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by avenger123 4465 days ago
How many clients do you have? Get out there and spend time with the companies that might want your product. Work with them to add whatever extra features are needed to make it really worthwhile.

Toyota can build the best Corolla but they still need to spend millions every year marketing it so it sells.
1 comments
davedx 4464 days ago
None. I had one potential client who I used to build the product, but they decided they need a custom in-house solution that also lets them send invoices as well as managing payables. I've approached several and also chased some leads from my network but had no luck, nobody has even given me feedback.

I should work harder on getting it out there for sure. One challenge is that I think (yes, it's an untested assumption) my customers are probably more retail focused, which means doing some legwork to actually make contact (i.e. offline), something I haven't got time for at the moment.

Any suggestions there would be welcome!

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avenger123 4464 days ago
Look's like you really have a tough nut to crack here. This is a really tough area as there is so much competition. Your product doesn't have any "I need this right now." It's also something that you really need to figure out who your ideal client.

It's more like: - I like the ability to view all my invoices anymore but how does it integrate with my QuickBooks, Simply Accounting, etc. - How do I keep my information in sync between my internal system and this? - What else is out there - oh look, here's Freshbooks, seems to be really better product

My recommendation is that you need to get more niche on this. For example, let's say companies are using QuickBooks a lot in your area. Maybe they use your site as another frontend to add and view invoices that get pushed to Quickbooks. You make the process ten times easier.

I'm just throwing out ideas here. The main point is that your problem is that you identified an initial potential need but now you need to go out there and actually figure out what the real value of your solution is for companies. There's maybe that extra 2-3 features that it needs that will make somebody want to use it and buy it. I would highly recommend following Steve Blank's approach. Also, check this out - http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas. The book is also worth reading.

Basically, what it comes down to is that at this point you have a nice MVP that you can show potential customers and say "Hey, what's wrong with this? What else does it need to have for it to be useful to you?"

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