This quarter I had a nice warm summer enjoying my entrepreneurship, my working from home, and my family. It was the first time in a long time that my wife and I got to spend a lot of time at home alone together. Both of my daughters are now at pre-school and oooh boy, what a treat that is.
I spent some time reading, writing, and playing during these respites from parenting. I wish I did more of it, but I had to do a fair bit of work too. Businesses don’t grow themselves, and one of the things I did was change the billing system on my cash cow. We’ll see how it goes.
My reading and playing were mostly fun. The writing was work.
Read: The Great Alone
My wife found The Great Alone and I have to say, the author Kristin Hannah is an artist. Her storytelling and character development is among the best I’ve ever read. I loved every page. I also read The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and it is equally off-the-charts wonderful. It’s a delicious, page-turning adventure that makes me feel good for reading it.
I will definitely read more of her stuff. She deserves all the fandom and accolades. This is an author who absolutely should be atop the charts.
Write: On metered billing
I took my company, FindEmails, and dramatically changed the way it is billed. Rather than charging a higher flat fee regardless of usage, I dropped everyone down to the same $9/mo plan and billed for usage. I knew this would drop my monthly recurring revenue (MRR) but I thought it would improve my other metrics. I might get more customers, fewer cancellations, and therefore earn back the lost MRR and then some over time.
Initial responses were promising. I’ll have to write something again about it next month to see what really happens!
Play: Some Mozart
When my grandpa passed away I had a chance to rummage through the extensive collection of piano music he and my grandma accumulated over the 50 years they lived in their house. They had boxes and boxes of it and I only had a few minutes to look through them before I had to leave. We were picking up the piano that my dad inherited and bringing it the house we had recently purchased in Walnut Creek. The piano movers were almost ready to leave.
I picked up some old jazz standards that my grandma used to play and some very well-worn classical music, written up with decades-old notes from years of piano lessons and hours of practicing. This collection sits atop the piano today and one of my favorite picks from the pile is this collection of easy to play Mozart pieces.
I’m mostly pecking at them now but I will choose one to master. Probably next quarter.