October 11, 2020 | VAT

To VAT? Or not to VAT? That's the question.

What dread.. Why is it so difficult to start a business in 2020?

If it weren't for Gumroad or Paddle, etc, I would be lost.

I went with Stripe for a few days, instantly came back to Gumroad.

My god... It's a wormhole. I would either have to accept Gumroad's constraints, or pay an accountant $4k per year to handle everything and have to deal with all that hassle.

I feel like the pros outweigh the cons.

The only downsides of Gumroad are:
- PayPal payouts for anyone not living in the US or UK.
- Design
- Limited flexibility
- Receipts

- The PayPal situation will be resolved in 2021. It's on Gumroad's public roadmap. You'll be able to connect your Stripe account. So that's great news.

- The design of the popup is bad. But, I've managed to make it bearable.

The only thing I'm worried about is whether it makes Cyberleads look like a side-project.

- Flexibility is limited, but not a show-stopper for me. I can work around it no problem.

- Gumroad sends monthly receipts with unsubscribe button every single month to my subscribers. Judging from my personal experience, I'm sure it stresses them out and drives churn up.

Not much I can do here. Maybe get rid of the monthly plan and introduce a quarterly plan?

The goal is to drive Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) up.

Anyway, I think the pros outweigh the cons, for now. I have too much on my plate at the moment, and learning how to file VAT and taxes at the same time seems like an overkill.

Let's get this company up and running, and then when I have a fresh mind I'll think about it again.

Oh yeah, in case you didn't already understand, I'm opening a VAT number. Cyberleads is going to become a business :)

🐦 Twitter/X💼 LinkedIn🎥 YouTube

✉️ Newsletter🔊 Podcast📸 Instagram