Description
Stop Selling Your Time & Transition To SaaS & Scalability
This book is for Agency Owners who either have a product bubbling away in their heads and want to figure out the best way to make it a reality; or have an existing product and are wrestling with where to take it and how to balance that against the demands of running an agency.
As a former Agency Owner, successful SaaS Founder and Advisor to agencies creating their own SaaS products, this is the book I wish I’d been given when I embarked on my own Agency-to-SaaS journey.The book is split into four broad sections, providing specific outcomes for the reader:
- The case for SaaS as an alternative or an addition to client work, and whether the time is right for you to make the change.
- How to work out whether your idea has potential, what that looks like for your current business and creating a plan that the key stakeholders can get behind.
- The practicalities of making the switch from an organizational and funding perspective.
- How to scale a SaaS business as an Agency Owner. You have a lot of advantages because of your background, but also a couple of extra things to contend with, too.
Agency Owners look to switch to a SaaS model for four main reasons:
- Scale. Selling consultancy has a direct correlation to the people you hire to deliver whereas a product has a less linear connection to the size of your team.
- Predictability. Project-based consultancy is often subject to peaks and troughs which can make resource planning a nightmare. Products, especially SaaS, tend to have a predictable revenue stream.
- Control. A consultancy’s output is largely what the client wants. Even if it’s a stupid idea. When it’s your product business, you’re the final arbiter of what good looks like.
- Valuation. Agencies are valued as a multiple of EBITDA: SaaS as a multiple of Annual Recurring Revenue. SaaS companies are often worth between 5X and 10X that of an agency doing the same level of revenue.
What this book is not:
A manifesto. I made a whole switch from Agency to SaaS, but my way isn’t the only way. I’ve worked with plenty of agencies who run a SaaS business alongside their consultancy. I deal with these questions in the book. But it’s not a ‘my way or the highway’ type of approach.
A biography. I reference my own and others’ experiences, but only to illustrate the broader themes that are covered.
A SaaS Sales & Marketing Guide. There are hundreds of books and other resources out there to help you with these subjects. While I make reference to them, my main goal is getting you to the best place to make the transition to selling SaaS.