Does anyone running SaaS business?

aeric

aeric

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Hi guys,
I am planning to do a Software as a Service (Saas). Currently, I am a one-man show developer. I am currently just started a new project and thought it would be better to do it as a Saas. I hope someone can give me some advice. I plan to let the system goes under proper public testing for some time first then only launch it. I have not much experience and I really hope my plan will succeed. For the past years, I don’t really eager to find other business partners but now I think I need more help from more people. I will need people that can help in sales, marketing, accounting, graphic design, legal advice, clerk or administrative staff and more. I have time to think and execute while the product is ready. Thanks.
 
FrostCodes

FrostCodes

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Well for sales, I am been taking a lot of courses and reading a lot of books. My first SAAS was for students so I reached out to their schools and ran some FB ads(i advise you just skip this and try google ads these days). I ended up just reaching out to the students myself on some group chats and using ASO(app store optimization) to rank and get traffic.

For my new saas, it is a tools for entrepreneur and work at home mums so I joined a lot of FB groups on this and on Linkedin and I have been reaching out to some of them even though the tool is not yet completed, I have been able to get some emails ahead.

For sales, my advice is to make it very easy for them to pay like all my apps have payments embedded directly in them. Also, make sure they can contact you especially when you first start this was a mistake I made as some were having difficulty paying and I thought they just didn't want to pay.

For server setup use what works for you but keep it simple and easy. You can set up Cloudflare to protect you from some bots and all then over time you can upgrade and add more firewalls and all that. Also, make sure your payment API webhook is only accessible from your payment provider IP and their signature matches(they would have documentation on this READ IT - don't skip this). I use regular hosting but for my new SAAS, I would get a VPS and set up my load balancer using HAproxy and task queuing with rabbitMq.


So far for legal, I search online for free tools to do this for me like a privacy policy generator but you might need a lawyer depending on what your SAAS does I cant say.
And for copywriting, so far I do it myself as I am quite good.
 
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aeric

aeric

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FrostCodes said:
Well for sales, I am been taking a lot of courses and reading a lot of books. My first SAAS was for students so I reached out to their schools and ran some FB ads(i advise you just skip this and try google ads these days). I ended up just reaching out to the students myself on some group chats and using ASO(app store optimization) to rank and get traffic.
Click to expand...
OKay. I will take note and use Google ads as main priority.

FrostCodes said:
For my new sales, its tools for entrepreneur and work at home mums so I join a lot of FB groups on this and on Linkedin and I have been reaching out to some of them even though the tool is not yet completed, I have been able to get some emails ahead.
Click to expand...
Maybe, I will find someone help me on this.

FrostCodes said:
For sales, my advice is to make it very easy for them to pay like all my apps have payments embedded directly in them. Also, make sure they can contact you especially when you first start this was a mistake I made as some were having difficulty paying and I thought they just didn't want to pay.
Click to expand...
Great and very important point. I will explore on this.

FrostCodes said:
For server setup use what works for you but keep it simple and easy. You can set up Cloudflare to protect you from some bots and all then over time you can upgrade and add more firewalls and all that. Also, make sure your payment API webhook is only accessible from your payment provider IP and their signature matches(they would have documentation on this READ IT - don't skip this). I use regular hosting but for my new SAAS, I would get a VPS and set up my load balancer using HAproxy and task queuing with rabbitMq.
Click to expand...
Sure. This will incur a bigger investment cost which I need to be aware of. Security is always a big concern for businesses.

FrostCodes said:
So far for legal, I search online for free tools to do this for me like a privacy policy generator but you might need a lawyer depending on what your SAAS does I cant say.
And for copywriting, so far I do it myself as I am quite good.
Click to expand...
Good suggestion. I also use free policy generator which Google playstore requires.

Thanks for all the valuable sharing. Good luck to your new Saas business. :)
 
FrostCodes

FrostCodes

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aeric said:
OKay. I will take note and use Google ads as main priority.


Maybe, I will find someone help me on this.


Great and very important point. I will explore on this.


Sure. This will incur a bigger investment cost which I need to be aware of. Security is always a big concern for businesses.


Good suggestion. I also use free policy generator which Google playstore requires.

Thanks for all the valuable sharing. Good luck to your new Saas business. :)
Click to expand...

That's great! You can also try a little FB ad but these days it seems like FB has a bot problem!

In case you need someone who can assist you in managing certain part or auditing your systems, I am available :)
I have a mini team that is available to help.
 
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udg

udg

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should I share a bit about how I build my SAAS softwares and about micro-saas
Click to expand...
Absolutely yes. It will be of inspiration to many (and help to avoid a few errors).

I will contribute as much as I can too.

When I was a full-time programmer (one-man shop) I used to develop bespoke sw 100% of the time
Then I changed my business to consultancy (while still maintening my old sw and developing new bespoke solutions)
Now I'm on the managing side (CEO and CTO), but still like to write some code when time permits. What i do is mainly SaaS (80%) and the remainder bespoke sw.

As for the business model applied to SaaS, I like to follow a very simple setting: as long as you pay, the service is available for you. You can stop it at any time (just send me an email). Non need for confusing and articulated agreements ( I like to see it as an hands shaking). Another point: all the annual licenses ends on year's end (31.12), so January is the renewing period for all. Obviously if you start the agreement at any month but January you pay only for the remaining months till year's end.
 
Xandoca

Xandoca

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Hi,

I doesn't have a SaaS (yet) but I will try to contribute. Right now comes to my mind: Backup and High Availability (Load balance and Disaster and Recover). I think a SaaS application should have theses functionalities.
And maybe:
1) You deliver a full data export after the user/customer ends a contract with you. If this make sense (depends on type of your application)

Regards
 
FrostCodes

FrostCodes

Active Member
Licensed User
udg said:
Absolutely yes. It will be of inspiration to many (and help to avoid a few errors).

I will contribute as much as I can too.

When I was a full-time programmer (one-man shop) I used to develop bespoke sw 100% of the time
Then I changed my business to consultancy (while still maintening my old sw and developing new bespoke solutions)
Now I'm on the managing side (CEO and CTO), but still like to write some code when time permits. What i do is mainly SaaS (80%) and the remainder bespoke sw.

As for the business model applied to SaaS, I like to follow a very simple setting: as long as you pay, the service is available for you. You can stop it at any time (just send me an email). Non need for confusing and articulated agreements ( I like to see it as an hands shaking). Another point: all the annual licenses ends on year's end (31.12), so January is the renewing period for all. Obviously if you start the agreement at any month but January you pay only for the remaining months till year's end.
Click to expand...
This is an awesome way to make your customers love not just you but your product also... I think I would test out this approach .. Thanks for sharing 😊
 
FrostCodes

FrostCodes

Active Member
Licensed User
Xandoca said:
Hi,

I doesn't have a SaaS (yet) but I will try to contribute. Right now comes to my mind: Backup and High Availability (Load balance and Disaster and Recover). I think a SaaS application should have theses functionalities.
And maybe:
1) You deliver a full data export after the user/customer ends a contract with you. If this make sense (depends on type of your application)

Regards
Click to expand...

Yes this is a good idea.. It can be very useful especially to other saas or software companies that deals in the B2B type of business especially.
I wish you luck
 
udg

udg

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Thank you @FrostCodes .
My main goal is to devote as little time as possible on users/invoices management during the year. Obviously there's kind of a grace period for at least two weeks at year's start since customers could be on vacation for some of those days (me too :) ). What I always tell them is "relax, nobody will shut down your service on January 1st..and, if for any reason, you're not able to renew/pay during the first two weeks just send me an email, it's not a problem".

The general idea is that I don't want to be stressed and this should apply to them too.

You deliver a full data export after the user/customer ends a contract with you
Click to expand...
Fully agree. Data is theirs not mine.
 
FrostCodes

FrostCodes

Active Member
Licensed User
udg said:
Thank you @FrostCodes .
My main goal is to devote as little time as possible on users/invoices management during the year. Obviously there's kind of a grace period for at least two weeks at year's start since customers could be on vacation for some of those days (me too :) ). What I always tell them is "relax, nobody will shut down your service on January 1st..and, if for any reason, you're not able to renew/pay during the first two weeks just send me an email, it's not a problem".

The general idea is that I don't want to be stressed and this should apply to them too.


Fully agree. Data is theirs not mine.
Click to expand...
That's a good idea, I would love to see how it goes 😊
 
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