As a super busy startup in today’s world, it seems impossible to be doing anything extra. Today, we want to tell you why that extra added service will go miles for your new SaaS (Software as a Service) business.
1. Research on Your Customer’s Needs
Customer-centric companies win. Getting there, however, requires getting to know customers so well that there’s not only understanding of what they do, but why they do it. This is the mentality that Founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, always understood.
An excellent way to do it is to simply ask. Work with them on the solutions directly. Help your target market to achieve their goals so you can benefit from key takeaways to that will benefit your technological solutions. Find out what not only what the solution should be but how customers want to use it and any other extra features that would make it more valuable.
When startups are close with the customers, that relationship will act as an insightful competitive advantage. (This rings true if the target market for your SaaS is the same as your consultant clients.) For us for example, it would startups who are first time business owners looking for their first round of funding (Pre-Seed — Series A). If you are very specific with your target, the more you will benefit in the long run.
2. Use it as Your Side Hustle
Get some revenue coming in from the side hustle. Depending on how much you charged, your startup can still reinvest that money into things such as Facebook or Instagram ads like we did. If your consultancy packages enough for you to invest in automation softwares or salaries, even better!
This would also be play a helpful hand when you are applying for government grants where they require you to show some form of revenue.
3. Use It to Build Your Startup Brand
To utilize the customer feedback and questions to build your brand will show community engagement as well as branding your company as an expert in this industry. It is always hard for startups with no money to build a brand so utilizing as much content in a consistent format as possible is a big step in the right direction.
For example, VenturX, has free monthly Health Checks for subscriber users. This takes place on Skype. Because I have a close friend who is a startup on our platform, I asked if our Health Checks can be recorded. This recording would show her asking questions about our VenturX metrics, why these metrics are important to investors and what other considerations she needs to think about before submitting to investors. She agreed it was a good idea. So starting March 4th at 8PM EST, we will have our first Health Check session. This is ideal for branding because her questions may be the same as others in our target market when it comes to investing and it gives a sneak preview of what to expect as a VenturX user. If you want to catch the video, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.
In addition, we will be writing a Medium blog and Youtube debrief on how the first session went. We expect there to be at least 2 sessions so you would be able to see a typical startup user’s improvements and added value.
Resources on how to get started on branching out your consultancy services
- Post your services on your website
2. You will need a consultancy package to send to potential clients so the understand what your field of expertise is and the price.
Here is a sample of how ours look like:
Pricing Package
3. Other places to post your consultancy services:
We put ours under Raising Capital and Funding. You can see ours as an example of a typical description of the services:
ME University
b) Freelance Service Sites: Fiverr, Upwork, and Guru.
c) Post it on your social media as announcements of your new services
d) If you have a newsletter, make sure your audience is aware.
The main thing startups should beware of is contributing too much too little time. If your SaaS company is your main operation, be sure to devote the necessary care and time to it. When startups do not have the history of clients and built up a reputation yet, a lot of clients may have a lot of questions in order to feel more trusting and secure about taking that next step with you. This could take a lot of time to “nurture” new leads. From our experience, we help answer some of those questions on our website and our latest blog post to explain the pros and cons of hiring startup consultants here!
