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Solve problems for small businesses, they have lots of them. If you can save a business owner time or money, they'll give you money!
- Create a product in a niche and focus on finding customers within that niche. For a goal of $3000/month, it is surely possible and not too crazy
- Don't just rely on yourself even though there are many 1 man success stories here on HN. I would say get at least 2-3 trusted helpers even if they are part time and slowly delegate the not so critical aspects to them while you still focus on the core. For example, if you a SAAS product, you could still do coding + customer support while you could delegate some of the other admin stuff including some customer support to someone else. This will give you leverage.
The problem with most Saas problems is capital. If most investors suggest a LTV of 3x CAC and if your average customer is $30 per month and your LTV is $360(3 yrs) then you need $120 per customer or $12,000 to invest in advertising to match what other Saas companies are doing to reach your goal.
I'm actually on the same path, I've built a SaaS website feedback tool, which started 4 years ago as a side project, but since Sept this year I've been working on it full time, hoping to reach around $3,000 MRR (currently at $900) So far it's working, I'm way ahead of my target 7% month on month growth, so I'd recommend doing something similar - build a SaaS app that you can manage by yourself, and invest as much tim…
Good luck!
The problem with most Saas problems is capital. If most investors suggest a LTV of 3x CAC and if your average customer is $30 per month and your LTV is $360(3 yrs) then you need $120 per customer or $12,000 to invest in advertising to match what other Saas companies are doing to reach your goal.
Care to explain more? Thanks
Hi Wilson, since you said you are self-taught and currently doing Msc you might wan't to try some freelancing jobs (maybe part-time) until you work on something your own. Something like Toptal? http://www.toptal.com/#find-only-supreme-devs-now (this is a referral link if you don't mind). With a part time job you can get close to 3k a month (can't talk about exact prices) and use extra time to work on other projects a…
(a) target audience already pays for tools online
(b) target audience is easy to find online - there exists at least one forum targeting this niche
(c) niche is so small that it is not profitable for most companies to go after
(d) you are passionate about the niche or already have some link to it (know enough people in your social circle)
2. Figure out how you will market to your audience. Spend tiny amounts of time/money on each channel to test whether you could gain traction through any one.
(a) Posting on forums
(b) Content marketing
(c) SEO
(d) Paid acquisition
3. Research on existing tools and competitors in the niche. Focus research on
(a) lack of functionality in the tools provided
(b) tool is too generic for the niche
(c) they are not using a specific marketing channel that you think would work very well
4. Out-compete your competitors on the following
(a) Build a better tool
(b) Do better marketing
(c) Provide better customer support
Important things to keep in mind
1. Never compete on price
2. Do marketing before product development. For e.g. if your main channel is content marketing, start writing content before you build your product. If it is forum posting, start posting on multiple forums and gaining credibility there before you think of your product.
I have a client, now, that is paying me to build a custom CRM for his business. The specs keep changing, and I just keep delivering. In the end I think he'll spend $50k+ to get his own version of what's already available. So look deeper into that concept.
What do businesses need to do better/more efficiently to make more $ or save more $: track customers (lead follow-up), close sales, find customers, track hours and costs, customer lifetime value and customer acquisition costs...are just a couple of examples of things that you could improve on. Then literally go to these businesses and show them your product, offer it for free to improve it, then start selling it.
Bottom line is this: you're going to have to actually speak with people to find out what they want so you can give it to them. After that starts to take off, then invest in digital marketing using real experience as a guide.