Are you looking to sell your business? - **There are several reasons to sell, including not having a passion** for the business anymore, struggling to grow, and facing an imminent threat in the market, among others. Here's when, and how, to successfu
Are you looking to sell your business?
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There are several reasons to sell, including not having a passion for the business anymore, struggling to grow, and facing an imminent threat in the market, among others. Here's when, and how, to successfully sell your business!
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Need some UX inspiration for your SaaS? These 5 bite-sized tips can help you level up. Hint: Humanize your FAQ's and forms.
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Founder Amos Bastian landed his first paying customer for MentionFunnel, his tool that helps users easily find leads for their businesses. Below, he shares how he got his first customer, and what platforms have been most helpful in spreading the word about his product.
Want to share something with over 100,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing
💰 How to Sell Your Business
by James Fleischmann
Recently I posted about why it can be a good idea to buy a business instead of building one. But what about when you are looking to sell your business?
It can be a great idea, but only in certain situations. Let's dive in!
When and why to sell
There's never a good time to sell. But there are good reasons:
- You aren't enjoying running the business anymore.
- You need the cash now.
- The opportunity cost is too great: When a great opportunity presents itself, do a cost-benefit analysis.
- There's an imminent threat in the market: Maybe a large or innovative competitor has entered your niche, and it makes more sense to sell than to keep going.
- Your KPIs are in rough shape: If your business is already in trouble, as signaled by an extended decrease in KPIs, you might want to sell.
- Growth has plateaued.
- You've reached the limit of your expertise or abilities.
- Your health has taken a hit: This is a big one. Maybe you love the product, but you just don't have the capacity for it.
- You're a serial builder: Maybe you just love to build and move on. Lots of indie hackers do that!
- Change in life circumstances: Maybe you've got more responsibilities, and you've suddenly become more risk-averse.
- An offer you can't refuse: Sometimes, a really good offer just comes out of the woodwork.
A quick note: If you're surfing a wave in a market that is booming, it's probably not a good time to sell. It's a good time to keep surfing and growing. You probably shouldn't sell on a whim just because the market has temporarily shifted.
How to sell
These days, it's pretty simple to sell. Here's how:
- Decide on a price: SaaS products usually sell for around 2.7x MRR, but this can be higher if you've got solid retention. There are valuation calculators out there that can help. Decide how much it's worth, how much you want, and the minimum that you'll accept.
- List it: List your product on a marketplace (see some solid options below). With a marketplace, the process should be pretty straightforward.
- Generate interest: Consider driving traffic to your listing by talking about it on social media, your company's email list, your blog, and just about anywhere else. But be careful; this may not be a good idea for some businesses, as it may scare customers and impact your revenue. Another option is to go with a marketplace that allows you to pay to boost your listing.
- Field inquiries: Respond to any inquiries by giving access to data that you didn't make public. You'll need to know things like lifetime value, churn, etc. Be transparent. This is not about hiding the not-so-good stuff. The more the buyer knows, the better.
- Due diligence: Prospective buyers will be vetting your company, but it's important to vet them too. Can this person take the ball and run with it? Will they do so in a way that feels like it's in alignment with why you started the business in the first place?
- Come to an agreement and complete a letter of intent: Usually, a letter of intent is sent once the basics of the deal have been agreed upon. Some marketplaces will take care of this for you.
- Get paid!
Common mistakes to avoid
- Misrepresenting the business.
- Not doing due diligence.
- Not discussing how the transition will take place.
- Over- or underpricing the product.
- Not doing escrow: Some indie hackers have successfully sold businesses to each other, skipping this step. This is very risky, though!
- Selling during a temporary slump.
Best acquisition marketplaces for indie hackers
Have you successfully sold a business? Share your experience below!
Discuss this story.
📰 In the News
from the Growth Trends newsletter by Darko
🎯 LinkedIn has announced new ad targeting options for B2B brands.
📹 Social, shortform videos are predicted to be a top trend in 2023.
💪 The power of influencer networks for small businesses.
🙅♀️ Artists aren't happy about generative AI tools.
🥶 Media winter is coming.
Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.
🖐 Five Bite-Sized UX Design Tips
from the Love at First Try newsletter by Jim Zarkadas
Need some UX inspiration for your SaaS? These five bite-sized tips can help!
Keep it real
A smart way to showcase your SaaS on your website is to show a video of a user using your product on a real device.
Why it works:
- Your SaaS feels more real.
- You can create that wow factor by using close-up shots.
- It teases features, motivating users to keep scrolling through your website to learn more.
Check out how Procreate does this:
Humanize your SaaS forms
Show a photo of a team member near the user prompt or question.
Forms are like conversations. You ask questions, and users answer them. If you were communicating with users IRL, they would be talking with you or somebody on your team. Why not show that person?
Here's an example from Zenmaid:
Play time
Don’t just describe how your product works. Let your users actually play with it.
This way, users can get a good feel for the product. Let them play around with it!
Check out how Height does this:
Creative copy
Words are the purest form of design.
Get creative with your copy, and your landing page will become much more memorable.
See this example from Apple:
What’s good enough?
Define "good enough" before you start designing. "Good enough" is subjective, and depends on several factors:
- The design standards of your users.
- Your available resources.
- The scope of the problem that you're solving.
I've seen SaaS companies making millions with this mindset. Get to "good enough," and you'll be miles ahead of the pack.
Will you try any of these tips for your UX? Let's chat below!
Discuss this story, or subscribe to the Love at First Try newsletter for more.
🌐 Best Around the Web: Posts Submitted to Indie Hackers This Week
📏 Do you measure product-market fit? Posted by Johannes Dancker.
👩🏫 A simple build in public strategy. Posted by Ayush Chaturvedi.
🧐 Who's doing ChatGPT? Posted by Wijnand Karsens.
📝 A list of no-code tools to explore. Posted by Rhrs323.
🤩 Build your fanbase using the K-pop method. Posted by Serdar.
🛠 How good does your MVP have to be? Posted by Tommy Hack.
Want a shout-out in next week's Best of Indie Hackers? Submit an article or link post on Indie Hackers whenever you come across something you think other indie hackers will enjoy.
🥇 Amos Bastian Landed His First Paying Customer
by Amos Bastian
Hi, indie hackers! I'm Amos Bastian, founder of MentionFunnel, a service that helps you easily find leads for your business.
Starting a new SaaS can be exciting, as it's cool to see your vision come to life! But, it can also be overwhelming. In order for your business to succeed, you need customers. Acquiring those first few customers can be a daunting task.
Here's how I got my first paying customer!
The metrics
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Total Reddit posts: Eight.
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Total Indie Hackers posts: Three.
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Total Indie Hackers comments: 20+.
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Blog posts: One.
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Total emails: 47.
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Opened: 23.
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Clicked: 14.
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Click-to-open rate: 60.87%
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Twitter followers: 73.
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Build in public tweets: 24.
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Total meetings: Zero.
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Total signups: 24.
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Total paying customers: One.
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Total mentions tracked: 2.6K+.
My total revenue is currently $15!
The story
MentionFunnel helps people find new customers by notifying them whenever their keywords are mentioned on social media. Currently, it only supports Reddit, but I plan on adding more platforms, including Twitter, Indie Hackers, and Hacker News.
There are quite a few competitors. Other tools support a lot more platforms, but are also more expensive, or are missing good UX and features. My tool is a more focused version that lets you reply to people who mention your keywords without any friction.
Before I coded anything, I created a landing page with a form where users could sign up for the waiting list. Then, I started posting on Reddit and Indie Hackers whenever I could.
My first customer was on the free plan for a day or two. They actually found out about MentionFunnel on Indie Hackers! They contacted me on Twitter, asking if I plan on supporting Twitter in the future, and gave me some feedback. I replied, and the next day, they sent me a DM saying that they were going to try out the starter plan!
I chose to focus on Reddit and Indie Hackers since my ideal customers will probably be hanging out there. I've actually written about using Reddit to find your first customers here and here.
As for Indie Hackers, I simply found posts where I could contribute value, and mention my product, without coming off as spammy. This resulted in ~70 people joining my waiting list, but unfortunately, I managed to somehow lose 20 of those.
I also started posting on Twitter, where I have 73 followers. I mainly focused on posting screenshots of MentionFunnel's features while building them, which people seemed to like.
I decided to go with freemium instead of trials, as my priority is getting more users. This will hopefully result in more feedback, and allow me to improve the product. The beta launch was on November 30th, and since then, I honestly haven't done that much. I did post on Indie Hackers and on Twitter, but couldn't do more than that since I was busy with my full-time job.
I'm super happy that I have a paying customer, but I somehow feel like I don't deserve it. I'm worried that they will churn immediately! I can't dwell on that, though. My next step is to just keep on building.
Discuss this story.
🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick
by Tweetmaster Flex
I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:
🏁 Enjoy This Newsletter?
Forward it to a friend, and let them know they can subscribe here.
Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.
Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to James Fleischmann, Darko, Jim Zarkadas, and Amos Bastian for contributing posts. —Channing
