- How To Make Software Application
- How To Make Software By Excel
- How To Make Software Update
- How To Make Software Online
- Create Your Own Software
If you want to create your own software then try HyperNext: Easy to use and great for beginners. Many working examples to get you started. Simple interface - a Design window and one Toolbar. Interface has three modes - Design, Preview and Run. HyperNext builds applications for both Mac & Windows. HyperNext has versions for both Mac & Windows. A few businesses are making profit promoting software products and services. This is a dream of many with marketing and software skills. But no one is aware that a software company is a dream that can come true in a very inexpensive way, just some effort is requested but there are several ways for ordinary people to launch a software company and make profit with it.
Today we're going to create a software product!
Yep, you heard correctly, we're going to create a software product – a WordPress Plugin.
No need to worry…
It's a bit like baking a cake.
Introduction
If you've ever checked my LinkedIn Profile then you'll know that I spent many years working in the software industry.
One of my goals when starting my online business was to create my own digital products. And more specifically I wanted to create my own software products.
I didn't know exactly how I was going to do that – I had a rough idea, but nothing concrete.
Well, now I know a lot more about creating my own software product than I did a few months back. And I wanted to share exactly what it entails.
How do you create a software product?
Making a WordPress Plugin is a bit like baking a cake.
Not that I'm into baking cakes – eating them, YES, baking them, NO!!
But as I understand it, you need:
- Ingredients: 4oz flour, 4oz sugar, 4oz butter, 2 eggs, etc.
- Recipe: add this, mix that, beat those, etc.
- Equipment: oven, food mixer/processor, mixing bowl, cutlery, etc.
It's similar when creating a software product because you will need:
- People: the ingredients
- Process: the recipe
- Technology: the equipment
Let me show you how we created our software product.
People
The first thing to say is that I have not created this software product on my own!
Business Partner
It's not compulsory to have a business partner when creating a software product, but it certainly helps!
I approached my online marketing friend Richard and asked him if he'd be interested in working on a joint project to create a software product.
Why Richard? Aside of the fact that he's smart and already has a successful track record in creating and selling information products (ebooks/courses, etc.)
- We both trust and respect each other
- We both live in the UK
- We both support the same football team – yeah, I know, unbelievable – I thought I was the only Aston Villa fan
He said, 'Yes!' and the AV Project was born.
Don't believe me? Here is the folder in Box:
Instructor
If you've never created a software product before, then I strongly recommend you take some education first.
To take our cake analogy, if you've never baked a cake before then you would want to read a book or watch a video on the steps you need to take.
Let me clarify. I don't mean get trained on how to start coding PHP and CSS, and all the rest of the languages you need for a WordPress plugin. I mean get trained on how to start from scratch and end up with a finished product on the market.
So Richard and I started off by investing in an online course from an instructor who had real experience of creating a software product from scratch. In fact, he's had several successful software products over the last few years.
This is one of the key things we learned in our online course:
Stay in the CEO Mindset – i.e. don't worry about the small technical details.
Developer
Given that neither Richard nor I are programmers it is a given that we would need a Developer. During the course we learned how best to outsource the software development and we were able to recruit a developer via Elance.
Reviewers
Last, but not least, you will need people to review your ideas and review your finished product.
We are indebted to the trusted band of marketing friends who have run our plugin through its paces. Without them we wouldn't be at the stage we are now – ready to launch!
Those are the main ingredients, the important people, in this first stage of creating a software product.
Technology
Before I describe the PROCESS that we followed, I'm going to tell you about the TECHNOLOGY we used. Again, some of these come down to our preferred choice, but you will either need these or a variation thereof.
- Box – Box is an online file sharing and personal cloud content management service.
- Excel – You will need a project planning tool. There are plenty on the market, but we chose Excel.
- Skype – You need to keep communicating when you are running a project. Skype allowed us to chat, talk and share screens.
- Balsamiq – We used Balsamiq to provide our developer with a full-design specification including mockup screens.
- Jing – We used Jing for creating screen grabs and recording short videos.
- Screencast – We used Screencast to store and share short testing videos.
How To Make Software Application
As a side note, you could use dedicated product development software to manage some of the additional development tasks.
Process
Right, so we have the PEOPLE and we have the TECHNOLOGY. Now we need something to bind those parts together in our winning mixture.
I'm going to take you through, at a high level, what we did at each stage in the process of creating our WordPress plugin.
- April – Complete the online course
- May – Finalise idea
- June – Design/Development/Test
- July – Beta Test Review
- August – Product Launch
The learning process
As I mentioned earlier, Richard and I invested in an online course on how to create and sell your own software product. The course was all pre-recorded so we could go at own pace to fit in with other commitments; work, blogs, and family. Our target was to complete this by the end of April, which we achieved. Tick!
The planning process
Having completed the course, we now had an idea of what was going to be involved and we started to map out a timeline. I knocked up a plan in Excel and started dishing out tasks to Richard and me.
Two things to note about planning:
- You have to be realistic
- You have to be flexible – things don't always go to plan!
The idea generation process
We had the theory from the training course and now we had to put it into practice starting with an idea, or two or three…
And the reason I say that is because the ‘Eureka moment' does not exist!
However, you definitely don't have to come up with a totally brand new idea to be successful. Here's what to do:
- Always be on the lookout for tasks which could be automated
- Research the market
- Research the successful products that are already out there
- Make a list of their features
- Combine those features to create a new software product
As soon as we learnt this in the course we started coming up with ideas and jotting them down in another spreadsheet, affectionately called the AV ROLODEX.
Having got an idea or two you need to test the market. So we put together a mini-spec with some screen mock ups and sent the idea out to a few PEOPLE – our reviewers.
The feedback on our first idea was not good. So, having picked our egos off the floor we took the positives out of the feedback and generated a second idea that was closely related to the first.
The feedback on the second ‘improved' idea was much more positive and now we had something to go with.
*The Idea and Specification are Crucial! Get the foundation right!*
The design process
Having decided to run with our idea we entered the Design Phase, which consisted of 3 main tasks:
- Create Mockups
- Create Outsourcing Accounts
- Finalise Product Name
Richard created the mockups, and what a fine job he did. Here's an example of one mockup screen:
Whilst Richard was busy creating mockups, I started opening our accounts on outsourcing sites such as Upwork. I also started to create our brief job specification ready to post in the next section.
The outsourcing process
Here are the steps we followed to hire our developer:
- Post your job (brief spec)
- Candidates apply (within hours)
- Shortlist candidates (4.5 rating or above + check previous work)
- Send full job spec to them
- Ask them questions and confirm deadline/milestones (chat on Skype)
- Hire the chosen one (within 3 or 4 days of posting)
- Work with them + regular progress checks
Note: Upwork now owners the former oDesk and Elance platforms.
The development process
I'd like to say that once the developer is hired, you csn sit back and relax for a few days, but in truth, you can't.
First of all, it's important to follow Step 7 above – Work with them and have regular checks. If you don't, then you run the risk that (a) they won't do anything or (b) they misunderstand your design spec. Either will result in wasted time and money 🙁
Secondly, whilst the developer is doing his coding there are a few other tasks to be getting on with, mainly focused around your own website where you will market your product from. More to come on that in Part 2.
Here are the three main steps in this phase:
- Complete Beta Version
- Test Beta Version
- Complete Version 1
How To Make Software By Excel
Aside of that, as you can see, there is the small task of testing. You cannot afford to go light on this task. At times it's boring and frustrating, but you have to be prepared to test your plugin to breaking point.
And we did break it…several times…and each time we sent it back to the developer to be fixed. So, be prepared, the above 3 steps are quite reiterative!
When you're satisfied with your final version, then you need to reach out to your contacts and ask them to get involved with more testing. And also ask them to provide testimonials for your sales page.
Secret ingredients
When you bake a cake there are always a few additional ingredients that you add into the mix. I'm talking of, for example, a dash of vanilla essence, or a pinch of a salt.
The small things that perhaps nobody sees, but definitely gives the cake its flavours.
When you create a software product, you need that little bit extra than just the essential PEOPLE, PROCESS and TECHNOLOGY.
How To Make Software Update
You need things like:
- Mindset
- Determination
- Resilience
- Perseverance
- Patience
In short you need plenty of hair and thick skin!
Without any of those you'll be down and out within weeks.
You must remember:
- You only reap what you sow – in business, as in life!
- Enjoy the learning curve!
- Push your comfort zone every day!
Wrapping up part 1
I approached my online marketing friend Richard and asked him if he'd be interested in working on a joint project to create a software product.
Why Richard? Aside of the fact that he's smart and already has a successful track record in creating and selling information products (ebooks/courses, etc.)
- We both trust and respect each other
- We both live in the UK
- We both support the same football team – yeah, I know, unbelievable – I thought I was the only Aston Villa fan
He said, 'Yes!' and the AV Project was born.
Don't believe me? Here is the folder in Box:
Instructor
If you've never created a software product before, then I strongly recommend you take some education first.
To take our cake analogy, if you've never baked a cake before then you would want to read a book or watch a video on the steps you need to take.
Let me clarify. I don't mean get trained on how to start coding PHP and CSS, and all the rest of the languages you need for a WordPress plugin. I mean get trained on how to start from scratch and end up with a finished product on the market.
So Richard and I started off by investing in an online course from an instructor who had real experience of creating a software product from scratch. In fact, he's had several successful software products over the last few years.
This is one of the key things we learned in our online course:
Stay in the CEO Mindset – i.e. don't worry about the small technical details.
Developer
Given that neither Richard nor I are programmers it is a given that we would need a Developer. During the course we learned how best to outsource the software development and we were able to recruit a developer via Elance.
Reviewers
Last, but not least, you will need people to review your ideas and review your finished product.
We are indebted to the trusted band of marketing friends who have run our plugin through its paces. Without them we wouldn't be at the stage we are now – ready to launch!
Those are the main ingredients, the important people, in this first stage of creating a software product.
Technology
Before I describe the PROCESS that we followed, I'm going to tell you about the TECHNOLOGY we used. Again, some of these come down to our preferred choice, but you will either need these or a variation thereof.
- Box – Box is an online file sharing and personal cloud content management service.
- Excel – You will need a project planning tool. There are plenty on the market, but we chose Excel.
- Skype – You need to keep communicating when you are running a project. Skype allowed us to chat, talk and share screens.
- Balsamiq – We used Balsamiq to provide our developer with a full-design specification including mockup screens.
- Jing – We used Jing for creating screen grabs and recording short videos.
- Screencast – We used Screencast to store and share short testing videos.
How To Make Software Application
As a side note, you could use dedicated product development software to manage some of the additional development tasks.
Process
Right, so we have the PEOPLE and we have the TECHNOLOGY. Now we need something to bind those parts together in our winning mixture.
I'm going to take you through, at a high level, what we did at each stage in the process of creating our WordPress plugin.
- April – Complete the online course
- May – Finalise idea
- June – Design/Development/Test
- July – Beta Test Review
- August – Product Launch
The learning process
As I mentioned earlier, Richard and I invested in an online course on how to create and sell your own software product. The course was all pre-recorded so we could go at own pace to fit in with other commitments; work, blogs, and family. Our target was to complete this by the end of April, which we achieved. Tick!
The planning process
Having completed the course, we now had an idea of what was going to be involved and we started to map out a timeline. I knocked up a plan in Excel and started dishing out tasks to Richard and me.
Two things to note about planning:
- You have to be realistic
- You have to be flexible – things don't always go to plan!
The idea generation process
We had the theory from the training course and now we had to put it into practice starting with an idea, or two or three…
And the reason I say that is because the ‘Eureka moment' does not exist!
However, you definitely don't have to come up with a totally brand new idea to be successful. Here's what to do:
- Always be on the lookout for tasks which could be automated
- Research the market
- Research the successful products that are already out there
- Make a list of their features
- Combine those features to create a new software product
As soon as we learnt this in the course we started coming up with ideas and jotting them down in another spreadsheet, affectionately called the AV ROLODEX.
Having got an idea or two you need to test the market. So we put together a mini-spec with some screen mock ups and sent the idea out to a few PEOPLE – our reviewers.
The feedback on our first idea was not good. So, having picked our egos off the floor we took the positives out of the feedback and generated a second idea that was closely related to the first.
The feedback on the second ‘improved' idea was much more positive and now we had something to go with.
*The Idea and Specification are Crucial! Get the foundation right!*
The design process
Having decided to run with our idea we entered the Design Phase, which consisted of 3 main tasks:
- Create Mockups
- Create Outsourcing Accounts
- Finalise Product Name
Richard created the mockups, and what a fine job he did. Here's an example of one mockup screen:
Whilst Richard was busy creating mockups, I started opening our accounts on outsourcing sites such as Upwork. I also started to create our brief job specification ready to post in the next section.
The outsourcing process
Here are the steps we followed to hire our developer:
- Post your job (brief spec)
- Candidates apply (within hours)
- Shortlist candidates (4.5 rating or above + check previous work)
- Send full job spec to them
- Ask them questions and confirm deadline/milestones (chat on Skype)
- Hire the chosen one (within 3 or 4 days of posting)
- Work with them + regular progress checks
Note: Upwork now owners the former oDesk and Elance platforms.
The development process
I'd like to say that once the developer is hired, you csn sit back and relax for a few days, but in truth, you can't.
First of all, it's important to follow Step 7 above – Work with them and have regular checks. If you don't, then you run the risk that (a) they won't do anything or (b) they misunderstand your design spec. Either will result in wasted time and money 🙁
Secondly, whilst the developer is doing his coding there are a few other tasks to be getting on with, mainly focused around your own website where you will market your product from. More to come on that in Part 2.
Here are the three main steps in this phase:
- Complete Beta Version
- Test Beta Version
- Complete Version 1
How To Make Software By Excel
Aside of that, as you can see, there is the small task of testing. You cannot afford to go light on this task. At times it's boring and frustrating, but you have to be prepared to test your plugin to breaking point.
And we did break it…several times…and each time we sent it back to the developer to be fixed. So, be prepared, the above 3 steps are quite reiterative!
When you're satisfied with your final version, then you need to reach out to your contacts and ask them to get involved with more testing. And also ask them to provide testimonials for your sales page.
Secret ingredients
When you bake a cake there are always a few additional ingredients that you add into the mix. I'm talking of, for example, a dash of vanilla essence, or a pinch of a salt.
The small things that perhaps nobody sees, but definitely gives the cake its flavours.
When you create a software product, you need that little bit extra than just the essential PEOPLE, PROCESS and TECHNOLOGY.
How To Make Software Update
You need things like:
- Mindset
- Determination
- Resilience
- Perseverance
- Patience
In short you need plenty of hair and thick skin!
Without any of those you'll be down and out within weeks.
You must remember:
- You only reap what you sow – in business, as in life!
- Enjoy the learning curve!
- Push your comfort zone every day!
Wrapping up part 1
The journey so far has been a massive learning curve. We have used our individual strengths to complement each other in creating our first software product.
Today, you've learnt what it takes to create a software product.Next time, we'll look at how to market and sell your software product.
As more and more businesses warm up to cloud-based services, the software-as-a-service industry continues to grow fast. The Gartner CRM Guide, published in March predicts, for example, that by 2015, for the first time, more than 50 percent of customer-relationship management deployments will be deployed as SaaS, and that by 2025 that number will surpass 80 percent.
As Mark Andreessen would say, 'software as a service is eating up the world.'
Related: Considering 'SaaS'? What You Need to Know
Consider these 10 tips to create a successful business in this expanding industry:
1. Follow KISS (keep it simple, stupid)
SaaS products are often self served, and as such need to be self explanatory, simple, clean and highly intuitive. Sales and marketing collateral need to highlight value, return on investment and use flows, not features and technology.
2. Offer several packages
The entry-point SaaS offering should almost always be free, but limited in usage volume, functionality and/or time. It is recommended to then offer two to three paid packages fitted to different customer segments with different usability, ROI and willingness to pay.
3. Define, measure, analyze, improve, control
In their actions, SaaS users share with us invaluable information about their use of our products, and their needs and behavior. Data reveals what functionalities are popular or aren't being used (and should therefore potentially be omitted per the KISS principle), and also helps to segment users and define packages. It's important to continuously define tests (wherever possible with A/B testing) and monitor the effective improvement after making changes.
4. Cultivate an ecosystem
Successful products are wrapped with open and flexible APIs that enable easy integration with third-party software. The better ones also amass around them a community of developers, and/or offer a plugin marketplace that enables the development and promotion of third-party plugins. Interoperability increases the value of the product, and also introduces an ancillary source of revenue from referrals, resale opportunities and equipment manufacturer deals.
5. Offer the right amount of professional services
Professional services are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they increase revenue and stickiness and reduce churn rates. On the other hand, they increase deployment time and cost of sales, and reduce margin.
Related: Want to Join the 'Unicorn Club'? Here's What 3 Companies Did to Get There.
Professional services typically make up for between 10 to 20 percent of new annual contract value (ACV), and their gross margin is typically 20 percent (vs. 80 percent for the recurring revenue). These proportions usually add up to a blended gross margin greater than 70 percent, which is an important threshold for maintaining good valuation multiples.
6. Be committed to your customers' success
In addition to signing up new customers, the main goal of a SaaS company is to defend and grow its recurring revenue from existing customers. Typically, the goal is for up-sells to constitute between 10 to 25 percent of new ACV booked, and for the company to maintain a gross monthly churn rate under about 1 percent (without taking into consideration up-sells), and a net monthly churn rate that is negative (up-sells greater than gross churn).
To achieve this, a customer success team needs to continuously monitor their customer's usage levels, send them product updates and satisfaction surveys, and invite them to customer-advisory board sessions, among other things. The customer-success team should also be trained and capable in selling.
How To Make Software Online
7. Monitor your dashboard
SaaS companies need to constantly monitor their key performance indicators (KPIs). The most important measurements are monthly recurring revenues (MRR), churn rate, cash flow, customer acquisition cost ratio, customer lifetime value, ACV/MRR pipeline and average ACV/MRR per salesperson.
8. Align incentives
It is crucial to create incentives and set compensation plans aligned with KPIs. For example, salespeople need to be compensated differently depending on the type of customer (new vs. up-sell), type of booking (recurring vs. nonrecurring), contract term, terms of payment, etc. Similarly, customer-success managers need to be compensated for reducing gross churn and maximizing up-sells (or combined, reducing net churn).
9. Growth is king
For a SaaS company with typical gross margins of greater than 70 percent, valuation is mainly dependent on annual revenue growth rate. The average SaaS Company is growing at about 25 percent year over year and is generally valued at around four to five times its forward revenues. Conversely, a company with similar revenues growing at about 50 percent year over year would be valued at around twice that.
The message is clear: if you have the means to do it, you should invest heavily in growth.
10. Show a path to profitability.
Most SaaS companies are not profitable because they invest their resources to fuel growth. That said, good SaaS companies must show a path to profitability -- essentially prove the business model is fundamentally sound (per KPIs above) and that they plan to be profitable in the next one to two years, or can at least do so while maintaining at or above average growth rates. The best way to demonstrate this is for companies to hit profitability every couple of years before investing more once again toward higher growth.
Create Your Own Software
Related: Want to Stand Out From the Crowd? Know Your Unique Value Proposition.
