I'm building ZugFlow — a SaaS for salons, barbers, wellness studios & local artisans. Feedback welcome!
Hey Indie Hackers
I'm Andrew, solo founder building ZugFlow – a SaaS for salons, barbers, florists, and small artisan businesses who still manage appointments on paper or WhatsApp.
ZugFlow offers:
– Drag & drop calendar (daily/weekly/monthly)
– Team & group management
– Smart client tracking (loyalty, value, history)
– Automated WhatsApp/SMS reminders
– Coupons, services, inventory & revenue tracking
– All wrapped in a clean, modern UI
Official launch: September 2025
ZugFlow will be 100% free until December 2025 to build traction and collect feedback.
From January 2026, we'll offer two monthly plans:
Base – €14.99/month
Pro – €24.99/month
My goal: to make ZugFlow the go-to tool for solo professionals and small local businesses.
I’m actively working on new features and improvements to make ZugFlow more complete and even more useful for small businesses.
Would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, or feedback! Thanks for reading
Love the focus on simplicity + real-world tools like WhatsApp reminders...
Thanks! That’s exactly the goal, simple, real-world tools that actually help small business owners stay organized and save time. From WhatsApp reminders to drag & drop calendars, we're focused on what really matters day-to-day. Appreciate the kind words!
Hey! I specialize in marketing and client outreach for indie products. Would love to connect and chat about teaming up-let’s see if we’re a good fit! https://tractionmate.com/
Hey, thanks for reaching out and sharing your work — looks great!
At the moment I’m not looking for external collaborations, but I’ll definitely keep you in mind if anything changes. Appreciate the message!
Hey Andrew, I'm impressed by what you're building with Zugflow—super relevant and genuinely useful. I see a strong market fit for something like this in Nigeria and across Africa, and I’d love to chat about how we might collaborate or explore that opportunity together.
Let me know if you're open to exploring opportunities for Zugflow!
Hey, really appreciate your message and your interest in ZugFlow! 🙏
At the moment, I'm fully focused on the Italian and European markets for the initial growth phase, so I’m not exploring international partnerships yet.
That said, I’ll definitely keep your interest in mind for the future — and thank you again for reaching out!
Well not really a pro in detailing but I think what you are doing is amazing but I think there are some area U need to fill in more actually kudos to your job
Thanks a lot! Really means a lot.
I’m still refining a few things — if anything stood out to you as needing improvement, I’d honestly love to know. Always open to ideas to make it better!
Hey Andrew. So, my first thoughts are it's pretty solid. Clear niche, good positioning, and the pricing seems right for your market.
That said, here are a few thoughts that might help:
Your core users tend to be visual types. A quick loom or screen capture showing your drag and drop calendar AND client tracking could spark interest quickly.
Emphasize your WhatsApp/SMS reminders more prominently. No shows hit your target audience's wallets hard. This feature alone is a strong selling point.
Highlight how ZugFlow can help to directly increase repeat visits and revenue with client tracking and loyalty features. Small businesses love simple ways to reward regulars and track histories.
Keep onboarding super simple so as not to be off putting to users that aren't tech savvy.
Hey, thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback — really appreciate you taking the time!
You're spot on about the visual aspect. Most of our users are definitely more "see it to get it" types, so I’ll work on a quick Loom to showcase the drag-and-drop calendar and client profiles in action. Great suggestion.
Also, totally agree on the WhatsApp/SMS reminders — they’re already live, but I haven’t pushed that benefit hard enough in the messaging. Will bring it forward as a key selling point.
And yes, loyalty + client tracking is something we’re refining right now. Making it easy to reward repeat clients is a big value add for these businesses.
Thanks again — this kind of feedback is gold when you’re in the trenches. If you ever want to jam on ideas or compare notes, I’m all in!!!
Love this! We have a free and monthly priced plan on our platform and found that it's hard to convert already free users to paying, even if the value is there. We're sitting at a 2.9% conversion rate right now...Have you thought about charging from the beginning or having a tiered free to paid subscription?
Totally feel you on that — converting free users is way harder than it looks from the outside. 2.9% is actually not bad depending on your niche, but yeah, it can be a grind.
With ZugFlow, we debated a lot between offering a freemium model vs. free trial with a hard paywall. In the end, we chose "free until launch, then paid-only", mainly to:
Maximize early feedback without the pressure of monetization.
Avoid training users to expect “free forever.”
That said, I’m considering a limited feature free tier in the future just to keep some top-of-funnel activity going — but with super clear upgrade incentives (like automations, reminders, invoicing, etc.).
Curious: what’s been your biggest challenge in getting free users to convert? Pricing? Feature gaps? Perceived value?
Would love to trade notes!
Hey, congrats! It sounds terrific. People mentioned the UX and praised your decision to provide free access to gain traction — and I fully support that. However, what I would look into is your marketing strategy: how are you planning to reach your target audience?
Hey, thanks so much — I really appreciate the kind words and support!
You’re absolutely right: offering free access has been really helpful for collecting valuable feedback and getting some early traction.
As for marketing, we’re still in the process of studying the best strategy to reach our ideal audience.
We’re currently testing different approaches to see what truly works, with the goal of building something solid, sustainable, and scalable over time.
Would love to hear what worked for you in the early days — every bit of insight is super valuable at this stage!
Hey Andrew, ZugFlow sounds like a fantastic solution for those businesses! It's really an untapped niche, in my opinion.
Love the clear value prop and the free period to gain traction – that's a smart move.
I'm also in the SaaS building trenches with FounderSignal. It's a platform I'm building to help founders quickly test their startup ideas and get early feedback, aiming to make that validation process a bit smoother. That initial phase of figuring out if you're building something people actually want, before investing too much time and resources, is such a common (and tough!) hurdle. It's definitely a challenge I'm focused on tackling with my project.
Wishing you all the best with the ZugFlow launch! Looks promising.
Thanks so much — really appreciate the support and the kind words about ZugFlow!
You're absolutely right: that early validation phase is where so many good ideas get stuck. I love what you’re doing with FounderSignal — it sounds like a super useful tool, especially for solo founders or small teams who can’t afford to spend months building in the dark.
Getting real feedback fast is priceless, and I totally agree: knowing what not to build early on can save you from months of wasted time.
Would love to stay in touch as we both grow — your project definitely resonates with the struggles I’ve faced along the way.
Wishing you all the best with FounderSignal
Let’s keep each other posted!!
Love what you’re building, Andrew — ZugFlow looks super clean and solves a very real problem for small local service businesses. Making it free until Dec is a smart move for early traction and feedback!
I’m building something in a different niche (healthcare compliance), but the early-stage journey is very similar — figuring out what resonates, refining the core value, and helping SMBs move away from manual or fragmented processes.
Wishing you big success with the launch! If any salon/wellness businesses ever need HIPAA compliance help (some do if they handle client health data), feel free to point them my way at hipaaassistant.com 🚀
Thanks so much for the kind words and support!
Really appreciate you taking the time to check out ZugFlow — and you nailed it: small local businesses are still stuck in chaotic workflows, and we're trying to make their lives easier (and more profitable) with a clean, focused tool.
Your project sounds super valuable too — healthcare compliance is a huge need, and the pain of manual processes is very real in that space.
Wishing you the best on your journey as well — let’s both keep building tools that actually help people
Really appreciate that, Andrew — thank you! Totally agree: it’s all about building tools that genuinely reduce friction and give people back their time.
Would love to stay in touch and maybe swap notes as we grow — especially since we’re both focused on helping SMBs ditch the chaos and get more clarity.
If you're ever curious about how compliance fits into the wellness space or just want to chat shop, feel free to reach out: compliassistant@gmail.com
Wishing you strong momentum with ZugFlow — it’s solving a real pain in a clean way!
Thank you so much — I really appreciate the support and thoughtful message!
Totally aligned with your mission too. It’s great to see other builders focusing on real operational pain points for SMBs — especially in areas like compliance, which are often ignored until it’s too late.
I’d absolutely be up for staying in touch and swapping ideas as we grow. Love the angle you're taking with HIPAA compliance — it’s a niche with serious depth and long-term need, especially as more wellness businesses start offering health-related services like body treatments, therapies, or diagnostics.
Let’s keep each other posted — who knows, there might even be some overlap in the future!
Wishing you all the best as you continue building CompliAssistant — looks solid and much needed!
Thanks so much for the kind words and for seeing the value in what we’re building with CompliAssistant. I completely agree — HIPAA compliance is a deep, evolving space, and with wellness businesses expanding into health services, the need is only going to grow.
I’m excited about the potential to learn from each other and maybe even collaborate down the line. Let’s definitely keep the conversation going and share insights as we both grow.
Wishing you all the best with ZugFlow — it sounds like you’re tackling an important challenge really well!
Looking forward to staying in touch.
Best, kai
This is a really nice idea!
Expecting the launch.
Thanks so much!
Really appreciate the support — we're working hard to make it as useful and intuitive as possible.
Can’t wait to share it with you at launch — stay tuned!
June 26, 2025 – Question for fellow indie hackers:
What worked for you when trying to get your very first paying customers, especially for B2B tools targeting local businesses?
I’m building ZugFlow, a SaaS for salons, barbers, and artisans — many of whom still use paper or WhatsApp to manage appointments.
I’ve started with cold outreach via Instagram DMs and local Facebook groups, but I’m still figuring out the most effective strategy to turn interest into users.
Did you use social media to find your first users? Which platforms worked best for you?
Would love to hear what helped you go from 0 to 10 customers — strategies, tips, or even mistakes
Hey Andrew,
This is a great start for ZugFlow! The problem you're addressing (businesses managing appointments manually) is definitely real, and your feature set seems comprehensive for your target audience. Offering it for free until December 2025 is also a smart move to gain traction and gather crucial feedback.
In my opinion and experience here’s some feedback, with a focus on product design and UX, that might help as you head towards launch and beyond:
1) Clarity and Value Proposition: You mention businesses managing appointments on paper or WhatsApp. Emphasize how ZugFlow directly alleviates the specific frustrations of those methods. For example, instead of just "Automated WhatsApp/SMS reminders," you could highlight how this "eliminates no-shows and saves hours on manual follow-ups.
2) Also something to look into is inventory Tracking for florists or salons, this can be complex. How does ZugFlow make this simple and integrated into their workflow? Is it automatically updated when a service is booked? The UX here could be a significant differentiator.
3) Finally user onboarding and their first impressions since you're offering ZugFlow for free initially to gather feedback, focus heavily on the onboarding experience. This is where UX truly shines or falters for new users and some of the things you should be looking into are.
Minimal Friction: How quickly can a new user get started and see the value? What's the shortest path to them scheduling their first appointment or adding their first client?
Will Guided Setup: Will there be prompts or quick tutorials to help them set up their services, team members, and initial calendar?
before i go, i was able to go through the website and i love the ui of the website and also saw how the buttons call my attention for quick response and thats great design feature.
This are my feedback for you and also i wish you the very best as you journey through this path Andrew
Wow — thank you so much for this incredibly thoughtful feedback
It means a lot, especially coming from someone who's clearly experienced in product design and user experience.
You're absolutely right on every point:
Clarity & Value Prop:
I’ll refine the messaging to highlight specific pain points (like chasing clients on WhatsApp or losing time with no-shows). I love your phrasing about "eliminating no-shows and saving hours on manual follow-ups" !!
Inventory for Salons & Florists:
At the moment, inventory is integrated but still basic. Your question made me realize how important it is to link it directly to bookings (e.g. auto-deducting products per service). That’s now on my roadmap for improvement — and it can definitely become a key UX differentiator as you said.
Onboarding Experience:
I’m currently designing a guided setup with minimal steps to get the user from sign-up → first appointment → first client within minutes. I’m also testing interactive prompts (like Notion-style tooltips) to walk users through services, team, and calendar setup. Your suggestion reinforces that we need to get this just right.
And thank you so much for the kind words on the UI — I’ve put a lot of love into making it feel clean and “ready to click,” so that means a lot
Appreciate your time and generosity in sharing such constructive feedback. If you ever want to connect further, chat product ideas, or just brainstorm, I’m totally up for it! Wishing you continued success on your journey as well.
Yeah sure! I’m open to connecting and brainstorming with liked minded people. We can start off with LinkedIn or X
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