I think founder is straightforward. I target 5%-10% higher income next week, or roughly 30% more next month if sales cycles are not weekly (mine was highly dependent on government paydays). Most people might want to target revenue instead, or even active users.
What's keeping you from hitting that target? Just focus on that. Would marketing/sales give you more income? Flying to that conference and making a talk? Do you need to handle customers better? Should the tech team ease the burden from the rest of the team? Add another feature? Improve existing ones? Do you need to spend more time hiring? Do you need to raise money to hire those people?
Being a founder in tech is incredible - you get to work on only the most important problems, unlike a job where you do the same thing over and over and force yourself through plateaus. It's like you have an extra dimension to maneuver around in.
I'd have weeks where I drive around the city pitching to investors. I'd have weeks where I'm driving off to another state to meet suppliers. I'd have weeks where I'm on the floor dealing with excess customers, writing up customer service scripts for someone else to do later. Weeks where I'm promoting the company at a career fair, and interview people on the spot or within a day. One week, I got sick of the app color scheme, looked up designers, got a logo budget approved, worked close with the designer and got a perfect new logo in 2 days, and then redesigned the whole app scheme around the logo. One campaign, we had an overwhelming amount of orders (3000 people signed up in a day), so I hacked in an order/delivery management system overnight.
If you need motivation, I recommend the rock star approach of hanging out with your fans. Or rather, just look at who is giving you their hard earned money. We get lots of feedback, reviews, in app, chat, customer messages. Take some time to write a personal thank you to some customers. Handle some existing customers yourself, not just the new ones. Thank your suppliers/partners or have a chat with them. Handle complaints personally; don't expect staff to do most of them... it's not fun for them as they're powerless, and they don't pass the valuable data.
What's keeping you from hitting that target? Just focus on that. Would marketing/sales give you more income? Flying to that conference and making a talk? Do you need to handle customers better? Should the tech team ease the burden from the rest of the team? Add another feature? Improve existing ones? Do you need to spend more time hiring? Do you need to raise money to hire those people?
Being a founder in tech is incredible - you get to work on only the most important problems, unlike a job where you do the same thing over and over and force yourself through plateaus. It's like you have an extra dimension to maneuver around in.
I'd have weeks where I drive around the city pitching to investors. I'd have weeks where I'm driving off to another state to meet suppliers. I'd have weeks where I'm on the floor dealing with excess customers, writing up customer service scripts for someone else to do later. Weeks where I'm promoting the company at a career fair, and interview people on the spot or within a day. One week, I got sick of the app color scheme, looked up designers, got a logo budget approved, worked close with the designer and got a perfect new logo in 2 days, and then redesigned the whole app scheme around the logo. One campaign, we had an overwhelming amount of orders (3000 people signed up in a day), so I hacked in an order/delivery management system overnight.
If you need motivation, I recommend the rock star approach of hanging out with your fans. Or rather, just look at who is giving you their hard earned money. We get lots of feedback, reviews, in app, chat, customer messages. Take some time to write a personal thank you to some customers. Handle some existing customers yourself, not just the new ones. Thank your suppliers/partners or have a chat with them. Handle complaints personally; don't expect staff to do most of them... it's not fun for them as they're powerless, and they don't pass the valuable data.