What Am I To Do Now?
https://chatrabot.com Needs more work.
I'm at a crossroads so to speak because I know that entrepreneurs overwork on their product before they start to sell. But I really think that my product need some more work before I am confident about it.
I want to deliver something of quality that I would be proud of, without being an impractical perfectionist.
Can you make it demo automatically on either the landing page or demo page without having the user having to click anything?
My answer to the other q's kinda depends on that i guess
Demo is the best way to show your users what are they signing up for and what to expect. It is a good selling point to me. I did it on my project as well where users can try the app.
This is a good suggestion.
0- First of all, the end result of using my SAAS is a Facebook page that has a chat bot running on it. When you message the page you can ask it to buy stuff that I have already setup. This is already done.
Another way to understand your suggestion: I would categorized it as a "marketing" feature.
This could work in multiple ways:
1- Enable a public test user with an active license. Give people this test user. The user is automatically logged on when you visit a particular page. People will still need to login, but not using their own account.
2- Enable a public sample page that users can access without logging in. They can find admin controls to add/remove products without connecting to their e-commerce store or Facebook page. Configure and test on the same page. I have some features already that can support this scenario.
#MarketingFeature
Yeah I like the second option, or make a video that demonstrates it showing how it works when they go to a Facebook store
100% I need to produce some missing marketing materials and improve existing ones. Will put it on my near-future task list.
I had the same question ~two years ago, then I spent another 8 months refactoring my project and extracting ~15 microservices from the monolith.
It was my greatest experience as a dev and the worst as an indie hacker. It all started as "Clean things up as little as possible."
So if you want to do more work, do it in a "business owner" hat, not a "developer" one.
Thanks for the good advice, will try to heed.
I currently refactor parts that need fixing when such refactors would make fixing easier. So win-win for both hats.
Is your product currently better than the competition (or next best alternative)?
If YES: state clearly WHY, right at the top of your first section in the home page (above the fold)! Start getting word out there and market your product - i.e. explain to / educate your target customer base (businesses who can benefit)! Follow up closely with the first adopters and find out (exactly) which areas you can/should improve on. If your SaaS product is going to cost over $100, you will need to do in person selling asap - even if just to collect rejections (feedback) to guide where to focus the work on your product.
If NO: scope down your product to the core value area which will be most beneficial to your customers and make it great. Then goto YES above.
All the best!
I'm leaning towards answering with a NO, especially when some of the features aren't working exactly as I want them to.
I think I should polish those features and then start working on marketing tasks like developing good demos and fixing the site.
I'm not sure if the competition are doing what I'm doing. If they're not doing it that's one thing to go on, although they can just start implementing similar features to what I think distinguishes my product.
I think focusing on a small number of customers, perhaps customers who work in similar verticals, is how I can compete at the same time is how I would focus on a niche.
So the niche that I would pick up is that one that happens to be my first few customer's niche.
Sounds like a good plan.
Features should definitely be working - else they should be disabled/hidden.
Happy improving your code. Onward ho!
Yes, you need to do more work.
But probably not the work you think. I would spend some time learning how to write better copy.
Focus on one potential customer. Figure out exactly what problem you're solving for them. Find out what they're already doing to solve that problem. Find out what they don't like about the current solution. Rewrite your copy starting with the benefits of your solution. How will their life be better with your help?
This might seem less pressing than continuing to build your solution. But I would argue that without really understanding your customer, you might be building in the wrong direction. If you can't find your customer, you could be solving a problem that doesn't exist.
Sorry if that sounded harsh. It's totally normal to find yourself here, don't worry. It's all part of the journey. What's important now is taking a break from building and figuring out your next steps.
No, it's ok, I completely agree with you. starts sobbing
Did you see the wall of text on the login page? It's horrible. What was I thinking? Totally needs to be removed. I actually removed it from the code but need to deploy that change.
I won't be adding features, but will just making sure that the current features work correctly and then try to find my first customer, or first group of customers, to serve them while learning from them.
If I have a hard time getting someone on board, should I try to focus on a niche? Meaning, apply the idea to a particular e-commerce vertical, for example AI + ecommerce for cats, cars, or whatever. Though choosing a niche will be hard.
Finding your first customer doesn't necessarily mean waiting around until someone signs up.
One way to do it is to go where your customers are already hanging out. Maybe there's a reddit, or you can find people talking about the problem you're solving on Twitter or Facebook, sometimes you'll need to get creative.
But it's not as simple as just saying "here's my app please click the link". That won't work. It'll be seen as spam and you'll being doing more harm than good.
A better way is to tell your honest story. Take the time to write a post about what problem you're trying to solve and why. It's often better if you don't even mention your app. Your goal is to figure out what you're trying to build. Just focus on having a conversation and listening to people. It's always a good idea to link your app on your profile.
Often, the best words to use on your landing page come directly from these conversations with your potential customers.
I would also suggest doing a course on copywriting. Even learning the basics goes a long way. My favourite paid course is CopyThat by Sam Parr (one of the guys from the My First Million podcast)
Seriously, market & sell. Why? Not for the money. You’re working on something with probably a best guess in mind of what customers need. Find 2-4 customers (even if it’s for free) and build a next version with their input. It gives you credible customer references and likely a much better product.
I’m a little bit different than most startups I’ve seen on here.
Personally, I have a two-year runway, and I’m not all that worried about how it ends up. If I’m successful—awesome. If not, I’ll have a killer portfolio piece.
I want to enjoy my work and make something I’m proud of. That means I’ll be on the overworking side of the spectrum that you described. It’s important for me to balance launching the product with my enjoyment of building it.
So, it all depends on what your goal is. Enjoyment? Learning? Income? Flexibility? Prioritize what matters to you.
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As for your landing page, it’s par for the course of what I’ve seen on indiehackers. If you’ve built the MVP and it works, try marketing and selling it. What’s the feedback? Can you find a niche? Iterate. Sell more. Repeat.
I want to balance enjoying building something cool technologically with the actually business building and product selling.
So at points, there will be quick solutions to deliver value, but in the long run, a well polished well built system, especially as things grow, is actually the best way to deliver value.
The product is currently general and can apply to any vertical. I wonder what niche I would focus on if I would do so.
Just send the product to a couple of the target users and see what feedback they give you... In the WBE Space we have a feedback slack channel just for that...
Which product you are manufacturing and in Which City?