Easy as 1, 2, 3

The Method 123 site boasts a comprehensive suite of downloadable project management templates for everything from writing a business plan, to running a tender management process, to putting together a financial plan. Prices range from $US5 apiece to $US300 for the full kit of 52 templates.

All of which makes Method 123 sound like a company that’s been around for donkey’s years. In fact, it’s a fresh-faced startup whose early fortunes belong in the “to good to be true” file. Founder Jason Westland started work on launching Method 123 about year ago, writing all of the templates himself. After years in the software industry and having had plenty of exposure to project management, Westland reckoned there was a gap in the market for cheap, easy to use, standardised documentation. “The basic rule of thumb is that 20% of a project effort is spent generating documentation. Having pre-completed templates saves 50% of the effort required to complete documentation. Therefore you can save 10% of the cost of the project by using standard templates.”

Writing the templates was the biggest challenge in getting the company up and running, but Westland didn’t have to go through the usual startup hardship of living on baked beans during this early development phase. Instead, he kept his day job as general manager of Designer Technologies, but dropped down to a four-day week so that he could work on Method 123 on the fifth day.

Method 123 sells its templates only through the internet. The site went live on June 2, and made more than 100 sales in the first four weeks of operation. By July sales were increasing at the rate of 50% a week. Virtually all the sales are foreign exchange earners: 50% of orders are from the US and the remainder from more than 50 other countries around the globe.

Westland’s knowledge of search engine optimisation (hence the number two listing on Google), as well as direct marketing to the worldwide Project Management Institute and smart use of search ads, appears to have set the company up for healthy early cash flow, which is already strong enough to justify two marketing employees.

The internet marketing model promises almost unlimited scalability. “I could sell a million copies tonight and it wouldn’t cost me another dollar. All while I’m asleep.”
Sweet dreams.