Trying to turn a service based business into a SaaS model without running out of money!

[finney.sarah8]

Hi Everyone,

Pleased to be in the forum. I'm currently running a service based business in the education sector in the UK.

We have developed out a couple of online platforms / products and have onboarded clients on to them, but now brews to refine the products and scale.

We are also in the process of building my profile as an 'expert' in the field, but are at the very start of that journey.

We are at a crunch point now where we have to get real and focus on delivering value to our customers and also creating value based marketing (blogs, vlogs. Free courses etc). We can't take on too much service work as it sucks time and we're not able to do both effectively. We want to focus on refining our products for our client group and developing content for my profile. I run the business with my husband and we have a young family so are a'all in' so to speak. It has now come to crunch time and we realistically have about 6 months of runway

It's not a new business so we have an existing client pool to draw from, but the education environment is a bit shaky currently with budget cuts and new political agendas so our clients are distracted. It's shaky territory for me at the moment and feels incredibly scary as we are used to large service based projects where you have a few months of run way at least for every project we take on. However, this model is unsustainable as it leaves us trapped working in the business with no freedom
. Does anybody have any experience in the EdTech sector or changing from a service to a SaaS based model? Any hints or tips would be very gratefully appreciated. Thank you.

 

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[MohammadJouza]

Hi,
I have experience in the EdTech industry

if you could provide more details so I can help

 

[Sean P]

I can imagine your situation - developing a SaaS business, content creation, and family life...all together is indeed daunting.

Since you already have an existing client pool, you could take their feedback first and engage with them so that you have experience with developing a customized solution - as well as gather testimonials for marketing and promotion purposes.

Develop a strategy for your content creation. For example, focus on addressing the current pain points in the education sector. How can your products help your clients navigate budget cuts or adapt to political changes? This kind of change management driven approach can position you as someone who can think beyond implementing solutions and help exceed client expectations.

I used to work for a company that provided SaaS solutions, but that was some time ago. The most important factors to consider are user experience, which includes an intuitive and user-friendly interface, pricing, and scalability. Also, cloud solutions are typically dynamic and must adapt to changing market conditions and technological advancements.

Hope this helps!