SaaS Startup Thread, 2nd Time Entrepeneur

[eliquid]

So I didn't fully read all 8-9 pages of this. Sorry.

I can tell you this as someone that has done lead gen and SaaS for many years now....

For SaaS, getting to yacht level you will need to scale or command a high recurring price each month.

• For massively scaling a SaaS, Python will leave you dead in the water. It's slow and bloated. What Im talking about here is if you are scaling massive data.
• Learn C++ when you want to scale ( if massive data ). Also Redis too. Servers with SSD drives are also your friend here. Keep data transfer "in-network" if possible if data is spread between servers/nodes.
• Python will be good to help you learn, but you wont build a huge scalable backbone on it ever ( if massive data ).
  
• If you are going after scale, learn how to properly shard your database(s) from day 1.
• In a SaaS, the largest metric that will determine your success or failure is Churn Rate. Learn what it is and learn to prevent it from day 1. Also know what your real LTV is.
• Customer service will be your largest time sink. Start with a plan on day 1 for this.
• Never discount your price ever. Offer more of something instead.
• The lower priced tiers of your offer, will generally be the customers who suck up most of your time and demand refunds and charge backs no matter what you do.
• Something always breaks. Always. Be ready to know how to code, fix things, run a server, do customer service, etc on your own incase the people you hire can't be there in an emergency.
• Customers will ask you to provide them all kinds of features and changes and other things. You will need to know where the draw the line on stuff that is reasonable to add against things that are just not a good fit to spend time coding out.

Lead Gen - Not sure what you want to do here really. I might mess up any advice since I didn't read all 8 pages but here goes:

• Have backup buyers. See who will pay for what on any 1 lead. You can create a "ping tree" to see who will buy what leads. The more people you have in the ping tree, the better you can sell off the leads.
• I wouldn't work exclusive leads to 1 person, but if you do.. make sure you are getting 3-5x what a non-exclusive lead would be. Having 1 buyer leaves you at their mercy.
• Control the whole flow on the leads. Meaning control the marketing ( if doing ads ), control the website AND form, control how the buyer gets the data, keep a copy of the data for yourself too.
• Find out what the LTV is of the lead you are selling. Local doesn't always mean 1 time sale. If I give a lead to a plumber, they might only get 1 sale from that lead to fix a leaky sink. However, 1 lead to an accountant buyer or chiropractor might lead to "multiple" sales every month or week from that 1 lead ( depending on their needs ). You should get paid a % of the LTV on leads that tend to profit the buyer more.
  
• Some local niches are just way overcrowded. Some are crowded. Some are not crowded. Find out why for all 3 no matter what you do. A crowded local niche can equal BIG MONEY and that's why lots of people are in it. Some are just too overcrowded and you will have your work cut out for you. Some are barely crowded or dead and it might be no one has jumped on it yet, but it might also be because there is no money in it. Learn the differences.
  
• The local map pack section of Google, is going to one of those spots ( organic ) going to paid. This is going to be a game changer for many. Just a hint....
  
• Some people want prescreened and qualifed leads. Some will take RAW leads. You can pipe a phone call right into a buyer without any qualification and that is considered RAW. If you are filtering them out and sorting based on info, that is more screened. Charge based on this.
  
• Be prepared for bad, test, incomplete, and bogus leads to come in with your data. Know an average you get of this and treat your buyer right by excluding that % out of their costs.
  
• If your working with several buyers and one of them wants to buy you out. Do it. Make sure you charge a pretty penny for it. Anyday your organic site could fall and die. Anyday you could get into a massive bidding war with the guy on PPC that wanted to buy you out. A bird in hand is most times better than 2 in the bush. Don't get greedy. Pigs live another day, hogs get slaughtered.
• If you expand your lead gen efforts from say just Organic, to Adwords + Facebook leads.. awesome. But the quality will be different to your buyer. Keep your quality high with this new "blend". For example... I was sending someone very very good nutra/supplement leads at about 50 a week at a Cost/Conv of $35 all via Adwords. I launched a few FB ads and the quality was a tad less overall and it was more expenses to get this lead. However, I was able to pipe in these FB leads at 10 a week for Cost/Conv of $75. While the FB sounds a lot worse, when you blend the numbers, it only changed the overall Cost/Conv very little at 60 leads total for $41. Keep this blended number in mind when you scale out lead gen to your buyers.

 

[Young-Gun]

A bit of progress tonight. Planning out SaaS Customer Development campaign to start next week.
Working on my email scripts to send to decision makers.

I will *not* rely only on email to reach potential customers for Customer Development conversations.
Instead a multi-pronged email / phone call approach will work better.

But, starting lead / customer contacts with well-written email scripts works well for me.
It helps me organize my thoughts.
This is something I know about myself from running my current business.

-----------

Campaign: SaaS Customer Development
Mission: Idea Extraction, Part I

Key Objective: Identify 5 COMMON NEEDS of Small / Medium Businesses that could be solved by simple software (SaaS).

Sub-Objective 1: Obtain productive phone conversations with 20 - 50 Decision-Makers / Potential Customers.
Sub-Objective 2: Identify 10-20 common needs of businesses (without judging yet if SaaS is a good solution to the problem).
Sub-Objective 3: Whittle down list into top 5 common business problems that my new SaaS product could solve.

-----------

My *BIGGEST* flaw as an entrepreneur has always been - I live inside my head.
I am a hardcore introvert.
I have great ideas - doesn't mean they'll connect with the outside world in a big way.

And, I'm a good hustler. I like working hard (as long as I enjoy the work).
Guess what?
That doesn't matter either.
If you hustle for 10 years to build something no one NEEDS, your work will go *completely* unrewarded.
The universe does NOT owe you a reward just for working hard.

I've learned this time.
START with the outside world.
Then go inwards, and use my introvert powers to solve the problem.

There's nothing wrong with having a "hypothesis" about what SaaS products could be good.
In fact, as a small business owner myself, I can easily come up with ideas.

However I have a history of creating cool things that don't get bought.
Because, I start "from inside myself" like an introvert tends to.

This time, I will truly learn.
My ideas don't need validation by the market.
You talk to the market, let the MARKET GIVE THE IDEAS.

Stop trying to come up with cool ideas.

Talk to people with REAL NEEDS and REAL PROBLEMS (and REAL MONEY).
Get them to open up. Listen intently.

Take notes. Their problems are gold to you.
And you make the world a better place by solving them.

The SaaS Customer Development mission continues.

 

[Young-Gun]

I'm with Maverick here. This thread is 10 pages long, has gone on for over 2 months and you still haven't found ONE need to fill. Quit hoarding your interviews and find needs instead of stacking them up for another 2 months when you could find a need to solve right now. Then kick your coding into overdrive and make a product. And no I haven't read the entire thread but the majority of the posts are the same thing. I do like the pictures of yachts though.

I don't know how to explain to people who can't hear what I'm saying.

10 pages is nothing.
2 months is nothing.

How big is your business?
How much did you make today?
I'm already in the top 5% of global income. It's more than enough for me to be happy where I'm at.
(Edit, make that top .5% after I actually looked up the stat - easy living in the 1st World, to be honest)

Let me be clear:
I experience no rush to deliver the quick-win gratification you seek in dropping in - reading a few posts -
Thinking you've got some great advice to deliver, without being here ON THE GROUND WITH ME.
Every day isn't some different, exciting million dollar explosion.

Have you ever worked a process? Then really, you should understand.
If not:

If you can't read this entire thread, then it's NOT FOR YOU.
If you can't grasp the essential concepts behind the project, it's NOT FOR YOU.
If you don't understand PATIENCE and VISION, it's NOT FOR YOU.
If this thread is boring to you, it's NOT FOR YOU.

If you can't read a 10 page thread, why are you here giving me advice on how to build a business that I expect to take me years?

You're free NOT to read this thread, really you are.

Good luck to all those who understand what I'm attempting (and even to those who don't.)
I wish all living beings good luck, even when you test my patience.

 

[Young-Gun]

Hey ya'll, Young Gun here. Not quite so young (a couple of years since I've last posted here).

I'm still running my first business (a high-end tutoring company + blog + related infoproducts).

There have been some good successes: I've hit low 6-figure income (not profit) for the past 3 years... and I'm proud of the work our company has done for kids and families.

However, it's been very stagnant for me in terms of growing scalable profits, and I've learned some uncomfortable lessons.

I could have put even more effort into growing my tutoring business the past couple of years, without a doubt. But I've also been working hard. All my friends and family would say I stress too much, but I know I could push myself much harder... that's a topic for another day, though.

More to the "Fastlane" point... Specialty tutoring is just not a highly-scalable model. Yes, I have options to scale. Give me 20 years and I could scale nationally as a chain in 20 major cities and make a few million in profit a year, I'm sure of it. Teaching is a relatively fulfilling occupation, and I'd be my own boss the whole way.

I'm also pretty sure I could make a bit of supplemental profit from infoproducts in my niche. I've experimented before with some minor success, but nothing exciting... nothing to justify the time I invested.

Ultimately the specialty, high-end tutoring my company does is a *niche market.* It's also a service-based business. There's only so big (and so fast) it can grow. I can throw paid advertising at it, but % profits decrease. Payroll and office expenses scale just as quickly as profits.

To reiterate an important point that I'm trying to make for first-time entrepreneurs, my entire system is a tutoring service... highly dependent on HUMANS, people-time, and physical proximity. There's only so much you can automate when it's face-to-face teaching, or any other personal service.

That's not the greatest, because aside from the major scaling issues, I'm *highly* introverted by nature. I hate personnel management, and I'm easily disappointed by employees' performance. I love teaching, but it gets old after a while, and dealing with parents of students can be truly exhausting for me.

Here's where I'm going with this. I think something has to change.

I want to make a LOT of money. I mean, one of my dreams is to have my own yacht (sailboat or motoryacht) that I can cross the world in.

I'm talking, goals of 8-9 figure networth before I'm too old to enjoy it.

I *know* this is possible, and that I can achieve at least some taste of it.

The tutoring business is never going to get me there in time.

I think it's time to turn to a SaaS model and start a new business.

-------------------

I understand the "big picture" of entrepreneurship pretty well after 7 years of running my company. Even a simple tutoring company will teach you a lot about marketing, execution, and good business ideas. Plus, I've made an effort to stay relatively "cutting edge", so I'm skilled with website development, email lists, automation, etc.

Now, here's why I think SaaS is the way to go for any serious entrepreneur in 2017:

Software Ownership is *the* greatest, most scalable, most profitable global business model in human history. I am 100% certain of my reasoning behind this.

[With one other contender - the global Financial Markets are the only equivalent alternative in terms of scale and profitability, but I'm not really interested for multiple reasons]

And, Software-as-a-Service (monthly recurring charge) is the best distillation of the Software Ownership model.

------

So, I turn my thoughts to starting a Software Company as soon as possible.

To answer the question before you ask:
No, I don't currently know how to program.

I've started studying the Python programming language for about a week, learning via the internet, free books, and hands-on practice.

I think that with a few more weeks of hardcore study, I should be able to know "just enough" to create basic software mockups, Alpha versions, or at least instruct other developers in what to build for me.

-------------

Next part of the process is Idea Extraction / finding pain points in a sizable market.

I think I should go after local / small businesses. Find a problem that TONS of small businesses deal with... ideally, something they already *pay money* to solve.

This must be a problem that can be solved through subscription software.
I have some ideas already, but I'm not going to share the specifics quite yet. It's too easy to kill ideas before they're hatched.

-----------

Anyway, this gives the general idea of where I'm coming from, and where I'd like to go.

I think a Software Ownership business, focused on developing SaaS solutions for small local businesses... built around uncovered "pain points" through customer development and conversations with potential customers. Then aggressively marketed...

This is a much better chance of hitting the Fastlane than my current tutoring business. I'm still proud of my company, and especially what I've learned.

But, I'm about to be 30 years old, and I have relatively little to show for all my hard work, other than the lessons I've learned... and my self-respect for putting in the hard work.

It's time to make my financial dreams come true. If you're curious, I can post pictures of some of my dream yachts...

EDIT: I included one XD

Riva 88 Domino Super

 

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[Argue]

Bump. Interested in your progress. Haven't seen any posts in awhile. Hope everything is well!

 

[Harti]

Find the real problems that other businesses face.
Identify the simple challenges that could be overcome by software.
Develop that software as SaaS.
START SELLING!

I'd change the order here:

Find the real problems that other businesses face.
Identify the simple challenges that could be overcome by software.
START SELLING!
Develop that software as SaaS.

 

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[Young-Gun]

HOLY*****

It's only been about 45 minutes since I sent the Cold Emails and I already have 2 responses out of 28!!!!!
With strong interest in talking about their business problems at the times I suggested on Monday!!!!

Wow, I'm actually a bit overcome by emotion right now
This is really exciting!!!! :O

 

[Young-Gun]

I also wanted to take a moment to think more about SaaS from a Fastlane perspective.

I'd like to expose my thinking, so if there are weak points, ya'll can point them out *NOW* before I invest all the blood, sweat and tears.

Does a good SaaS business fulfill the CENTS commandment of MJ's book, The Millionaire Fastlane ?
With careful setup and customer research, I believe Business-to-Business SaaS *absolutely* is the essence of a Fastlane business model.

-------

**NEED: This is the 'clutch' commandment for a SaaS Fastlane startup.
Get this wrong and you will waste time.
Get this right and you can literally make billions.

As we will see below, the SaaS business model checks off most of the CENTS commandments automatically, simply by virtue of how a SaaS business works. NEED is the only commandment that is *not* auto-satisfied by the SaaS model.

Essentially, the level of *NEED* behind your SaaS business determines about 90% of your chance at ultimate success.
Small need, small market = no success.
Huge need, huge market = big success.

Therefore, extensive Customer Development into the NEEDS of your potential customers is the single most important step in getting your Fastlane SaaS startup correct.

-------

ENTRY: Three major obstacles to a SaaS business prevent the field from being saturated:
1) The time + quality of Customer Research and Pain-Point Development.
2) The challenges + time of Software Development and creating a good solution to the common customer problem.
3) The time, challenges, and costs of Marketing and Advertising your Software Solution to get Sales.

-------

CONTROL: Pretty simple. If you own the SaaS software and control the payments, you control the company.

Even better if you also own:
A) a simple Website + Blog for organic search traffic.
B) a simple Mailing List Subscription + Subscription Freebie Reward and simple Auto-Responder Sequence to promote your product.
C) a documented Customer-Development Process to expand into new niches and SaaS products.
D) a proven and profitable Sales System that operates completely in-house.

-------

SCALE: This comes down entirely to the NEED commandment.

Because, if you're running a SaaS company, you already are:
- Online
- Global
- 24/7/365
- Product delivery NOT based on human time / effort
- Minimum of Customer Service, if well-designed product (see below):

To help make scale easier, make sure to KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID. Don't add a gajillion bells and whistles to your SaaS product.
Always keep it simple and focusing on developing a full "SELF-SERVICE SYSTEM" for customers.

If your SaaS solves a widespread NEED in a simple way, it should be easier to scale than nearly any other business model on the planet.

-------

TIME: Similar to scale.
Once the SaaS product is designed and built, there will be some time required to troubleshoot, add key features, bug-fix, etc.
But, once you have a stable product, solving a real NEED that businesses all have, it shouldn't take much time to keep things running.

As soon as possible, hire someone to do:
- Customer Service and Inbound Sales (phones and emails).
- Outbound Sales (once you know your business metrics, set up a commissioned sales force).
- Technical Solutions (disaster prevention: you need someone to monitor the uptime / repair broken service while you relax).

-----

The SaaS business model requires minimum upkeep, with low expenses and high profit margins.
You are exposed to a global market, online, 24/7/365.
Recurring Revenue is baked-in to the model.

It's all about that Customer Development stage.

Find the real problems that other businesses face.
Identify the simple challenges that could be overcome by software.
Develop that software as SaaS.
START SELLING!

 

[Andy Black]

These might help:

• www.tropicalmba.com/consulting
• www.tropicalmba.com/services

I especially like the second where they start by wondering why everyone is running to SaaS. They figure it's a play for people who have some wins under their belt.



Lead gen? SaaS? Does it matter what label a business is given really? Judge your actual business against CENTS if you have to, rather than a label people put on businesses.

People can take what looks like a slowlane skill and turn it fastlane, and some people can make a j.o.b. out of anything.

I think it's more the jockey than the horse.



One of those podcasts talks about the 1,000
day rule... In the first year, LEARN a skill. In the second year, SELL that skill. In the third year, SCALE that skill.


What about an academic exercise... if you're a tutor currently, then how could you scale that skill? Can you sell it at will? Can others? Could they need your help? Could there be things that you wish existed to make your life easier as a tutor?

Is there any way to "grow what you know"?



Maybe @eliquid might have some thoughts? I believe he knows a bit about both SaaS *and* lead gen...

 

[Young-Gun]

I'd change the order here:

Find the real problems that other businesses face.
Identify the simple challenges that could be overcome by software.
START SELLING!
Develop that software as SaaS.

Great point. Rep transferred!!

This is exactly how my introvert thought process needs to be subverted again and again on this business project.

SELL before developing.
Yes.
Pre-Sell the concept, get some money in the bank.
PROVE that people will pay for what I offer.

First, see that potential customers will vote "YES" with their wallets.. with actual cold, hard cash.
*Then* do the work to build it.

This goes for a lot of stuff - not just SaaS.

 

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[Waspy]

Why isn't your SAAS based around education?

You know the market, you know the customers, hell, you have a pre-existing customer base to sell it to!

It works for music, languages, math... I'm sure you can make it work for your niche

EDIT: @Andy Black beat me to it (sort of)

 

[Locomote]

Great thread, having gone through some of this process to date myself I can tell you're on the right track and dropping some serious knowledge for anyone thinking of doing the same.

I'm in the process of completing my own SaaS at the moment. I just received my first 3 modules of software that I will be presenting to customers (that were pre-sold on the concept prior to development) within the next 2-3 weeks and rolling it out for a minimal monthly fee.
-------

It's a great idea
The main reason I don't want to do this is... I'm just not that interested, personally!

At this point in my life, I'm much more gung-ho about entrepreneurship and helping other businesses, than I am about tutoring and education.

I fear that I'd find an Educational Software startup extremely boring... even though I could be professionally effective at it because of my experience.

It is a great suggestion though, it's just that I think my life needs to move on to a new chapter!

I was the epitome of a "Book Smart" kid all my life. Then became a tutor. It's kind of like... time for some broader horizons, I feel.

I've read your thread 3 times and this was the only comment that concerned me. When deciding what I could do to get in the fast-lane I too wanted to navigate away from the industry I was working in (similarly I thought it would be an area where I would be board). I looked to see what areas I had the most knowledge/experience, I kept coming back to what I was already doing.
-------
My knowledge and experience was what I could bring to the table.

1. It was a major selling point when lining up customers.
2. When dealing with coders I was the subject matter expert, when the coders had questions or suggestions for the design I had the ability to make informed decisions without running to the client every two minutes to seek approval/input.
-------
I have no issues with the path you're choosing I think its one that will work, I just feel you could play to your strengths a little more with education. You'd be a subject matter expert with a present network of people for idea extraction (save time on finding people, cold calling and learning a new industry) enhancing your current business, possibly reducing costs making it more profitable and still having a product to rollout to others in your industry.

Its ok to be boring, it just means you'll have some "crazy" to catch up on when you get that yacht

 

[Martinv678]

I haven't read all this thread, so sorry if I repeat, but the only advice I can give is:

1. I would put up a landing page and test people actually want what you're providing. Rather than thinking about fancy yachts, I would focus more on how your SAAS product can really change people's lives. The yachts will come from the great product. As someone who chased money for the majority of my 20's, you end up in the endless loop of chasing the next shiny thing. It's nice to have dreams but sometimes they cloud vision.

2. Rather than spending what looks like hours on this thread, I would probably spend more time refining your skills for the SAAS build. I'm currently building a SAAS and you need to know your stuff if it's going to scale well.

3. It sounds like you're good at drumming up interest and enjoy finding out whether people would use it. I would potentially stick to that get someone to join you who loves to code.

This is just my two cents. From experience, it's good to partner with someone who can either code while you sell or vise-versa.

Good luck!

 

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[Young-Gun]

This might give you some inspiration:

--


Wrong. Software is difficult because software is not what people buy. They buy expertise.

The most scaleable, profitable global business is a brand. Microsoft, Apple, Tesla or the Trump Organization. Investing into a name will give you ability to work in multiple verticals (which don't work)... more importantly, will position you to dominate part of a much larger one.

My most ardent recommendation would be to treat SAAS as a cost center (so you're not worried about turning a profit) and work on providing your own service.

Sell your tutoring biz; become a freelancer and work on providing solutions to as many businesses / individuals as possible. Only after doing this will you gain necessary insight into what a company may need. Then you can think about making it SAAS.

Thanks for the feedback and inspirational story!

I understand that nobody buys software. Actually, they don't buy expertise either.
What people pay for are solutions to their problems, pain relief, bragging rights among friends, etc.

Brands are also important, but a brand by itself doesn't make you a cent.

I disagree with your vision of SaaS. In my vision, it should absolutely be profitable from the beginning.
Even if that's just $25/month.

The entire point of the exercise is to bootstrap a small software project to immediate profitability.

I definitely do NOT want to become a consultant. Sounds like a great way for me to blow another few years "tutoring" companies on a 1-to-1 basis, like I'm currently tutoring students... instead of building a scalable, automated, global business model that doesn't require my personal time every day.

That sort of gradual transition isn't necessary at all in my opinion. But I don't mean to sound condescending. I truly appreciate everyone's advice

 

[Waspy]

It took you 7 years to create the business you have today.

In 7 years time, with 7 more years of growth and expertise, will a 14 year old tutoring business be earning more than a SAAS which is yet to be conceptualised?

I don't know. I just felt the question needed to be asked.

 

[ReubenA]

Just gunna throw it out there.. but if you have or can find any other options to build your product and you aren't starting with a base coding knowledge, don't learn to do it yourself. Your time is better spent on learning to market.

You don't see it yet, but there's a whole lot more to building good software than what you'll find in "Learn Python the Hard Way" -- especially when it comes to building high quality apps that won't require a complete re-write.

Learning Python is only 3% of it. Then you need to learn to architect software that doesn't suck - that's the hard part.

 

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[Young-Gun]

Great work!

Care to let us know what cold emailing book that is?

Thanks for the words of encouragement! It means a ton to me!!

For sure, the cold email book I read is called Grow Your Business with Cold Emails by Jeremy Chatelaine, the creator of QuickMail... which is a cold-emailing SaaS that he built with his own experiences.

I got it as a Kindle book on Amazon for $9.99. Took two mornings to read and take notes, and I feel about 10x wiser on the topic of PRACTICAL Cold-Emailing for business results.

He covers about every use of Cold Emailing from Direct Sales to Getting Funded. Specifically covers Customer Development Interviews as well.

Also, opened my eyes to the percents I should be shooting for (40% response rate, not 4%).. and specific, exact tactics that I can use to get there.

Please stop by the thread again and send more encouragement!! Or let me know any questions!

 

[daru]

I may be wrong, but finding the need seems more important at this stage? My experience is that coding becomes much easier to learn with a real problem to solve instead of text book examples.
A small reflection also, when it's time to code, one tends to spend a lot of time on Google search, Stack Overflow and personally I use a lot of pen and paper to solve programming problems.

By the way, I love this thread! Big time action faker myself but reading this at least pushes me towards real action.

 

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[ReubenA]

Sorry, I didn't mean to come off confrontational. I did read your thread - and you mentioned:

"I don't know how deep the rabbit hole goes"
"I think that with a few more weeks of hardcore study, I should be able to know "just enough" to create basic software mockups, Alpha versions, or at least instruct other developers in what to build for me."

You won't. The most useful direction you'll be able to give them will be "it should have this feature". That's totally fine if you pick the right people to build it.

Not saying you can't be good at it - anyone can. I'm just saying it takes longer than you're thinking it will, and that time might be better spent elsewhere if you have another choice. You seem to have unrealistic expectations of the time it takes to get good, so I thought I'd give you a dose of reality. There's a reason really good devs get paid $100+ an hour to do it.

I'm 18 months ahead on the path you're walking. Coded my first SaaS myself after 700+ hours study. The codebase is terrible, which makes it incredibly hard to add new features and extend it.

Think hard before you learn to code to start a business (especially when you're not yet sure of the business idea) - in the end it isn't what makes the money and takes a F*ckload of time to learn. And then in the end, it's still marketing / business / sales skills that bring in the cash. If you're smart you can hire $20/hr coders that are better than you can be within <12 months.

 

[Young-Gun]

Tweaking the Interview Request email was easy and took way less time than I thought it would.

Two small changes make it "feel" a lot different and I think it's ready to test in its new, tweaked form.

I changed the Subject Line to be MUCH more clear about what I wanted from the recipient.
They may refuse the interview, but at least they won't misunderstand what I'm asking.
Subject Line is still customized to their individual name and business.

And..

I put the same "Don't worry, I'm not trying to sell you anything" statement right at the front of the email.

The updated script should be good to customize and send out to the next 75 local small businesses today and see what happens.

If we get better than a 4% Response Rate (in other words, if we get more than 3 respondents), then the changes are probably an improvement!

 

[Fathazard]

Great thread @Young-Gun

I'm also creating a SAAS business (all hail the king of scale! ... and profit margins!). Stumbled across your thread this evening and read all of it. Maybe I should start my own

I've come across two things that could help you in your process:

1. During idea extraction on the phone: don't take notes. It distracts you from steering the conversation in the right direction, and your prospect will feel that you're not 100% "there". RECORD the conversations instead, and listen to them again the day after. Then take your notes
2. You said that some of your prospects were annoyed when you contacted the owners directly, but I still believe it's efficient. So, one way to get the email address of the owner (works for my industry at least), is to use a WHOIS service to find out who registered the website of the business. I use this: WHOIS Search, Domain Name, Website, and IP Tools - Who.is. Surprisingly often it's done using their private email.

I'd love to connect with others here on the forum also in the SAAS sphere - perhaps for regular Skype conversations in a Mastermind group fashion?

So far I'm chugging along alone, being a bit of a lone wolf and an introvert like so many others here.

 

[Young-Gun]

Early-Evening Update for Thursday:
Today has been super-packed with Life and Tutoring Biz stuff.
Also I stayed up very late last night... just doing a bit of coding and daydreaming and reading.
So today, I'm taking it a little easier on myself than the past few days.

Instead of trying to get SaaS stuff DONE with today's limited time and energy, I'm using every spare minute to LEARN something.
Then massive free time tomorrow (Fri) and Saturday will be all about measurable Coding progress.

So, my SaaS time today has been about reading, brainstorming, and high-level thinking... things like:
- Researching Growth Industries and potential Explosive Niches in 2017 - 2020.
- More Startup reading in 4 Steps to the Epiphany.
- Intro to Higher-level Software concepts (building scalable software, MVC framework for web apps, and comparisons of the strengths and weaknesses of various programming languages).
- Reading about other successful SaaS entrepreneurs and SaaS companies.
- Looking for "Universal" rules of 9- and 10- figure Enterprises, similar to the CENTS framework in TMF . (Hints I've seen so far: fast billionaires come from riding the wave of brand-new industries with explosive growth and global reach.)

Interesting Thoughts:
- Andrei Melnichenko, Russian self-made billionaire, from $0 to $10 billion in 25 years. He was 21 when Russia accepted Capitalism. He dropped out of school immediately, and started opening businesses. This led to founding one of Russia's biggest banks while he was still in his 20s. Now he owns the world's largest sailing yacht, and he's just 45 years old.

- Shipping and Railroad tycoons of past eras: they jumped on the newest transportation and motor technology, built it out to a National / Global industry.

- Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Jack Ma: Rode various converging waves of Technology, Economics, and Social Trends to become self-made Billionaires in their own lifetimes.

- Andrew Carnegie. Henry Ford. The Rothschild family.

What do they have in common?
- All entrepreneurs.
- All rode a wave of massive technological and/or social or economic CHANGES.
- All built businesses around massive Real-World NEEDS (or new 'Wants' for consumer-sales companies).

Seek massive WAVES OF CHANGE, and only build products with a proven REAL-WORLD NEED.
Even if you don't become a billionaire, you'll be following in their footsteps.

Coming Plans: Friday and Saturday
The next two days give me a HUGE amount of free time to work.
Tutoring biz should be slow for a couple days (it's a weekend AND Spring Break)

I still think Learning to Code is where I should be right now.
My goal is to finish 95% of the text adventure game before Sunday.
That means I have to move really fast with new features on Friday and Saturday.

I want to A) Finish the game. B) Finish Learn Python the Hard Way and C) Move on to learning Django.
The goal is to do this within the next 7 days.
Onwards!!

Andrei Melnichenko's 'Sail Yacht A' - the largest sail yacht in the world.

 

[inputchip]

RE: scraping, use ScrapeBox. Bit of a learning curve but it's amazing for scraping

dunno if it'd be worth the setup time (probably not).. but you could use ScrapeBox to scrape a tonne of sites, export them to CSV, then write a python script to parse it, get the emails, verify said emails, and automatically send them to Quickmail

It's actually not that hard to setup a scraper yourself with a small python script. I have done it multiple times and I am a newb coder. However you have to be aware that most website owners frown upon scraping, so be careful not to hit their servers too hard. As an added bonus @Young-Gun this would continue to expand your Python knowledge with a real-world problem.

Here's a good tutorial for those interested:

View: https://youtu.be/3xQTJi2tqgk

 

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[Andy Black]

Ha. What about a lead gen SaaS in the tutoring space? (Only half joking.)

 

[Young-Gun]

These might help:

• www.tropicalmba.com/consulting
• www.tropicalmba.com/services

I especially like the second where they start by wondering why everyone is running to SaaS. They figure it's a play for people who have some wins under their belt.



Lead gen? SaaS? Does it matter what label a business is given really? Judge your actual business against CENTS if you have to, rather than a label people put on businesses.

People can take what looks like a slowlane skill and turn it fastlane, and some people can make a j.o.b. out of anything.

I think it's more the jockey than the horse.



One of those podcasts talks about the 1,000
day rule... In the first year, LEARN a skill. In the second year, SELL that skill. In the third year, SCALE that skill.


What about an academic exercise... if you're a tutor currently, then how could you scale that skill? Can you sell it at will? Can others? Could they need your help? Could there be things that you wish existed to make your life easier as a tutor?

Is there any way to "grow what you know"?



Maybe @eliquid might have some thoughts? I believe he knows a bit about both SaaS *and* lead gen...

Ok I listened closely to both. A lot of encouraging thoughts. I really liked the "Location Independent" podcast.

An interesting thing - they mentioned "the sliding progression" of Entrepreneurs throughout our career.
If I recall, he said:
- Intern, to
- Employee, to
- Freelancer, to
- Consultant, to
- Service Business, to
- Product Business

I definitely agree with that. Service Business is a great way to learn (often easier to boostrap and get started)
But, it's much harder to scale a Service.

Productizing a service is one way.

But, it seems like a weaker compromise. You still have to grapple with many of the "Service Business" scaling issues.

I feel ready to build an actual "PRODUCT". Something we build once, and sell again and again.

Software still seems ideal for my goals.
Infinite replication at minimal cost.
Easy online global distribution, no shipping, no storage.
Minimal customer support.
Recurring revenue.

Thanks again for sharing the links

 

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[lowtek]

1) Try cold emailing your prospects - check out Alex Berman's channel on YouTube for some great advice on how to cold email
2) You're in Austin... go to some local networking and meetup events and start talking to people. It's much easier to get them to talk about pain and suffering when it's not a sales call
3) check out some online communities. Read their message boards and look for clues of pain points. Reach out to those individuals.

 

[Locomote]

BTW @Locomote do you have a progress thread? I'd love to learn more about what you're doing!

Honestly, I only joined Friday at the recommendation of my buddy @Fox . The plan was to meet like minded individuals and document the journey exactly like you're doing. I was waiting to get a feel for the Forum before kicking off a thread.

If you think its something that would be of value, I can kick one off..

 

[Young-Gun]

As mentioned, today (Friday) was a day to step away from Customer-Need Development and Outreach.
We've gotten that ball rolling, and learned a few useful lessons that I've described in previous posts.

Mostly I had free time today.

So, today I focused on Product-Building... starting with Independent Study to learn how to code in Python so I can build my SaaS.

-----

You may have picked up on the fact that I'm starting a Software Company with no engineers, no experience, no investors, and without knowing how to code.

That ain't gonna stop me.

I'm studying from the excellent book Learn Python the Hard Way. The entirety of this book can be read for free on the internet.
So, the process of learning to code in Python has been *completely free* for me so far.

Python itself is FREE open-source software.
This awesome training textbook is completely FREE.
It's amazing what you can learn for FREE if you just apply some elbow grease.

-----------------------------------------------

At the start of the morning today, I was on Exercise 21 out of 52 in the Python book.
I'm now finishing up Exercise 32 around 8:00 PM, so that's about 20% of the entire book completed in a single day off from work.

Also, I am respecting PROCESS by diving deep into each Coding Exercise.
I want to learn the maximum amount in the shortest period of time.
But, real learning is more important than speed.
NO rushing through lessons just to 'finish the book.'

The only goal is to truly learn how to code simple SaaS / Business Software.
Not just trying to "check off a checkbox" here.
I'm considering this a lifelong business skill, and taking it *very* seriously.

This study approach includes doing many of the techniques I teach to students in my tutoring business:

• Taking hand-written notes as I go.
• Making and drilling Flashcards for difficult vocabulary or concepts.
• Doing all "Extra Credit" assignments in the book.
• Sticking with each lesson until I grasp it, NOT skipping ahead when I feel frustrated by the current topic.
• Reviewing previous concepts periodically.
• Doing my own research into any side topics that interest me.

------------------------

I don't know how good I'll be at programming by the time I finish this first book (still a complete beginner, probably). But, I'm confident that the next step (to building my SaaS) will become clear by that point.

It's also really nice to indulge the Introvert side of myself today, forget about "external" outreach and focus on developing the new skill of Coding.

I should say, that when I was in 6th - 8th grade, I used to program little games and math programs on my TI-83 Calculator.
So, I started off with a *tiny* bit of experience... long-buried in memory from years ago.

Overall, Coding is very challenging intellectually. Fun and exciting as well. I feel like I'm gaining new powers, like a wizard or something

Speaking of power... I give you the Wallypower 80....

Wally 80 Prototype "Checkmate"

Tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday will be pretty busy with tutoring business.

But, by Monday, I still should be able to find time to...

A) Add more Prospects to my Prospect Database
Goal: Add 50 more Prospects by Monday.

B) Finish more chapters of the Python book.
Goal: Finish 10 Python chapters by Monday.

C) Revise the Cold Email Script to be more clear, direct and less sales-y in tone.
Goal: Reduce email length by 20%, clarify my intention, and remove any trace of "sales" language.

D) Send more Cold Emails on Sunday night.
Goal: Send 25 Cold Emails on Sunday after revising the Email Script.

--------------------------

I feel that I'm making excellent use of my time to get closer to a Fast-Scaling SaaS business.

The current biggest challenges are still:
A) Finding and Reaching Potential Customers for Idea Extraction and Validation.
B) Learning the skills to Build the Software in the near future.

These aren't insurmountable. I'm making measurable progress each day.

Feels like full speed ahead

 

[thehighlander]

It's great that you're interested in coding! Learning the basics of code is always good. Coding projects can be pretty basic or incredibly complex. Assuming you've got a business that requires code that wouldn't be easy for a beginner to write, you may be better off hiring a professional or getting a partner.

I've done consulting and it's pretty common for people to request a piece of serious software and expect it to be done in a few days for $100 (or free). They just never knew what was involved and assumed software can be whipped up like writing an email.

If you believe you can get a minimum viable product to market with what you know, go for it! You might be able to save yourself a lot of time and frustration if you search for open source software that pretty much does what you need. You use open source software to see all the code and modify it to suit your needs.

 

[Young-Gun]

Progress on CODING STUDIES made for sure:

- Completed Coding the basic rooms and map of my Text Adventure.
I think that's 21 rooms I finished today... 30 rooms in total!
The process of making a new room now feels completely natural and makes intuitive sense to me.
So, there's no need to continue practicing this part.

- Chose next Feature to add to Text Adventure: Inventory, Keys, Food, and Weapons.
This will challenge me to think creatively and apply what I've learned.
I need to plan a good 'architecture' for this before I just start typing lines of code.
But I don't think it will be too hard.

Anyway, I definitely DO NOT think it's too hard to learn to code.

One of the hardest parts is probably that new coders usually do NOT have a clear idea what they want to learn to do.
I DO have a very clear idea what I want to learn to do.
So, that might be one reason this doesn't actually seem too hard.
That, plus my social network of other guys who want to look at my work.

Just gotta keep practicing, studying, and putting in hours.