Nathan PorterI've built successful service businesses
Bio

Serial entrepreneur and successful founder of multiple web service companies including Arete Imagine Inc. and Ukuu Logic LLC. I've built a team of 10 seriously high octane individuals and faced the bumps along the way. I know what it takes to build from $0 to a multiple six figure business in your first year. It's not easy and it takes hard work but I'm confident you also can achieve success.


Recent Answers


Having just launched a software product myself I realize that the work we did before starting the project was the most important work we did. Before you begin developing a software product you need to answer a few questions first:

1. What is the demand for your product?
2. Who are your competitors?
3. Who currently owns your audience?
4. What is your MVP Minimum Viable Product?
5. What is your MMP Minimum Marketable Product?
6. How will you monetize your platform?
7. Who are the influencers in your product audience?

I think there's a lot that goes into this besides creating a roadmap. I think your first focus needs to be to answer the above questions and then decide how you want to move forward. Then you can move into a roadmap, finding the skillset you need to develop your product, creating a marketing strategy for your product, creating effective demand and scarcity for your product launch, etc...

Hit me up if you need additional help. I'd be happy to chat with you about this.


I'm not sure that it is a serious issue but I do think that Marketplace sounds a bit more transactional whereas what you are offering is a little more in depth, involved, and long term. I'm guessing you probably want to steer away of anything that would make them associate your network with something like Elance or Odesk. For those reasons I would probably lean toward either "Community" or "Network". So possibly a "Network of Providers" or a "Community of Providers". Additionally I think the focus of the branding would/should focus primarily toward the client rather than the provider.


It sounds like you have a lot going on. I think you might find some better momentum if you chose one to focus on. In the mean time I'm sure you face the dilemna of supporting yourself while your app gains momentum.
I was recently in a similar situation with developing and selling a CRM software tool while also running a service company. For us, it was very helpful to keep distinctly separate brands for each company. It helped to provide a laser focus with our marketing messaging and didn't blur the lines between the two entities. Even though our service business provides consulting services that include the software product we're selling we don't want other service providers to be scared away from promoting the software brand thinking that we have an unfair advantage in access to client sales. Overall the more focused your brand messaging is the better you will be overall, even in terms of SEO and traffic. I think it is definitely worth it to lose a little momentum to refine the focus of your branding and marketing.


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