This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz
by Bryan Liles.
Original Post: The “Common Sense” Startup
Feed Title: Smarticus
Feed URL: http://smartic.us/feed/atom.xml
Feed Description: Ramblings of a ruby hacker
I’m going to describe what I think would be the ultimate company. This company would be self-funded. Not self-funded on the backs of millionaires or Daddy’s money, but really self-funded. The company would actually come into creation with little or no funding. It would be started as some side project or some night time passion. The initial goal of this company wouldn’t be making millions of dollars. There is plenty of time for that later. The initial goal of this company would be first to come up with the simplest idea.
The actual simplest idea that could be created.
There have been too many times in the past where I’ve been on projects where the goals were lofty. These goals were so lofty, there was no way they could be reached. The projects actually failed searching for a problem; never-mind actually coming up with a solution.
Once I was able to visualize this simple idea, I would figure out what the value was. As I see it, things that are worth it have some sort of value. You must charge for your idea. You have to; hopes and dreams don’t pay the mortgage or put food on the table. There will be time for freebies later, but for now, you must offer something, and you must assign value (hopefully monetary value) to it.
Your idea has worth. You know this. So you might as well charge for it.
Now of course I’m going to want to all my friends to work on this project with me. I could offer them fictitious shares of my future fortunes. But I won’t. I can’t spread the pot too thin at first. Also, I don’t want to dilute the value of my idea by having too many cooks stirring the pot. They’ll be plenty of work for them in the future. But now, we must stay focused on our idea.
So we have the idea of something simple that can actually make money. What do we do next? Well we execute on the idea. We work nights and weekends on the project in hopes of getting it up and working in front of people as soon possible. For most of us, illusions of grandeur are the norm. We need to get this in front of real people, who pay us real money, real fast, so we can get real feedback.
After a few months of real people, using your real application, you’ll have real world experience. Sure, you wrote this application to scratch you own itch. Isn’t it satisfying to have people pay you to do something you actually did for yourself?
Put it out there and let people kick it around. Ideas are cheap. Execution pays the bills.
You’ve been doing your own thing for a while? Doesn’t it feel good to create something for yourself? No silly coworkers. No inept management. No pointless meetings. Could it have been this easy the entire time? I’m sure it could have.
The only thing stopping you from starting that next business is you. Look in the mirror and tell yourself to get started.
We need to get real. How easy is it to actually make money off your own product? Let’s say you have a service that you offer for $50/month. $50 isn’t that much for a service that has some value is it? If you find 150 people or companies to pay you per month, you’ll gross $90,000 a year. Now this isn’t much money of course. You’ll most likely have to pay for some sort of hardware or some sort of integration or some sort of hosting, and some to the government, so of course you won’t pocket all that money. But $90,000 is $90,000 more than you had before you started your business. And for some, this might be enough money for them to quit their day job, so they can focus on increasing the value of their simple idea.
This might might not be enough for others. Others have kids, and spouses, and cars, and houses. What can those people do with $90,000? The answer is quite simple: You can save it. After a while your savings will grow. And since you already have a day job, you don’t even have to spend any of this money. The day will come when you have at least 6 months of expenses in the bank. The day will come when you tell The Man that working for him has been fun, but you will be moving on, and there is no counter-offer that will keep you from pursuing your dream.
Do I still have your attention? Are your imaginations piqued? What are you doing still reading this? Go out and create something already!
And remember this:
If you are worried if someone will actually pay to use your product or idea, it probably isn’t good enough. You have to convince yourself before you can convince others.
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