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The stories of how bootstrapped businesses go from $0 to $250k in annual revenue
In the first few minutes, she said.
MaryBeth, you have no
business being employed.
And I was like, what?
And she was essentially like,
you're an entrepreneur to the core.
You're going to be so much
happier when you do this.
And you have all these
building blocks here.
You just need to take the leap.
That's MaryBeth Maskovas the
founder of Insight Lime Analytics.
An agency that helps companies with
their data strategy, or in other
words, they help companies measure the
right data and then understand what
that data is actually telling them.
And as you may have noticed in that
opening clip, starting this agency
was a bit of an accident for MaryBeth.
It started as a side hustle that she
grew to over $3,000 in monthly revenue.
And then by year three, they did
over 1 million in annual revenue
to see how they've now bootstrapped
insight Lime analytics to over
1 million in annual revenue.
Let's start with talking about
MaryBeth's kind of journey into
entrepreneurship and then how they got
started with insight Lime analytics,
and then talk about all the growth
strategies that they've been using to
grow to 1 million in annual revenue.
So Marybeth started her career at
the University of Colorado, Boulder,
where she studied ecology and
evolutionary biology, something that
has a lot to do with marketing, right?
Well, kind of, but more
on that in a second.
What she ended up doing though as she was
studying biology is she was taking a lot
of different roles and really learning
about marketing as she joined a marketing
consultancy while she was in college
to help pay for her college tuition.
And she did that from 2012 to 2016.
And eventually.
With a degree in ecology
and evolutionary biology.
She graduated in 2016 and as she
put it, she sold out to then join a
marketing consultancy in Copenhagen.
So it's 2016.
She's now working for this consultancy
in Copenhagen and she's working
a few different marketing roles.
And she really got this full breadth of
all the what's what's all in a marketing.
So she did a lot of a little bit of work.
And SEO and paid ads and analytics
and social media content.
And so she's now seen a lot of different
things in marketing, but her expertise
and actually biology and how she actually
approached things was actually really
valuable for those in marketing, but
specifically in analytics, because with
a degree in biology, right, she could
take the scientific method approach,
but also really understand understood a
little bit of how to actually use data.
Data to then apply that to marketing.
And at the time, right, the marketing,
you know, from 2016 to 2020, when she
was in Copenhagen with these roles, this
scientific, more scientific approach
to marketing with analytics and really
understanding them more effectively
was becoming a bigger and bigger thing.
And this, this is.
She was actually able to kind of attach
herself to this trend and really into
this new space of marketing analytics.
And so she was able to create
a kind of a unique niche that
would really fit to her skillset.
So as she was kind of exploring
marketing and trying to find her niche
and eventually, right, she found it
into marketing analytics, but part of
that was actually doing side projects.
And she started this
by doing this in 2018.
So her, the middle of her time
in Copenhagen, and she found
these projects using Upwork.
Now, if you don't know what Upwork
is, Upwork is kind of this marketplace
for, for companies and agencies
to kind of post opportunities or
projects that need, that need done.
And then it has, you know, these
agencies are just freelancers
that are looking for work.
And Upwork is this marketplace to help
match and help you help Those people
find each other and through that,
MaryBeth was actually able to find her
initial projects for her side hustles.
And they were pretty broad.
She was able to do some Google,
Google analytics work, some Google
ads work, and she's kind of just
continued her exploration of
marketing with these side projects.
And eventually these 3,
000 in monthly revenue.
They were not a small chunk of
change for most people, right?
3, 000 at a minimum pays rent.
But in 2020, like for most of us, life
was a little bit upended when COVID hit.
And for MaryBeth, that meant that
she had to move back from, to
Colorado from Copenhagen because
she didn't know what was happening
as the world was shutting down.
So she moves back to Colorado, but
she still has these side hustles that
where she's pulling in 3, 000 a month.
She's doing a little bit of work for still
for the agency that she was working with
in Copenhagen, but still wasn't sure what
was next to help figure out what was next.
She ends up taking a consultation
call with a business coach.
And let me actually have MaryBeth explain
what happened in that consultation call.
In the first few minutes,
she said, MaryBeth, you have
no business being employed.
And I was like, what?
And she was essentially like,
you're an entrepreneur to the core.
You're going to be so much happier
when you do this and you have
all these building blocks here.
And here you just need to take the leap.
And so she was just really clear, like,
you can do this and you already have it.
And I did have some freelancing
clients that were, like, not an
insignificant amount of money that I
had been cultivating for some time.
So it wasn't like I was just
taking the leap with no money.
Revenue.
And I was still kind of consulting with
the firm I was working for in Copenhagen.
And they were trying to figure
out this whole remote thing.
And so I think it was, it, it was like the
perfect storm and she gave me the really
hard push with that consultation call and
knowing she has 3, 000 of revenue a month,
she ends up taking the leap from side
hustle to then full time entrepreneur.
And she was really in a good
spot to do that for two reasons.
One, her expenses, her expenses were
really low when she moved back to Colorado
from Copenhagen because she was living
with her mom and we're all living at home.
There wasn't many expenses
to be doing a lot of things
that you're spending money on.
So her expenses were low and that
3, 000 a month can make ends meet.
And second also, right.
She was working with a lot of different
consultancies and really knew what she
liked and what she didn't like about
those consultancies, but also where
it could see the opportunities that
the consultancies weren't meeting.
And she really was right.
As she was kind of doing different
projects and just because she
explored so much in their, in her
time working for consultancies, she
really was able to, again, figure out.
And that niche and that specialty
was marketing analytics.
And she's really just dove into
that particular specialty and
it's worked out pretty well.
In year one, they did a hundred
thousand dollars in revenue.
In year two, they did 400, 000 in revenue
in year three, did 1 million of revenue.
And then year four, it's close
to a million dollars, but still a
bit less than a million dollars.
So taking a little bit of a step
back, But still really healthy.
So that's the high level story of
Marybeth and insight line analytics, but
let's actually go into this strategy.
They've been using to grow from 0 to
a million dollars in annual revenue.
First growth strategy I want to talk
about is referrals and repeat clients.
And according to Marybeth, this is by far.
Far and away, the best and most
consistent channel they have for
growing insight line analytics.
And they do a lot of little things really
well in this particular growth strategy.
They're really focused on keeping
clients and also growing contract size.
And they do this primarily by looking
for different opportunities while
they are working with clients.
But let me actually have MaryBeth explain
how they do that with their clients
and working on different projects.
Some of our really big clients.
Started with something like the, a
migrate, strategic migration to GA4, and
once we're in there, we're seeing all
these other elements, and I think this
is the key thing for people to think of
in this services type business, is that
the way that you grow that business is by
looking for the other opportunities while
you're consulting instead of just staying
hyper focused on the project you're doing.
You'll see stuff and you'll be, that
you wouldn't be able to see if you
hadn't been working with the client
already, that you can pitch new
things to, like, hey, I saw that.
This isn't set up correctly or whatever.
And that really is like what
helps build that momentum.
And then you can get into
these bigger retainers and.
Generally the retainers just get
bigger in length and size as we go on.
So this concept of finding opportunities
while you're working with clients is
actually pretty awesome because it's
kind of a natural way to keep clients,
but also grow those contracts because
you're thinking more holistically
about someone else's business.
And if you're thinking more holistically,
right, you're going to solve more problems
for them and they might actually, they
probably will appreciate that more because
not just like looking for this little
thing and just get it done and move on.
move on to the next thing.
You're going to see like, here's
all the different problems here.
Actually, maybe we can help solve
some bigger problems rather than
just maybe the small problem your
client thinks they might just have.
There might be some
bigger problems, right?
And as MaryBeth mentioned here, right?
One of their largest clients
just started as migrating from
Google analytics for, and now is
a huge contract for them, right?
So if you're again, looking holistically
at someone else's business and you
can actually solve problems that
might be actually a bigger headache
for them, that's a really big deal.
Deal.
And it's a big reason why, right?
If you look at the insight
line analytics website, right?
You're going to see that their net
promoter score MPS score is really high.
And also, right, they have an 80
percent repeat rate with clients.
Now the 80 percent repeat rate, there's
kind of one thing to kind of note here.
It doesn't mean that, right.
It's just, they're constantly,
those clients never leave
them or anything like that.
Some, right.
You're not always going to get a client
to come back a month later, right?
Month after month after month, but right.
Sometimes, right.
You're going to do a project,
you know, for one time.
And then maybe like a year or two
down the line, they're going to have
more work to do, or they need to
do updates, whatever it might be.
Right.
And those clients, if they had a really
great experience with insight, Lyme
analytics, they're going to, they're
going to come back for a new project,
or maybe they found a new problem that
they think they could solve them for.
help them solve, right?
So by having a good experience,
they can get a repeat rate
even further down the line.
And you're really thinking really long
term rather than just like the short
term, like the quarterly, or even
the yearly they're thinking really
long term, which is really cool.
Now, one of the little things that
they do to help get that 80 percent
repeat rate is that when they close a
contract, they ask one specific question.
And that question is, do you know a
company that you could put us in contact
with that, that would be a good fit?
And there's, this kind of
works in two different ways.
One, it helps them get referrals to
other companies that might be a good
fit, but also it acts as a reminder to
their current client of like, Hey, we
still have capacity to work with you.
And when I talked to MaryBeth about
this, this actually has worked
in both of those ways, right?
Sometimes the companies are
like, yeah, you should talk to
so and so, but also like, Hey,
we actually have another project.
Would you want to start this?
It's to do this with us, right?
It's another reminder to your
current clients and like, Hey, we
can continue this, but also write
like, Hey, if you know somebody like
we would love to work with them too.
It's a really nice, clever way of
getting, you know, new business,
but also keeping people around.
The second growth strategy is one that
I've already kind of talked about a little
bit in this story, and that is Upwork.
But to kick this growth strategy
off, let me actually have MaryBeth
explain how she used Upwork and
how it kind of worked out for her.
Upwork is kind of, I have kind of
a love hate relationship with it.
Like most, like 99 percent of the
time, it's not, you know, not great.
And there's, you have to really sift
through a lot, but it was actually my
first clients that grew to that, like
3k a month were originally from Upwork.
And then Uh, I think it was really kind
of dumb luck, I, I really can't say I did
anything brilliant to get my first really
big client when I had the consulting firm.
And it was another firm who specialized
in, like, custom development, uh, software
development kind of stuff that was already
working with that client, was looking on
Upwork because they knew that the, the
company had a gap in that analytics space.
found my profile and was
like, Hey, are you interested?
I actually thought it was a scam at first.
So, um, but I've actually had
that happen one other time, very
recently, like in the last few months.
So it it's, it's
something that can happen.
So as Marybeth mentioned, right, 99
percent of the time Upwork isn't great,
but just by having a profile there, and
especially being active enough, right?
You don't know where, like
what could, what could happen.
And for MaryBeth, right, it was a
really nice place to get started with
different projects and meet people that
might not be originally in her network.
Right.
And she had previous projects and just
by being kind of active enough in that
space and Upwork, right, she was able to
not only find projects, but also got one
big referral through Upwork and right.
It might not be great for A lot of
different projects, but if you're
just getting started with trying to
find projects, it's kind of a, it's
another place to kind of increase
your surface area for like that
luckiness or that serendipity factor.
And you need a couple of those lucky
breaks and upwork can kind of, again,
increase that net of potential serendipity
to help you find the right projects.
And right, those projects can also turn
into new referrals and all of that.
And it's also free to create an account.
If you want to.
on Upwork and just kind
of create a profile there.
So it's worth, I think,
just putting an hour there.
If you're just kind of getting started
with this kind of work, put an hour into
Upwork, create a decent profile because
you never know what's going to happen.
The third growth strategy I want
to talk about is partnerships.
And this growth strategy is one
that I've actually talked about a
couple of times on this channel.
And the way this growth strategy works
out is that you partner with different
agencies that you know of, and then aren't
doing the same type of work you are.
So in this case, right, MaryBeth is
going to maybe partner with software
development agencies are ones.
Agencies that may be doing broader
kind of marketing work, but aren't
doing marketing analytics work.
And the way it works, right.
Is that let's say, you know, you know,
you have a software development agency
and they're building a product, but
maybe their client actually needs.
Someone helped him to kind of
think through the analytics.
Well, it's becomes a really natural
way of like, Hey, you should go talk
to MaryBeth and her team, and I can
make the referral for you to help,
you know, help you find and solve
those problems for those clients.
And eventually you kind of build this
network of partnerships that helps you
kind of connect with different clients.
And ones that are going
to be paying, right?
Cause if you're working with a
software, if they're paying a software
development agency already, the chances
of them paying for a, maybe a marketing
analytics company, especially if
it's going to solve their problems.
Right.
It's pretty high.
And one thing I want to note here
that was pretty interesting when I
was talking to Mary about the, about.
This particular growth strategy
was that when they go, they've been
going to conferences to actually meet
more of these potential partners.
And you might be thinking like,
how does it actually work?
And so the way MaryBeth explained
it to me was that when they go to a
conference, right, they might go to
a conference where they think there
might be potential clients, but instead
of maybe chasing the clients, because
Everyone is trying to chase those
clients because that's potential revenue.
They actually will talk way more to
potential partners because those agencies
that are having, maybe working with
similar clients at that insight Lyme
analytics is going to be doing great.
They are going to have the same clients
that, you know, that might not be in
the network of insight Lyme analytics.
And so by talking to those potential
partners, right, you're thinking again,
again, long term versus short term.
So don't be chasing
necessarily the clients.
You can talk to the, obviously the
clients at different conferences,
but building those partnerships with
people that are in your space that,
but aren't doing the same type of work
that can lean to referrals later on.
And for MaryBeth, this has
actually been something that's
worked out pretty well for them.
So that's the story of MaryBeth
Mishkovis and Insight Lime Analytics.
You can learn more about Insight
LimeAnalytics at Insight LimeAnalytics.
com.
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