, I have phases where I go back to fiction.
But those don’t make for as good business content.
For example, a few weeks ago I finished Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. It came highly recommended and I’ve read some of his other work before, and I thought it was pretty good.
Now I’m reading the Count of Monte Christo. And as you can imagine, fiction books tend to have fewer business lessons for me to share than the others, hence me not mentioning them as much.
So far it’s a really interesting book and story, although it’s about 1,400 pages – I think the longest book I’ve ever read (and I’ve read all the Game of Thrones books…).
Suffice to say, I’ll need a few more weeks before I do a full book review, but maybe I’ll share some highlights along the way.
Have a great day, stay even more up-to-date on my daily email list here, and keep grinding.
