41–50 of 87 posts
Without more information on the business (MRR, vertical, customers, etc.) it is difficult to provide better feedback, but now that you know more about the customers, do you have a plan to grow faster or at least a path of sustainability?
One year in most cases is not enough time to know whether to give up.
I'm not sure where the urge comes from to have your own business. I dream of that sometimes as well. But to be honest, i still focus more on my carrier and it looks good. I don't think i would make more money as a business owner. It still sounds great to have your own business. But what is your motivation? Did you create that specific SaaS because you wanted to have a SaaS Product or because you like your SaaS Produc…
like if I ever got laid off, my world would begin to fall apart. I have savings but the couple of times I've had to live of savings has convinced me that savings are just not viable.
I had a business once that was not fast moving and I thought "probably because I'm not much of a salesperson". Then later I started another business and the work started flowing in hard and fast. I was the same person but it was a different business. That was a huge lesson for me - when you're selling the right thing, clients come running to you "take my money!".
If you've built something people want then the difference will be amazing - the work and customers will fly in on their own because they'll hear about it and want it.
Other less compelling businesses will be a grind forever.
From what you describe, there's no reason to think your product will suddenly take off. Sounds like it will be a long slow grind.
Alternatively to everyone in this thread: find a partner. There are plenty of folks like me who can’t dev but are able to grow businesses, you just have to find the right one that fits the channel your customers hang around in and you enjoy talking with.
One of my partners and I talk all day every day, we met on some random subreddit and three years in he’s one of my closest friends and we have quite successfully generated ARR
The side benefit of this is it allows you to focus on what you’re good at which is building the product.
I don’t have capacity but I could probably connect you with some potential people if you’d like or at least willing to talk through some potential marketing thoughts with you if you’d like to talk. Just let me know how to connect
I think it takes a very long time to grow a SaaS. Think multiple years. I started 4.5 years ago and it took nearly 4 years until I felt fully comfortable. Slow growth is to be expected. My growth curve, in fact, isn't a curve at all: it's pretty much a straight line if you plot paying customers. It looks better for MRR (monthly recurring revenue, your main metric), because I've been working on raising ARPU (average r…
There are many marketers who will work on commission (e.g., affiliate marketers, some/much of which is not BS). The challenge is creating a context in which a producer and seller can work well together. Specifically:
1. The seller needs to have a product that people want. That’s product-market fit.
2. The seller needs to be willing to pay the marketer enough to make it worth their time. Many producers fall woefully short in this department. Sometimes it’s because the producer is cheap, sometimes because they don’t value marketing, sometimes it’s because they don’t price the cost of marketing into their product (either not at all or not correctly).
3. On top of all of the above, there needs to be a sales funnel that converts. This can be set up (even crudely is ok) by the producer, or it can be set up by the marketer. Note that a good sales funnel takes time to develop and refine, and doing so is expensive —- expensive to the point that the marketer maybe should be a co-owner rather than a hired gun.
If a producer is missing any of the above, they will naturally only attract folks who will work for a flat fee rather than a commission, and that’s because the groundwork has not been laid for a commission system to work / be worth their time.
I've been running various online businesses, including SaaS, for eight years. There is no general answer to your question. Are those 8 customers paying you hundreds of dollars each per month, or tens of dollars? What's the reason you haven't gotten more? Have you lost motivation to work in this space / on that project? I was in a similar situation to you a few years ago. I had started a clone of patio11's appointment…
How fast SAAS companies hit ARR milestones:
https://baremetrics.com/blog/how-fast-saas-companies-hit-arr...
I've been running various online businesses, including SaaS, for eight years. There is no general answer to your question. Are those 8 customers paying you hundreds of dollars each per month, or tens of dollars? What's the reason you haven't gotten more? Have you lost motivation to work in this space / on that project? I was in a similar situation to you a few years ago. I had started a clone of patio11's appointment…
What do you think went wrong with fman.io? E.g. Total Commander is a one guy shop and he is doing fine for 20+ years now - so seems like people pay money for a good file manager. Does fman.io miss some features or is it wrong marketing?
Having said that, yes fman misses important features. It is I think the main reason why fman does not have more adoption. But adding the features would take another x,000h.
I've been running various online businesses, including SaaS, for eight years. There is no general answer to your question. Are those 8 customers paying you hundreds of dollars each per month, or tens of dollars? What's the reason you haven't gotten more? Have you lost motivation to work in this space / on that project? I was in a similar situation to you a few years ago. I had started a clone of patio11's appointment…
Thanks for sharing. About your customers (not limited to SaaS), are they local (Vienna, Austria) or from all over the world? As I have the feeling here b2b is still done door-to-door. But of course this might depend on the target audience.
I've been running various online businesses, including SaaS, for eight years. There is no general answer to your question. Are those 8 customers paying you hundreds of dollars each per month, or tens of dollars? What's the reason you haven't gotten more? Have you lost motivation to work in this space / on that project? I was in a similar situation to you a few years ago. I had started a clone of patio11's appointment…
Thanks Herrmann, for the videos! They are really nice. I think that a lot of "business" videos are made by guys in the US. I often wonder if business advices are applicable here in Vienna. But hearing this from a guy of my own hometown makes this very valueable information.