If you starting out in business, which route should you go:
Developing and selling a product or providing services?
The two approaches are fundamentally different.
Developing a product is an idea which sounds great: High growth, high margins, less stress, chances for taking on venture capital, etc.
But what is it really like, especially when you are starting out?
We invited someone on the show that has been doing both, growing a service business model and now branching out by developing a new software-as-service (SaaS) business.
We are speaking with Max Louis, a web agency owner from the South East UK. He and his team are designing websites and 3D art for companies and creatives in the gaming industry.
His agency Max Louis Creative is operating internationally, using a remote team with designers in countries including the UK, USA, South Africa, Argentina, and Columbia.
In 2018, he added a new service of social media marketing into his portfolio, under a newly formed brand “Oleso”. Just last year, he then started working towards turning Oleso from an agency service model into a software product – a very audacious move.
He shares learnings on why the initial Oleso model was tricky: Customer expectation management, pricing and positioning problems, etc.
Max had the plan of creating a scaleable business model for some time, now plans to realize this with Oleso as a SaaS tool. He gives insight into his model of hiring talent, the benefits of managing a remote team, the journey from idea to product and more.
The Oleso promises to be The Social Media Tool to Replace Them All, Built By Social Media Managers For Social Media Managers, an interesting value proposition.
The tool is an evolution from managing social media content marketing for brands, addressing key problems that Max’ team faced themselves.
We talk about:
– How Max manages to run build his new digital business
– How to get beta testers and advertise in the early stages
– Building and managing a global remote team
– Office vs. remote work
– Plans to raise venture capital
– Learnings from building a social media agency
Here are the links to Oleso’s website to check out the tool yourself www.oleso.co and to Max Louis Creative, Max’ web design agency: www.maxlouiscreative.com Enjoy!
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