I tried building SaaS for 300 days

[00:00] I tried building SS for 300 days and I

[00:03] think it's about time somebody tells you

[00:05] the truth let's go back to day one I was

[00:07] sitting at my computer trying to figure

[00:09] out ways to make money without going

[00:11] back to a software development job I

[00:14] tried freelancing but I didn't enjoy

[00:16] having clients I tried selling a course

[00:19] but I quickly grew bored of the topic

[00:22] and stopped updating it and I even wrote

[00:24] books for developers but I didn't like

[00:26] selling information that was already

[00:28] available online that's when I found

[00:30] something called SAS software as a

[00:33] service there were all these developers

[00:35] who were building small software

[00:37] products and selling them to Consumers

[00:39] all while living their ideal lifestyle

[00:42] which quite often seemed to be in barley

[00:45] the fact that I could use my software

[00:47] development skills to actually build

[00:49] something useful become an independent

[00:51] developer and make $10,000 per month or

[00:55] more sounded like the ideal opportunity

[00:57] so this is what happened for the next

[00:59] three 00 days this is my unfiltered take

[01:03] these are my Real Results well first

[01:05] thing I needed was an idea for software

[01:08] product to create at the time I'd been

[01:10] mixing with a group of people interested

[01:12] in YouTube I decided to create a YouTube

[01:15] thumbnail comparison tool and My Hope

[01:18] was that this group of people might

[01:19] decide to buy it problem was my front

[01:22] end development skills were very basic

[01:25] it took me a while to get up to speed

[01:27] with Dynamic JavaScript Frameworks but

[01:30] once I did it was pretty easy to create

[01:32] a web page that showed YouTube

[01:34] thumbnails just like on YouTube and

[01:37] after a month I had a prototype that I

[01:39] sent to the group of people I mentioned

[01:42] well they all seemed to like it after

[01:44] great feedback I assumed I was onto a

[01:46] winner problem was at this point the

[01:49] product was free so it wasn't generating

[01:51] me any Revenue I spent one more month

[01:54] adding new features behind a oneoff

[01:57] payment and when I told all those people

[01:59] that they could now pay for all these

[02:01] extra features for the product that they

[02:03] said they liked so much well only one

[02:05] person bought and even though it was a

[02:07] bit disappointing that I only made $29 I

[02:10] had to remind myself this was the first

[02:12] SAS product I had ever made so was ready

[02:16] to move on to the next one there's this

[02:18] Indie hacker who builds SAS that I've

[02:20] been following at the time and he talks

[02:22] about the benefit of creating a free

[02:24] product and put an advert on it to push

[02:27] people towards his paid product around

[02:29] that time time I was watching a lot of

[02:31] daily YouTube uploaders they publish a

[02:34] vlog every single day and I wanted an

[02:36] easy way to discover those so I created

[02:40] a vlog ranking tool Vlog rank this tool

[02:43] was a lot simpler I finished it in 5

[02:46] days but once I hit the launch button I

[02:49] wasn't really sure how to Market it in

[02:52] fact the only people that I thought

[02:54] might be interested were the daily

[02:55] vloggers themselves and I only knew one

[02:58] of those and he ignored my message well

[03:01] even though my site didn't get any

[03:02] visitors and still doesn't get many

[03:04] visitors today I at least had a tool

[03:06] that I could use myself so I told myself

[03:09] for my next product it was going to be

[03:11] another paid product guess what the

[03:13] topic was y YouTube again around this

[03:16] time I was struggling to come up with

[03:18] ideas I was excited to build and the

[03:20] only one that was of interest to me and

[03:23] potentially of interest to someone else

[03:25] and easy to build was a tool to

[03:28] automatically overlay Tech on your

[03:31] YouTube channel Banner thing is I was a

[03:34] little bit lukewarm about this product

[03:36] but I managed to entice myself to build

[03:38] it by first of all building the landing

[03:40] page and that actually got me a bit more

[03:43] excited to build the product which I did

[03:46] within the next 7 days once I launched

[03:49] it I had another problem I didn't really

[03:52] know anyone that would want to use this

[03:54] product and I realized I didn't really

[03:56] want to use it either I felt like I'd

[03:58] gone backwards from my first product the

[04:01] thumbnail tool because at least I wanted

[04:04] to use that one that's when I got a bit

[04:06] demotivated because I felt like time and

[04:08] time again I couldn't hit that sweet

[04:11] spot of a product that I wanted to use

[04:13] myself other people might want to use

[04:15] and would be willing to pay for so yeah

[04:17] not all of those 300 days were spent

[04:20] working on SAS some of it was just spent

[04:23] thinking what am I going to do next one

[04:25] thing I hear the online gurus say is to

[04:28] take what's already working working and

[04:30] build your own version of it well one

[04:32] product I'd seen that I thought was

[04:34] really clever was this same Indie

[04:36] hacking influencers bootstrap project

[04:39] which is a shortcut to starting a web

[04:41] app quickly and even though I'd only

[04:43] Built three web apps I still had a lot

[04:46] of experience from all the software

[04:48] development jobs I've done so thought I

[04:50] could build my own version but first of

[04:52] all I had to go to

[04:56] Japan of course I packed my tiny laptop

[04:59] with me and after recovering from jet

[05:01] lag I thought well what am I going to do

[05:03] in the morning before I knew it every

[05:05] morning I started building my own

[05:07] bootstrap project and by the time I got

[05:10] back from Japan it was almost ready to

[05:12] launch I felt like this time I had a

[05:15] product that I wanted to use and it was

[05:17] potentially something that people who

[05:18] watch my YouTube videos might want to

[05:20] use well I launched this product to my

[05:23] email list and I created several YouTube

[05:25] videos where I mentioned it and it's got

[05:27] three sales for a total of

[05:31] $177 so actually this is my most

[05:33] profitable SAS so far but I'm still not

[05:36] hitting the numbers that make all this

[05:38] effort worthwhile having built four

[05:40] products I still see this as a big

[05:43] opportunity because there are so many

[05:45] problems that could potentially be

[05:47] solved with software if you can find one

[05:49] that's painful enough and solve it in an

[05:51] efficient way then I don't see how you

[05:54] can't make a lot of money from that as

[05:55] long as you've got your laptop with you

[05:57] you could live your ideal lifestyle from

[05:59] anywhere in the world that's the path

[06:01] I'm still following but here are five

[06:04] things I'd wish I'd known from day one

[06:07] number one is to solve a problem for

[06:10] someone or a group of people you already

[06:12] know for my second and third projects I

[06:15] kind of made up a problem but a better

[06:17] approach is to identify a problem first

[06:20] that a real human being actually has and

[06:22] then build a solution for that number

[06:24] two not to build something that you're

[06:26] not that's too many negatives only build

[06:28] something you're excited to use yourself

[06:30] the YouTube Banner automation tool I

[06:33] created I literally have not used since

[06:35] I built it nobody else has signed up to

[06:37] the tool either it's not valuable enough

[06:40] I think the answer to that is rather

[06:43] than do something that you think is cool

[06:46] is to do something that solves a problem

[06:48] in your life and then you're going to be

[06:50] more tempted to use it number three is

[06:52] to take the quick and dirty approach

[06:54] it's really easy for perfectionists to

[06:57] get caught up in making all the code

[06:59] perfect when all the customer really

[07:01] cares about is the experience they have

[07:03] using the front end through the browser

[07:06] as long as that works that's all that

[07:07] really matters so focus on getting

[07:10] something done rather than perfect

[07:12] number three is to launch and move on

[07:16] when you launch a single product and it

[07:18] doesn't get the attention that you think

[07:20] it deserves it's easy to get emotionally

[07:23] caught up in that tell yourself you're

[07:24] on completely the wrong path and take a

[07:27] few weeks off from building software

[07:29] whereas a better approach is the Peter

[07:31] levels approach when he did 12 startups

[07:34] in 12 months if you give yourself just

[07:37] one month then you know as soon as that

[07:39] month is up you've got to move on to the

[07:41] next project fifth point is don't go in

[07:44] with the wrong expectations it's very

[07:46] unlikely you're going to make it with

[07:48] your first product and in my case not

[07:50] even your second third or fourth but

[07:53] rather than giving up when this happens

[07:55] instead go in with these expectations

[07:58] every project you build is a small

[08:01] experiment one where you're increasing

[08:03] your skills if you can increase the

[08:05] speed with which you build product

[08:08] you're basically running more small

[08:10] experiments and you're learning more

[08:11] along the way the faster you iterate the

[08:14] more chance you are of seeing success

[08:17] the fact is there are people out there

[08:18] who are building SAS products and are

[08:21] earning a very good income from it

[08:23] question to ask is given you already

[08:25] have software development skills could

[08:27] you do the same thing to earn an income

[08:29] completely independently of a job live

[08:32] anywhere you want in the world and

[08:34] ultimately gain your Independence that's

[08:36] been my experience of following this

[08:38] path so far hope it was useful and I'll

[08:41] see you in the next one