Friday Night Update:
Had the day off today, slept in, got a decent tutoring sale.
The Tutoring Leads are actually pouring in right now.
I've been tweaking my Local Adwords account on the side. And, my results have measurably improved.
The way I see it, all that Tutoring Income is fuel for the SaaS company.
Tomorrow is a busy day... heck the whole weekend will be very busy with tutoring.
Anyway, you're here for news about the SOFTWARE CO:
Here's what we got done today for SaaS:
Went over Baseline QuickMail Stats after First Cold Emails + Followup Email #1:
For anyone interested in Cold Email open and response rates...
They look great, in my opinion. I'd like to boost them, for sure. But they definitely look good in a lot of ways.
These numbers are approximate, but fairly accurate so far:
- 80% open rates (!!) on Cold Email Sequences.
- 15% response rate, including "No thank you's".
- 5% click-through to website.
- 2.2% Cold-Email-to-Interview-Scheduled rate.
- 1.4% bounce rate (!!)
I expect all these stats to rise over time because of followup emails doing their thing.
- Started Reading + Taking Notes on "Business Model Generation" by Alexander Osterwalder.
This will count as "one of my 5 business books" for the whole project (I think this is Book #3).
Remember, I'm trying to
limit information overwhelm but still
take advantage of expert wisdom.
There's no reason to reinvent the wheel with my Software Company.
This book is considered an "instant classic" in the Startup Literature canon.
So far the book looks awesome, it's incredibly well-designed, and a lot of thought has clearly gone into writing it.
It's prompting a lot of useful thoughts.
Finished about the first 1/3 of the book today, which introduces all the key Ideas and Terms.
So far, nothing revolutionary... in fact, it's almost better than that.
It's reassuring me that I'm thinking about my whole project in exactly the right way.
There have been so many "guide posts" that I'm on the right track.
This is another one. And it's also helping me clarify and organize the next steps.
- Sketched out my first "Business Model Canvas".
The Business Model Canvas is a visual diagram of your plan.
If anything, I was surprised by how clear I feel at this point.
For each section of
the Business Model Canvas, I was able to easily generate many possible solutions and ideas.
(The Business Model Canvas is everything from "How will you reach customers," to "What key activities will the business perform.")
This was just an experiment to try my hand... and it was fun and cool!
Made me feel even more confident.
The big picture of the business is all there, just need to keep filling in the details a little more each day.
Even without knowing my Customers, Problem, Solution, or Product yet...
It's still very clear what my
process will be.
The outline is still almost exactly what I've planned from the start of this project.
The idea is to continually test and update each section of your Business Model Canvas.
It's all just theory until it's tested.
Get your assumptions out there, and test them.
Then you adapt, adjust, and try again.
I can't wait to see which elements of my Business Model work and which need to change!!
Keep what works, re-do what doesn't work.
In relatively short order, you'll have a fully-functioning business on your hands.
- Loaded **200** more Prospects into QuickMail.
I know I said that 60 per day is my
goal.
But I was feeling it, and had extra time & energy, so I saw no reason not to jump ahead today.
This helps stock my Prospect Database and get more NEED Interviews.
Also, it's possible some of these people will become Paying Customers later in 2017.
The more the better.
It's good all around.
Another great day of Learning and Prospecting!
Busy weekend ahead, but I'll keep doing what I can for SaaS.
If I focus on adding more Prospects to QuickMail, and finish taking notes on
Business Model Generation, that will be a good use of my limited time this weekend.
More updates tomorrow! Thanks for reading!
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Edit: Stayed up and added 150 more Prospects.
I realized:
It's very possible that I can add Prospects faster than I can (or should) send Cold Emails.
In which case, I can use the spare time to Practice Coding.
This lit even more fire under me to add prospects.
I've been really wanting to go back to Coding.
Here's the math on Prospecting and Interviews:
2.5% current Cold-Email-to-Interview rate.
If I want 50 Interviews...
That's 50 / .025 =
2000 Prospects to Cold Email to get 50 Interviews.
(We are currently at 873 Prospects, for anyone keeping count.)
If I send about 400 Cold Emails per week, that's 5 weeks of Emails.
There will also be a 2-week period for Followups and Conducting Interviews.
So, that's 7 or 8 weeks (per Industry) to get 50 Interviews.
I think I'll want to use a lot of that spare time to Study and Practice Coding.
Feels like it all adds up. This timeline should work nicely!
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By the way, the Company Website is now NUMBER-2 in Google Search if you search our name!!!!
I had my friend check - he's in NYC - and he verified.
We now sit at Rank 2!
Not bad for a 4-week old website, built in less than 25 hours!
I *knew* all the work
brainstorming my Company Name and .com Domain would pay off!!