Micro-Saas: Any Suggestions?

[algospider]

Hello guys,

I read a thread from Point Nine Capital, where they also covered Micro-SaaS. A Micro-Saas is:

By micro SaaS businesses we mean businesses run by a limited team (very often solopreneur or max 2–3 person), bootstrapped, with revenue in the $1k — $20k MRR range and with no will to grow bigger with VC money. These products are very often either:

• niche products for very specific needs which might not represent a big enough market to create a high growth company (which is good in this case as there is less competition). A good example is Storemapper.
• complementary products which aim is to improve a missing / a particular feature of an existing SaaS (ex: better graph for intercom)

One of the most notable Micro-SaaS is storemapper, which is extremely easy in its functionality. Read more here.

Currently, I am researching Micro-SaaS ideas, with the intend to start one on my own.

Any ideas for Micro-SaaS businesses?

 

[miketpowell]

Here is a good example: http://popunderjs.com/

Just signed up for this myself yesterday. Very useful to actually have a script that works and is updated vs trying to put together my own and keep it updated or deal with free garbage.

 

[animalstyle]

Piggybacking on @miketpowell you can probably uncover a ton of ideas by looking at Wordpress plugins. I'd look for functionality that is desireable with lots of crummy free options and maybe even some big players in the top end, but no middle market.

Go yearly sub method on a straightforward, simple, yet solid solution for a specific pain point. I'd always rather pay for that peace of mind than waste 5x the time flipping from free version to free version. There's your marketing angle too...

Just one idea on how to approach it

 

[Rageix]

Piggybacking on @miketpowell you can probably uncover a ton of ideas by looking at Wordpress plugins. I'd look for functionality that is desireable with lots of crummy free options and maybe even some big players in the top end, but no middle market.

That's a really good idea. You can probably also figure out some stuff by looking at sites like, themeforest I think has a section of just like components. Maybe look at some of the top selling ones and go from there.

 

[CCarter]

Any ideas for Micro-SaaS businesses?

Here is my problem with this line of thinking, simply because you love a revenue model doesn't necessarily mean you'll be good at generating revenue, maintaining revenue, and all that goes along with running that type of business. It's like getting into "SEO" or "Paid Media" or "SAAS" without an idea of what you are going after. The model is simply a channel to your end goal of helping customers.

And let me tell you what, like I wrote in Day 23 of the crash course (Customer Service/Support), customer service is critical for anything you are taking money for. So if you are an SEO or traditional Blackhatter, you may have a tendency to not want to deal with human beings and rather look at hits on your analytics instead of talking to customers. Running a SAAS or Micro SAAS or anything where there is an opportunity for customers to fuck up the process means you'll have to be a superior customer support rep for your brand otherwise you'll get shitted on by your customers with negative reviews and them telling their family and friends to avoid you.

So just understand the revenue model you are going after comes with things that you might find annoying and downright soul crushing if you don't do your homework.

An example, I absolutely hate working on other people's projects and/or their business. I didn't realize it until I started a marketing agency, and it was the most miserable 4 years of my life. Taking client calls during late nights, generating monthly reports and explaining the same things over and over, even if you make them an extra 25% ROI this month over last, they want to know why it wasn't 50%. It was soul crushing and ultimately draining.

But then I launched a SAAS and I was still terrified about dealing with clients, but i dove head first and it was a completely different experience. I was helping customers generate revenue and profits through my product and I deeply cared about it since it was my signature work. I spent hours talking to single customers and their feedback led to fixing bugs, adding features, and figuring out how to gain more customers - and more importantly the RIGHT customer. I literally love talking to customers since I can directly impact thir life right now and put a smile on their faces. There are ups and downs, but if I had a trillion dollars I'd probably do exactly what I'm doing right now cause it makes me happy.

The worse thing you can do is get into a business model that will be soul crushing and then feel like a chain around your ankles cause you generate most of your revenue from this project yet it's making you miserable cause you have to deal with people when you'd rather just throw up affiliate sites and generate money.

So think long and hard with whatever business model you are about to explore.

 

[Rageix]

An example, I absolutely hate working on other people's projects and/or their business. I didn't realize it until I started a marketing agency, and it was the most miserable 4 years of my life. Taking client calls during late nights, generating monthly reports and explaining the same things over and over, even if you make them an extra 25% ROI this month over last, they want to know why it wasn't 50%. It was soul crushing and ultimately draining.

I appreciate your post but I personally think you are painting an overly grim picture of clients. I've worked with a number of clients over the years, and how many would I answer mid night? Very few and only my major money makers (even then). The number of times that has happened is very, very low. It's important to have limits with your clients and you should communicate that to them as well. I think most people would like things solved during your typical weekday business period and that is understandable but I think most people understand you may have other commitments outside of that. If your client expects commitment outside of that you should charge them / agree to it.

 

[eliquid]

I appreciate your post but I personally think you are painting an overly grim picture of clients. I've worked with a number of clients over the years, and how many would I answer mid night? Very few and only my major money makers (even then). The number of times that has happened is very, very low. It's important to have limits with your clients and you should communicate that to them as well. I think most people would like things solved during your typical weekday business period and that is understandable but I think most people understand you may have other commitments outside of that. If your client expects commitment outside of that you should charge them / agree to it.

I disagree. And not because CC is a partner in a business that we run together.

I've had a ton of customers/clients in my life before SERPWoo. From freelance PPC/SEO stuff, services on Wickedfire and other forums, webdesign since 1997-ish, being employed at over 60+ jobs in my life, and much more. I even have a few clients right now I keep on the side for PPC because I really do enjoy the work.

Then throw in all the customers we have at SERPWoo. Im not going to say how many that is, but its more than you would imagine.

Im not trying to compare to you. Trust me, Im not.

But when I look at how many people that is total from all the experience I have, we are talking a good sized number in the 5-figure range total that I have dealt with customer-wise in my life in some fashion.

Do most freelance web designers/coders/marketing people touch that many customers/clients in their life normally?

Hell no.

With that thought, I can honestly say that customers can crush your soul and will.

People remember the bad in any situation ( like customer support ) and will spread bad news like the plague. Not always so with the good in situations, people expect "good" in their situation and treat it like the norm. No need to spread it around or talk about it. They expect it from you.

I've had clients hit me up at 11:57pm at night, on Christmas day, during planned and known about vacations, and even in periods were they were 3 months late with their invoice about getting them some work/item/report/service done within the next 2-3 hours of them telling me on the above.

I don't think it's about boundaries. I think it's about sheer numbers. You can always email them back and let them know you can't of course, but that doesn't stop them from doing it and asking and setting it up to be their "requirement" of what they need from you.

A lot of them think that because they paid you money, you should be at their beck and call when they need it. If not, they can always throw dollars at someone else that will. Boundaries doesn't fix that.

Again, sheer numbers. You will run into these people for sure at some point when you handle large numbers of people. If you haven't yet after say 1,000 customers.. then you are just lucky I suppose.

 

[Rageix]

@eliquid good on you guys. It sound like you really care about your clients. It also sounds like you guys go far far beyond what I would think 99% of people would expect. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

I haven't looked at your products or anything I'm wondering if you are kind of like Liquidweb and market this kind of heroic support?

 

[CCarter]

I appreciate your post but I personally think you are painting an overly grim picture of clients.

The problem I found was competence. I found myself to be the most competent person in the room and clients soon realized that as well. So what ended up happening was I was getting over-utilized for additional advice and tasks regarding marketing and their own operations since I was more competent than their own employees.

It's not to say their employees were bad, I was just extremely WAY better and went above and beyond what I was required to do to get the job done. So over time when you go from 5 to 10 clients, one hour here and there turns into a 10 hours a week. Then moving from 10 to 20 clients, and then growing to our max of 60 clients, it was very difficult to keep that same level of client services and get the job done completely, and it takes a toll on you.

Another perspective, in my current SAAS scenario if I talk to a customer for an hour and we figure out a feature/function/process that helps make things faster for my SAAS, ALL my customers benefit. So it's a huge win across the board. If that customer leaves the SAAS I still get that benefit built into the SAAS that helps every other customer still onboard and new customers. In the previous scenario if I spend an hour talking to a client and they benefit, no other clients of mine benefit and in fact they lose opportunity to benefit their own projects.

If that same client cancels several months later that "extra" benefit dissipates into nothing and therefore was a lost hour of my time and therefore potential client projects I could have been working on lost an hour too. So there is no aggregated or incremental benefit to my marketing agency taking an extra hour to go above and beyond, where as with my SAAS that extra hour is exponential in helping current customers and future customers.

I keep more of my "constructive time" I guess so to speak. An hour getting feedback from a customer benefits me more for my SAAS than an hour giving advice to a marketing client to only benefit their own company. Hopefully that makes some sense.

 

[CCarter]

Following @miketpowell's lead here is another great SAAS plugin, it's simply a pop-up that is placed on your site to grow your followers. MiloTree. What's really funny about the whole thing is it is simply javascript that you place on your code, and it's similar to the DevSeries' free faux chatbox popup and popup email form cta.

Example of it for Pinterest:

They service instagram, facebook, pinterest a simple newsletter signup and more.

I never would have thought of making this a SAAS, but the reality is there are people that don't code and would have no problem paying monthly for a simple service like this that does the "thinking" for them. They've got a free version, a $6 a month, and a $29 a month version.