Viral tweet aftermath

I recently came out with my first offer under Refined. Here is what I learned and what I would do differently.

Before February, I set out to start working with my first clients for Refined. After planning the roadmap last month, I was ready to announce my first offer. So I wrote a tweet.

I never imagined it would get the attention it did. The initial goal of the tweet was to create a storyline for the agency. Overnight, I went from barely having any work to:

• Lots of proposals
• +100 followers
• Overwhelming support from the community

Having more work than you can handle is a good problem to have. I'm very grateful for the response, but it also came with some pressure. Looking back, I would have done a few things differently.

Specify the offer

My offer was vague - 10 MVPs for $1k each. The focus was on my journey up to this point, rather than the tech stack of choice or type of projects. I didn't think anyone would be interested in the offer. I was wrong.

As a result, some of the received proposals weren't a good fit. I had to turn them down, which wasn't pleasant, but necessary. To deliver the best results, I want to take on projects that fit my expertise.

Filter the proposals

I didn't have a good way to filter proposals. I spent days on back-and-forth conversations in Twitter DMs, which was time-consuming and inefficient.

In hindsight, I should have crafted a form to collect the information I needed. This would have saved me and the clients a lot of time. I had already created a basic Tally form for the previous article, but it wasn't detailed enough.

However, it wasn't all bad. These conversations were a great learning experience. I got a better understanding of what clients are looking for, by talking to a variety of people in different industries.

Have a system in place

A couple of hours into conversations, I started to lose track of who I was talking to and the status of each proposal. I understood why CRMs exist.

So I stopped and created a Notion table to keep track of everything. This includes client information, the project description, status of the proposal, and next steps.

Clear & direct communication

Honesty goes a long way. It's always hard to turn down people, but it's better to be upfront about it. If a project doesn't fit my expertise, I'm not shy to admit it.

The goal isn't to get as many clients as possible, but to deliver the best results. This also aligns with the values of Refined.

In reality, only a few proposals were a good fit, which I'm happy about. The agency is a long-term play that I don't want to rush. Rather have a slower start than crash and burn.

Know your workload

Recognizing my own limits was crucial. Everyone on X boasts about how fast they can ship projects. I've done it myself in the past - building the Buildstreak MVP in 2 weeks and Buy a Pixel in 8 hours.

This doesn't mean that I can take on 10 projects at once. When working with clients, there are more factors to consider and the process is different.

I've decided to settle on one or two projects that I like the most. The aim is to establish the brand, rather than maximize the revenue.

Final thoughts

Overall, I'm grateful for this experience. As a result, I've learned a lot about the process of working with clients and even started on the first MVP.

Having said that, one of the goals for January is complete. Next up - launching the Refined landing page.