Top Ten Dos and Don'ts of SaaS

Build a successful software-as-a-service business

Copyright 2009 by Joel York at Chaotic Flow.

saas top ten dos and don'ts

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The Top Ten Dos of SaaS Success

SaaS Do #1 - Choose a Large Market

SaaS Do #2 - Create a Hub on the Web

SaaS Do #3 - Accelerate Organic Growth

SaaS Do #4 - Craft a Compelling Story

SaaS Do #5 - Build the Business into the Product

SaaS Do #6 - Reach across the Firewall

SaaS Do #7 - Monetize Creatively

SaaS Do #8 - Enable Mass Customization

SaaS Do #9 - Open Up to the Cloud

SaaS Do #10 - Leverage Your Community

The Top Ten Surefire Ways to Fail at SaaS

SaaS Don't #1 - Chase Elephants

SaaS Don't #2 - Waste Money Marketing Offline

SaaS Don't #3 - Launch without Online Trial

SaaS Don't #4 - Cover up Shortcomings with People

SaaS Don't #5 - Invest in Channel Partners too Early

SaaS Don't #6 - Bleed Cash Indefinitely

SaaS Don't #7 - Ignore the Long Tail

SaaS Don't #8 - Think You Can Control It

SaaS Don't #9 - Fail to be Creative

SaaS Don't #10 - Depend on Network Effects

Chaotic Flow

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Software-as-a-Service Success

The Top Ten Dos and Don’ts of SaaS Business Success

The Don’ts: Ten Surefire Ways to Fail at SaaS

SaaS Don't #1 Chase Elephants

Chasing big, bad elephants is by far the most tempting mistake a software-as-a-service business can make. You find a prospect that has lots of cash, but it needs special features, requires a long sales cycle and has restrictive legal requirements. When you need cash, chasing even the most difficult and demanding customers can become attractive; perhaps even a matter of survival. But, one too many stumbles away from your core strategy and you wake up to find that you are a small consulting business constrained by the special needs of a few powerful customers—not a rapidly growing web application with a low TCO value proposition based on a single-instance, multi-tenant architecture.

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