Stupid business mistakes #1 being too greedy

I used to subscribe to a newsletter service ( a service which would allow me to send e-Mails to my customers ).

The guy behind this had a convincing sign up, and a compelling video explaining his product.

The user interface was so-so (a stupid business mistake I’m going to come to in a future part of the series).

But … they lost me as a customer.

Here’s why:

In Germany (and actually the whole of Europe), data protection is very important (GDPR).

This guy wanted to charge extra for signing a so-called data processing agreement.

But, basically you NEED the data processing agreement in order to use his service. Otherwise you are passing on customer data to someone who is not allowed to handle it.

So he’s charging you extra for something which is an integral and REQUIRED part of the service – not something which goes on top or is optional, and only for those who want it.

Instead of just providing an automatic and easy sign-up form, like Hetzner, to comply with yet another government regulation™, this guy made a video (showing him going to a lawyer, shaking hands, etc.)

In the video he explained how this whole thing is really necessary. And that he will charge you extra for that.

If that works for him, great.

I killed the account.