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A guestblog by Thomas Smale, Founder FE International

Building a business takes time and effort. Founders often get used to working hard for every gain, but there are some easy fixes that could dramatically boost your SaaS business’s value ahead of a sale. You could be selling your business for a number of different reasons, but these points need to be checked regardless of your company’s size, the time line you want a sale completed within, or your own professional experience.

Too often SaaS business owners erase a large portion of their hard-earned potential earnings by ignoring these suggestions, right when they need them the most. In no particular order, they are:

1. Timing Your Development Cycle

All products move through a development cycle, and will sometimes be in need of more severe overhauls of their infrastructure or design. They may need crucial security updates or features added in order to remain competitive. If you are looking to sell your SaaS and want the best valuation possible, you need to time your sale right. If you try to market your SaaS business when the product(s) are in imminent need of development, then you will lower the ultimate sale price.

New owners don’t want an uphill struggle after acquiring a business. Make things easier for them and time your sale for a safe period in your development cycle.

• Simplifying Technical Knowledge & Owner Involvement

Many SaaS founders believe that if their work is technical and requires a lot of oversight, it must be a cutting-edge company with unique IP. While this may be true, it also means that transferring to a new owner could be a difficult process. At my company, FE International, 65% of our SaaS listings are bought by non-technical buyers. This means that, if you want to get the maximum return possible for your sale, you need to think about how a new owner will operate in your business.

SaaS founders may be tempted to look for buyers who already have SaaS-specific knowledge, but this can heavily reduce the potential buyer pool. Instead, founders should look at their processes and determine what of their own role could be outsourced or delegated to other employees who plan to stay with the company. Anything which will ease the transition of a new owner and reduce the amount of time they will need to spend on the business is beneficial. Most people looking to buy a mature business aren’t looking for a new job, and they will only want to dedicate a portion of their weekly or monthly time to their new venture.

Making sure good SOPs are in place, and your own role is reduced to a minimum, will serve to boost, not diminish the value of your business. The cost of hiring someone to fill a technical role will always be factored against the value of a business.

• Securing Intellectual Property

What may seem obvious to plenty of business owners still creates real problems for plenty of SaaS business owners when they come to selling up. It is ok to apply for patents late in the day, but one needs to ensure that all people who worked on the product’s code sign an IP assignment for their work. This goes double for freelancers, and one shouldn’t be embarrassed about asking for one retroactively as they are fairly standard in due diligence requests for $500k+ SaaS businesses.

Patents and trademarks can be applied for here.

• Avoiding Sales and Lifetime Plans

Many SaaS companies use sales and lifetime plan offerings to bring in an initial wave of customers, or to boost their revenue before a sale. This tactic is well known and can reduce the ultimate purchase price of a business. Buyers will usually factor the upkeep of any of these plans against the purchase price, or they will steer clear of the sale entirely. With sites like AppSumo becoming popular with tech start-ups, the positive buzz generated can often seem like it’s worth the risk. Only pursue this route if you feel it’s necessary, and the prospect of a sale is a long way off.

• Documented Source Code

Having a clearly mapped and annotated source code will be necessary for almost all sales of a SaaS business. Unless your business is particularly small, anyone looking to buy and scale a SaaS company will need to have an overview of your source code. Products that have been messily coded can create serious problems for new owners as they try to grow the business. So, making clear that your product has been built to scale is crucial. If your product’s code is a mess or hasn’t been properly documented, then you need to fix these issues to gain a premium valuation.

These are a few of the key things that can help you increase your SaaS business’s value ahead of a sale. If you are interested in learning more about how you can improve the value of your SaaS business, please read my article on SaaS Company Valuation here. If you would like a free valuation of your business, fill in our quick form here.

Thomas Smale founded FE International over ten years ago, growing the business from scratch to a seven-figure-a-year business. Specializing in advising and brokering the sale of established websites and online businesses, FE International has completed over 650 transactions. Smale has been interviewed on numerous podcasts and blogs and speaks regularly at industry events on online businesses, exit strategy and selling businesses.

What else can you add to the many faces of a unicorn marketer?

Larry Kim, from MobileMonkey, tried to answer this question by designing the infographic, which you can see above.

Larry mentioned these faces:

???? Communicator

???? Researcher

????‍???? Teacher

???? Analyst

???? Data scientist

???? Brand ambassador

???? Listener

???? Artist

???? Budgeter

???? Influencer

???? Thought leader

✍ Copywriter

✅ Strategic planner

???? Psychologist

????????‍???? Content writer

???? Reader

???? Storyteller

❤ Relationship-builder

What else can you add?

As an IT-content writer I would also include coder or developer, with at least a healthy interest in programming / coding, because a lot of marketing these days is done online and you need to have skills in coding to work with online marketing software.

I have seen in the reactions to Larry’s post answers like cheerleader, movie producer, event planner and project manager.

Yeah, TestingSaaS has tried a lot of these faces in his first year as a content marketer, and I found out you can’t do it all by yourself.

It’s better to have a professional network around you.

Do you agree and what can you add to the many faces of a marketer?

Please give your answer in the reactions below.

2019 just started and TestingSaaS already made some big leaps.
Visually you may have seen some changes already.
So, what happened?

A new office at Eigenlijk Alles

Working at home has its advantages, it’s cheap and no commuting, but it can be a lonesome adventure and when there is little to do you get lazy.
When I met the guys from Eigenlijk Alles they told me they wanted to create a marketplace LINK, where freelancers and companies are linked and business can be done.
Great initiative, which I did not see before. As a networker by heart I was immediately sold.
So, now I’m sitting here at the Eigenlijk Alles office writing this blog and in a few minutes I have a meeting with other professionals about professionalizing my servies further.
Here is a nice video in which I explain my reasons for joining LINK.

A new logo

Have you seen the new TestingSaaS logo?

TestingSaaS did not have a logo yet, so it was about time.
All made possible with the help of another freelancer.

A new e-mail address

When I started my business, I continued to use my hotmail-account, which I also used for my blogging services.
But I’m an entrepreneur now, and I needed a professional e-mail address.
You can now contact me at info@testingsaas.nl

TestingSaaS goes Instagram

More and more B2B is done on Instagram and I wanted to test if this channel is suitable for my business.
So, now you can also find me on Instagram.
The TestingSaaS Saturday #SaaSBusiness quotes are well received, and I will also share other updates on this interesting medium.

TestingSaaS partners with TechSnips

TestingSaaS is a frequent follower of DevOps.
That’s why I joined Fixate, the DevOps contentmarketing agency, a couple of years ago.
Writing DevOps practitioner blogs is something I really love, because this way I can show how a tool or software works.
An even better way to do this is by video. That’s why I did not hesitate when TechSnips contacted me if I was interested in making instruction videos for them regarding DevOps, but also about other niches like data science and computer forensics.
Remember the macOS anti-forensics course I created for eForensics Magazine recently.
This tasted good, so in 2019 I will create more video tutorials/presentations with TechSnips.

2019 just started, let’s see what other adventures TestingSaaS will make this year.
Stay tuned.
Who dares wins!!

When I started TestingSaaS I had three services in mind: beta testing, creating content and social media marketing for SaaS startups and scale ups.

After a year I realised this all can be combined in one unique service:

Create Content Through Testing.

Through testing a software product or service content is made, which can be a basis for on boarding, sales and marketing content and can be shared in (social) media.
This is a unique service, killing two birds with one stone: you will get your software verified and you will get re-usable sales and marketing content. What more do you want!

Next to this TestingSaaS will still help IT companies with a beta testing framework, based on 10+ years of experience.

So, are you a software company or an online agency and you want original content about your or your client’s IT product/service?

Contact TestingSaaS and I will verify and help you sell your product in the same time!

2018 was for TestingSaaS the year of engagement.
My mission for 2018 was to get more engaged with my network. Not only with my business, TestingSaaS, but also on a personal level.

In april I started my business TestingSaaS and since then I engaged with a lot of prospects, with about ten becoming clients.
Thank you, it was a hell of a ride!

Now it is 2019 and a new mission is needed: creating impact by TestingSaaS for its clients.

How to make impact?

As you saw with the  posts and deep dives on LinkedIn and Twitter, TestingSaaS shared a lot of content related to his clients.
This year TestingSaaS will be more creative and use also other social media channels like Youtube and Instagram to raise his and his client’s voice – create impact!

All content created by testing the applications of the clients.
So, next to blogs and deep dives,  expect videos showing my testcases. All agreed with the client naturally.
And shared on the TestingSaaS social media channels

All to make an impact – for my clients.

Let’s have some fun!

eforensics Magazine is one of my favorite online resources on digital forensics.

A few years ago I was very honored  to be asked to contribute as a content writer for this magazine.
With my software testing skills and curiosity I mastered the basic digital forensics techniques and started to write about iOS forensics and anti-forensics.

Why this interest in anti-forensics?

As a test engineer I always want to show the current state of the quality of a software product. Finding bugs is an important part of my work.
I really want to break the software.
Software development uses a framework to build the software, but with every development issues like bugs and flaws happen. And I wanted to find these issues asap. This is the same with digital forensics.
I want to use anti-forensic techniques to show if the forensic analysis is ‘bulletproof’. Is it safe from tampering and how can we make it more resilient against tampering?

Why this interest in macOS anti-forensics?

The internet is full of effective anti-forensics techniques for the Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, but it lacks good information on macOS forensics and anti-forensics.
The macOS seems a difficult operating system for performing forensic analysis. Still macOS forensics is a necessary skill for the digital forensics professional. More and more people use the macOS, also criminals, and this increases the chance of having to do a forensic analysis on a macOS one day in the future. This makes it a most wanted skill nowadays.
Criminals know this, and they will use anti-forensic techniques to tamper with the evidence, so it is NOT eligible in court.
That’s why I want to study these anti-forensic techniques, to detect them and develop countermeasures. And also develop security measures to protect the evidence against the anti-forensic techniques.

The macOS anti-forensics course

I designed, together with eForensics Magazine, the macOS anti-forensics course, all online, to share my knowledge on macOS anti-forensics and teach students how to detect, perform and act against anti-forensics techniques on the macOS.
Thank you eForensics Magazine for giving me the chance to develop and teach this course. I will not forget this.

The 18th of December will be start of this course.
It will be fun, it will be practical and all self-paced, so no worries, no rush.

Apply NOW, you won’t regret it.

When combining software testing and content marketing you will meet companies and several of their clients too.
One of my clients is BPdelivery. 

Dear Dutch startup, give the International Business Platform a try.
Remember it is not LinkedIn, businesses, NOT persons are automatically matched. And if you do not want to match, you can always decline.
When this automatic matching is going on, also have a look at the CoC international business canvas and download it. 
Answering the questions in this canvas will, as it did with me, help you structure your international business plans.

BPdelivery is a cloud services broker that facilitates internal business processes within the cloud supply and demand chain.
BPdelivery developed a B2B networking platform called BPConnect and they asked me to help them get the platform known through content marketing eg. newsletters and blog posts.
As you know, I combine content marketing with software testing, so I also tested the product BPConnect. One of the first clients to use this product is the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (CoC). They wanted to use this solution for their International Business Platform where businesses can be automatically matched on mutual interests.
Together with BPdelivery and the CoC TestingSaaS beta tested BPConnect. Now BPConnect is live and naturally I registered myself as a user.
Onboarding is easy, you only need a CoC and a Dutch VAT-number.
A country manager at the CoC will validate and monitor your onboarding process.
Don’t worry, all GDPR-compliant.

Give it a go, who dares wins!

One of the buzzwords in 2019 is augmented reality (AR).
Google it and you will find a lot of tech marketing stuff about AR.
Here you can read about adapting AR in construction, e-commerce, but also education.
In 2018 I did some content marketing for the adventurous learning app from CoVince, but this app is Virtual Reality-minded, not AR.
What are the possibilities with an AR-app in education?

Augmented Reality in the classroom

Current students are very savvy with their smartphones. It’s almost an extra part of their body. Why not use this advantage in the classroom?

AR-animated content could catch students’ attention to study.

By using this content students can grasp important data about a subject in a fun, but still learning way. Think about a historical person’s bio, fun facts, visual 3D models etc. Using AR is for these students more fun than reading from a book, but they still learn.

Explain abstract and difficult concepts

With AR objects can be visualised into 3D models.
A lot of students are visual learners, and by this visualisation these students can grasp the abstract and difficult content.

‘Man, if I had AR in the classroom twenty years ago :-).’

 

For example, see this AR math tool.

Engagement & interaction with AR

Teachers want to involve students into their classes.

By using AR-animated content as an extra teachers are able to do this.

See this video about AR used in the school’s gym.

Discover & learn with AR

Remember when you had to go to the museum during school?
It was not always fun eeh?
Well AR can spice this up.
Why not connect with history through AR?  See this video where students test the use AR in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Permanent Exhibition.

Modelling of objects with AR

AR is all about using 3D models.
Why not use it in a science class like chemistry or biology as seen in this video?
Students can see the human body internally as they never seen before.

Training with AR

AR can make passive learning active again.
By using AR students can increase their practical experience and acquire skills they can use in real life.
See this video on using AR in learning product design.

Wrap-Up

AR is going to be important in future education.
And why not?
Students are savvy with their smartphone and it could be a good method to educate students in a visual way how something works.
This will increase the student’s engagement and this will benefit both student and teacher.
Exciting times ahead.
I would love to test these AR-animated content education apps.

What do you think about using AR in education?

Instagram is becoming more and more popular as social media channel.
Also Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B).

Companies now see the commercial opportunities influencers bring to their business.
Influencers get paid by these companies to show their products on Instagram.

TestingSaaS is an independent consultant who wants to share his knowledge online and help prospects and clients.
Why did I choose to be on Instagram?

More use of Instagram

More and more people use Instagram.
Also SaaS companies like Salesforce, Zoho and Microsoft are on Instagram.
But also Slack, Trello and Zendesk.
Interesting companies to interact with in a less formal way as linkedin, but still professional.
But hey, even LinkedIn is on Instagram.

Visual storytelling

Instagram is a great tool to visually tell your story. This way you can show the human aspect behind your company, you show your face.
This can be done with the different internal tools, but by using live posts and stories you unlock Instagram’s greatest potential. This way you can live interact with your prospects and clients.

Partner with other Influencers

TestingSaaS is an influencer in SaaS marketing and software testing.
Instagram is full of tech influencers.
By joining Instagram partnerships can be made leading to more business.

Mobility is king

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Instagram was created to be an app from the beginning.
More and more people use apps on their smartphone, and Instagram is one of them.
A good reason to be on Instagram.

A creativity heaven

With all the features, live posts and videos you can go very creative with Instagram.
This way you can test different styles of content for your prospect/client all in 1 app.

These reasons made me decide to use Instagram for TestingSaaS.
Next to the already known use of hashtags and pictures which I already use.

If you follow me on LinkedIn you already saw I post the Weekly Dose of Humor-posts also on Instagram (and Facebook too by the way).
Next to this every Saturday I share my Saturday SaaS Business quotes where I quote people with relevant content for the SaaS entrepreneurs. Here you can also see I experiment with my hashtags :-).

In the coming months I will experiment with LIVE posts and videos.

Stay tuned, TestingSaaS has gone Instagram!

The past years social selling has become a hype among sales and marketing professionals.

Is it suitable for selling SaaS?

And what social media platform is suitable for social selling of SaaS?

That will be explained in this blog.

Why social selling?

Internet has given us a new channel for selling services or goods. By using online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay or the Chinese Taobao clients can find their desired goods or services. There is only one disadvantage. The selling company can’t really control the customer journey and clients can get lost without sales knowing it, which is a shame.

Why? Because salespeople know the product they sell and can help the client.

Trading is still done by people and buyers still want some engagement with the sales.

How can sales drive this engagement?

By social selling.

How is this possible? By combining the sales and marketing forces.

What is social selling?

With social selling the salesman wants to online earn the trust of the customer. This way the client, while surfing the internet chooses him and not another online competitor.

How? By engaging with the clients on their favorite social media channels and sharing knowledge and giving advise.

And this all in a personal manner, not the brand, but the salesman (or woman) is the starting point. It’s all about contact between humans, not brand and human.

With social selling the salesman wants to online earn the trust of the customer.

Hard selling is really not done anymore. Everybody knows the cheesy salestalk and if clients notice this online, they will bounce.

Salespeople have to know how they brand themselves online in an enthusiastic, but authentic way. Always be yourself.

Social selling and SaaS

When a client is interested in a SaaS application he is interested in buying a (monthly) subscription and preferably wants to work with the application right away without too much hassle.

He wants online documentation in a screen-readable format in plain English.

And the client wants a trial period.

This means Sales is not finished when the client purchases the subscription. There is still the trial period.

For sales knowing the customer is key here.

For this they need marketing, who has studied the different clients and created buyer persona’s.

Because the first contact of the client with the SaaS company is usually sales, sales has to know the stage the client is in during the trial period.

By working with marketing sales can find out this stage.

Now you see why it is important sales and marketing has to combine forces, especially with SaaS.

Why is LinkedIn the social selling channel for SaaS?

LinkedIn is all about social selling.

People share their work experience online and companies share their services or goods. Both forms of online branding.

But it is all about online interpersonal contact. Not about brand-person contact.

And wasn’t interpersonal contact necessary for social selling?

That’s why LinkedIn is the social selling channel for SaaS. By engaging online between representatives from the SaaS companies and their prospects business can thrive.

How to use LinkedIn for social selling?

Again, it’s all about sales and marketing joining forces.

Marketing researches the targetgroup and knows who are the prospects and can target them with suitable content.

Sales can engage with the prospects on LinkedIn and give them advise about using the SaaS product.

In one of my future blogs I will give you a more detailed social selling strategy for this.

But remember, always have a social selling strategy, also on LinkedIn

Start testing!

But that does not mean you can’t start with social selling on LinkedIn.

Test a few cases and measure the results.

Planning is necessary, but without execution a plan is useless.

Have a great time engaging with your prospects and clients on LinkedIn!