Software as a business is not the same sport as writing software. I say this after a long night of shipping a tiny feature, answering support at odd hours, and staring at a graph that refuses to climb. If you are coding your heart out and still feeling stuck, this is for you. The trenches teach different lessons than conference slides. Let me share what keeps working, what keeps hurting, and where to put your next hour so your app moves from project to business.
Build for revenue, not rounds of applause
People love to cheer new features. Money shows up for solved pains. The switch from project to software business happens when you pick a clear job to be done and keep shaving time off that job. In my case it was helping small teams collect feedback and turn it into clean tasks. Every decision got filtered by one question: will this help a customer finish that job faster today.
Time to first win matters. Cut your sign up into the shortest possible path. Ask for the minimum info. Drop any field that does not help the first session. Use a guided first run that shows the one action that unlocks value. A prompt like Do you want to import three items from your last spreadsheet right now beats a tour of twenty buttons.
Track the basics. Do not wait for fancy dashboards. A spreadsheet with daily counts of visits, signups, first key action, active users, and paid accounts can steer the ship. Google Analytics tells you where people came from. Website Optimizer can run simple split tests. Crazy Egg shows where clicks die. None of this sells by itself. It just stops you from guessing.
Feature choice gets easier when you price. Pricing forces clarity. If a feature does not move someone from free trial to paid, it is probably a toy. If a feature makes a paid plan look obvious, ship it sooner. As you trim, keep a small backlog for customer nickels. Those tiny requests that reduce friction earn trust and cut support.
Pricing, recurring revenue, and the churn punch
The web is pushing us toward subscriptions. The math is simple. Monthly recurring revenue gives you predictability and lets you invest ahead of time. One time licenses spike then fade. Subscriptions spread the joy and the fear. You have to earn the renewal every month.
Pick a pricing unit that matches value. Seats if collaboration is the core. Projects or records if storage is the pain. Requests if you are an API. Avoid math you cannot explain in one sentence. Keep three plans. A simple starter, a plan that fits most, and a high plan for teams with more serious needs. Leave room above that for deals you negotiate by email. You do not need a wall of plan names.
Trials still work. My rule of thumb: ask for a card only if your app is sticky in the first week. If you need time to onboard, go card later. Send a day two email that shows the next tiny win. Send a week one email with a short success story from a real customer. Keep it human. No buzzwords. People smell scripts.
Churn hurts more than you expect. It is a slow leak that undoes your best days. Reasons hide in support threads and quiet accounts. Call three canceled users each week. Keep it short and friendly. Where did we fall short. What did you try to do. What did you pick instead. Trend those notes. You will find one fix that saves ten future accounts.
Payments are still a bit clunky today. PayPal and Authorize Net get the job done. Google Checkout is around too. You will fight gateway quirks, declines, and tax questions. Keep refunds fast and polite. A clean refund wins more word of mouth than an ad. Add a tiny in app note that shows the next billing date. Surprises cause tickets and cancellations.
Hosting, reliability, and support that feels like a feature
We finally have real choices for hosting. Some teams are moving early workloads to EC2 and S3. Others stay on managed servers at places like Rackspace or slice style providers. Pick what you can run at 3 a.m. after two coffees. Uptime is part of your product. Your brand is tied to that green light.
Backups are not a todo. They are a habit. Automate daily database dumps, test a restore every week, and keep an off site copy. Write down your deploy steps and cut them in half. Log errors to a mailbox you actually read. Ship a tiny status page on a separate host. When things wobble, talk quickly and plainly. People forgive short outages. They do not forgive silence.
Support is the new marketing. The iPhone launch made everyone raise the bar for polish and speed. The Facebook platform taught small teams that reach can arrive in a day. When your support answers are fast, clear, and kind, users tell friends. Use a simple shared inbox. Tag trends. Write help docs that read like you speak. Record a two minute screencast only if it keeps support down. Keep your contact link visible in the app. You are not a fortress.
Hire late. Document early. A short runbook beats another engineer you cannot yet afford. If you must pick one early spend, pick design polish on the first five screens. The first screens sell the next thirty days. The rest can grow with the customer.
What the trenches changed in my head
From features to outcomes. I used to ask what can we build. Now I ask what outcome will a paying customer reach this week.
From launches to loops. A big release day feels sweet. The steady loop of measure talk fix wins the month. Quiet loops beat loud launches.
From traffic to traction. AdWords and blog links spike traffic. Traction means that a newcomer signs up, finds value, pays, and returns. Track that chain.
From tools to habits. Rails, Django, or .NET do not decide success. Daily habits like talking to users, pruning scope, and shipping small changes do.
From secrecy to sharing. I used to hide everything. Sharing roadmaps, pricing thoughts, and reasons for changes brought in smarter feedback and better trust.
Practical checklist for running software as a business
- Write a one line promise that says what job you solve and for whom. Put it on the signup page.
- Map your funnel: visits, signups, first key action, active after one week, paid. Track it daily in a simple sheet.
- Cut signup to the bare minimum. Name and email may be enough to start.
- Guide the first session to a clear win. One action. One result. No tours of every corner.
- Pick a pricing unit tied to value. Keep three plans with simple limits.
- Send two trial emails that show wins, not features. Keep them personal with a real name and reply address.
- Call three churned users every week. Trend the reasons and fix one root cause each sprint.
- Automate backups and test a restore every week. Store one copy off site.
- Publish a simple status page on a separate host and link it in the app footer.
- Log errors somewhere you read daily and fix the top repeaters first.
- Set a tiny support target: first reply in under four hours during weekdays. Write macros only after you have written the human answer.
- Spend a day on your first five screens. They sell the trial and the first bill.
- Run one small split test at a time on headlines or signup steps. Keep notes so you remember what you tried.
- Review referral sources weekly. Double down on the two that bring activated users, not just visitors.
- Make refunds easy and fast. Thank people for trying. Leave the door open.
- Create a short runbook for deploys, outages, and billing questions. Share it with the team.
- Keep a tiny customer council of five users you can email for raw feedback before you ship a change.
Software as a business rewards teams that focus on outcomes, steady loops, and care for customers. There is no silver bullet. There is a checklist and a calendar. Pick one item and move it today.
Ship small, talk often, charge fairly.