How Our Bootstrapped Platform With Legal Documents Templates Hit 10,000 Users
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hi everyone! My name is Nguyen Thanh Nga, and I am the co-founder of Templatesgo.com, a company that was founded in June 2022 to create a document generator for legal documents and easing users’ writing process.
Our focus has been on developing a simple, yet effective editable documents tool that is easy to use for people who may not be tech-savvy. We offer a wide range of legal documents in three main categories: real estate, business, and personal documents. These include everything from legal contracts to formal letters.
Since starting our business six months ago, we have been working on building up our product and have already gained 10,000 users per month. We are excited to continue growing and helping people easily create the legal documents they need.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I am originally from Vietnam and have been living in Barcelona since 2018. Before starting my own business, I spent over eight years working in the supply chain industry as a logistics and export manager. While living in Barcelona, I also had the opportunity to study for my master's degree and work as a short-term intern at a startup company, where I was able to build my network and gain valuable experience.
Despite my professional background and experience working as an export manager in Barcelona, I decided to leave my job in February 2022 to pursue my dream of starting my own business. It was a difficult decision, but I am excited about the challenges and opportunities ahead as I work to grow my own company.
The idea for the Templatesgo platform came to me when I was creating an invitation letter with my partner. We found it time-consuming to search for examples, copy and paste, and write an entire formal letter, and we thought there must be a better way.
That's when we came up with the idea of creating a tool to help people like us create documents more efficiently. In my previous job, I also had to create contracts, addendums, and formal letters, so I knew firsthand the time and effort it took to research and create legal documents. That's why I decided to start a business that would make it easier for people to create various types of formal documents with an easy-to-use, editable tool.
While the legal documents generator industry is competitive, there are also growth opportunities. Our main competitors focus on traditional legal contracts and agreements for business and real estate, but I want to focus on all types of paperwork that various industries may need.
For example, we recently started offering a visa letter to travel to the USA and have been getting good traffic from it. I have decided to focus on digital marketing and content creation, while my team works on developing the software for our platform.
Starting a business from the ground up is never easy, but I have learned so much along the way. Each day brings new challenges and opportunities for growth.
It has certainly been a bumpy road at times, but seeing how useful our platform is to our users makes it all worth it. Throughout my career, I have learned the importance of resilience and patience. These qualities are essential for anyone looking to succeed in the business world, and I believe they have played a key role in helping me navigate the challenges I have faced as an entrepreneur.
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
Creating and designing a digital product can be a huge challenge, but at Templatesgo, we have a highly experienced CTO who has been working in the tech industry for over 14 years. He was instrumental in building our editable document tool system, and we continuously work to improve and enhance its features.
We met at an incubator in Barcelona in 2018, and we are good partners since then. He is not only CTO but also my mentor.
It took us about six months to create and test the product, ironing out any bugs before launching it to attract early-adopter customers.
We are confident in the quality and reliability of our product thanks to the expertise of our CTO and the dedication of our team. Even though our company is fully remoted, we maintain a great workflow and teamwork through Trello for daily tasks and Telegram for team management and communication.
Describe the process of launching the business.
From the beginning, we created our website as an informative blog and used SEO tools to define which target audiences and content we would focus on.
Our strategy has been to create a variety of content with less competitive, lower-volume keywords to establish a strong presence in a small niche.
The very first articles we published were about invitation letter for US visa, and immigration letter of support that we targeted the same keywords of the titles.
For example, we picked up long tail kw “immigration letter of support”, instead of using a difficult keyword such as “character reference letter” in this cluster. It is challenging for a new business because they can not compete in keywords with high volume and difficulty with other businesses.
Once we identified which types of content were most effective in attracting early-adopter customers, we continued to develop our editable document tools and create more templates for our users. Our tool was launched after we had created more than 50 different topics for legal documents.
Currently, our main focus is attracting more new users through organic searches on Google and Bing, while also continuing to do marketing on social media and building backlinks.
We started our business as a bootstrapped company, financing everything ourselves. So far, the cost of development has been around $6,000 per month as the labor and operation cost to support this project. We are applying to join an incubator in Barcelona and Seed Funding Venture Program for Entrepreneurs, Seedrocket to raise funds this year.
One big lesson I have learned from the launch is the importance of testing and user experience (UX). It's crucial to "put yourself in their shoes" and understand the needs of our users. By considering their perspective and making sure our product is easy and enjoyable to use, we can create a better experience for them and increase the chances of success for our business.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
When we started our marketing efforts, we chose Pinterest as our primary channel.
Our goal was to create professional document templates, and we found that Pinterest was a great platform to reach users looking for exactly that. The below image is our current analytics overview on Pinterest.
To this day, we continue to update our templates daily and are always looking for ways to expand our business and increase brand awareness on different social media channels. We are constantly looking for new opportunities to reach a wider audience and showcase our products and services.
Our strategy for attracting customers includes using targeted Facebook Ads and partnerships with blogger websites talking about visas, traveling, and businesses whose users may benefit from our service.
In addition, we have spent a lot of time creating high-quality legal templates and optimizing our editable document tool to be user-friendly.
The core of the business is to save our users time by providing simple, easy-to-use tools and avoiding complicated functions that they may not need. We focus on providing a limited selection of professional fonts and simple text-editing tools for legal documents, helping users avoid the time-consuming process of creating these documents from scratch. For that reason, we are not only attracting our current customers to stay with us but also more new customers visiting. Whether it's through Pinterest or other platforms, we are always striving to grow and reach new customers.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
We are growing in SEO and implementing a new strategy to increase organic search!!!!!
Our short-term goals now are to attract more users by offering freemium to use of our platform while creating more content related to Business, Real Estate, and Personal documents.
Meanwhile, we keep developing the products to be more efficient and the design of the website. We believe that providing easy access to complicated and legal documents is a major benefit for them, and we are always looking for ways to improve based on their feedback and usage of our site for the long term.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
As founders, we always try to remain optimistic, even on tough days or when we face challenges in the business. Mistakes are bound to happen, but it's through these experiences that we learn and grow. So, we encourage everyone to stay positive and believe in themselves.
Resilience is key in entrepreneurship. Your business may face setbacks, but it's important to view them as learning experiences and continue on your chosen path. The road to success may be long, with numerous obstacles such as financial challenges along the way. However, if you stay prepared, keep learning, and never give up, you will eventually achieve your goals.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
We have developed our platform and utilize WordPress for blogging, Trello, and Telegram for team management, Google Analytics, Google Console, and various SEO tools like Sistrix and SEMrush. We also use Edit.org, a professional design platform with a user-friendly system, for design purposes.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
I love Tim Ferris's podcast, and the book The 4-hour workweek changed my mindset on entrepreneurship.
Furthermore, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman is a book that has had a profound impact on my life and personality. In it, Goleman explains the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership and today's modern world. He identifies four essential components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
These skills are crucial for anyone looking to be an effective leader and navigate the challenges of the modern world. Whether you're in a leadership position or just looking to improve your relationships, developing your emotional intelligence can make a big difference.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Being an entrepreneur is never easy; it is a long run with risks. Many people give up halfway and struggle before they can see the light. It's important to be prepared to face obstacles and overcome them, both financially and mentally.
Don't be afraid to fail - view it as a learning experience and stay strong. No matter how many times you may stumble, the most important thing is to keep bouncing back and staying determined to achieve your goals.
Entrepreneurship requires perseverance and resilience, and the rewards can be well worth the effort. Even on tough days or when you lack inspiration, make sure to do at least one task. This way, at the end of the day, you can look back and see that you have accomplished something. And remember, compound interest always pays off in the long run!
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We are looking for content writers and marketing freelancers to help us develop social media marketing and expand our business with business and visa content.
Where can we go to learn more?
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If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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