Small business SaaS is a different game from enterprise software. The economics demand multi-tenancy. The customers demand simplicity. The market demands Australian-specific features that global platforms ignore.
Building for this segment requires specific architectural choices.
The Multi-Tenant Imperative
Small businesses can't pay enterprise prices. A driving school with three instructors isn't spending $500/month on scheduling software. A sole trader contractor isn't paying for Salesforce.
This means the unit economics only work with multi-tenancy—many customers sharing infrastructure, with costs distributed across the customer base.
But multi-tenancy creates challenges:
Data isolation: Customer A must never see Customer B's data. This sounds obvious but gets complex with shared databases, caching layers, and search indexes.
Performance isolation: One customer's heavy usage shouldn't degrade performance for others. The "noisy neighbour" problem is real.
Customisation limits: Each tenant wants their own configuration, but unlimited customisation destroys the efficiency gains of shared infrastructure.
Compliance complexity: When regulators ask where Customer A's data is stored, "mixed in with everyone else's" isn't an acceptable answer.
Tenant Isolation Patterns
There's a spectrum of isolation approaches:
Shared everything: Single database, single schema, tenant ID column on every table. Maximum efficiency, minimum isolation. Works for low-sensitivity data with trusted tenants.
Schema per tenant: Shared database server, separate schema per customer. Better isolation, more complex migrations, moderate overhead.
Database per tenant: Each customer gets their own database. Strong isolation, expensive at scale, complex operations.
Instance per tenant: Dedicated infrastructure per customer. Maximum isolation, enterprise pricing required.
For small business SaaS, the sweet spot is usually shared database with strong application-layer isolation—enforced tenant context on every query, row-level security where the database supports it, and careful attention to any shared state.
Australian-Specific Considerations
Building for Australian small businesses means handling:
ABN validation: Every business customer needs ABN lookup and validation. This isn't optional.
GST handling: Invoicing must handle GST correctly, including GST-free supplies and the complexity of input tax credits.
State variations: Business registration, licensing, and compliance vary by state. Software needs to accommodate this.
Bank feeds: Australian businesses expect bank integration. The major banks have specific APIs and requirements.
Single Touch Payroll: If your SaaS touches payroll in any way, STP compliance is mandatory.
Global SaaS platforms treat these as edge cases. For Australian small business software, they're core requirements.
The Onboarding Challenge
Small business customers have limited patience for complex onboarding. They're not going to spend hours configuring software or attending training sessions.
This means:
- Sensible defaults that work for most customers
- Progressive disclosure of advanced features
- Self-service setup that actually works
- Immediate value from first use
The temptation is to add features that enterprise customers request. But every feature adds complexity that makes onboarding harder for the small business majority.
Operational Reality
Running multi-tenant SaaS means:
Monitoring per tenant: Aggregate metrics hide tenant-specific problems. You need visibility into individual tenant health.
Careful deployments: A bug that affects all tenants simultaneously is a company-ending event. Canary deployments and feature flags are essential.
Support at scale: Small businesses expect responsive support but can't pay for dedicated account managers. Self-service tools and efficient support workflows matter.
Billing complexity: Usage-based pricing, plan upgrades, prorations, failed payments—billing for thousands of small customers is operationally intensive.
The DrivingPro Architecture
When we built DrivingPro, we made deliberate choices for the Australian small business market:
- Shared database with strict tenant isolation at the application layer
- Australian hosting (Sydney region) for data sovereignty
- Pre-built integrations with Australian-specific services
- Mobile-first design for instructors in the field
- Pricing that works for single-instructor schools up to multi-location operations
These aren't the choices a global platform would make. They're the choices that make sense for Australian driving schools specifically.
Building for the Market
The Australian small business SaaS market is underserved. Global platforms don't invest in Australian-specific features. Local alternatives often lack the technical sophistication of well-funded overseas competitors.
There's opportunity for platforms that combine modern multi-tenant architecture with deep understanding of Australian business requirements. That's what we're building across the Muon portfolio.