Ask HN: First I found a client, then I build a Product, now..
It came up in a conversation with someone I met that I was a programmer, and that they were looking to get something built. Predictably the upper end of their budget is about a fifth of the bottom end of my estimate. They were going the elance route. I gave him some pointers on getting what he wanted and nt getting burnt and went on my way.
It occured to me later that this guy is in a similar position to lots (maybe.. ~1-2k identical small businesses in the world) and maybe there was something to this. I have never built a 'product' up to this point.
So, I asked him if he would be interested in instead of owning the software, if he would be fine with being a customer of a SaaS implementation. We had really good rapport and I offered to just build it and as soon as it was doing what he needed he would pay me. a few months of part-time work (and learning haskell) later, the 'minimum product' is built; and he pays me the agreed upon 1k and is actively using it, its solving his problem, and eveyone is happy.
Its a webapp; and for the 1k he gets it "forever". We have no contract or anything.
So, now what? After traveling so long cash is pretty low, like.. I need a gig or I can't pay July's rent low. I am pretty sure I just closed a deal today that will get me through the summer (my monthly nut is ~= 20 billable hours).
Where do I put my energy, how much more of this should I build out? This thing has zero chance of ever becoming an instagram or something. I think it could potentially grow into a high-dollar (10-20k a license) situation with a lot more features but in the same space; but for now, if I could get 20-50 paying customers at 100/bucks a month it would really change my life.
100/month sounds sort of a like a lot for what it is. But it is providing that much value for them easily; so I think that's fine. It's not polished is the main thing; and I am not a designer. I am using bootstrap which gets me pretty far.
It feels to me like the right thing to do is just try and get customers. It's a slow process because its 100% brick and mortar situation; and there isn't really too much interconnectivity between the customers.
I am sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place; I need a designer; but I can't pay for a good one. And I am scared that I won't be able to get the money to pay for a good one (at least from this project) until I have a designer.
For the record, I contacted one potential customer; they agreed to check out the software but never used the account I set up for them. However I am 95% sure the person I spoke to was not a decision maker. Also I am not a sales man; but I do know the business reasonably well.
I apologize for the rambling nature of this post.. it's admittedly something of a process of mental masturbation, but I am hoping nonetheless for some tidbit of wisdom.