4 Challenges of Micro SaaS
Be wary of these challenges so you know how to best mitigate them
Although there are many benefits of self-funded Micro SaaS, this business model is not without its unique drawbacks which you need to be mindful of when starting out.
Here are the drawbacks of developing bootstrapped Micro SaaS apps:· #1 — Reliance On Systems & Platforms
· #2 — The Buck Stops With You
· #3 — The Hamster Wheel Of Support
· #4 — Potential for Copycats
· My Micro SaaS Success
#1 — Reliance On Systems & Platforms
If your Micro SaaS app has a heavy reliance on other systems/platforms (and their popularity/success), then you need to take this into consideration when evaluating your app idea.
For example, if you’re building a plugin for JIRA, then the success of your plugin will be intrinsically linked to that of the host ecosystem.
If JIRA loses popularity, you’re going to be swimming against the tide trying to increase your plugin’s customer base whilst the total addressable market size is shrinking.
Similarly, if you do develop a great plugin, there’s always a chance that the host ecosystem might just make that functionality part of its core offering to attract more users, thus eliminating the need for your plugin overnight!
This is exactly what happened to an Abandoned Cart plugin on Shopify when Shopify decided that they wanted to make Abandoned Cart notifications a core feature of the platform 😲
This must be one of the most frustrating challenges of Micro SaaS via plugins, you can literally watch the value of your plugin disappear due to the host platform adding your core feature natively.
#2 — The Buck Stops With You
When you are a full time employee, you simply have to turn up to get paid. If you spend the afternoon checking out some new javascript frameworks it’s probably not going to be a big deal.
However, when it’s just you, if you spend an afternoon distracted by new technologies or news/social media then you’re not going to have moved the needle in the right direction at all.
That said, you’ll find that your mindset will have shifted from “getting through the day”, to maximising what you can achieve in every minute of every day. This is because your app is your baby and you will want to nurture it and grow it into a successful and sustainable app.
Finally, there’s no manager to escalate issues to. You have to formulate the strategy, make the tough calls and carry out the implementation.
You’ll want to bring in your A-game every day if you want to make this a success sooner rather than later.
#3 — The Hamster Wheel Of Support
To minimise customer churn, you’re going to need to stay on top of customer support. If you don’t respond to them in a timely manner, they’ll be less inclined to share their positive experiences of the app in reviews and to other potential users in that niche.
Even worse, if they can’t get your app up and running you can bet they’re going to be cancelling their subscription and asking for a refund too.
My advice would be to do all the support yourself in the early days and try to get the users on a call/screenshare rather than going back and forth over several days via support ticket.
Luckily, this challenge of Micro SaaS is one that you can prevent by taking action.
I recommend having a helpdesk ticketing solution to keep track of requests. Also, where appropriate, jumping on a call with your users will save you both a tonne of time rather than going back and forth over email/tickets over the course of several days.
Plus, it’s a great opportunity to ask the users for their honest feedback on the app and to hit them up for any feature requests/ideas they might have. Direct feedback from your users is invaluable.
Eventually, you’ll invest your time into building a knowledgebase and you can also train up a support team to handle most queries. That said, be sure to make the most of the opportunity to directly connect with your users in the early days.
#4 — Potential for Copycats
If people within your niche see your app gaining popularity, they may look into launching a competing product. In certain cases, they blatantly rip off the features of your app and sprinkle some UI changes on to make it appear different.
To minimize copycats and their effects you’ll want to ensure any client side code is obfuscated and try to perform as much of the app’s magic server side where possible. In some cases, this just isn’t possible and you have to go into it with your eyes wide open.
The best way to combat copycats is to offer the best in class customer experience, listen to user feedback, implement feature requests and continue to innovate and introduce new features to keep your app’s offering more appealing than any potential competitors.
My Micro SaaS Success
In my case, my Micro SaaS apps have been my chrome extensions. Since I launched them, they have earnt me an average $10k monthly recurring revenue (MRR) which enabled me to quit my crappy full-time job several years ago.
After a few years of scaling my apps, I sold them for a life-changing lump sum cash payment. Since then, I’ve made it my mission to help unfulfilled software developers around the globe escape the 9–5 through Micro SaaS.
Whether it’s just starting a profitable side hustle or building a liferaft so they can eventually jump ship and quit their job to become their own Micro SaaS boss.
Having undertaken the journey of building my apps up to the point that I could quit the day job, then scaling and selling them, I feel I’m in a good position to share my knowledge with software developers around the world.
If you’re interested in learning more about Micro SaaS, you can read my free guide to Bootstrapped SaaS on my site or download your own free copy. The handbook has 12 chapters covering everything you need to know from Idea to Exit.
You can also check out this video on my YouTube Channel that shows you how to build your own Micro SaaS app in 10 steps:
