I agree with the others, 3 to 4 months is nothing. As a comparison, it took my current company 2+ years to make enough money that I could live on and 5+ year in order for me to call it a success. Many times during this 5 year period we thought about closing our doors but we knew we had something, the problem was that what we were selling wasn't exactly what our customers wanted. We pivoted a few times and finally something hit. We haven't looked back ever since.
You are probably right that inventory systems are awful for small to medium businesses, so you have a business somewhere. There are others in your space so that always good validation (http://tradegecko.com).
This is what I would do:
1. Learn everything you need to know about the inventory pipeline within small businesses. How they order stock, warehouse it, receive orders, ship it, etc..
2. Blog the living hell out of what these small companies do and how you can make their lives better. This will help your SEO which in my experience is much better than AdWords.
3. If you don't already have one, produce a roadmap for your product. You won't always be able to stick to your roadmap but making one will do the following:
- Help you understand how different you are compared to your competitors. What makes you (or will make you) so special? Why should I buy from you?
- Help with conversations with potential customers that you are committed to them in the long term by showing them a roadmap.
4. Stop blogging about how you failed. I don't want to buy a product from a company that may close tomorrow because they're going to fail!!! I want to buy a product from a company that screams success. Your customers don't give a shit about how bad you are at business, they care about solving their problems.
5. Keep your product simple, be great at solving one need. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't add a contact manager if you're customers are asking for one, but that the contact manager you add isn't at the same level as salesforce has it!
6. Get known in the inventory management community. You'd be surprised how small and thigh nit these communities are. Sure IBM is huge, but they only have a handful of individuals performing outreach.
7. PR, PR, and more PR. Bug the living crap out of every tech blog, inventory management blog (big enterprise types and small types) and every other blog that fits. Don't pitch them "Have you heard about us!?",. Pitch them stories that their users want to read, and by the way, you got your data from Rakasheets.
8. Slowly integrate with e-stores and shopping cart platforms such as shopify.
9. Last thing, be patient! A company isn't built in 3 to 4 months, it's built with years of sweat and most importantly love for what you do. You built a product, which is far more than the majority of the people hanging around here have done. Be proud and "grind" on.
Generally excellent, but you have to believe in what you're doing too; doesn't matter what industry you're in, you have to believe in what you're doing.
You are probably right that inventory systems are awful for small to medium businesses, so you have a business somewhere. There are others in your space so that always good validation (http://tradegecko.com).
This is what I would do:
1. Learn everything you need to know about the inventory pipeline within small businesses. How they order stock, warehouse it, receive orders, ship it, etc..
2. Blog the living hell out of what these small companies do and how you can make their lives better. This will help your SEO which in my experience is much better than AdWords.
3. If you don't already have one, produce a roadmap for your product. You won't always be able to stick to your roadmap but making one will do the following:
- Help you understand how different you are compared to your competitors. What makes you (or will make you) so special? Why should I buy from you?
- Help with conversations with potential customers that you are committed to them in the long term by showing them a roadmap.
4. Stop blogging about how you failed. I don't want to buy a product from a company that may close tomorrow because they're going to fail!!! I want to buy a product from a company that screams success. Your customers don't give a shit about how bad you are at business, they care about solving their problems.
5. Keep your product simple, be great at solving one need. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't add a contact manager if you're customers are asking for one, but that the contact manager you add isn't at the same level as salesforce has it!
6. Get known in the inventory management community. You'd be surprised how small and thigh nit these communities are. Sure IBM is huge, but they only have a handful of individuals performing outreach.
7. PR, PR, and more PR. Bug the living crap out of every tech blog, inventory management blog (big enterprise types and small types) and every other blog that fits. Don't pitch them "Have you heard about us!?",. Pitch them stories that their users want to read, and by the way, you got your data from Rakasheets.
8. Slowly integrate with e-stores and shopping cart platforms such as shopify.
9. Last thing, be patient! A company isn't built in 3 to 4 months, it's built with years of sweat and most importantly love for what you do. You built a product, which is far more than the majority of the people hanging around here have done. Be proud and "grind" on.
Good luck!