SaaS Building 03 - Applying Business Plan...Kinda

Why would you use a business plan on a SaaS?
A little planning will save you a lot of money, energy, and time
And we’ll be using the lean canvas which is very fast to use

So let’s get to it

1. Problem:
   This section outlines the problem your product solves

Having multiple todos on different devices makes it hard to sync.

You have probably noticed that it is not a unique problem
I like to go with non-unique problems
That shows there’s a demand
BUT they have to be a little more unique than this to make a good business
This product is meant to be illustrative
But we have a twist on it to maybe make it a good business
and if not
we’ll develop it really fast by
stripping away all unnecessities
by using the lean canvas methodology

2. Solution:
   Describe how your product or service addresses the identified problem

Share a text todo easily between devices without any bs just using URLs.

3. Key Metrics:
   Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) you will use to track your business’s success.

We have

Number of unique visitors
New todo lists
Amount of edits
Paying advertisers
Paying users? More on that later
4. Unique Value Proposition (UVP):
Clearly state what makes your product unique and why it’s better than existing alternatives.

The solution is easier and simpler stripping away all noise.
Simply just have a loading textarea that can be easily shared using a URL
No email, no login, no nothing.

Alternatives

Google Notes - if that’s still a thing
Pen and paper - entrepreneurs often forget that sometimes the problems they solve can be fixed with pen and paper or other dumb tools. Don’t reinvent something that does not need to be reinvented.
Todoist
And a million others
I normally compete analysis DuckDuckGo, AlternativeTo, and especially ChatGPT.
Now since this is a pet project I’ll keep it simple

5. Channels:
   Outline the marketing and distribution channels you plan to use to reach your target customers.

Since this is an unpaid app initially,
It’s too expensive to use paid ads

Instead, I’ll try with:

Videos like this one here building it - you’re actually watching marketing material right now
Self-virality - people who use the app might share. I like making apps that have some sharable content, this will ease marketing
Reddit - I’ll make it first as a free version without ads, and thus the Reddit community will be hopefully more receptive and not want to m*rder me.
Normally, I’d suggest to have at least 5 different marketing channels

This step is crucial and often neglected
Nowadays there are so many solutions,
you have to think about the distribution

If you build the best thing,
but it costs you more money to onboard a customer than you gain from that customer
it is not a worthwhile business

6. Customer Segments:
   Defines the specific groups or types of customers your business is targeting.

We have:

The users of the app - free users
Advertisers who advertise on the app
I also plan to have paid customers that could do special things like:
See the history of your todos
Have no ads
You might actually find a multitude of customers for your project if you think about
Who could benefit from the obvious ones?

7. Cost Structure:
   Lists the main costs associated with running your business.

Our costs are:

Servers + domain 5 dollars per month
The cost of editing our videos, maybe we’ll say here 200 dollars
My time making the videos - was priceless but we count that as 0
Support to check reported todos in case someone uploads weird stuff
Other marketing expenses
Don’t forget the hidden costs that can make or break your business.

8. Revenue Streams:
   Describes how your business will make money, including pricing strategies and revenue sources.

We have

Advertisement. Approximately $50 to $500 per 50k visits according to our ChatGPT overlords
Paid users pay $7 per year. Approximately $291 / month based on a 1% conversion
So $351 to $791 per month

9. Unfair Advantage:
   Identifies any advantages or unique factors that give your business a competitive edge.

I do have an audience on Twitter and YouTube where I can spread the link. Meaning I can maybe get cheaper traffic.
I will have an extremely simple and fast backend and I won't need a lot to run it. I can run this for like 5 bucks
It is not only a todo app, but you can also share, which means there’s a chance of some virality
It’s pretty low fruit with an unfair advantage for this project
but here is a typical example that you might want to consider
quitting the project and finding another one

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