I'm 7 weeks into building a SaaS for contractors. 0 paying users as of now. Here's the journey.
I'm the solo founder behind Buildfield.io. It's a tool for self-employed contractors and trade workers to send quotes, invoices and track payments. It's subscription based and costs $29/month.
The idea came from watching a friend of the family run his contracting business out of a notes app and an Excel sheet. No invoicing system or payment tracking. Just memory and hope :) I did the research, validated that this is a widespread problem across the trades, and built it in Bubble. I work fulltime so I have been working on this in my spare time, and have enlisted the (paid) help of a freelance Bubble developer when developing got a bit too complex for a Bubble newbie.
It's seven weeks since the SaaS went live. Some honest numbers I'm scared to share:
$0 MRR
0 paying users
40K+ video views across YouTube and TikTok in 28 days
91 landing page visitors in 30 days
0 confirmed email signups (lead magnet form)
Built on Bubble, landing page on Framer
$29/month, first month free, payment through Stripe.
I have zero marketing budget. I'm posting daily on Youtube (shorts) and TikTok. I do this by creating short videos in Canva using stock footage and making funny/recognizable content. The content is working in the sense that views are real and the audience is right: 97% male, 25–44, US and UK heavy. But views aren't converting to trials yet.
Constraints I'm working within: I'm not doing cold outreach or paid ads. I'm a solo founder based in the EU targeting the global trades market, primarily US because of the large audience.
What I'm trying to figure out:
Has anyone successfully converted a B2B niche audience from short-form video?
First paying user before end of month 2 — realistic or delusional?
Other low effort/high impact ways of engaging my audience and make them signup? (That fits next to a 9-5 job)
Happy to share more about the build, the content strategy, or the numbers. Just trying to do this in public and see what sticks.
I think this looks like you're getting traffic, but not from the right people. I’d focus less on broad promotion and more on putting it in front of your exact ICP: the communities, forums, creators, newsletters, or groups they hang out in. Quality traffic usually beats a big stream of random visitors.
You're absolutely right, and this is something I'm actively thinking about. The TikTok and YouTube content reaches a broad audience but the intent level is very low. The higher intent audience might be in forums or FB groups. The challenge I'm trying to figure out is how to show up there without it feeling like spam. Any suggestions on how you'd approach that?
40k views with 91 landing page visitors is the real problem here - the content is working but something is breaking between watch and click.
What does your CTA look like in the videos, and is the landing page link one tap away or buried?
Thanks for your comment! I'm starting to realize it's definitely a conversion problem. On TikTok I add a CTA in the vid and in the caption saying "Link in bio", which has a clickable link. On YouTube the CTA is mostly in the description of the video, but unfortunately YouTube only allows clickable links in the description of the video when you've hit 1000 subscribers. I currently have zero subscribers, so that's not gonna change soon. However this is a big issue in itself, because it makes people either copy/paste the link in description or go to my channel and look for the clickable link hidden there.
7 weeks is still super early—respect for sticking with it and sharing the journey. Most people quit before this stage. Keep going, the traction will come.
Thanks, it does feel like I'm hitting a bit of a slump so that's so great to hear!
The TikTok strategy might be working against you. Contractors who have an invoicing problem aren't going to pause a funny video and think "I should go sign up for a SaaS." They look at 9pm on a Tuesday when they're staring at a half-finished Excel sheet and cursing.
The places I'd try first are the contractor forums and Facebook groups. r/Contractor, ContractorTalk, local trades groups on FB. Way less reach than TikTok, but those people are already looking for what you built.
A free tool as a lead magnet might pull more emails too. Something like a PDF invoice generator or a pricing calculator. Whatever contractors google when they're stuck. Get them on your email list, then pitch the paid product later.
On month 2 being realistic, I think probably not unless something shifts. But a first signup in month 2? Totally doable if you switch channels this week.
Thanks for this James! So I have definitely considered posting on FB groups and subreddits, but those platforms are (or seem) quite averse to self-promotion, even when it's genuine. Would love your take on how to approach that without it feeling like marketing.
I added a lead magnet on my landing page a couple of days ago (an invoice template), which made me gain one subscriber. Since it has been less than a week that I added this, I think it's still too early to tell if it works or not.
The speed at which you were able to acquire 40k views while having zero users fascinates me, that's a more difficult stage most people realize. Getting attention online is a victory in and of itself but when nothing converts yet, it also makes next step seem more unclear.
It's so difficult indeed. The views are hard-earned :) Posting 2-3 videos a day on two different platforms. So that makes it even more difficult to accept you're still doing something not quite right.
40K views to 91 visitors is not a content problem. That's a mid-funnel gap. The jump from short-form video viewer to landing page visitor is the hardest conversion in B2B. What worked for us was removing the signup page entirely from early distribution and offering a free insight first. In e-commerce we see the same pattern. Stores that send cold traffic straight to a product page convert at 1%. Stores that send them to a value-first page convert at 4-5%. The bridge content between attention and action is what's missing.
Thanks for this, so valuable. The funnel is short-form video > landing page > sign-up page. I'm offering a free template on the landing page, but maybe it's too hidden for visitors to notice. Would you think a standalone lead magnet page as the first touch make sense? Feels a bit counterintuitive..
How are you handling support / user messages right now?
I’m at a similar stage and emails already feel messy.
Still figuring out something simple that doesn’t feel like enterprise overkill.
Curious what you’re doing on your side.
Right now it's just me so support is direct email. It's manageable at 0 users (and therefore 0 mails) but I'm keeping it simple until it becomes a real problem.
Yeah makes sense.
I feel like that works until you start getting a bit of volume — then it suddenly becomes messy overnight.
Are you planning to stick with email or eventually move to something else?
Honestly not thinking that far ahead yet, right now I'd love the problem of too many support emails :) Email works fine for now, will reassess when volume demands it.
Yeah that makes sense — honestly I think that’s the right call early on.
It’s funny how it goes from “totally manageable” to “wait where did that message go” really fast 😅
That’s kind of the moment I’m building for — when email starts breaking but you don’t want a full helpdesk yet.
If you ever hit that point, happy to share what I’m working on — would love your take when it actually becomes a problem for you.
Thanks for that, will keep it in mind!
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This is a really honest breakdown — especially the gap between views and signups. Feels like the real issue here is funnel depth, not content reach. There’s a competition where you can submit it — entry is $19 and winner gets a Tokyo trip. Also, prize pool just opened at $0 so chances are best right now.
I agree, funnel depth is exactly the problem. Views are there (not a lot, but some) but nothing is pulling people through to actually signing up - still figuring that part out...
Yeah, that makes sense — I think this is where most early-stage tools get stuck. Getting views is one thing, but getting someone to feel the problem strongly enough to sign up is the real gap.
Curious — have you noticed where the drop-off happens most? Landing page, pricing, or just lack of urgency in the problem itself?
Also sharing something I’m working on in parallel — You have an idea. $19 puts it in a real competition. Winner gets a Tokyo trip (flights + hotel booked, minimum $500 guaranteed). Round just opened, so best odds right now: tokyolore.com
Honestly this looks more like a conversion gap than a traffic problem.
40k views → 91 visitors usually means people are entertained but not seeing why they should click through.
Are your videos showing the actual invoicing flow (like creating a quote, sending it, getting paid), or mostly general content?
Feels like even 2–3 very direct “watch me use this as a contractor” clips could outperform everything else.
So I posted a couple of videos containing demo's of the app, but those tanked immediately and caused a significant drop of views. That got me thinking that it might be too early to show that, and wanted to get a solid viewercount before I try that again, if that makes sense? This is all based on guessing/googling btw.
I think the drop in views on demo videos might actually be a good signal, not a bad one.
The people who watch general content are a broad audience, so views stay high. But when you show the actual product, you filter down to people who really care about solving that problem.
Lower views, but higher intent.
Right now it feels like you're optimizing for reach, but what you need is a few people who actually say “this is exactly what I need”.
Even 2–3 clips like:
“watch me create a quote and get paid as a contractor”
could convert way better than 10 viral-style videos.
Might be worth thinking of content in two layers:
one for attention, one for conversion, not trying to make one do both.
So interesting, I haven't thought about this and it might be a good distinction to make within the types of content I produce.
Yeah exactly, and the interesting part is those demo videos didn’t really “fail”, they just exposed a different audience.
The drop is basically showing you where curiosity ends and real need starts.
One thing that might be worth trying:
instead of just showing the product, frame it around a moment like
“client says yes → now I need to send a quote quickly”
and then show how you handle that end-to-end.
Curious, do you know what specific situation your current viewers are in when they’re watching your videos?
That's a great way of looking at it, I'm going to play around with some different kinds of content this week and will try the story/moment, and see if it tanks or not.
With situation do you mean in the market for admin software? Or something else?
I think the key difference is where they are mentally when they’re watching, not just whether they’re “in the market.”
For example, most of your current viewers are probably in a passive state:
scrolling, relating, maybe thinking “yeah that’s me”, but not actively dealing with invoices at that moment.
The conversion-style videos work when they catch someone in a trigger moment, like:
“client just said yes → now I need to send a quote”
or
“just finished a job → how do I track this payment”
That’s why the drop you saw is actually useful, it’s showing you the boundary between general interest and real intent.
If you try a few clips built around those exact moments this week, you might start seeing a different kind of response entirely, even if the views are lower.