Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in freelancing but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Axel Gustav, Founder of FreshBuzzer, located in Halifax, NS, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I'm the founder of FreshBuzzer, a smart buzzer solution for almost any apartment building. If your buzzer currently calls your cellphone or landline, FreshBuzzer is for you.

With FreshBuzzer, you're not limited to a single phone. You can forward your buzzer calls to all household members and even set up Secure Access Codes, which allow your guests to let themselves in - think the babysitter who's coming every morning while you're getting to work. And for short-term rentals, FreshBuzzer even integrates with Airbnb and Hosting Management Platforms to help you automate your rental property and your guest and staff to easily and securely access your apartment. This makes anyone who lives or owns an apartment building my potential customer.

Tell us about yourself

I'm a professional Software Developer with over a decade of experience, but what drove me down the entrepreneur route was solving seemingly simple but annoying problems in our everyday life.

When I went over to my friend Thom's place back in Vancouver, he told me to text him when I was there so he could come down and let me in. It seemed a little odd that he couldn't just buzz me in, and when I asked him about it, he said he couldn't because he has an "out of town" number and the building's call box doesn't allow any long-distance calls. The weirdest part was that he had a 604 number like everyone else, but it still didn't work.

I wondered how hard it would be to use a fantastic service called Twilio to rent a local number and route the buzzer calls through it. A few months later, I took some time off for a trip, and I built the first version of my product, which simply forwarded calls. Only much later, some other folks on the internet discovered the website, signed up, and started using it - that's what gave me the willpower to continue with this project and keep adding little features to make this a perfect and user-centric buzzer app that everyone wants to use. The whole story is also on my blog: https://freshbuzzer.com/blog/why-i-built-freshbuzzer

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

It's definitely adding incremental value while building a product that solely serves the user. Too many businesses get distracted by adding more features, expanding into different markets, trying to make more money, and, worst of all, growing for the sake of growing. Running this business by myself without any funding and alongside my full-time job allowed me to focus on only the important parts (though I wish I had more time to add more features that users have asked for!)

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Balancing all aspects required to run and nurture a successful business. Some folks are brilliant engineers, other geniuses in marketing - the latter definitely has been tricky, especially without spending any money on ads or fancy SEO tools. I have a small stream of new users trickle in, and that's been the sole source of growth. I did have to spend a lot of time and effort on beefing up my site with content and posting about FreshBuzzer around the internet.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Start small would be clear #1. It is easy getting deep into product development of your next great idea, just to find out that after you built it, no one comes.
  2. Next up, know your target audience and deliver solutions to their issues that they're willing to pay for. Many people (especially your loved ones) will tell you that you have a great idea. Be realistic about what most people would be willing to pay for.
  3. Know your weaknesses and account for them early. Mine is clearly marketing my product, and I should have started working on this (with a clear plan) much earlier.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.freshbuzzer.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freshbuzzer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/freshbuzzer/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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