SAAS Execution, Dane Maxwell style

[MartinH]

Congrats on taking action!

I can totally relate to the small german businesses not wanting new software... I used to cold call small to medium-sized businesses here in Germany that had really crappy websites... 95% were not interested in any sort of improvement in their web presence... they said things like: "we get all our clients through trade shows and word of mouth" *click*... I think businesses here are just a little "slower" in adapting to new technologies.

Make sure to be extra polite (use last name) in your emails when in Germany... I sent tons of physical letters to businesses pitching my marketing consultation services and I used the owner's first name... big no-no in Germany. When I did the follow-up calls they were super pissed off

If I were you I'd definitely first tap my existing network for "idea extraction"... so much easier to get access to them and they can probably refer you to other people in the field and also explain the industry to you a little more.

Keep on posting, keep on pushing and don't get discouraged.

- Nick

I did the same thing, I feel your pain. I wrote about 100 emails to companies that had horrible websites and offered to "polish" their websites, make them responsive, even transfer all the old content to a new shiny CMS - nothing ^^ Simply no demand.
I know a few freelance developer and they are all "doing OK", not great. Like I said earlier, freelancing would in most cases be considered Slowlane, whereas founding a web development & IT consulting company with several employees and creating an "all inclusive" package like those guys http://www.chiropracticmarketing360.com/plans-pricing/ would definitely be fastlane ^^

Yeah I'll talk to my friends and relatives next, something I should do more often anyway, and look for problems there!

 

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[Gsuz]

Might wanna have a look at http://www.amazon.de/Heiß-auf-Kaltakquise-vervielfachen-Erfolgsquote/dp/3648019910

Pretty good book

Good luck

 

[Lakeview]

What an awkward title for your first post

@jon.a There you go being nice again. Awkward is not my first choice of words but is probably the best gentleman's response.

 

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[jon.a]

@jon.a There you go being nice again. Awkward is not my first choice of words but is probably the best gentleman's response.

I chose awkward because it could have been simply awkward. Seems like maybe it was.

 

[Fulfilled]

Good luck bud

Keep us updated

 

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[1milclub]

I've never heard of that book before but apparently they are giving it away for free in .PDF format by just joining their mailing list. I just got it, thank you for sharing!

Here is the link if anyone is looking for the Get Real PDF - free (need to provide email to join their list)

 

[bane]

Hey mate! I love this thread! I am getting a tonne of value out of it! So thank you and great work! I am going to watch your updates closely brother!

I have never cold-called anyone in my life until this morning and considering that I actually got through to 4 managers and talked to them I'm quite happy, I didn't even expect that.

Awesome man! I cold called for the first time this week too! So I can empathise!

Day 2 Send an email to the owner (in the style of Sam Ovens or the other 7 templates I built)

Could you please link me to Sam Ovens template or tell me about it

or I'll simply do the Chet Holmes thing where I first growl along to my favorite Death Metal Songs to get my voice to the right baritone pitch and then simply do the *deep voice* "Hello, is {boss's first name} there?" -"Who's this?" -*even deeper voice* "Tell him this is Chet Holmes calling". ( I must remind myself not to say "Chet Holmes", but my name simply doesn't have the same sound to it ^^)

HAHAAHA I lol'd. I watched that lecture too. So i know what you are talking about!

I introduced myself as a college student who's doing research on his thesis and then I asked the secretary if she happens to know the right person to talk to.

Good idea, but I am concerned about the lack of integrity. Assume you strike a great relationship with one of these people, and start to build a solution, eventually it will come out that you are not a College student (I'm assuming you are not?). How do you feel about that?

But I am happy to announce that today I did my first 3 Idea Extraction Calls ever

That's awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to read "The Lean Start Up" and find out what that's all about as soon as I finish my current book x2.

@DanielTArgueta I'd recommend "Running Lean" instead. It's like a summary of The Lean Start Up and is much easier to read and understand

 

[davedev]

Reps for taking consistent action!

Keep going man!

 

[Fulfilled]

++++++++++

Don't lose that motivation, you are going in the right direction

 

[MartinH]

Day 10:
Today I was procrastinating a lot.
I got up on the wrong side of the bed and somehow couldn't get myself to start cold-calling again.
The phone felt so heavy in my hands, I was tired and had a headache... so I didn't phone anyone in the morning.

Instead I did some research on my competition and it turns out the "level 4 problem" I found yesterday has already been solved - in three different ways by three different companies. One company even offered a portable device in addition to their app.

The reason that the companies I called didn't use any of the available software to solve this problem might be because they simply weren't looking for a solution (which means the problem is not as painful as I thought) or because they weren't willing to pay for a software solution. With an already existing SaaS product that starts at 28€/month I find that hard to believe.

I basically found one software company that does everything I wanted to do, just even better than I could've done it: The CEO of that software company was a CEO in the property cleaning industry first so he took all his experience and built an affordable and - I have to admit - awesome SaaS solution around it. When I first saw the site I thought to myself: Damn, that's exactly how I would've done it.

So altogether there are at least a dozen different and well thought out software solutions for that industry.

I know that competition means there is money to be made, but it also means:
Don't reinvent the wheel. Don't start a business that solves a problem that has already been solved in multiple ways.

In the afternoon I had another hour long IE call but this time it sucked. The guy kept bringing the conversation back to problems that simply couldn't be solved (like high taxes, statutory minimum wage, low profit margins) and I couldn't figure out a good approach.

I'm not really happy with the industry I chose. There are a few companies that are really dominating the market and making billions but then again the majority of cleaning companies can barely make ends meet.

 

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[JimmyRose]

Hey mate. Great thread. You inspired me to get back on the calls. I was almost ready to go to development on 1 pre-sale because I hate the calls so much. But these last two days have been great. Thanks for that

It's funny, I'm attacking a very similar industry and just like you have noticed there is a lot out there that already does the stuff I want to do.

The thing is, not many people are happy with the solutions. In fact a lot of business owners have absolutely slammed some of the options that seemed to be big competition. Because of this I'm not convinced it is a bad direction to go in. It's pretty early to give up on that industry but obviously it's up to you.

 

[ChristopherP]

I cannot read German, so I can't judge how to design and market around the other product, but good on you for finally having those calls. Keep forcing yourself to do it and you'll have something actionable in no time, that is if this one doesn't work out.
rep++

 

[MartinH]

Here's something I learnt, after spending several months searching for an amazing "golden" idea.

I found that every problem I discovered already has a solution, which led to me giving up that project. Eventually, I realise this mindset is completely wrong. MJ had 12 competitors when he started. It's good to have competitors, it means there is money in the problem you're trying to solve. What I've learnt recently, is that you don't need an original idea that no one is doing. Felix Dennis said if you try so hard to come up with an original idea and somehow succeed, you'll just end up making other people, your competitors who will soon follow, rich.

Thanks for the insight! Powerful words. Very liberating.
I will try to keep that in mind!

 

[GregH]

I was reading quite a few blogs of Ex-Foundation members and listened to what they said although none of them actually succeeded in creating a real business.

 

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[MartinH]

Day 12:
Today I called a few companies in a totally different industry just to see their reaction.
The good thing is I almost immediately got the "CEO" on the phone - but he'd just tell me there's
just him and either his son or 1-2 other craftsmen in the company and that they're not making a lot of revenue.

I figured if I want to solve a problem big enough for me to charge >70€/month the problem should cost them
about 1k in lost revenue each month. So I should better look for bigger companies.

 

[MartinH]

Day 13:
Was invited to a friend's birthday party that took up most of my Saturday + Sunday night.

 

[MartinH]

Day 15:
Didn't call a single company today, instead I sent out messages to CEO's of big companies in my industry.
This time I didn't send the messages to their office but instead tried to contact them personally on LinkedIn and Xing.
I wasn't so sure if I should stick with the industry I chose but after a conversation with a fellow fastlaner I am now convinced that I'm on the right track and maybe even close to a specific problem I can solve.

 

[JimmyRose]

I personally wouldn't go all in unless I had at least several thousand $$ cash in hand from pre-sales alone.

I'm in two minds about this. Thousands in pre-sales is going to take MONTHS, depending on the industry and how much they are going to fork out. That's months you could have used developing and marketing the software that actually exists. I just want a few pre sales worth like $500. That's plenty in my opinion.

In my most successful IE calls I didn't mention software once.
I said: "I'm a college student and I am doing a research paper on the problems in {his industry} and my task is to find as many problems as possible and develop a realistic solution for some of them. Do you have a minute to talk about this?

And it worked really well, they let their guard down because I didn't seem like I'm selling anything and a phone call seemed beneficial to them because I said I would try to find solutions - and most CEOs are not averse to getting their problems solved (for free).

I've noticed mixed responses with that "software" word as well. But it kind of feels dodgy because you're going to need to mention it at some point. From memory Dane Maxwell has said a couple of times that he likes to be honest and actually does mention software pretty early. To be honest I've mentioned it a lot and haven't had TOO many problems.

 

[MartinH]

Some people discourage learning to code though, on the premise that business owners don't code

I totally agree that learning to code by itself doesn't get anyone closer to creating a sustainable business. Extensive market research and acquiring customers do.
So if I were to choose between doing my cold calls OR learning to code, I'd choose the cold calls.
Luckily I don't have to choose - my day has 16 hours so I can do market research during the first half and then concentrate on coding.

Development can be a lot of fun though

I totally agree, creating something is always fun.
I love building stuff with my hands and I equally love creating websites and apps.
But that doesn't mean I can't sit back and let a team of more competent programmers do the hard work
It was through Dane that I realized I don't have to do everything on my own to get this feeling of accomplishment.

 

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[tafy]

I just want to add to the discussion about the need to get pre sales.

I believe in a market where SaaS applications already exist and companies are already using it would be totally waste of time to get any pre sales (why would they give you money to develop something that already exists), the demand is already proven and theres competition from the start which means theres a need thats already been met.

This is personally the kind of market I would enter as you are guaranteed to have paying customers interested, the work will come to differentiate yourself from the established providers already in the space.

 

[donny123]

wow, awesome progress thread. keep it up!

 

[MartinH]

Day 24:

I did several cold calls today and introduced myself as a developer - the CEO's were not so excited.
One of the CEO's told me about software they're using which solved basically all the problems they had.
I checked it out and it turned out there's a software company in Germany that has been developing software exclusively for the property cleaning industry for 20 years now and now they're offering a huge variety of applications specifically designed for property cleaners.
I'm talking SaaS, mobile apps, hardware, accounting, etc. Three of the bigger property cleaning companies I called are using their software and they called it the "Rolls Royce" of software.
I'm not intimidated but still it's something to keep in mind.

I also called a CEO I met on XING and this conversation was great. I even found a "new" problem that would actually be very easy to solve.
XING really seems to open doors for me. I can send CEOs personal messages and add them as a "contact" and then do a follow-up call - easy. And a much more classy approach to get past the gatekeeper.

Later that day I read in the "Rails Tutorial" by Michael Hartl.

 

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[tafy]

This german software, see what the price is, try to test it out yourself with a demo account. See if it fits small companies and if you can do a cut down version for small businesses

 

[MartinH]

This german software, see what the price is, try to test it out yourself with a demo account. See if it fits small companies and if you can do a cut down version for small businesses

Thanks for the advice man! That would definitely be something to think about. They don't offer any trial accounts, though. And you have to prove you're really a property cleaning company to even get a demonstration of their software. And they don't reveal their pricing anywhere either but from what I heard from several companies (w/ >100 employees) who're using their software "it ain't cheap". For the mobile (iPhone) app I know that for a company with about 100 employees the monthly fee would be about 1.000€

And the problem is even if I wanted to imitate one of their software products and strip away features and make it more affordable for SMBs it would still take a huge effort to replicate the basic features that customers expect.

GOLDEN RULE: If it's not simple it's too complicated

Simple is gold, simple is everything that works. Anything complicated was something simple with a bunch of other simple things stacked onto it. Complicated breaks, fails, sucks. Don't do it.

'Nuff said.

I'm really unsure about which problem to concentrate on because the more expensive problems would require a very sophisticated solution and I don't want to risk screwing up my first SaaS business because I focused on a very complex solution that ended up costing more time & money than I guesstimated. (I did that mistake once and I don't intend to repeat my mistakes)

The hard thing about finding an appropriate problem to solve with SaaS is that it should be expensive, yet simple.
The solution should be easy to do - like connecting two APIs to save hours of migration-work, automating a bureaucratic process, an app that automates a tedious task, etc.

 

[tafy]

Ok so lets see why you think its too complicated for the main feature?

Im guessing its time management right? like a diary for each cleaner with time slots for each job?

Can you break down this too big to program problem into small pieces?

You dont have to solve an expensive problem per se, but something that makes life way easier is good too. Time saving = cash.

Im sure if you think about it its not that hard to program

 

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[tafy]

You need to cut the pains down to the top 3 and really look at each one closely, can you combine the top 3 into 1 software?

 

[tafy]

Ok so time mangement isnt a problem and they do it on paper? This doesnt sound right to me.

How I imagine making the software for just this 1 problem:

have each member of staff with a diary, that you enter jobs into, either 1 off or recuring. Managed by the office.

Then the cleaner has a mobile app or a website location to see their diary and check off jobs as they go, maybe even note down on jobs that took longer than normal or shorter, or other notes that go back to the office to sort out. I dont know the business that well right but you do.

If it works out then it can be expanded with invoices and payment processors down the line.

Pitch it to them and see what they say

 

[tafy]

You should check out debitoor, they have great simple invoice application for a low fee

 

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[MartinH]

Day 27:

Spent some time reading "Agile Web Development with Rails" and building their sample application.
Talked about my plans for next week with a few people I trust to get feedback.
Looks like next week is gonna be awesome.

 

[MartinH]

Day 28:

Continued reading "Agile Web Development with Rails". A lot of work, even to get a simple app running :embarrased:
I read some other books on this sunday, even fiction. Then I had a chat with my mentor about my tasks for the upcoming week.