It's very common to be satisfied by the creative part of business ideation. The next level is building and shipping. Taking people's money is the third level. By going there, you will graduate as an entrepreneur.
Why don't you look into 3 payment systems and choose one TODAY?
Yep! Time to become a project manager when you’re procrastinating.
Break down your remaining steps into bite sized chunks. Focus on one little thing at a time and only on that one little thing!
You say you’re 95% of the way there, but that’s far from true. You’re 95% of the way done with an initial launch. The daunting part comes next as the path becomes less certain with customer acquisition and retention. So explore, try things out and take baby steps.
It was already 95% done, just needed a couple of hours for testing and pushing it out the door.
And after reading everyone’s comments, just got myself to actually do it. So thanks everyone
I like you. Ok. What's the first step I need to take to start making more money and to start my business? I have a couple ideas but no experience. Does the genie work with a question this general? 😂
Recruit 5 people to interview about the problem you've pinpointed to establish if your idea is viable. Offer them a $25 Starbucks gift card (YMMV)
How to structure the interviews: aim to fill in a Value Proposition canvas.
If you're sitting amidst the industry in question, it can be all done and wrapped in a week. Take one month. No wrong answers, if your research shows your idea doesn't work it's a good result. Why? We'll talk in a month.
If you don't have an idea that solves someone's problem, wait until you find one.
Well my ideas were pretty basic and what you hear a lot around here I think. I was thinking either some type of cleaning business, homes or RVs, maybe even both, because we have a toooooon of RVs and RV parks where I live. We get the "snowbirds" from the north. Or maybe a bookkeeping service as I do have some experience in that, but I'm not sure if I have enough experience to do that type of thing for several other people. Then also maybe an employment agency type thing but I don't really have experience there. Other ideas would be e-commerce or making some type of AI thing that a lot of people are making. I just don't think I have enough experience in any of these to know how to do everything and some I have none. How do you decide what to work towards or is a good or best idea for you? I feel like I'm just waiting for that one I can't stop thinking about or something but that doesn't come.
I'm not your person in the real world and brick-and-mortar, my bread and butter is SAAS. The approach is similar to choosing a career—you need something in the intersection of what comes naturally, something you can tolerate in the long run, and something easy to start.
Personally, I like your RV idea as it sounds the most clear-cut in terms of understanding the need and knowing your target audience. In product, the simplicity of the concept is the king. I'd clean a few RVs and see how it goes and whether there's a demand. Print up fliers & set up an intake Google form and you're good to go.
Hmmm... I don't even need like an llc first? Also, I am not looking to clean the RVs. I would be looking to hire people to do it. I could supply the tools. Buy I appreciate the talk. Great idea. Didn't really think it could be that easy. I know there is more to it but... thanks
it's common. It exciting to solve a problem and work on new stuff. Every entrepreneur is like that.
That's why people post in here with like 5 businesses they started lol but you need to learn discipline and learn how to do what's required which is selling your thing and focus.
Your business is not there to fulfill you. It's there to make money. If you just want to code for a hobby then do that, don't turn it into a business.
Thoughts:
* **Yes, it's common -** I had the same problem myself.
* **Build the payment system** - Even if you get zero customers, it will be a good learning experience. And you can use it for your next SaaS as well.
* **Manual payment** - You also don't have to build the full payment system. Just set up a Stripe subscription URL link. Say, after you pay, your account will be set up in 24 hours. Then manually set their user account in the database to "active subscriber" or however you want to do it.
* **Consider your goals** - it sounds like you don't care about the money and only want to build things. I'm guessing you already have a full time job and don't need the money. Or maybe your passion comes from building and you need to find a marketing co-founder. Or maybe this is something you need to push through and learn so you can be a solo founder who can both build and market. It all depends on what you want to do.
* Other SaaS advice - [https://x.com/adamdenverco/highlights](https://x.com/adamdenverco/highlights)
Thanks for the input. I already built a stripe integration to process payments automatically.
Didn’t need the money as I have a good paying full job, this is just a side project I wanted to build.
Fair enough. Just recognize that the opportunity may be gone by the time you get sufficiently versed in doing these roles, with someone else having eaten up the opportunity.
95% is a hobby. A creative project.
Getting it to 100% is simple, but you have to move from creating to selling and making it a real business. That's where the hard part it.
This is very common. Just force yourself to not touch anything else, dont improve the proudct until you do X. Talk to 20 potential customers. Spend $200 on FB ads. Make 1 YT video about it a day for a month. Then assess whether you have product market fit, make changes and do that again or, if you do not have an ounce of PMF, pivot.
Chances are, when you actually talk to people, make content etc, you will find what they are actually looking for, even if it may be a little bit different from what you are doing now. But just move...you are standing still and wont get anywhere like this
I did most of that, talked with a lot of customers during the beta. Just couldn’t bring myself to actually start charging money for it, even though a few users told me they would happily pay for it
Well, then just...charge money for it :)
You have a hobby, that is costing you $70. Turn that into a real SaaS and you become an Entrepreneur...depends if you want to be that or not
Ok, I did it. Pushed the launch button and sent the anouncement email. Only 3 customers so far that have upgraded to the premium tier. Rest of them are still using the basic trial, but will need to start paying in 1 week. Let’s see how that goes.
Thank you for the kind words, hearing everyone’s comments really made me feel ok about all this.
Are you kidding? "Only 3 customers so far"? YOU ARE AN ENTREPRENEUR NOW! You OWN a BUSINESS. You have CUSTOMERS. Someone out there, that doesn't know you, decided that they want to pay for your product. That's amazing! You should be celebrating, not putting yourself down.
Now the fun stuff starts. Take the money from those 3 customers and reinvest it in marketing. Copy the ads of similar tools that work, try out different platforms, start making content.
Congrats!!!
Omg, thank you so much for the kind words. This really got me hyped about the next steps of the project. Will do exactly as you said.
Thanks again amd have a great week
I freeze up on implementing Stripe too, man. I'm planning to learn it this week. Any advice? Do I need a legal entity registered or anything? Can I just implement it for without any legal commitment? I kinda just wanna learn how it's implemented.
On top of that, I feel you on being scared to "start charging" though. Now you have actual legal liability to deliver. You're gonna have to deal with real, valuable data by yourself. It's kind of overwhelming.
You can start implementing stripe without a legal entity, even begin charging real money. But at some point I think stripe requires you to do so, if you want the collected money to reach your bank account.
Implementing stripe is very easy and their docs are amazing. If it’s your first time doing it, then it might take a bit longer, but you’ll like it.
That is nothing new in business. Let me tell you my story:
I am a CEO of an outsourcing company based in Europe and we do good business stateside, I have minimum ownership in the company. This has been going great. Now we started to diversify in the stateside and in Europe. One business is failing like crazy, the other ones dropped the past year because of the market. Two years ago i started to build a social media app with my friend even though i have no idea how to program. We hired a dev trough fiver and wasted 2000$ at least plus the monthly fees for servers mailgun etc. We started to make a puzzle game but we did not finish.
Now i opened a lounge bar and after my usual work i go work in my lounge bar afterwards because i am trying to save costs. Maybe it will pick up maybe not.
I rent a property and at least that is bringing some monthly income in.
Now ideally i should have never diverted my attention elsewhere because my main business is failling. I became anxious and my personal life is suffering as well lol. But thinking about it if i manage to at least develop one of the businesses i should be able to get back on track. Hopefully i will stay sane and not quit my main job since i still have a big ass loan.
Having wrote all of this in reality every one of us wants to be rich, develop things but we do not follow up. Even if i am sucessful as a business man i still fail because i do not follow up, i do not write things down, i do not finish some tasks, i think too much etc.
The easy way out like the others have said is to take one task and finish it in a week. Later one take more tasks and increase it as you get more experienced.
I still struggle with the basics but somehow was lucky to become succesful.
Anyways if you ever want to chat i am free to give my advice on what i fail daily.
An unerring sense of where the money ain't. Typical.
Most balk when they approach wantrepreneur christmas, monetization day. That is the day when you really know if you have a business. Entrepreneurs do not fear the market like wantrepreneurs do. "Worst" is overblown ...typical will suffice.
The big problem of *fake it 'til you make it* culture has always been *faking making it.* But maybe you're just allergic to money. This thing where people jettison the revenue model first and ask questions later about being in business isn't useful. The answer is "no."
This is my first side project in a long line of tries that never saw the light of day :)). I guess I also got scared about the thought that no one would buy it.
For the love of god don't make your own payment system... Use someone else's, even if you want to do that work, just the fact you'd need to be dealing with people's banking data for a worse user experience - just no. At least from my POV, I never want to be near that stuff - same reason I'd always recommend something like firebase for authentication. Of course if that's what you meant, just ignore me haha
If you can't find the energy to get it done, have you thought about hiring? I mean absolutely if you've got the skills I'd personally push through to get something like stripe working as others have said. But put out a post in a discord server or Upwork (that's where I tend to find my clients for the freelance work I do), see some freelancers who respond and see if their prices are worth it to you? If it's just implementing something like stripe into an existing codebase it probably won't take very long at all.
I’m not building it from scratch, using stripe to process payments. Took me like 10 hours to integrate it in the app. But was kinda scared to push the release button and actually ask users to pay for it
It's completely normal to feel the way you do, and you're definitely not alone in experiencing these challenges. Building a SaaS product from scratch is a significant accomplishment, and the excitement during the MVP phase is understandable—it's the phase where you're creating and innovating without the pressure of monetization.
Here are a few thoughts that might resonate with your situation:
1. **Passion vs. Monetization:** Many entrepreneurs thrive on the creative process of building something new. When it comes to implementing a billing system and monetizing, it can feel like a shift away from that initial excitement. However, monetization is crucial for sustainability and growth.
2. **Fear of Charging:** Charging users can be daunting, especially when you're targeting a demographic that may be financially strained. There might be a fear of rejection or concerns about whether the market will accept your pricing.
3. **Common Challenges:** Many entrepreneurs face challenges transitioning from product development to revenue generation. It's a different skill set and mindset, often requiring marketing, sales, and operational strategies that differ from product creation.
4. **Seeking Support:** Consider seeking advice from mentors or peers who have experience in SaaS and monetization strategies. They can offer valuable insights and help you navigate this phase.
5. **Reassess and Pivot:** It's okay to reassess your approach. Maybe there's a different pricing model or target audience that could make monetization more feasible and aligned with your values.
Remember, entrepreneurship is a journey with ups and downs. The fact that you've built a SaaS product and gained initial traction is a significant achievement. It's about learning from setbacks and adjusting your strategy as you move forward. You have the ability to overcome this phase and find a balance between passion and profitability
I am in creative phase of building a SaaS platform. I have had a lot of resistance to asking for money, but I just heard a talk today about sales and it really helped me. I think you have to overcome your internal resistance and recognize that you’re not forcing anyone to spend money they don’t want to spend. You’re exchanging value. You’re connecting your valuable product with people who need it. Ideally, you’re still giving them more value than they paying (while not leaving too much money on the table). I think this is common. At the end of the day, if you really don’t want to, you could probably just make it free as a passion project, and then maybe monetize with some ads or something if it gets a lot of traffic.
I recommend people looking to make money and have big ambitions to read [Idolstories](https://idolstories.beehiiv.com/). Its a newsletter about succesfull founders and their stories. I get a lot of entreprenurial motivation from there and tips I use in my own business.
It's fine if you just enjoy problem solving and building things. But if you want to actually run a business, you have to start bringing in money/charging your clients
Honestly?
I feel like it comes back down to money beliefs. If you have some belief in the past that those who "make money" are evil then you're going to have to let go of that belief fast and quick.
It's 100% possible to genuinely help people and make money in the process. Your local grocery store does this all the time as an example. If your business solves a need, you're in the right business.
If you're looking for a "baby step" to charging you could consider doing a "pay what you want" monthly recurring service. Or if you really want to go basic why not charge a $1/mo and see what happens, you could cap it at a certain number if you'd like to "test the waters"
I'm telling you it's okay to make money and help people. Money just amplifies more of what you are.
If you were a shitty person to begin with money just gave you power.
The same concept applies to if you're a good person, it gives you power & opportunity.
p.s. if you found this comment then you might find more helpful content in my newsletter (link in bio).
It’s so hard to charge it’s a really challenging step. If your software actually solves a problem you need to think about the value of that solution.
Also if you make money and find success and you are a builder then you will keep building and the world needs builders and creators so keep doing it!
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think, if not today then in the near future, you should get a partner who can help you with the business building side of it while you continue to invest your time on and enjoy the creative building part. It's good to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and you must do this, but if you do not enjoy the running the business, what could be a brilliant business might remain just a brilliant idea. I am only suggesting this since you seem to be getting early traction with users who appreciate the product, do not let the momentum slipout
That seems to be quite a popular opinion in the comments :D. I do enjoy the business side of things too, just not great at it. But might be a good learning opportunity
What you are undergoing is very “normal”. You should be proud of what you accomplished. Take a break and if so inclined, “start back again”! Look into Score if you want/need a mentor.
Thank you! After reading all the comments I now understand this is fairly normal, so no need to worry anymore :D. You guys actually pushed me to go ahead and press the launch button and got the first 2 sales :X
Definitely not the worst, It's just an expensive pickup on your journey. I've spoken to people that have lost quite a lot before they started making money.
It's very common to be satisfied by the creative part of business ideation. The next level is building and shipping. Taking people's money is the third level. By going there, you will graduate as an entrepreneur. Why don't you look into 3 payment systems and choose one TODAY?
Good to know I’m not the odd one out then :D. Already decided on going with stripe btw
Then why don't you try to implement it before the end of the week? :-)
Yep! Time to become a project manager when you’re procrastinating. Break down your remaining steps into bite sized chunks. Focus on one little thing at a time and only on that one little thing! You say you’re 95% of the way there, but that’s far from true. You’re 95% of the way done with an initial launch. The daunting part comes next as the path becomes less certain with customer acquisition and retention. So explore, try things out and take baby steps.
Fair, that’s the hard part. I finally pushed the payment system to prod, now to handle the hard part :))
It was already 95% done, just needed a couple of hours for testing and pushing it out the door. And after reading everyone’s comments, just got myself to actually do it. So thanks everyone
Yooo you did it! Comment here when the first sale comes through, we'll celebrate virtually :-)
Had 2 sales in the first day. From ~30 people who clicked on the release notes. Not bad for now :D
That's a really solid response rate
Hahaha that's awesome! My congratulations!
Thank you 🤗
I like you. Ok. What's the first step I need to take to start making more money and to start my business? I have a couple ideas but no experience. Does the genie work with a question this general? 😂
Recruit 5 people to interview about the problem you've pinpointed to establish if your idea is viable. Offer them a $25 Starbucks gift card (YMMV) How to structure the interviews: aim to fill in a Value Proposition canvas. If you're sitting amidst the industry in question, it can be all done and wrapped in a week. Take one month. No wrong answers, if your research shows your idea doesn't work it's a good result. Why? We'll talk in a month. If you don't have an idea that solves someone's problem, wait until you find one.
Well my ideas were pretty basic and what you hear a lot around here I think. I was thinking either some type of cleaning business, homes or RVs, maybe even both, because we have a toooooon of RVs and RV parks where I live. We get the "snowbirds" from the north. Or maybe a bookkeeping service as I do have some experience in that, but I'm not sure if I have enough experience to do that type of thing for several other people. Then also maybe an employment agency type thing but I don't really have experience there. Other ideas would be e-commerce or making some type of AI thing that a lot of people are making. I just don't think I have enough experience in any of these to know how to do everything and some I have none. How do you decide what to work towards or is a good or best idea for you? I feel like I'm just waiting for that one I can't stop thinking about or something but that doesn't come.
I'm not your person in the real world and brick-and-mortar, my bread and butter is SAAS. The approach is similar to choosing a career—you need something in the intersection of what comes naturally, something you can tolerate in the long run, and something easy to start. Personally, I like your RV idea as it sounds the most clear-cut in terms of understanding the need and knowing your target audience. In product, the simplicity of the concept is the king. I'd clean a few RVs and see how it goes and whether there's a demand. Print up fliers & set up an intake Google form and you're good to go.
Hmmm... I don't even need like an llc first? Also, I am not looking to clean the RVs. I would be looking to hire people to do it. I could supply the tools. Buy I appreciate the talk. Great idea. Didn't really think it could be that easy. I know there is more to it but... thanks
it's common. It exciting to solve a problem and work on new stuff. Every entrepreneur is like that. That's why people post in here with like 5 businesses they started lol but you need to learn discipline and learn how to do what's required which is selling your thing and focus. Your business is not there to fulfill you. It's there to make money. If you just want to code for a hobby then do that, don't turn it into a business.
Fair enough about the hobby part. Definitelly selling is always the hard part
Thoughts: * **Yes, it's common -** I had the same problem myself. * **Build the payment system** - Even if you get zero customers, it will be a good learning experience. And you can use it for your next SaaS as well. * **Manual payment** - You also don't have to build the full payment system. Just set up a Stripe subscription URL link. Say, after you pay, your account will be set up in 24 hours. Then manually set their user account in the database to "active subscriber" or however you want to do it. * **Consider your goals** - it sounds like you don't care about the money and only want to build things. I'm guessing you already have a full time job and don't need the money. Or maybe your passion comes from building and you need to find a marketing co-founder. Or maybe this is something you need to push through and learn so you can be a solo founder who can both build and market. It all depends on what you want to do. * Other SaaS advice - [https://x.com/adamdenverco/highlights](https://x.com/adamdenverco/highlights)
Thanks for the input. I already built a stripe integration to process payments automatically. Didn’t need the money as I have a good paying full job, this is just a side project I wanted to build.
Agreed on the co-founder approach. If these aren't your skillsets, don't kill yourself trying to make it happen.
I actually quite enjoy that part, just not very good at it. Hoping this side project will bring some learnings
Fair enough. Just recognize that the opportunity may be gone by the time you get sufficiently versed in doing these roles, with someone else having eaten up the opportunity.
95% is a hobby. A creative project. Getting it to 100% is simple, but you have to move from creating to selling and making it a real business. That's where the hard part it. This is very common. Just force yourself to not touch anything else, dont improve the proudct until you do X. Talk to 20 potential customers. Spend $200 on FB ads. Make 1 YT video about it a day for a month. Then assess whether you have product market fit, make changes and do that again or, if you do not have an ounce of PMF, pivot. Chances are, when you actually talk to people, make content etc, you will find what they are actually looking for, even if it may be a little bit different from what you are doing now. But just move...you are standing still and wont get anywhere like this
I did most of that, talked with a lot of customers during the beta. Just couldn’t bring myself to actually start charging money for it, even though a few users told me they would happily pay for it
Well, then just...charge money for it :) You have a hobby, that is costing you $70. Turn that into a real SaaS and you become an Entrepreneur...depends if you want to be that or not
Ok, I did it. Pushed the launch button and sent the anouncement email. Only 3 customers so far that have upgraded to the premium tier. Rest of them are still using the basic trial, but will need to start paying in 1 week. Let’s see how that goes. Thank you for the kind words, hearing everyone’s comments really made me feel ok about all this.
Are you kidding? "Only 3 customers so far"? YOU ARE AN ENTREPRENEUR NOW! You OWN a BUSINESS. You have CUSTOMERS. Someone out there, that doesn't know you, decided that they want to pay for your product. That's amazing! You should be celebrating, not putting yourself down. Now the fun stuff starts. Take the money from those 3 customers and reinvest it in marketing. Copy the ads of similar tools that work, try out different platforms, start making content. Congrats!!!
Omg, thank you so much for the kind words. This really got me hyped about the next steps of the project. Will do exactly as you said. Thanks again amd have a great week
Partner with someone who wants the cash. Do the building of the projects, let them handle the monetization.
That sounds even harder
Maybe there’s an AI that can do the heavy lifting?
For marketing? I tried some AI tools, but they were not great
Nope. Much easier.
I freeze up on implementing Stripe too, man. I'm planning to learn it this week. Any advice? Do I need a legal entity registered or anything? Can I just implement it for without any legal commitment? I kinda just wanna learn how it's implemented. On top of that, I feel you on being scared to "start charging" though. Now you have actual legal liability to deliver. You're gonna have to deal with real, valuable data by yourself. It's kind of overwhelming.
You can start implementing stripe without a legal entity, even begin charging real money. But at some point I think stripe requires you to do so, if you want the collected money to reach your bank account. Implementing stripe is very easy and their docs are amazing. If it’s your first time doing it, then it might take a bit longer, but you’ll like it.
thanks OP!
That is nothing new in business. Let me tell you my story: I am a CEO of an outsourcing company based in Europe and we do good business stateside, I have minimum ownership in the company. This has been going great. Now we started to diversify in the stateside and in Europe. One business is failing like crazy, the other ones dropped the past year because of the market. Two years ago i started to build a social media app with my friend even though i have no idea how to program. We hired a dev trough fiver and wasted 2000$ at least plus the monthly fees for servers mailgun etc. We started to make a puzzle game but we did not finish. Now i opened a lounge bar and after my usual work i go work in my lounge bar afterwards because i am trying to save costs. Maybe it will pick up maybe not. I rent a property and at least that is bringing some monthly income in. Now ideally i should have never diverted my attention elsewhere because my main business is failling. I became anxious and my personal life is suffering as well lol. But thinking about it if i manage to at least develop one of the businesses i should be able to get back on track. Hopefully i will stay sane and not quit my main job since i still have a big ass loan. Having wrote all of this in reality every one of us wants to be rich, develop things but we do not follow up. Even if i am sucessful as a business man i still fail because i do not follow up, i do not write things down, i do not finish some tasks, i think too much etc. The easy way out like the others have said is to take one task and finish it in a week. Later one take more tasks and increase it as you get more experienced. I still struggle with the basics but somehow was lucky to become succesful. Anyways if you ever want to chat i am free to give my advice on what i fail daily.
Really cool story, hope everything goes well with your main business.
An unerring sense of where the money ain't. Typical. Most balk when they approach wantrepreneur christmas, monetization day. That is the day when you really know if you have a business. Entrepreneurs do not fear the market like wantrepreneurs do. "Worst" is overblown ...typical will suffice. The big problem of *fake it 'til you make it* culture has always been *faking making it.* But maybe you're just allergic to money. This thing where people jettison the revenue model first and ask questions later about being in business isn't useful. The answer is "no."
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Thank you for the kind words. Everyone has been so supportive in the comments, really love this community. Have a great week!
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Feels good to know I'm not the only one feeling like this :)). But yeah, time to get back to work. Thanks again
Don’t make it spammy, don’t make the main product cost $. Make side products for $, at-least start somewhere. Then go from there
This is my first side project in a long line of tries that never saw the light of day :)). I guess I also got scared about the thought that no one would buy it.
For the love of god don't make your own payment system... Use someone else's, even if you want to do that work, just the fact you'd need to be dealing with people's banking data for a worse user experience - just no. At least from my POV, I never want to be near that stuff - same reason I'd always recommend something like firebase for authentication. Of course if that's what you meant, just ignore me haha If you can't find the energy to get it done, have you thought about hiring? I mean absolutely if you've got the skills I'd personally push through to get something like stripe working as others have said. But put out a post in a discord server or Upwork (that's where I tend to find my clients for the freelance work I do), see some freelancers who respond and see if their prices are worth it to you? If it's just implementing something like stripe into an existing codebase it probably won't take very long at all.
I’m not building it from scratch, using stripe to process payments. Took me like 10 hours to integrate it in the app. But was kinda scared to push the release button and actually ask users to pay for it
It's completely normal to feel the way you do, and you're definitely not alone in experiencing these challenges. Building a SaaS product from scratch is a significant accomplishment, and the excitement during the MVP phase is understandable—it's the phase where you're creating and innovating without the pressure of monetization. Here are a few thoughts that might resonate with your situation: 1. **Passion vs. Monetization:** Many entrepreneurs thrive on the creative process of building something new. When it comes to implementing a billing system and monetizing, it can feel like a shift away from that initial excitement. However, monetization is crucial for sustainability and growth. 2. **Fear of Charging:** Charging users can be daunting, especially when you're targeting a demographic that may be financially strained. There might be a fear of rejection or concerns about whether the market will accept your pricing. 3. **Common Challenges:** Many entrepreneurs face challenges transitioning from product development to revenue generation. It's a different skill set and mindset, often requiring marketing, sales, and operational strategies that differ from product creation. 4. **Seeking Support:** Consider seeking advice from mentors or peers who have experience in SaaS and monetization strategies. They can offer valuable insights and help you navigate this phase. 5. **Reassess and Pivot:** It's okay to reassess your approach. Maybe there's a different pricing model or target audience that could make monetization more feasible and aligned with your values. Remember, entrepreneurship is a journey with ups and downs. The fact that you've built a SaaS product and gained initial traction is a significant achievement. It's about learning from setbacks and adjusting your strategy as you move forward. You have the ability to overcome this phase and find a balance between passion and profitability
Thanks ChatGPT!
I was gonna say this reads like ChatGPT… commentator could have typed all that out but it is suspiciously ChatGPT sounding..
Exactly what I thought!
2. Definitelly hit home. I guess I was just really scared to start asking money for it. Thanks for your input
It's common, you're not alone in this.
finish it and sell it.
Simple as that. And I actually did it after reading everyone’s comments. Thanks a lot
Sounds like you need to partner up with a sales / business development person
At this point it would be premature. Have to start charging first and see if the project actually takes off or not
I am in creative phase of building a SaaS platform. I have had a lot of resistance to asking for money, but I just heard a talk today about sales and it really helped me. I think you have to overcome your internal resistance and recognize that you’re not forcing anyone to spend money they don’t want to spend. You’re exchanging value. You’re connecting your valuable product with people who need it. Ideally, you’re still giving them more value than they paying (while not leaving too much money on the table). I think this is common. At the end of the day, if you really don’t want to, you could probably just make it free as a passion project, and then maybe monetize with some ads or something if it gets a lot of traffic.
Definitely want to start charging, just kinda lost interested when I came close to it. Or maybe I just got scared of the idea of failing?
I recommend people looking to make money and have big ambitions to read [Idolstories](https://idolstories.beehiiv.com/). Its a newsletter about succesfull founders and their stories. I get a lot of entreprenurial motivation from there and tips I use in my own business.
Free for customers but charge businesses for job posting.
It’s not a job board, just an aggregator. But that’s a very good idea.
It's fine if you just enjoy problem solving and building things. But if you want to actually run a business, you have to start bringing in money/charging your clients
Yup, always was aware of it, but just kinda lost motivation when it came down to it.
Can I see it?
Will send you a DM
Honestly? I feel like it comes back down to money beliefs. If you have some belief in the past that those who "make money" are evil then you're going to have to let go of that belief fast and quick. It's 100% possible to genuinely help people and make money in the process. Your local grocery store does this all the time as an example. If your business solves a need, you're in the right business. If you're looking for a "baby step" to charging you could consider doing a "pay what you want" monthly recurring service. Or if you really want to go basic why not charge a $1/mo and see what happens, you could cap it at a certain number if you'd like to "test the waters" I'm telling you it's okay to make money and help people. Money just amplifies more of what you are. If you were a shitty person to begin with money just gave you power. The same concept applies to if you're a good person, it gives you power & opportunity. p.s. if you found this comment then you might find more helpful content in my newsletter (link in bio).
It’s so hard to charge it’s a really challenging step. If your software actually solves a problem you need to think about the value of that solution. Also if you make money and find success and you are a builder then you will keep building and the world needs builders and creators so keep doing it!
Thanks for the kind words
Agreed
start a charity then
Maybe some day :D
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think, if not today then in the near future, you should get a partner who can help you with the business building side of it while you continue to invest your time on and enjoy the creative building part. It's good to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and you must do this, but if you do not enjoy the running the business, what could be a brilliant business might remain just a brilliant idea. I am only suggesting this since you seem to be getting early traction with users who appreciate the product, do not let the momentum slipout
That seems to be quite a popular opinion in the comments :D. I do enjoy the business side of things too, just not great at it. But might be a good learning opportunity
Love your positive approach ! I am sure you 'll be fine in that case :)
Thank you 🥹
do it you wont
What you are undergoing is very “normal”. You should be proud of what you accomplished. Take a break and if so inclined, “start back again”! Look into Score if you want/need a mentor.
Thank you! After reading all the comments I now understand this is fairly normal, so no need to worry anymore :D. You guys actually pushed me to go ahead and press the launch button and got the first 2 sales :X
Excellent. Keep up the good work!
Definitely not the worst, It's just an expensive pickup on your journey. I've spoken to people that have lost quite a lot before they started making money.