Could really use some guidance. What should my next step be?

[TreyAllDay]

Hey all,

As always, thank you in advance for the guidance and mentorship! I'll try to keep this short.

I'm a bit stuck contemplating what my next move should be and it's causing me to get nothing done. Some backstory: I decided to make a commitment to going fastlane this february and started developing a software that in my field I've seen and heard a large need for. Basically my goal is to remove the barriers mid-large sized businesses face in rolling out employee engagement plans through HR and employee management. The software is built to make complex tasks simple and do the leg work.

I've finished developing the software have had friends/mentors poke around and have gotten great response. However, my commitment is to solving the need as best as possible and will need to experiment and have real companies try it - early adopters. My problem is I work full time and cannot save up the funds to quit until end of Jan 2017. With this type of software it is difficult as companies are putting a significant investment into getting set up, inputting employee info, creating templates, etc - it's a lot less likely that you can just throw it out there and have companies sign up without talking to salesman, calling a 1800 numbers, etc. I just don't see how it can sell itself without me being there full time.

So my question is, what should my move be for the next 3 months? I have thought about developing the software further, making tutorial videos, brushing up on some features that were "nice to haves" and things I BELIEVE people would want , etc but might be wasting time as you never know until people try it. Or I could spend a month developing the website and trying to sell it externally with customer service only available when I'm home from work, blogging, building social media, etc. My main goal in all of this is figuring out what it is people want.

Any advice would be great.

 

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[Interesting Life]

MVP - Minimum Viable Product.

Release it and learn and improve as you go!

That's just my take on it.

 

[AllenCrawley]

@GIlman comes to mind due to his experience and may chime here.

 

[devine]

Take your time.
Don't rush, don't panic.
You'll get an answer shortly, from yourself.

 

[LateStarter]

Here's my take.

It sounds to me like you don't yet have a sell-able product. You need to test market fit and look at the demand for this. That will help you to road map your the feature set for your launch version of the product.

Could your 9-5 employer benefit from this? Would they consider adopting this as a free-trial (time limited of course)? Are there other companies in your building that you can pitch this to? If not in your building, what about walking distance? Give up your lunch break to make a pitch. Buy someone a meal and talk it over with them.

Think hyper-local until you get some traction. You'll need to work on your pitch and your product during this time to prepare yourself to make the leap out of the 9-5.

These test/early adopter installs will be your initial customers. They'll feel invested in the product and will help you to vett it. Leverage that buy-in for testimonials, critiques, referrals, etc. In the meantime, while you're trying to get installs, work on things to help adoption: training videos, manuals, and guides for specific steps. I'd even do workflow comparisons to help give users context for how they do things now (ie their system) vs how they'd be done in your system.

Good luck!

 

[TreyAllDay]

Here's my take.

It sounds to me like you don't yet have a sell-able product. You need to test market fit and look at the demand for this. That will help you to road map your the feature set for your launch version of the product.

Could your 9-5 employer benefit from this? Would they consider adopting this as a free-trial (time limited of course)? Are there other companies in your building that you can pitch this to? If not in your building, what about walking distance? Give up your lunch break to make a pitch. Buy someone a meal and talk it over with them.

Think hyper-local until you get some traction. You'll need to work on your pitch and your product during this time to prepare yourself to make the leap out of the 9-5.

These test/early adopter installs will be your initial customers. They'll feel invested in the product and will help you to vett it. Leverage that buy-in for testimonials, critiques, referrals, etc. In the meantime, while you're trying to get installs, work on things to help adoption: training videos, manuals, and guides for specific steps. I'd even do workflow comparisons to help give users context for how they do things now (ie their system) vs how they'd be done in your system.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[sdemierre]

Thanks for the advice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would focus on putting the finder in the biggest pain the market is feeling. Tell them it´s in beta and that you are looking for beta testers with the promise that when the full version is released (just a couple of tweaks to go) they´ll be able to have the version for a BIG discount (even free)

This should get you some testers IF what you got really takes the sting out of the market.

Some ideas to think about... who "owns" your customer? Who´s dealing with your ideal customer right now? Who deals with them before, after or during the time they would use your software?
Is there any middle size name you could go to and offer them to license your software under their label? They would havê the distribution (even tech support) already set and you would be able to focus on the dev size (if that´s your forte)

Basically, it´s easier to havê half a big cake than all of a small one.

Don´t take yourself as "a little guy" see your product for what it contributes to the market. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM SOLVER, You are the ONE that will take the pain out of them, you are the solution they didn´t know existed.

Só when you talk to your Joint venture partner, talk from that position of power. You are not asking for help, you are offering an opportunity to extend a solution through their distribution chanel / sales chanel. You will provide sales people with another product they´ll make money from. You may be bringing the 1 extra cent that brings the company back to the black numbers. Or the solution that will avoid a company going broke...

Just thoughts... kind of like a brainstorming.
AND get a contract, all in paper! This is what I expect, this is what I bring, this is what you´ll do, this is how we make money, this is when I get paid, this is what happen if x goes wrong, this is... etc.

 

[OldFaithful]

it's a lot less likely that you can just throw it out there and have companies sign up without talking to salesman, calling a 1800 numbers, etc. I just don't see how it can sell itself without me being there full time.

You've got a lot of good feedback thus far. @Interesting Life & @devine both provided some simple, clear direction. I like those.

The question I'll address is about working full time vs quitting, so that you can "be there full time". Sounds like you don't yet know how the market is going to react to your product, so it might be good to stay at your current job until that is figured out.

If you develop your "beta" version and there is no immediate sale, you might be without any income for a while. Unless you have substantial savings to carry you thru a dry spell, it might be helpful to keep your full time JOB. Work on getting sales at lunch, in the evenings, all weekend long...just keep at it.

If you develop that "beta" and there is accelerating sales, you can still quit your JOB at any time.