MBA1979 How to Be in the Software Business Without a Software

Let me tell you about Intuit QuickBooks. When I was starting out my business, I remember sitting at my desk late at night not working on my business but cleaning up numbers, tracking and reconciling payments and wondering how this became my life. But once I automated the admin side of things of my finances, those nights had disappeared and I felt a whole lot better. Outdo it with intuit QuickBooks QuickBooks is the trusted end to end solution that businesses rely on for getting paid, managing finances, paying employees, finding new customers, and more. QuickBooks provides a team of AI agents and trusted experts, so doing it yourself no longer means doing it alone. Their payment agent gets you paid faster, their customer agent finds leads, follows up and secures more sales, and the accounting agent automates and categorizes transactions. Get your critical business jobs done with QuickBooks on the Intuit platform. Ready to save on new Tech? It's time for Dell Tech Day's annual sales event celebrating our customers with fantastic deals and benefits. Perks include Dell Rewards, free shipping, premium support, and more. PCs like the Dell 14 with Intel Core Ultra processors will help you do more faster, and with a premium suite of monitors and accessories, you can upgrade your whole setup with amazing savings. Visit Dell.com deals. Hey yo. Welcome to the $100 MBA show, the business podcast that keeps you going every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started with my co founder back in 2014. And in today's episode you will learn how to be in the software business without a software what if I told you you can make reoccurring revenue selling software without having to build the software, maintain it, worry about bugs, customer service refunds, hiring a team, motivating that team to make a great software. Well, you actually can. And there are thousands of entrepreneurs that do this every single day. They recognize the power of a SaaS business, which is software as a service. You know what I'm talking about. Apps that you pay for, whether they're web apps or mobile apps on a monthly basis so you can have access to them whether they're email marketing software like mailchimp, a landing page builder, a scheduling app. I can go on and on. The reason why people are so attracted to SaaS businesses is the reoccurring revenue model. The they work hard to get a customer and that customer continues to pay them month over month. But building a software business that provides an incredible solution to a problem in a reliable fashion is not easy. But you can tap into this business by just focusing on the marketing and sales part of it. I'll explain in today's lesson. You can earn recurring revenue selling a product that is already solving people's problems, that is already popular, that is already a household name, and continue to get reoccurring revenue into your bank account month over month. Because of that effort, I'm going to break it down in today's lesson. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business.

ADP knows anything can change the world of work. Like what if a blocked shipping port caused a worldwide coffee shortage? Suddenly, businesses are scrambling to manage an increasingly drowsy workforce. Productivity slips 20% just due to the extended time it takes to conduct a job interview while yawning. Anything can change the world of work. From HR to payroll. ADP helps businesses take on the next anything. ADP always designing for people.

As many of you know, I run a software business and it is a lot of work. It's been a lot of work for the last almost eight years now. It took a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of money, a lot of skills. Not only my own, but other people that I had to hire. And even with all that, you still need to make sure you create something that solves a problem properly so you actually make sales. So when a company does this, it's actually a lot of work and they've taken on a lot of risk to get to the point where they have a product that people want and they're selling it month over month. Now, if you want to get into the software business without taking on all that risk, you can actually by becoming a partner or ambassador or affiliate of of that software. Most popular software services have some sort of partnership or affiliate program. If you go to their website, just head on to their footer menu. There should be a link there. If not, Google it. All the major players out there do this because they want an army of people selling their product. So what's in it for you? Well, for most SaaS businesses, they're willing to part with a percentage of commission for every sale. And most of them will pay you reoccurring commissions on every customer that pays every single month. So say, for example, you bring in a customer that is paying $100 a month for a product and that software company says, hey, I'm going to give you 25% recurring commission on every sale. So that one customer you just made $25 every single month. As long as that customer is continuing to be a customer and continuing to pay for for their service, you will continue to get paid that commission. And all you did is bring that customer to that software company. All you need to focus on is bringing in that customer with your affiliate link after you've brought in the customer and made the sale, that's it. The software company takes care of everything else, serving that customer, fulfilling them, customer service, all that kind of stuff, even all the post sale stuff, like if they upsell them to a higher plan, many times you will reap the benefits as that customer continues to spend more. Now every affiliate program partnership is different. Their commission percentages will be different. Even some of them will give you a hefty commission to bring in the customer. But there's no reoccurring revenue. You need to read the details of every program. But regardless, all you need to do is to make sure you convey the value of this product to your audience. So your job is to grow your audience. And you could do this with content, right? With a podcast, with a popular blog, with a YouTube channel. There are people that make a healthy living on affiliate commission like this with a YouTube channel. They review products, they review software, they go through walkthroughs, they do comparisons. Also unboxing videos. Those are affiliate links that are in the description. So your job in this equation is to promote, is to show, is to educate, is to drive traffic to that software with your affiliate link. And if they buy, you get a commission. One of the strategies I recommend is that you niche down on a type of market that'd be interested in the type of software you'll be selling. For example, let's say you're going to focus on software that photographers need, professional photographers that make their money with their photography skills, right? So there's going to be plenty of software that they're going to need, whether it's to run their business, their website, their billing, their accounting, processing their photos, sending photos across to their clients, client management software, all that kind of stuff. So if you focus on niche, it's going to be much easier for you to convert because you're talking specifically to an audience member. And it's much easier for you to do well with search engine optimization, whether it's on YouTube or Google or whatever. Now how do you choose this niche? Well, I highly recommend you choose a niche you're very familiar with. Maybe you're a member of that group, you have some experience, you speak their language. This is going to optimize your chance to convert on your recommendations that people come in, they see recommendations, they get you, they feel like you get them, and they're willing to try what you're offering or what you're recommending. The next tip I recommend is you start with one software, okay? Don't try to do a million in one day. Just focus on going all in on one software and optimize your conversions. For example, a lot of great affiliate marketers when it comes to SaaS, they do a series walking them through how to use the software, how to utilize it, how to achieve certain goals with this software. So let's go with a photographer example. You're recommending a website building tool and you show them with this software. Hey, you need a portfolio on your website. Let's build your portfolio. This is how you build your portfolio with this tool. Here's a tutorial. Next video. You want to share what's going on on social media, right? Your Twitter feed or maybe your Instagram feed. This is how you add the widget on your website. The point here is, is that you become the authority for photographers with this software and everybody buys three through your link. My next tip is, regardless if you're doing podcast episodes or writing blog posts or doing videos, be transparent about what you're doing. Flat out say, hey, I'm an ambassador of this product. I am an affiliate. Yes, I get a commission when you click on my link, but I'm doing it. And I chose this product because I know it works. I'm a user. This is why I create all these tutorials. This is why I show it to you. I was where you were before and I wish somebody just told me what to use. So I'm telling you what to use. Use this product. Get in front of it. Make sure people know that you're not afraid to be honest about the situation. You're not trying to hide the fact you are selling this product and recommending it for commission.

ADP knows anything can change the world of work. Like what if a blocked shipping port caused a worldwide coffee shortage? Suddenly, businesses are scrambling to manage an increasingly drowsy workforce. Productivity slips 20% just due to the extended time it takes to conduct a job interview while yawning. Anything can change the world of work. From HR to payroll. ADP helps businesses take on the next anything. ADP always designing for people.

One of the things I highly recommend when it comes to increasing your sales as an affiliate, as a partner of a SaaS program is to provide extra value to the customers you refer this can mean that you give them bonuses if they use your affiliate link. If they sign up with your affiliate link, you might want to give them maybe. And this could be something as simple as, you know, having them be a part of your mastermind group or your Slack channel where people can learn from each other. You might invite them to a monthly webinar where you do some coaching. You might give them access to an online course you created that is helpful for them. The point here is that you're not only giving extra value for them to go with you and go through your affiliate link, but also you're trying your best to make sure they're successful with the software, right? Because you want them to continue to use it and continue to give you affiliate commission, right? So this will allow you to continue to build upon your revenue as a partner, as an ambassador, as an affiliate of a software program. Listen, Shameless Plug, if you're looking for a software you want to become an affiliate of and start getting into the software game, we have an affiliate program at Webinar Ninja. You can check it out@webinarninja.com there's a link in the footer, or you can go straight to webinarninja.com affiliate program. All the details are there. How to sign up. We even provide lots of marketing materials, images and videos and email copy and everything you need to be successful. That wraps up today's lesson. I hope you loved it. Don't forget to hit, subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss an episode. Tomorrow is Q and A Wednesday, where we answer a question from one of our listeners. We answer a question from a listener that just got offered a promotion and they were just planning to leave their job in a month's time to start their own business. They ask, what should I do? We get into that question in tomorrow's episode, so tune in for that. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Many people use the affiliate model, especially reoccurring commission, to fund their next business, to fund their business idea, their startup. They start with that, they build an audience, and then they build their own product with the commission they make. And often those products or that new business that they're going to start is in the same niche, in the same audience that they serve with the affiliate programs or the affiliate products that they recommend. This is a great way for you to get some startup capital for your next business. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

Of ADP knows anything can change the world of work. Like what if a blocked shipping port caused a worldwide coffee shortage? Suddenly, businesses are scrambling to manage an increasingly drowsy workforce. Productivity slips 20% just due to the extended time it takes to conduct a job interview while yawning. Anything can change the world of work. From HR to payroll. ADP helps businesses take on the next anything. ADP always designing for people.