#53 - Build A Successful Shopify App - Mistakes 🚀

Hey! 😁

Do you know that feeling of unlocking a new step in your business? I just felt that again!

We reached $44,000 MRR with WideBundle/WideReview and I get that feeling every time we reach a new milestone.

Exactly 3 years ago we started WideBundle (in May 2020) and went through different stages to be where I am today!

But if I want to reach the 2023 goal ($60K MRR) I need to do way more…

May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

8 months.

That’s $2000 MRR to add every month.

I won’t lie, at our current speed, we won’t make it. But goals should be complicated.

You have to set goals high enough so you have to fight for it. But not too high so you don’t get discouraged.

But thanks to our plan, we can accelerate. We can go faster! 🚀

And I trust the plan I’ve made.

I already shared the plan in my previous emails but there are 3 stages to reach that goal:

1/ The consolidation stage

We had a list of things we needed to do before going to the next stage.

• Hiring 1 developer ✅

• Hiring 1 customer support agent ✅

• Working and releasing the new app code ✅

• Rewriting and creating the technical documentation 🔃

• Rewriting and creating support processes ✅

I’m finishing the technical documentation. One of the worst parts we all agree. 😂

That stage isn’t for growth. It’s to ensure the building won’t fall during growth.

And then we go to the next stage.

2/ The improvement & the content stage

We start the content stage now but the impact will be for our 3rd one. The problem is that content takes time so you don’t see the results immediately. You have to accept that you need months in order to see the benefits.

And that’s ok.

We also had a few things for that phase, and we’re still on that one:

• Start a TikTok account 🔃

• Start an Instagram account 🔃

• Start a Blog 🔃

• Start a Youtube channel 🔃

• Release highly requested settings 🔃

• Fix common issues 🔃

That stage should prepare the real growth and fix our churn. We should start to see some growth though!

3/ The growth stage

Q4 should be phenomenal. If you have a Shopify App you know that moment of the year is the best one.

Merchants are crazy for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, etc…

And we’ll use that period to ship, ship, ship, and use content.

• Release important requested features 🔃

• Do more content (TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, Blog, etc) 🔃

• Increase prices 🔃

• Release more Shopify Plans 🔃

• Referral Program (maybe) 🔃

And I can’t wait to show you the results!

I’ll finish this email by sharing with your 6 BIG mistakes I’ve made while building my different businesses

6 big mistakes

1/ Not validating my business idea

The first one is a mistake I talk about a lot because this is probably the most important and the mistake everyone will make.

Does that sound familiar?

• You get a business idea

• You spend months working on your idea

• You finally release it

• Nobody shows up…

Here is a better idea:

• You think about an audience

• You search for that audience online and offline

• You spend time with that audience

• You find a problem

• You validate with them the problem

• You build your product

2/ Not tracking my data

In 2017, when I built my first Shopify App, I grew it to $1000 MRR. But not more than that.

And I tried different things. I remember being on my computer, tired, to find something new that I could try.

The reason why I couldn’t grow was simple: I didn’t know what was wrong.

I wasn’t tracking my data, so I didn't know if my activation rate was low, conversion rate, or perhaps my churn, I didn’t know!

3/ Lifetime deals

I built a SaaS business after my 3 Shopify apps and before WideBundle. This was when I didn’t want to build Shopify Apps anymore.

And I built a tool to help merchants find and analyze Instagram influencers.

To get cash quickly I decided to run a lifetime deal. However, the goal was just to earn quick money.

The problem was that users stayed after that quick money, and I had to support them “for free”.

Because a lifetime deal gets you quick money in the short term, but less money in the long term.

4/ Not testing developers

I hired a developer for the WideBundle website a few years ago because I didn’t want to spend time on it myself.

I told myself it was a simple website so I didn’t need to test the developer, etc.

So I hired someone from Upwork who had great reviews.

It was a terrible mistake.

• The website had many problems

• Deadlines not met

So I decided not to hire someone anymore if I’m not 100% sure they can do the job.

5/ Spending too much time building

That problem usually happens with the first one. Spending too much time building because you want to make something “perfect”.

For my first Shopify App I spent not more than 2 weeks to release something. And we grew it to $1000 MRR

For the 2nd and 3rd Shopify apps, that didn’t even work, I spent months building them. Months!

And I never made money.

6/ Building too many features

I’m similar to 5/ but you can build too many features and not spend too much time.

It’s not because it’s quick to add a new feature, that you should do it.

• It adds friction

• Your users have to figure out this feature

It’s something else in your user’s mind. So if that feature isn’t useful and most people don’t want it, it doesn’t make sense to have it.

That’s it for today’s email!

I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to share my newsletter with someone else: https://news.matdesousa.com/

See you next week,

Mat 😁