Dan - Dan Counsell

Issue #03

Hello there 👋 It's been a busy month! I started the first half of February at a blistering pace, with lots of writing and lots of new followers. This declined dramatically as I took a week off towards the end of February to do a 5-day water fast! Just goes to

A book on Timeless Simplicity along with an iPhone full of notifications.

Self Improvement

I Will Not Buy Another iPhone

Even though I live out in the countryside, away from the city. I still feel too connected. I have my phone with me all the time. Sure I go through periods of leaving it inside, but I'm all too quick to fall back into the habit of taking it with

Building a Million Dollar Business Almost Gave Me a Nervous Breakdown… Here’s Why

It was late. I was the last one in the office again. Working. Worrying. My chest felt tight. It was like that a lot of the time these days. I was stressed on the edge of a nervous breakdown. What used to be a small, manageable business turned into a

Productivity

5 Mac Utilities I Can’t Live Without

Utilities on the Mac often get overlooked, as these lists are always about the bigger apps. It’s a real shame as there are still so many handy little apps out there. In order to add some balance to the world, this is a roundup of my favourite Mac utilities

Marketing

I Deleted My Twitter Account With 20K Followers. Here's How and Why I'm Starting Again.

Since the early days, I'd had an account on Twitter with over 20K followers and a blue tick. In this article, I'm going to cover why I deleted my account and how I plan to re-grow it to 100K. Let's go! It was during a rather stressful time in 2019.

Newsletter

Issue #02 The Real Trick Is Consistency

Hello there 👋 As promised here's issue #2 of my monthly newsletter. I set myself some challenges for January. First, run for 30 minutes and secondly, try to plank for 2 minutes every bloody day. I've not written up how I got on yet (I will, I promise), but I can

Entrepreneurship

Why Building Software Should Always Be an Organic Process

I've always thought that building software is very much an organic process. It's like shaping a lump of clay. First, you push and pull in different directions. Then, you keep smoothing and refining until it looks and feels just right. It's not something that can be planned out to the

Productivity

A Simple Task Management System That Actually Works

Over the past twenty-plus years, I've used notebooks, to-do apps, and full-blown task management software to try and manage the work that is part of running a small business. The problem with notebooks or apps is that tasks can be separated over multiple pages or buried in sub-folders. Things can

Productivity

10 of the Best Mac Apps on the Planet

A collection of hidden Mac gems that deserve your attention.You have probably heard of many of these apps, but some are absolute hidden gems that deserve more attention than they get. So take a look through the list, and I guarantee at least one of these apps you’ll

Entrepreneurship

How I Made an Extra $34,223 in Revenue During Black Friday

Over the Holidays during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I ran two promotions. Combined, they made $34,223 in sales. One was a direct email campaign to existing customers and newsletter subscribers, while the other was part of a bundle promotion with eleven other products. This article will break down

Newsletter

Issue #01 Hello World

Hello there 👋 Welcome to the first of my about-once-per-month newsletter, where I’ll be sharing: Lessons from 20 years of running a software businessMarketing experiments and resultsStats and figures, including revenue!Details about building and shipping productsExperiments in self-improvementEvery month I’ll send a round-up of the latest articles I’

Entrepreneurship

Why Keeping Your Startup Small Might Be the Best Way Forward

When you’ve been running a business for a while, and it’s finally starting to make a profit, there’s a temptation to begin hiring and find some office space so it can be a “real business”. It feels like a natural progression. Fast forward 12 months, and you’

Entrepreneurship

What to Do When an Employee Quits and You Didn’t See It Coming

I wasn’t qualified to interview or hire people. It’s not something I wanted to be responsible for. I never wanted to be a boss. I was in my early 20’s and working out of my spare room. Finally, the company started to make enough money to pay

Self Improvement

3 Challenges for January

There’s nothing like the promise of a fresh new year to kick-start some challenges. So rather than setting out some New Years resolutions that will probably fail far too soon, I’ve decided to do a few challenges for January instead. It’s just 30 days. How hard can

Entrepreneurship

Think Before You Grow Your Business

Left unchecked, a business can take on a life of its own.When you say, you run your own company, people often ask how many staff you have. The higher the number, the more impressed people seem to be, and I understand that. I fell into this trap myself. The

Technology

Buying a Commodore Amiga 30 Years Later

When I was younger, we had an Atari ST as our home computer, and while it was a great machine and I loved it dearly, I always found a lot of the games weren't quite as good as on the Amiga that a lot of my friends had. I routinely

Entrepreneurship

Setapp Thoughts and Revenue

Every so often something comes along that tries to change, or shift the way things are done. Setapp from MacPaw is that something. I believe it has the potential to change the Mac app market in a big way. What is Setapp?At its heart, Setapp is a Mac app

Technology

Building a Hackintosh Pro

If Apple made a mini-tower that was upgradable and could take a full-sized graphics card (or two), I’d have purchased it in a heartbeat. However, they don’t. There’s no doubt that Apple has a refresh for the desktop market in the works. I just don’t know

Entrepreneurship

3 Things Every Business Owner Should Know

As a small business owner, I've learned a lot over the years. Some of the best things I've learnt have been through the mistakes I've made along the way. I don't feel (too) bad that I've made mistakes. I just don't want to repeat them. Looking back, a lot of

Self Improvement

Removing Distractions Part 2

Late last year, I was inspired to try and get back some focus and clarity in my life. So I wrote an article called Removing Distractions. This is part 2 in that series. It's now six months on, and my life has changed because of it, but I have a

Self Improvement

Removing Distractions

A while ago, I read an article on living a year with a distraction-free iPhone. I laughed when I read the title, this guy must be one crazy fool, I thought to myself. But, after reading the article, I felt like maybe I'm the crazy fool, and this guy is

Entrepreneurship

Post-Launch Depression

It’s Thursday evening. I’m feeling nervous, almost sick. I’m pacing around the kitchen, staring intently at my phone like nothing else in the world matters. Everything rests on this. Any minute now, I’ll know for sure. I’ll find out if we made it. Apple updates

Entrepreneurship

Paid, Paymium or Freemium

Choosing the right pricing strategy for any new app is hard, but it can cost you thousands of dollars in lost revenue if you choose the wrong pricing model. In this article, I will cover the three main revenue models on the App Store and explain how to make sure