Prepare for Tightening of Cyber Jobs by Creating your Own (part 2 of 2)

New Cybersecurity Founder’s Framework for starting a side hustle or business

As cyber jobs tighten, the threat remains. Businesses will increasingly outsource to reduce their risk. Smart cyber professionals are building side hustles to absorb that opportunity.

Note: This is part 2 of 2, see part 1, here .

Cybersecurity Founder’s Roadmap

As shown in Part 1 , I have created a Cybersecurity Founder’s Roadmap, to explain how to most effectively create a side hustle, that can scale into a business, if you choose.

Again, it is intentionally very similar, to the Value Creator Cybersecurity Job Roadmap . This is because many of the same skills apply and once someone has the cybersecurity skills, they can easily apply them in a side hustle.

Note: if you are interested in learning more on starting a cyber side hustle, or full blown business, join my new Cyber Value Creator Founder’s group .

Summary of Part?1

In part 1, we covered the foundation of the Cybersecurity Founder’s Roadmap, the Value Creator Framework . That framework serves as the bedrock of the Roadmap, as it contains the soft skills and actions of a value creator, which are critical for being successful as a cybersecurity founder.

Next, we covered being a Cybersecurity SME. Remember, you don’t have to be a world class expert or have years of experience to start a side hustle, you just have to be a couple steps ahead of your potential clients. Any hard skills you have gained, should be able to be turned into a side hustle.

Then, we covered business admin, and in particular, that you don’t need to formally establish or register your business, until it is viable and you actually are making more than $1000 in revenue. Until then, this would be an unnecessary expense and a distraction.

Next, we spent quite a bit of time on the Agile Social Business Loop (TM), whereby you start an infinite loop of learning, listening, solving, teaching, and profiting. This loop is the heart beat of the business and is what attracts and audience and enables you to make solutions, to others problems, which are of value to others.

Finally, we covered social media platforms. We recommended you start with text based platforms, like X or Linkedin and then mastered one platform, before moving on to another. The key is to get rapid test in order to learn what your audience wants and responds or engages most too.

Now, we will present the second half of the Cybersecurity Founder’s Roadmap.

Portfolio

I recommend, particularly when you are starting out, that you build a portfolio of home projects, demonstrating and showcasing your technical skills. These projects will be in the area of focus you have, such as building a Security Information Event Manager (SIEM) using an Elastic Search, Logstash, and Kibana (ELK) stack. Or, you can build out a set of honeypots and deploy them to the cloud, to gather threat intelligence. Any relevant home projects will go a long ways to establishing your authority and give your initial viewers some comfort in your knowledge.

I also recommend you post these on a blog, such as Medium, and provide a walk through of the lab. This is a marvelous way to learn in public and again, start a conversation with your potential and future audience. Another option is to use Github, but if you do that, be sure to build a nice portfolio webpage on Github , to properly showcase and organize your work.

AI may be used in the creation of a home lab, you can use it to research the steps involved and even provide you the configurations, that are required and to work through any errors you may have, when building the lab. You can also use it to help you write the blog article.

Actions:

• Choose a set of interesting and relevant home projects.
• Research using AI how to perform the home lab, or look at others’ examples
• Report the results and lessons learned from the home lab, on Medium or other blog, including Github page.

Tech Stack

You will certainly need a set of tools, when building your business. But I recommend you start simple and keep it simple, until you need to scale things up. In this manner, you can build and configure technology as you need it, and not until then. This will help you remain profitable from the start.

I have made this mistake many times, glueing together a half dozen or more expensive tools, only to not need them or to later have to change them. Again, I recommend you keep it simple and resist the urge to “get busy” building… as that is just a clever way to procrastinate, doing what it really takes to build the business. Yes, it may feel good to configure tools, but without an audience and an understanding of their problems, you are waisting your time.

Now, when it comes to the lean set of tools you will need to get started, you will only need a website and a method to collect email addresses and send email campaigns. I recommend you use the Podia all in one marketing solution , as it is just that. You can start for free and then scale that tool up to handle all the business and marketing needs you will have. It is what I use and I have a pretty advanced setup and it works well.

The other tools are listed in the order you “MAY” need, but again, I recommend you only cross those bridges when you need to and keep things simple and cheap, until you are making profit, then consider optimizing and further automating, to “buy” back your time.

Other Tools You “May” Need, Over?Time

• Tweethunter.io ?—?automate and schedule X post, using AI
• Taplio ?—?automate and schedule Linkedin post, using AI (sister app to tweethunter.io , so it works the same way, which is convenient.)
• Skool community site ?—?useful for building a community
• HelloBonsai.com ?—?useful for managing clients, proposals, contracts, invoicing
• Scribehow ?—?used to make tutorials and demonstrate steps to others.

Actions:

• Keep it simple, only build out what you need to start, a website and email capture and sending capability, using Podia.
• Then, only as you need them, as you grow, leverage other tools given, in order.

Delivery (Operations)

After you make a sale, it is time to deliver the service or product, and delight the client, so they become a life long buyer and super fan, recommending you to others. It is always easier to resell or upsell to an existing client, than it is to gain a new one. The value of a client, over time, is called the Lifetime Value (LTV). A better ratio is the Lifetime Gross Profit (LTGP), which backs out the cost to deliver the service or product.

There are several ways to increase the LTGP, one is to have the customer stay longer (less churn) or buy more times, or increase the price of the service or product. The other way is to become more efficient in the delivery of the product or service. So, this is why delivery impacts your business, significantly, it is a matter of profitability.

Now, since we are talking business metrics, the cost of acquiring a customer (CAC) is the second metric you need to know, when running a business. As long as LTGP is greater than CAC, you should be a profitable business. This also means that if you truly understand these numbers, you can spend up to the LTGP to acquire a customer, and still be profitable.

You can reduce your CAC, buy doing more organic marketing (we have spoken about that) or buying cheaper ads or getting a discount in some way for bulk purchasing ads or other paid methods of gaining customers, such as pay per click (PPC). You can also reduce other factors, that impact the cost, such as marketing teams, sales teams, etc. However, since you are starting out as a solopreneur, you probably don’t have those levers yet.

LTGP:CAC Ratio

Then, the ratio of LTGP:CAC is the magic formula that allows you to print money. Meaning, if your LTGP is $10 and your CAC is $1, then your LTGP:CAC ratio is 10:1, so for every $1 you put into the business, you get $10 back. You can increase this ratio, by increasing your LTGP or decreasing your CAC. We have discussed both already, so these are the two levers you have to make more money. For more information on this topic, watch this video .

This is easier said than done, but if you build a business like this, that has a large LTGP:CAC ratio, you will be very, very wealthy. Once you are certain that you have the “correct” ratio, based on sufficient data, you just need to push all your money into the front end, to acquire customers and reap the reward of 10x (or what ever the ratio is)on the back end.

Optimize Delivery (Operations)

Now, as you can see, these numbers are very important and why the delivery of the service or product is very, very important.

In order to delight a client and have them stay longer, or buy more times, you should follow these steps.

Actions:

• Onboarding?—?ensure there is a kick off meeting to reconfirm the expectations of the client, for the product or service.
• Smooth handover between the sales team and the operations team, both should be on the onboarding meeting and ensure the client understands the handover and is pleased. If you are a solopreneur, this is easy, its just you!
• On time or better delivery of the product or service.
• Regular sentiment checkins, allowing the client to express their happiness, or issues.
• Anticipate problems and challenges of the client and get out ahead of them, proactively. Don’t make them complain, solve it before they even know it is an issue.
• Underpromise and overdeliver. If they were sold X, deliver X times 1.3, in terms of quality, timeliness, and results.
• Turn delighted clients into testimonials and raving fans, that they tell all their friends about you.

Optimize (SADE)

Now that you have a few clients and are making a profit, it is time to work on improving that LTGP: CAC ratio, by becoming more efficient and optimize your business for growth, or to simply buy your time back. After all, you probably got into business to have more time, location, and financial freedom… right? If so, then perhaps you optimize early, to get your time and location freedom back, once your financial needs are met.

This is the beauty of being an entrepreneur, it is up to you, to pull the levers you want to pull and to grow your business, to the size you want.

Systemize

The first step in optimization is to systemize all processes in your business. From your Agile Social Business Loop, to Marketing, to Sales, to Delivery; you want to document all processes and when possible capture screenshots of those processes. I recommend creating Scribehow tutorials, that you can then use for training of others and onboarding new members of your team.

Automate

Next, look for processes that you just documented, that can be automated. If there are tools involved, you can normally automate processes, using APIs. You can leverage tools like Make.com , Zapier.com , and n8n.io to automate most anything, these days. For example, you can have a spreadsheet on your Google drive, that contains all new customers.

When you add a row to that spreadsheet, you can have an automation that kicks off and sends that client an automated email and then updates the state of onboarding, to send them a separate email, to book a meeting for their onboarding call. After being onboarded, you can have an automation that kicks off to weekly send them a sentiment email, to check for their pleasure or issues with the service or product. And so on, the choices are limitless, only bound by your imagination and your desire to get time back.

Be relentless in automation, it is a huge way to increase that LTGP:CAC ratio and print money. If you fail to do this, you are leaving money on the table and opening yourself up to competition, as they may do this better and be able to outspend you on CAC and thereby gain your client base…sobering thought, isn’t it.

Delegate

Next, you will want to delegate anything you don’t enjoy doing and that is not worth your time as a founder. You have to realize that a founder’s time is most valuable and if you are waisting it, doing what you could outsource for a fraction of the cost of your time, you are burning money and harming that LTGP:CAC ratio.

So, set an hourly rate for yourself, perhaps $50/hour initially, and eventually $500/hour. Then, list out all the actions you are performing that are not critical for the growth of the business, that could be done by someone else, even at 80% of the quality that you could do it, and if the cost to outsource it is less than half the cost of you doing it, immediately outsource it. Use Fiverr or Upwork to find talent.

Since you already documented and systemized the processes, the onboarding of the assistant to this project should be efficient and easy. If they fail, your training and documentation may not be sufficient. If the documentation was sufficient and they still failed, you may have underestimated the skill level required and may need to hire better talent, with more skills for the given tasks (and pay them more). Worst case scenario, you get the task back and have to do it yourself. This is rare, if you get the hiring and documentation correct.

There is a trap that founders make: they hold on to all task, thinking they are the smartest and most capable in performing it and therefore, wear themself out, trying to do everything in the business. I suggest you get comfortable in allowing others to do the task that you don’t enjoy doing and that don’t add significant value to the business, even if they can only do it at 80% the level you can. If you paid half your cost of time to have them do 80% and you still have to finish the 20%, you are still ahead. You should be able to close that 20% gap with further training and supervision.

Eliminate

Lastly, look for things that don’t matter in your business, and get rid of them. This sounds simple, but you will be surprised how many processes and “things” you are doing, that don’t need to be done, or perhaps they were necessary at one point, but no longer are. As you are systemizing and delegating, look for what processes are left over that are no longer needed, and STOP DOING THEM!

Use of AI for?SADE

You may find AI useful in the creation of documentation, for example Scribehow uses AI in the creation of the tutorials, to make them easier to create. Then you may also point AI at a mountain of documents, for your business and allow it to take the first draft at creating processes for you. You may also use AI to review all your completed systemized processes, looking for gaps, redundancies, and areas you may be able to stop doing. You will be amazed at what AI can do in this area, if you allow it to.

Actions:

• Systemize all processes
• Automate relentlessly
• Delegate all task that you don’t enjoy or are not absolutely necessary
• Eliminate task that are no longer needed

Scale (or?not)?

Scaling a business is an option, but a choice you will need to make. As explained in the last section, you may find a sweet spot in your business growth and decide to stop right there and optimize for your time, location, and financial freedom.

Oversubscribed

You may find that by scaling up further, you will need to spend more of your time and you just may not be comfortable doing that. For example, some people optimize for working 4 hours a day or perhaps 4 days a week, and thats it, period. In those cases, they are able to establish a oversubscribed scenario, where you decide exactly how many clients you will service, to maintain that level and then put all further potential clients on a wait list.

That is how Ferrari, Rolex, and many other brands operate. They have optimized and have learned that by forcing their customers to go onto a waiting list, they have streamlined production and are incredibly profitable, with a seemingly endless list of customers waiting, they have the security to weather financial storms, and have been in business for more than 100 years. It turns out, due to their brand, people are happy and even eager to get on those waiting lists.

You can do the same, should you choose and if you build the type of brand that sparks a sense of quality and scarcity that motivates potential clients even more, to wait for your service.

Scaling Up

Now, if you decide to scale up operations, you may need to hire more people, either as contractors or employees. Employees are great, but come with their own set of challenges. Again, think hard and long before doing this. Many a founder has scaled up, only to find themself miserable and longing for the simpler life, of only themself to worry about.

AI is a wonderful way to scale your operation. Again, through increasingly sophisticated AI bots, you can delegate some rudimentary task to AI and free yourself up to focus on more difficult tasks. In this manner, you may be able to scale up operations and serve more people, with less human resources.

However, if you go heavily into AI, at the sacrifice of humans, remember, that is how you got started down this path, trying to create a job for yourself and others. You just may be the solution for another person’s problem, the need for a quality job, consider that.

Actions:

• Evaluate your goals in terms of time, location, and financial freedom.
• Decide if you want to scale or not
• Decide if you want to hire more people or deploy AI bots to assists

Scorecard

Throughout the framework, we have discussed ways to become more efficient and to master the given tasks at hand. You may develop a scorecard to measure these elements or leverage the one I am creating for this purpose, available within my Founder’s mentoring group .

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. For each element of the Cybersecurity Founder’s Roadmap, assess your score on a scale of 1–10 and then average up the scores, to determine the health of your business and level of optimization.

Actions:

• Evaluate each element of the Cybersecurity Founder’s Roadmap
• Measure on a scale of 1–10
• Average up the scores and evaluate areas for improvement and optimization

Fulfillment

True self fulfillment comes from self actualization, when you find the center of your IKIGAI, as discussed in the Value Creator Framework . When you reach this level of self fulfillment, it is natural to be grateful and be generous with your time and resources.

You will find even more joy in helping others, reach their goals in life and making the world a better place, to live. I recommend you pursue charitable giving, either in your faith, or community, or both. You will be blessed in more ways than you can imagine, if you are active in this area of giving to others.

Another area of self fulfillment is to continue as a life long learner. Always keeping an open mind, seeking more knowledge and truth. As you continue to learn, you will be exposed to even larger problems to solve, and the cycle repeats. This is the sign of a Value Creator, never done, always growing and helping others.

Actions:

• Take stock of your accomplishments and take time to celebrate achievements
• Look for opportunities to give back, helping others, living a generous life
• Seek opportunities and embrace an ethos of life long learning

TL;DR

In this article, we have covered:

• A summary of Part 1
• The portfolio and importance thereof
• The required tech stack of a founder
• Service or product delivery and metrics
• Optimization through SADE
• Scaling (or not)
• Fulfillment

Note: This is part 2 of 2, see part 1 , here.

If you made it this far, and are interested in learning more on starting a cyber side hustle, join my new Cyber Value Creator Founder’s group .