Nick Horob

I nerd out on business, finance, investing, and software. I built a farm management software company, Harvest Profit (acquired by John Deere in 2020).

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

The most miserable I’ve ever been in business was during the fall of 2017.

https://t.co/qUgtjbghIj was growing and I had just brought the software development in-house with a great new hire (@jarydkrish). Looking back, there was zero reason for any unhappiness on my part.

So why was I?

I had built out some aggressive growth goals in my annual budget. We were drastically underperforming them. But that shouldn’t have been a surprise.

It’s just too damn easy to change a number in a spreadsheet.

My budget was based more on hope than reality. At the time, I didn’t have a lot of direct control over Harvest Profit’s sales process. We didn’t use aggressive outbound sales. And paid advertising was a tough nut to crack.

Our growth was coming from content marketing and word-of-mouth.

Those channels are more long-term investments than short-term drivers of results. In most B2B software businesses, when you have a product that people like and a sales process that is working you focus on one thing to drive results: hire more sales people.

We didn’t have that, nor did I want it.

It was fun to be different than our competition. I made a decision to have a lower price point than our two primary competitors (Granular and Conservis). That decision meant that we had to rely on a self-serve sales model.

In early 2018, I told myself to accept reality and focus on what I could control.

I had made the choices outlined above. A cost of those choices was less control over growth. “Suck it up and deal with it” was my self-message.

I decided to stop focusing so much on our revenue. I amped up my writing and our email list started to really grow. We also stayed close with our customers and tried to make as fast improvements to the software.

2018 and 2019 were good years of growth and considerably more fun than 2017.

The game-changing moment was when I decided to stop fixating on revenue and start worrying about the things I could control.

I focused on the inputs vs the outputs.

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

Claude is likely to be the most expensive tool I ever use!

But it’s not due to its subscription or token cost….

It’s that it allows me to plan out any dream project I’ve ever had.

It’s fun!

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

Really enjoying this book so far!

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@JoshDarwin8 Sure thing! DM me or post here

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

Is $40/sq ft a reasonable estimate for a bare-bones, but heated, shop?

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

https://t.co/xghzz9mtLI

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@CbarJRanch Probably!

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@JoshMesser_Ag @blonglet @MaxROIFarmer That’s wild! I would’ve expected the demand to have slowed down quite a bit but maybe there is simply a lot of pent-up demand in cattle country?

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@JoshMesser_Ag @blonglet @MaxROIFarmer $18 just for the labor? This guy is seeing $20 all-in for cold storage.

[Clint Neshem @Cjames701]

@NickHorob @Brady_01 @MaxROIFarmer My dad was looking at building an 80x125 & got quoted $20/sqft by 3 builders this spring. Just pole building, no concrete or insulation.

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@MaxROIFarmer @JoshMesser_Ag @blonglet Could easily be. I’m not exactly an expert estimator!

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@ryanfromfargo Probably so!

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@mocornfarmer @FarmerCJohnson I get that for sure!

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@JoshMesser_Ag @blonglet @MaxROIFarmer $90k in labor to put up a 4,000 sq ft building? That’s a three man crew working full time for 3+ months.

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@mocornfarmer @FarmerCJohnson My shop in Fargo has no floor heat and I worked in there for 100’s of hours this winter with no issue. But I do have it in my house and it’s awesome

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@PrairieAg_ND These are just estimates!

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@Cjames701 @Brady_01 @MaxROIFarmer An extra $20 for concrete, insulation, interior panels, and the rest of the stuff is probably a little light, but I don’t think it’s drastically light.

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@855horsepower1 @NelsDer Doors included in materials. Would want to upgrade

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@tysonkpage Where am I way too light?

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@Brady_01 @MaxROIFarmer Thanks! Septic is already on-site

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@BeelFrankbeel Does that include insulation?

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@mocornfarmer I have. I think it’s a bit of overkill for this shop. This will be fairly lightly used.

[Nick Horob @NickHorob]

@matthewschreurs @MaxROIFarmer Thanks for sharing!