Amanda Newman, who opened her first store in high school. She became a realtor, and went on to create Park Bench - a SaaS business that creates neighborhood-focused websites for realtors who want to connect to their community. She and her partner made $880k in revenue last year and this year they’re shooting for a million.

 

Famous 5:

 

• Favorite Business Book? – Predictable Revenue
• What CEO do you follow? — Grant Cardone
• Favorite online tool? — Unbounce

• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —Take some computer programming and design courses

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:23 – Nathan’s introduction
• 02:22 – Park Bench creates neighborhood-focused websites
• 02:47 – Amanda wanted to create value for the communities that she worked in - so she built a neighborhood website
• 03:34 – Local businesses put deals and promotions on the website
• 04:15 – “After the first one, it was easier to create the second one”
• 04:40 – Amanda sells neighborhood sites to realtors so that they have the opportunity to build relationships
• 05:20 – Realtors pay between $3000 and $6000 per year
• 06:15 – “Realtors want to be known as the neighborhood realtor”
• 06:57 –  Started in 2014 - first-year revenue was $450k
• 07:11  – Revenue in 2015 was $880k - they’re on track for over $1 million this year
• 07:30 – 215 unique customers
• 07:53 – Customer Acquisition Cost?
• 08:44 – Facebook marketing is paying fantastic dividends
• 09:20 – 80% of realtors who buy their product buy it on the first call
• 09:35 – MRR in May is around $70k per month
• 10:00 – Revenue per user per month is $350
• 10:25 – Customer Acquisition Cost is around $400
• 10:50 – Customers sign on for a year - many sign on for a 2nd year as well
• 11:15 – Around half of realtors dropped out last year - but they’re immediately replaced
• 12:22 – The average realtor stays around 1.5 years
• 13:04 – Team of 8 people based in Toronto
• 13:50 – Park Bench sells directly to real-estate agents
• 15:20 – “Being bootstrapped, we have to move fast”
• 15:40 – $70k monthly run rate
• 15:45 – Connect with Amanda on Linkedin

• 18:05 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

• Find the customers that fit with you
• Understand your market and what they want
• Everything starts with creating value for the people around you

Resources Mentioned:

• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.

 

• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives