“Making things quicker is the theme for what we’re working on,” says Ben Taylor, founder of SoftLedger, accounting software that’s disrupting the software space. After working in accounting for a number of years, Ben saw a need to eliminate the time-consuming and tedious tasks involved in keeping the financial records of his company, such as having to repeat things, go back and fix things manually.
Not everyone saw this need right away, though, and were happy to continue using Excel because it was ‘good enough.’ His idea for SoftLedger was rejected, thousands of times more than he expected, but he maintained his patience and conviction and he persevered.
After a few years of working on the business on nights and weekends, people finally started recognizing the need for time saving and efficiency in their accounting processes. Now, Softledger is a platform that mid sized businesses will never outgrow.
Quotes:
“What really made this possible was I had a really deep understanding of what the problem was and how I thought I could solve it. I had input from others about how to bring it all together, but I had a pretty strong opinion on how it should all be put together.” ([7:54]-[8:14] | Ben)
“I didn’t realize how much of starting a business would come down to selling.” ([23:53]-[24:00] | Ben)
“It’s really hard to do, especially early on when you don’t have any traction and prove points. I was expecting 100 ‘nos’ before the first guest. I wasn’t expecting a ten thousand. ([24:54]-[25:08] | Ben)
“It’s really about solving problems for people. When you go through, make sure you ask the next question, and the next question. Really drill into what the problem is. That discovery call is so important for that.” ([28:00]-[28:18] | Ben)
“If there are three customers who are getting value, odds are there are 20 more out there that you can find the exact same way, and 100 more behind that.” ([42:43]-[42:52] | Ben)
Connect with Brendan Dell:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendandell/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendanDell
Instagram: @thebrendandell
TikTok: @brendandell39
Buy a copy of Brendan’s Book, The 12 Immutable Laws of High-Impact Messaging: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780578210926
Connect with Ben:
Softledger.com
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About the Author
Brendan Dell
Brendan Dell is an author and the founder of The Daily Creative. As a freelancer he's worked with clients like Expedia, Cvent, Panasonic, Brother, Windstream and 100+ more to build unignorable tech brands. At The Daily Creative, he shares advice and lessons to help freelancers level up.
