We recorded a profit* of almost 7 000 CHF, more than ever before: welcome to our Open Startup Report for September 2023.
Contents
September at Friendly in numbers
- 🤖 Software revenue: 16 523 CHF (+4%)
- 🧠 Consulting revenue: 16 692 CHF (147%)
- 💰 Total revenue: 33 215 CHF (+47%)
- 💸 Costs: 26 283 CHF (+15%)
- 🧾 Profit and loss: 6 932 CHF (-4 645%)
- 👩 Active customers: 110 (+4%)
- 💔 Churn rate (lost customers): 1.9% (-6%)
- 👋 New trials: 13 (-24%)
- 🔎 Website visits: 4 619 (-39%)
This is what moved us in September:
Revenues: Software revenue up slightly, consulting revenue exploded
Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from software subscriptions increased for the fourth consecutive month in September, this time by a significant +4% to CHF 16 523. This is the highest software revenue in our history.
The number of customers also rose again slightly by +4% to 110.
We are used to fluctuations in consulting. In July, we experienced a real slump in revenue. Since then, consulting revenue has recovered and virtually exploded in September. It rose by an incredible +147% to CHF 16 692.
Among them was analytics consulting for a Swiss bank, a newsletter template for a retail company, a lectureship at a technical college, and marketing automation consulting for a chamber of commerce.
For the first time, consulting revenue even just overtook our software revenue. We assume that we will probably not be able to maintain this high level yet, but it is a nice confirmation that sustained effort pays off at some point.
Our total revenue for September was CHF 33 215, an increase of +47% over the previous month and the highest revenue in our history.
Costs: increased due to higher salary costs
Our costs increased by +15% to CHF 26 283 in September. Our costs have never been this high.
In addition to the permanent increase in costs due to investments in a management system for ISO 27 001 and ISO 9 001, the increase was mainly due to higher salary costs.
Since we could not cover the enormous amount of consulting with our employees alone, we had to rely more on freelancers, which more than doubled the costs for this item.
I also paid our employees bonuses totaling CHF 1,300 in addition to their salaries as a result of their outstanding performance recently.
The other cost blocks were about the same as the previous month. Here are all our costs including salaries for September 2023 in detail:
Conclusion
There are months when everything just flows.
After posting a small loss in the previous month, we achieved the highest «profit»* in our history in September with almost CHF 7 000.
We owe this to exceptionally high demand for consulting services from our customers.
Even though we will probably not be able to maintain this high level in the long term, the trend in recent months is clearly moving in a good direction.
Our goal remains to achieve sustained profitability and to expand the margin to such an extent that I will be able to pay myself a salary this year if possible.
* “Profit” is deliberately put in quotation marks because I have not yet paid myself a salary for my work and, as a sole founder without investors, I have yet to make up for the loss so far.
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