Your First App Will Probably Fail
Here's the honest truth, your first attempt at creating a SAAS will not make you riches (in most cases).
Think about the first time you learned to ride a bike. You didn’t hop on your bike and immediately start riding. In fact you probably had to use training wheels, and after mastering your training wheels you could take them off and start riding.
The first few apps you create will be your training wheels as you learn new things and overcome challenges. Every failed app is a stepping stone to the successful one you create down the road.
It's totally possible to strike gold with your first app, but not in most cases. In order to get to the top of the mountain, you must climb a few hills first. This is why it's important to keep creating, keep building, and keep learning.
Push hard to make your SAAS successful, but be mindful of the stepping stones it takes to achieve that success and make sure to enjoy the journey.
Your App is Never Complete
While creating a SAAS application you will constantly be adding, updating, and even deleting some features. And the truth is that your app is never "fully" complete.
I spoke with someone who said, "I can’t wait until my app is complete so I can hire someone else to work on it while I manage the business". I feel that if you adopt this mindset you are setting yourself up to fail. If you build a successful app, you are an integral piece to the future success of that app.
What It really comes down to is you need to be prepared to run a marathon instead of a sprint because a good SAAS application is never truly complete. It should always be growing.
Your SAAS is like a pet. If you don’t nurture and feed it.
It will die.
Your App Needs a Blog
You need to get better at writing and blog about stuff related to your product. This is important for getting some SEO traffic and getting free visitors to your website.
You could always spend money on marketing and hope that you make more than you spend. But... In most cases, writing good quality content on your blog will yield a better long-term investment.
Get in touch with your inner author and write about sh*t you would find interesting as the reader on the other end. Make it fun and add some personality.
Build Your Funnel
I currently work for a company where we build the worlds largest people search engine. When a user lands on the homepage, they are asked to enter a first and last name. They will then be guided through a set of loaders and progress bars, which entices the user and gets them invested. It’s funny that all the loading bars are unnecessary, it would really take the app 2 seconds to give them a result of people, but because the funnel has been Optimized for maximum conversion these unnecessary loaders actually increase sales.
You will need to work on some form of funnel to entice your users to become customers.
The funnel is essentially the process of steps it takes a user to become a customer on your site. This includes small things like welcome emails, push notifications, and yep... even loader bars.
Your funnel does not have to be super elaborate, but you should have some form of a funnel in place.
A visitor if your website will probably bounce around a few pages, click some buttons, but eventually they’ll leave. If instead you were holding their hand along the way, guiding them through a funnel and to the pages you want them to see, they are much more likely to become one of your paying customers.
So, continue optimizing and building your funnel.
Love The Process
Don’t ever forget the excitement you felt when you were creating something new. Remember when you started brainstorming ideas and began turning those ideas into reality? That excitement you felt can help you remember why you are doing what you are doing.
You have probably met fellow developers who start “working on side projects”, but never have anything to show for it. That’s because it’s more fun to start something than it is to finish it. But if you rediscover the passion you had when you first started, you can push through those times when motivation is low.
Creating your SAAS application is all about the journey including all the excitement, passion, and challenges. When you find yourself at the bottom of a mountain, just remember to take it one step at a time and you will learn to love the process.
And... As you probably already know that when you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.
