Behind the Books
Hi there! It's Nik.
I have nothing to sell you in this email. Just a story to share.
After I wrote about the origins of Four Minute Books for Black Friday, I figured it might be nice to pull back the curtain every now and then. In this "Behind the Books" section, that's what I'd like to do.
I want to show you some of the human struggles behind the business, the lessons I'm learning, and what's going well and not so well. Just occasionally, whenever I have something to share. If I'm wrong and that's not interesting, just hit reply and let me know.
For this first edition, I thought I'd share 7 lessons I learned this year, which also happens to be the 7th year that Four Minute Books is in business. I'll also share some updates about where we're headed along the way.
1. Don't Fight the Trend...
2022 is a rough year for many people. Between 10% inflation, supply chain crises, and jobs getting cut as a recession seems to loom on the horizon, people are understandably spending less — and most companies can feel it too.
For example, two years ago, with many lockdowns in place across the world, we made 3x the revenue during Black Friday that we did in 2021 or 2022 — despite having a much smaller email list and traffic.
But I learned that, no matter how many extra emails I send or advertisements I add, we can't just force our way back to that revenue. We'll have to think of something else.
The market is so much stronger than you, and if you fight it, you'll just lose. Instead, you must...
2. ...Adjust to It
I have no idea where the economy is gonna go. Will 2023 be another slow and strenuous year? Will business boom? I have no clue — but I can only plan with what I see, and right now, it doesn't look like sunshine and rainbows.
So what am I doing? I'm cutting our spending. I'm going to publish fewer summaries, and I'm going to write them myself again. I'm taking over more administrative tasks.
Prepare for the worst that might come while hoping something better actually will.
3. Sometimes, It's Better Not to Know
When I looked at our 2022 numbers, I saw that our revenue from promoting Blinkist, the core of our business, really, went down by some 30%. I also saw that ads, a new income stream we didn't even have last year, ended up overtaking that revenue and is now our #1 source of income.
If I had been constantly aware of these numbers in real-time, I'd have freaked out non-stop. But thankfully, I was ignorant of them. I just kept my head down and kept working — and that's why things worked out.
Sometimes, it's better to not analyze — or even know — everything that's going on in your business at all times.
4. Bootstrapped Businesses Win — If They Have Margins
Four Minute Books is not perfect. Right now, we rely on ads to make money. I'd love for that to change down the line. But at least we're making money.
Many startups, including some of the most famous ones you know, like Uber, AirBnB, and Slack, can't say the same.
Thankfully, as a digital and mainly content-based business, we also have large margins. Our fixed costs are servers and email services, and while those are expensive, they still amount to less than 20% of our revenue — which helps when someone's (aka my) full-time income depends on it.
When you're an investor-funded startup and the music on Wall Street stops, you might be bankrupt faster than you know it.
When you're a bootstrapped company with some wiggle room, there's a good chance you can wiggle your way through a recession.
5. Do More of What Works
We published 150+ new summaries this year. Sadly, they only increased our traffic by 6%.
Meanwhile, a group of just 10 book lists we published has increased our traffic by 75% — and that's after 4 years of stagnation.
At a catalog of over 1,200 book summaries, we already have more titles than most people will ever read. So what else can we do that will also help people learn more in less time?
Sometimes, it's time to try something new — and once you've found something new that's working, especially in times when growth is critical, you should double down on it and jump on the opportunity while you can.
6. Swallow the Bitter Pill Before You Have to
In theory, I could have kept going everything as is — for now. I could have kept pouring money into new content, more little optimizations, and a host of other things, but I wouldn't have felt good about it.
I'd rather have peace of mind. I'd rather tell some of our partners and freelancers that, "Hey, this is a precaution I'm taking, and I'd love to collaborate again when things improve" instead of not paying their bills when I'm already out of money.
If you can take some medicine before it hurts, do it. I've always liked Benjamin Franklin's quote on that stance: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
7. Focus
The biggest and perhaps most important lesson was about focus. I recommend this great piece on Farnam Street about it.
In the story, Apple's chief designer of over 20 years, Jony Ive, talks about what focus really means:
Focus is not the sort of thing you aspire to or you decide on Monday. It's something you do every minute. What focus means is saying no to something that you, with every bone in your body, you think is a phenomenal idea and you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you're focusing on something else.
Every year, I get dozens of ideas from well-meaning people about what to do with Four Minute Books. "You should do a podcast!" "You should post stories on Instagram!" "You should make an app!"
Funny enough, no one ever suggests we should do less. It's always more, more, more. Focus means choosing to prioritize what matters most at the expense of everything that matters less — even if those other things are also good and valid.
In that sense, I'm almost grateful that we're now going through some economically challenging times. It has given me a great excuse to zone in on what's most important for you but also for us to thrive: great, free content that attracts readers to our website and makes them want to come back — and an awesome, convenient email experience that delivers it.
So, as best as I can, that's what I'll focus on in 2023.
I know this was a longer read and quite different from our usual stuff, but I thought I'd give it a go. After all, if you never try, you'll never know!
If you want to see more of these, just hit reply and let me know. And if you don't, then you can tell me that too.
Thank you for being here, and as always...
Happy reading,
-Nik
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