{"id":1895,"date":"2021-09-01T13:39:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T13:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/?p=1895"},"modified":"2021-09-01T14:05:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T14:05:32","slug":"starting-a-software-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/starting-a-software-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting a Software Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/starting-a-b2b-saas-business.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"800\" data-attachment-id=\"1899\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/starting-a-software-business\/starting-a-b2b-saas-business\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/starting-a-b2b-saas-business.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"640,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"starting-a-b2b-saas-business\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/starting-a-b2b-saas-business-240x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/starting-a-b2b-saas-business.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/starting-a-b2b-saas-business.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1899\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/starting-a-b2b-saas-business.jpg 640w, https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/starting-a-b2b-saas-business-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/starting-a-b2b-saas-business-344x430.jpg 344w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@karlp?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Karl Pawlowicz<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/s\/photos\/software?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_64 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/starting-a-software-business\/#SaaS_Business_Ideas\" title=\"SaaS Business Ideas\">SaaS Business Ideas<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/starting-a-software-business\/#Further_Reading\" title=\"Further Reading\">Further Reading<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"SaaS_Business_Ideas\"><\/span>SaaS Business Ideas<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The most important thing when starting a new business is the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can have a mediocre kebab stand but if you have a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegaryhalbertletter.com\/newsletters\/direct_marketing_to_a_starving_crowd.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">starving crowd<\/a>, you&#8217;re pretty much guaranteed to make money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why understanding your customers and their needs is so important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can have the best software engineers in the world working on a problem that doesn&#8217;t exist that will ultimately get overtaken by mediocre software engineers that are working on an actual problem, ideally with a big TAM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Going back to the kebab stand analogy, you will more likely get sales if you identify customers that have an urgent problem. They&#8217;re hungry (the problem) and they need to eat immediately (urgency).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you identify your market and their urgent need, <strong>validate<\/strong> that this is actualy the case by getting pre-sales or at least registrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re planning to bootstrap, then this is even more useful because you&#8217;ll already have some cash flow (if you&#8217;re operating with presales) and you know that you&#8217;re building something that the market has already told you that it wants. You&#8217;ll generally have a higher chance of doing this if you&#8217;re working within a micro-niche. The tolerance of pricing and prepayments can also be higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Compare this to raising a bunch of money, developing a ton of features, only to find yourself hunting for a market that actually needs your product. The biggest reason why start ups fail (over 40%) is because there&#8217;s no market need for their product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you&#8217;re lucky, you&#8217;ll end up finding a product market fit but, more likely, you&#8217;ll need to make some (possibly very major) pivots to try and accommodate the actual needs of your identified market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re just starting out, you can start in reverse and find your starving crowd first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Further_Reading\"><\/span>Further Reading<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/evaluating-side-hustles\/\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/evaluating-side-hustles\/\">Evaluating Side Hustles<\/a><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/evaluating-side-hustles\/\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/the-ultimate-b2b-saas-digital-advertising-guide\/\">B2B SaaS Advertising Guide<\/a><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/evaluating-side-hustles\/\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/scaling-a-b2b-saas-business-and-the-stages-of-growth\/\">DIfferent Stages of a SaaS Business<\/a><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/evaluating-side-hustles\/\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sive.rs\/multiply\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ideas Are Multipliers of Execution<\/a><\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SaaS Business Ideas The most important thing when starting a new business is the market. You can have a mediocre kebab stand but if you have a starving crowd, you&#8217;re pretty much guaranteed to make money. This is why understanding your customers and their needs is so important. You can have the best software engineers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[201],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p795tb-uz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1895"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruizhidong.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}