Month: February 2018

Feb

2018

3 Reasons Why Every SaaS Startup Need to be Consultants!

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:

3. Other places to post your consultancy services:

a) ME University

We put ours under Raising Capital and Funding. You can see ours as an example of a typical description of the services:

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!

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About VenturX

VenturX is a web platform that helps entrepreneurs through their journey from idea to launch and beyond. VenturX uses data-driven analytics to score and connect startups and investors at Seed and Series A financing.

Should First Time Entrepreneurs Pay for a Startup Consultant or Not?

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” — famous Chinese proverb

With entrepreneurship becoming so popular nowadays, it is certainly overwhelming to know which resources are right for you (ie. investor platform, incubators, accelerators, startup consultants, etc..)

As our business who mainly targets startups, we devote a lot of time keeping our ears to the ground and finding interesting startup problems, solutions, and ideas to explore. Here is a post that inspired this post. It was from a popular Facebook group.

This post was from a first time entrepreneur who received 54 comments in 24 hours from startup consultants, entrepreneurs who have used consultants, people who have not used consultants, etc.. (This post has been edited several times and we cannot find the original post.)

The most detailed and interesting comment was this one:

“I started my business with $100 and a hunger to create freedom in my life.

At the time I couldn’t afford coaching or programs and guess what?

I didn’t buy any.

I did market research by talking to people (that costs me nothing).

I then created a membership program (in the B2C space) on WordPress (had to learn how to use WordPress) — that costed me the $100 of Siteground hosting and nothing else.

I had a Facebook group I was running the community in. That cost me nothing.

I then went on and started doing live videos and promote my membership (costed me nothing).

I sold 60 memberships, that replaced my banking job. So I quit.

I then with the money I made bought a new MacBook so I can work faster.

I then sold more memberships and more memberships and here I was making $5000 a month.

And that’s when I decided to invest $2000 in the 90 Day Year.

This year (1.5 years later) I am on track to have a 7 figure year by the end of 2018.

You see… all these programs you see.. you don’t have to buy them.

Also.. the people that sell them.. they don’t need to change their pricing to accommodate “people who can’t afford it”.

Coaching IS NOT a right.

It’s a privilege.

Programs and courses are NOT a right.

They are a privilege.

And Iike any privilege, you either

1) make money and work to deserve it (and reward yourself with it)

2) don’t make money and don’t buy it.

3) look for organizations that offer free mentorship for startups (lots of them in the World)

Sooooo

I don’t understand what the issue is.

Work hard.
Make money.
THEN invest.” — Anonymous

There were also other comments from the post explaining how startups who are new to the world of entrepreneurship have reservations about investing because of these following reasons.

Why People Don’t Pay for Startup Consultants

Insecure feelings about their business- or the consultant
Not 100% sure about their own ROI from the business enough to pay for a consultant
Lack trust in the consultant
Feel that there are enough free resources about certain areas on the internet
They do not understand the long term value of the business and how a consultant can make a difference (ie. spending $1000 to make $20,000)
They cannot find the right fit for the exact field of expertise that they need

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

This famous saying rings true in entrepreneurship. This boils down to whether this million dollar idea is worth the risk you are taking or not. For most first startups who come to our team and ask for investment money, it tends to stop right here and they will tend to go back to their full time jobs or take our advice to ponder about whether or not they go forward for another 4–6 months.

Since we run a startup platform, VenturX, that helps prepare and connect early stage startups for investments, we have the opportunity to see with our own eyes what success and failures within startups look like everyday. Even though they come from diverse backgrounds, the checklist of startups we can accept in order to maintain a high level of successful launches and investments are still the same. We can quickly tell a) if they are in our target market and b) what their next step would be in order to best be prepare for big investors like ours.

Time VS Money VS Quality

From working with over 300 startups and hearing their stories of successes and failures, there are only so many things you can invest into your business if you don’t have the luxury of quality. Quality stems from knowledge and experience. Every investor who has been an entrepreneur in a previous life always talks about getting your hands dirty. That is where your “je ne sais quoi” value comes from and therefore enhancing your overall “quality.” If it is your first time, you really only have the options of investing your time (known as sweat equity) or your money (known as hiring people or purchasing resources).

Even though we have a platform where potential clients can already see there are startups using our platform and getting investment, they have valid questions before signing up or hiring our consultation services. Their questions are ones that all startups should consider when investing any amount of money into their business.

Why Should First Time Entrepreneurs Hire Startup Consultants? (What do potential clients ask?)

What is your field of expertise? Why should I choose you?

Answer: Helping prepare you for your first big round of funding and helping get to you launch with business intelligence. From working in the startup industry, we get to see the ingredients of success and failures on a daily basis that we use to benefit our consultation clients so they don’t have to suffer with their time and money in the long run.

2. Do you have referrals from other startups?

Answer: Yes — some are on our website: www.venturx.ca and others can be sent to you privately. We strongly recommend our best practices such as developing good positive relationships with clients in order to collect those success stories!

3. How does the consultation services work?

Answer: You can purchase specific packages such as “Review my investor’s pitch deck” or purchase a set of 5 or 20 hours of consultation. We meet on a call to help you with specific goals and come up with a structured plan of implementation and we make sure this plan is executed in the best manner possible.

4. Do you connect us with contacts?

Yes! As an added bonuses are connections and contacts when applicable. We know that not all consultants, coaches or mentors do that; however, it is part of our practice. There are some that are exclusive to only VenturX platform users.

4. Can I get a discount?

Answer: Discounts are available to all VenturX platform users or those who purchased larger set of consultation hours (ie. over 20 hours).

There you have it! The reasons why first time entrepreneurs opt to hire or not hire help. We hope this article helps you make informed decisions that can help your startup in the future years to come! For more startup tips, check out our other blogs!

Do Networking Events Contribute to Your Business Goals?

People always say that a plan without a goal is just a dream. Networking events should be part of your overall plan to ensure you get the most out of your valuable time. If there is no connection between your strategy and your actions, there is a problem.

During my first year of business, I personally wasted a lot of time going to startup networking events because I thought I had to. It could easily become a norm or hype to go without reflecting on how it was affecting your overall business strategy. Some people go just to be seen; some stay for 20 mins to take a picture for social media. That could be their overall goal but at least it means they are aware of their goals and understand how networking events fit into those.

Why are goals important?

Goals should be tied to the different tactics of your business. Each thing that requires any piece of your precious 24 hours in a given day should have a goal. Without goals, we have no purpose and no way of measuring the success of our actions.

There are different types of networking event goals:

1. Meeting prospective clients (to generate new leads)

2. Giving a presentation at that event (as a guest speaker or panelist) to boost brand awareness

3. Blowing off steam (that is personal goal but it may have no affect on your business)

4. Boost LinkedIn numbers

5. Find UX testers

6. Meet investors

7. Nurture relationship with particular person you know is attending that event (as part of lead nurturing tactic)

8. Find startups who need help with getting funding of $25,000-$1,000,000+ (which is our goal)

For each networking event, have a goal. As long as we know why we are going and what we are hoping to expect from the opportunity, our business strategy will look more and more clear every day.

Check out our upcoming events on https://www.venturx.ca/events and Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram LIVE!