Why start a service business before building any product?

Like most developers and creators, I too get a lot of business ideas. Most of them are around SaaS or B2B applications. Yet, there’s still that fear and inexperience to differentiate between a good and a bad one. What better way to find what works than to document successful SaaSes and review them in detail. And why not do this for a few bucks? That’s how webroast.tech was born last week. It’s my first service business where I roast (review) SaaS applications. 4 main topics are reviewed: Content, UI/UX, Performance, and SEO. This way, the founders get to see issues that they didn’t know existed in their product. At the same time, I build knowledge about what works and what doesn’t in a bootstrapped product.

How a service business will help a beginner bootstrapper?

1. Build relationships with other founders

Through my business, I already made a few roasts for free. Yes, that’s the worst business model, but I am not interested in building a large revenue in the beginning. I want to bring value to other founders with what I know. And you know what? Until now, their roasts were appreciated. Most bootstrappers provided amazing feedback. Even though they didn’t ask for a roast (I invested 10hrs in each one) they donated after receiving it. And, of course, everything was transparent and unforced, so it made us friends by the end of it.

2. Find common mistakes and avoid them

If you invest time in reviewing many products, you'll find many commonalities btw them. Good and bad ones. Things like: a simple pricing page always converts more, good technical SEO wins a new lead funnel, bad UX is unforgiven, etc.

3. Create honest and humane selling strategies

Beginning at anything is hard. However, beginning an online service business, at the same time as having a 9-5, a young family, and no audience it’s a bit harder. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining - I’m just stating facts. Because of all these, I had to think different. No ads, no email marketing, no social media “pushing” - plain and simple honest selling:

• Search for a founder/product that already has some revenue (if it’s builtinpublic even better)
• Create a sample roast for free (invest ~1h in it)
• Send it to the founder and ask for an honest feedback
• If the founder is interested, get paid for a full roast
• Offer a full refund strategy (not a “no questions asked” one but close)

4. Setting up a business

Creating this service was also a chance to learn the basics. Setting up a legal business, working with an accountant, setting up Stripe, filling refunds, and doing customer support.

5. Learning to deal with denial (churn)

Nothing is just sugar in honey. Some founders don’t even respond to my “selling” email, and others are not interested or don’t see the value in it. Of course, some products don’t even need my services as they are very well built. All these experiences are still learning ones. You learn to get rejected, which is such an important feature of a founder. Name it refund, name it rejection or churn, we all need to experience and learn from it.

TLDR: creating a service business it’s a great launch pad, at least for me. Depending on the services offered, it can take less time than actually creating a product, it should have fewer expenses and still provide great value to its clients. It all depends on how you want to set it up. After the first 4 months, I’ll draw a line to see where I stand and what I learned. Will keep you posted. All the best in all your endeavours!