[Progress Thread] My SaaS attempt

[tafy]

Hi all, I have been on the site a short amount of time already and I think the forum is great! We all have the same goal of making money and I see a lot of people here have already left the car park. Unfortunately is dont even have a vehicle

I read a great ama thread about SaaS and have decided to spend some $$$ and test one of my ideas, im up against a lot of solid competition in my area which is "online restaurant booking software and crm management" ok it sounds freaking hard but basically it means taking online bookings via a widget and emailing the customer the confirmation.

I looked at the hotel market but that is so freaking saturated and competative its just nuts, so went for what i know 2nd which is restaurant.

I have found my niche (I hope) and have set up a website to collect emails of people who would like to trial the software, im a tight bastard and this was hard to lay down $$ for a .com and a landing page, but u gotta specualte to accumilate right.

Next job is to get google adwords running.... Did I mention i was a tight bastard?

Anyway wish me luck guys and I will keep you updated on the conversions

 

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[tafy]

Just added adwords campaign with £25 + £75 free credit

Clicks are looking expensive at around £1-2 each, we will see how it goes. Google hasnt crawled the site yet so no chance of natural traffic

 

[tafy]

Ok I have gone into this too fast without properly looking at the competition! I need your help guys....

As much as I hate to give my idea away when someone may steal it (Weird how one thinks eh) . Even so I can tell im in over my head so who cares

The Idea: Restaurant booking software to be sold as a service with a low monthly fee (I was thinking $10)
Competition:
No1: Big names are dominating here such as toptable which charge $1 per cover (Could add up!)
No2: Websites that have high fees targeted at larger restaurants fees of $50 - $150 a month
No3: Big players offering FREE software in the hope of you upgrading to their premium offerings $100+

I was pretty confident until I hit across the free offers and they are good! I mean a small restaurant could easily run the free version and it would be all they needed (my main market unfortunately)

Unlike hotel software, restaurant online reservations are way simpler affairs as you just book a table (no Price, No Credit Cards etc) which the price tag of $10 is very reasonable, but how to go against someone offering it nearly all for free?

So please any advice is needed now, I dont mind that a spent some money on adwords and a landing page (no leads yet) and a domain name.... As it is all experience and nobody hits a home run on the first go right?

I will see where the landing page gets me but I think I need a fresh look at my offering....

Website: http://www.easycrmsolutions.com/

Let rip guys... as its a landing page i just ripped off a few images sooo....

Edit: This is the free website http://www.freebookings.com/en

Major roadblock?

 

[Gsuz]

This is not a major roadblock, but lack of market research. Look at what all of your competitors offer first, talk to their/potentially your customers, find out where there are problems, what you can do to differentiate your business. I saw that you'll have to pay for emails to customers at freebookings, so maybe you can take that feature and restaurants email the first 100 customers on the list for free etc.

 

[tafy]

This is not a major roadblock, but lack of market research.

Yes I admit it

I saw that you'll have to pay for emails to customers at freebookings, so maybe you can take that feature and restaurants email the first 100 customers on the list for free etc.

That would mean giving a free product and this feature of 100 for free, thanks for the idea I will consider it.

 

[mags]

You are off to a great start!

Here is something that should add inspiration as you move on with your SaaS venture:
7 Tips on How To Build A Successful SaaS Business

Keep up the great work!

 

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[tafy]

Thanks for the read mate.

Update... I have switched to getting leads on food ordering online, adwords is a bit stubborn at the moment so im not pulling in any traffic. My guess is that there are loads of takeaways that dont even have a website and they definately dont have online ordering, capturing these customers and keeping them for a long time would be great revenue. Again I am up against big players but their prices are wild! An No free version!

Im guessing a lot of places will need a personal visit or telephone call to make the sale, Also thinkiing about rent a website idea to go along with it.

 

[NikS]

I'm working on a SaaS too.

I've subscribed to this thread. Keep the updates coming!

 

[tafy]

I lead tested some ideas but have given it a pass for now, now I am thinking for the next idea

 

[100k]

Here is an idea for ya....

software/app/content management system for pizzerias that allows customers to order via their smart phones... the pizzeria owner can take pictures of his food, add text, logos online (via your website) .... and people can install the app and order and pay using paypal.

Well you can take it from there and add to it or remove parts that is not useful, but I think it would be a useful thing and you could charge em $40 a month to use the software. If you executed it well and presented it well I'm sure you could over the course of the year get 1000 pizzerias to sign up with you, $30k per month in profits...scale it up to 10k business..... fast lane baby! :driving::coolgleamA:

Need, Time, Scale, Control, Entry.

It will save the shop owner time of having to write down orders and talk on the phone. It will save the money on not having to print out leaflets (they can just have 1 big poster with a QR code that will download the app - pretty much everyone has a smartphone these days). It will allow users to order and pay in a safe and secure manner (I know I don't always feel comfortable talking to the pizzeria guys... so I'd much rather just take a look at what to order via a app and place my order and pay that way and I just pick it up). There won't be any questions if a telephone order is a gag order by some teenage kids that won't pick it up (coz they will have to pay before the order reaches the shop owner).

So there are quite a few benefits.


Good luck

 

[Talisman]

100k's got a good idea - and targetting a specific niche is a good way to start.

There are several businesses in Australia (and some other countries I know of) doing something similar - where they target restaurants and provide a sort of aggregation service, but with full ordering integrated through 3G enabled order receiving printers (you can buy knock off versions on Alibaba).

I have some inside information on this business type, so I can tell you that if it's not being done in the UK the model works. Pain points are getting all/many of the businesses signed up, which you obviously would need to get yourself. Selling points are a> more orders (with no extra cost attached unless they get orders/leads) b> online presence for the restaurant (possibly with menu if you have the man power / patience) c> SEO'ing their restaurants (via your aggregator).

If you can bring organisation like this to any service based area that is not already benefitting from it, you're on a winner.

 

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[exige]

I looked at doing a mobile ordering solution a long time ago and posted about it on here. A bunch of players popped up. Here's the problem, that I don't think those guys anticipated - there is a patent troll named Ameranth going around shaking people down, that claims their "visionary" "synchronization" technology blah blah. If you're outside the US though I'm not sure if they could touch you, I guess it depends if they want to spend the money to pursue it internationally.

 

[tafy]

I like the online order idea, sounds really cool. Would work for chinese and indian takeaways too, lots of big players already doing it but their commissions are hefty 11%. Lots of take up in London and not so much outside so plenty of room for getting customers.