How to Validate a SaaS Business Idea for your Startup?

SaaS has become one of the most profitable areas of business in recent times. The idea behind a SAAS-based business is to optimize the business according to the needs of the customer. Adapting SAAS in business has helped start-ups and even larger enterprises to stay cost-efficient as the need to invest in tech solution development is minimized.

The reason why companies wanted to implement SAAS in their business was to provide the users with ready-made solutions and customer support round the clock while ensuring to constantly upgrade and maintain the tool.

Most big enterprises in the market today were once a start-up and were built from scratch. Companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are good examples of start-ups turning into successful companies. As a matter of fact, Google was just a research project by two Stanford students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook, by Mark Zuckerberg was a zero-budget private school network.

Almost 70% of the start-ups in the US are launched from college dorms or basement of houses without even renting offices. But the crucial question here is, how to start a start-up?

Building a SAAS based start-up:

Before building a SAAS based start-up, the first important step is to put some thought into the idea and check if it is practically possible or if it is already available. If the idea is already implemented and also if it is successful, then it is easy to find it by just searching on the internet. Otherwise, there is a possibility that someone already thought about the same idea and things didn’t go as planned. Around 40% of startups fail due to lack of availability in the market and clear business plans.

So, if the idea doesn’t seem plausible, list down the possible reasons as to why it doesn’t practically work. This saves a lot of time and money from being invested in some hypothetical theory.

After validating if the idea is worth taking forward, list the problems it can solve and estimate how many people have those problems regardless of their age, gender, location or job. It is impossible to sell products to a person you know about, especially, when it comes to technology. So, validating and estimating the capabilities of the product helps in finding the right group of target audience and in developing and testing new approaches to solving a problem. It is important to keep researching about market and target audience to know the advantage over similar SAAS providers.

Challenges involved in SaaS development:

It is well known that the business concept of SAAS is to sell services rather than selling products. This has proven to be a good alternative for both the developers and the users instead of buying a program on physical media without being able to constantly update them.

One of the common commercial modes in SaaS applications is the subscription. This enables the user to purchase access to the cloud service on the internet to use it online or offline depending on their preferences. Accessing applications over the internet are often prone to cyber-attacks, which is why a SAAS developer should find a solution to keep the service sustainable, secure and reduce the risk of system failures that could lead to data corruption on the clients’ end.

There are 4 major challenges in SAAS software development that should be taken into account.

Scalability

If technology is not scalable, the company cannot grow.

Though the development trend of modern digital business keeps evolving, there are still issues related to the size of the target audience. The SAAS startups must scale up the availability of resources to provide services to the increasing number of customers, as minimal resources will not be operable due to overload.

Security

It is important for a software vendor to guarantee customer’s data privacy such as bank details, commercial secrets and personal data but providing maximum cloud security. If a vendor fails in the security providing aspect, they will be subjected to a massive amount of fine and in worst cases, they might even lose their business.

Reliability

Saas providers like AWS and Azure are highly reliable. They prevent the websites and products from being shut down due to overloading. These providers maintain the hardware and backup all the data securely. They also provide resource deposits and make scalability easier by shifting from one plan to another.

Monetization

Startups usually don’t have the resources to build custom digital platforms from scratch. SAAS approach is very cost-effective and helps the consumer in sharing the cost of developing technical solutions.

Creating maximum viable products:

An MVP (Maximum Viable Product) is a ready-made product that includes key features of the application or the product that enables the developers to understand and study the needs of the customers, preferences and way of product usage.

In other words, an MVP is simply a prototype of the product before its finished and reaches the market. Developing an MVP requires less amount of money when compared to the amount of money invested in the final product. MVP development covers a complete development cycle including marketing, tech development, design and customer support. There are several purposes for creating an MVP such as:

Knowing the customer needs related to the product
Identify the key features of the software which are more demanded than others.
Increases the chance of success compared to the companies in the same field.
User’s experience and thoughts about the product

The importance of having a website for startups

In this world of digital domination, a business without a website is lost. Unlike traditional methods of starting a business without a website, a startup with a website these days helps in knowing the needs of customers towards service, products and new ideas. Once the finances are fixed, it is important to showcase the ideas for making the website attractive as it can gather potential customers, business partners and employees for future business.

Marketing is an important part of developing a business. When it comes to startups, marketing plays a major role. Published businesses must use SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SMO (Social Media Optimization) and email marketing strategies to expand their business among a wide range of customers. But before reaching in front of the customers, the website should have something that drives the potential customers and clients to the website.

To put things into simple terms, a business website is an online platform wherein the products are displayed for the customers to buy while also providing offers on the price of the product. This marketing idea works the same as the conventional marketing ideas but having a website promotes the business in a much larger way.

Creating a customer-friendly website

For every business to be successful, it is essential to maintain a good relationship with the customers. Long term clients not only support the organizations but also they are evidence that the company runs smoothly.

Responding to customer’s mail and messages instantly and providing them access to review the product online and provide feedback to the products helps in building a good relationship with the customers. Update and promote the site regularly so that it drives the customers to come in search of your websites. The more the customers visit the website, the more the sales will increase.

According to a study, the SaaS market value has increased drastically from 2008 till now and it is expected to do so in the upcoming years while many other conventional companies will completely turn into SaaS based enterprises in the near future. Because of the above-mentioned factors, there is a lot of scope in the SaaSs technologies and many companies are trying to get into SaaS Vertical. Properly validating the ideas against the market needs would ensure that the idea is implemented in the right direction.