Exit Plans?

[willendure]

Get out of the IT stuff!!!!! Oh and stay there!
The problem you will have with the software is selling it. Thats the hard bit
For you the easy bit will be writing the software. Everything else will push that out of kilter.
Look at everything that is being said here about the sector and its issues. I think trying to find a safe harbour in the sector just isnt feasible any more.

I know, I have seen it in the few smaller companies I have worked for that are trying to do that - software is a hard sell most of the time.

I also once worked for the dominant player in the smart meter market. When they brought out their next generation product it was interesting to learn that that was also a hard sell - even though the prior generation they had sold something like 400 million units! It really came down to nickels and dimes on the unit cost when the business was hoping to get a bigger margin with the next gen product that could do some incredibly sophisticated stuff.

But thanks for pointing that out, its not a great plan.

I need to think about how I end up writing software for a business that I have a stake in that is not in the software business, but some other business area that is growing or at least viable.

[edison]

I'd be very careful about moving into leisure - pubs, restaurants etc. at the moment.
Many of them are having a very difficult time of it with fewer customers and higher costs for staff and produce.
Brewery owned pubs are even worse - they'll take your money, force you to buy their high cost products then boot you out when you can't turn a profit and start again.

Leisure is a very cyclical sector whose success is very dependent on consumer confidence and the overall state of the economy. With wages being a high proportion of total costs, the recent budget increases to employer's NI etc are going to make wafer thin profit margins even lower.

Throw in Gen Z's appetite for nightlife/alcohol falling rapidly and it's a sector that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole. Your only chance IMHO is if you can establish and/or address a really well defined market niche that is growing well. Board game cafes, beer/food halls and game bars seem to be doing well. There are other opportunities too.

[edison]

Another option that I have always wanted to explore is to create some kind of software product - so move from contracting and writing software for other people, to having my own product. I think doing that as a one man band is doomed to failure. Contract one before the current one, I spent 3 years working for a start up that was developing an innovative product from scratch. From the headcount alone I estimate they must have put > £3 million into it and that is with £0 in sales during those 3 years.

Any thoughts on going down this route? Try and find a local or national level entrepeneurs group and see if I can find a few others that I could combine my more technical skillset with business, marketing and fundraising skills. Doesn't seem quite the right time to be launching a startup right now, maybe 2 or 3 years down the line conditions might be better.

I think most successful startup investors today would dismiss any kind of startup that blew £3m and three years developing a product with not a single customer sale.

Selling software is not the hard part. The hard part, especially for typical techie minded founders, is identifying an actual customer problem to solve, identifying the realistic total addressable market and establishing product market fit.

I've mentored several small startup founders and they often think in terms of a product and engineering first, not understanding customer needs and problems.

Good startups now rapidly prototype a product and get constant feedback from potential and actual customers. In many cases, time to revenue, even with a very basic product is months or even weeks now, not multiple years.

The other big challenge is there isn't much seed funding around any more and VCs are mostly only interested in investing in companies that are potentially going to be worth many millions.

There are plenty of small niches that could potentially be profitably addressed. I was reading about an example of a window cleaner who founded a successfully growing software startup addressing the needs of similar small service based businesses.

[secwombat]

If it appeals then look into it and try and find one. Mystery shop other garden centres, see what works and does not. The customer mix is always good. You find one that dosen't have a good food offer, put one in if you can, extra profit, the much older market, love stopping for food and drink at these places and don't mind paying a reasonable price for it. Depending on locality make it a semi premium/premium offer. Location is paramount with any Business to Consumer business where the customer visits you.

Interesting item, given that I was at an AGM for a garden centre group yesterday. Pretty iffy territory currently - the NI / minimum wage increases and incoming business rates review are (or will) destroying a lot of the independent centre's profit, and the bigger groups are often saddled with debt, meaning they probably aren't long to go as well.

[willendure]

Interesting item, given that I was at an AGM for a garden centre group yesterday. Pretty iffy territory currently - the NI / minimum wage increases and incoming business rates review are (or will) destroying a lot of the independent centre's profit, and the bigger groups are often saddled with debt, meaning they probably aren't long to go as well.

Yeah retail sounds tough. You bring up a good point about bigger players with debt because any smaller retail has to compete with private equity which can use debt to juice the bigger players that they are backing.

There is a garden centre I admire - good location on a very busy road, but in an unglamorous part of town where rents and land are cheaper. Its set back from the road, the growing areas are mostly poly tunnels and the shop is in a permanent building but it is quite shed like in its construction but also a nice light space. Small cafe with a little outdoor area also. Sells good quality stuff, a little expensive but not as bad as bigger chains like Dobbies. Always plenty people in there browsing, I think their turnover will be doing ok.

I'm always keeping my eye open now for spaces with commercial potential or trying to understand what potential looks like.

Social spaces for the younger generation are changing, I agree, things like board game cafes or food courts. I think that kind of business can benefit from being driven by younger people who understand their own crowd better, or that kind of energy being part of the leadership mix anyway.

That does give me an ineresting thought thought - father/son businesses - because I wonder how-on-earth my kids generation are going to find the whole higher education/coming into the workforce transition compared to mine. Looks way tougher for younger people to gain their independance now. Maybe I could bring the capital and my sons could bring the energy to some business venture.

[willendure]

I think most successful startup investors today would dismiss any kind of startup that blew £3m and three years developing a product with not a single customer sale.

Selling software is not the hard part. The hard part, especially for typical techie minded founders, is identifying an actual customer problem to solve, identifying the realistic total addressable market and establishing product market fit.

I've mentored several small startup founders and they often think in terms of a product and engineering first, not understanding customer needs and problems.

Good startups now rapidly prototype a product and get constant feedback from potential and actual customers. In many cases, time to revenue, even with a very basic product is months or even weeks now, not multiple years.

The other big challenge is there isn't much seed funding around any more and VCs are mostly only interested in investing in companies that are potentially going to be worth many millions.

There are plenty of small niches that could potentially be profitably addressed. I was reading about an example of a window cleaner who founded a successfully growing software startup addressing the needs of similar small service based businesses.

You've nailed it, no sales because it solved a problem that no-one knew they had.

[NotAllThere]

When the firm I work for was set up, they already had some customers for the software I wrote, as they started as a consultancy. Also, we use the software in consultancy projects; customers often buy it for their own use. But it wasn't until we got in decent salesfolk and marketing that things really took off.

So yes, what edison said.

[agentzero]

(SNIP)

How about any of you? Got any exit plans or just going to keep on sticking it out as a contractor?

I didn't see your reply sorry.

Moving to Denmark. If you're in strategy, C-Suite, or a niche technical area, my advice is to get out. You can see from posts across this forum that the contracts in the £800-£1500/day range are the smart ones looking to get out.

[jamesbrown]

I didn't see your reply sorry.

Moving to Denmark. If you're in strategy, C-Suite, or a niche technical area, my advice is to get out. You can see from posts across this forum that the contracts in the £800-£1500/day range are the smart ones looking to get out.

There's no need to "get out" to achieve these rates, you can access international clients from the UK (although a specialist or high-end skillset is obviously a must).

If you don't have a skillset, a reputation and a network, you have no chance and, to be perfectly honest, professional services are at a low ebb in many jurisdictions at present, including at the high end of rates/prices, so it's hard to get a foot in the door. In tough times, companies that aren't ditching investments will surely stick to who they know to help deliver them - it's a buyer's market even at the high end.

Also, for most people, there isn't an option to just move to an arbitrary jurisdiction without an offer (and that generally means employment, not a contract). Even if you could, the concept of contracting that most people who frequent this website would understand isn't replicated in most other jurisdictions. The UK is an oddball in terms of mass-market IT contracting.

The average UK-based IT contractor with an average skillset is probably going to have to wait for an uptick and hope for the best or entertain a complete change in direction, but that isn't going to be easy, hence threads like this one.

[willendure]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ATQ-QccVzQ

Go travelling for 5 years and take all the cash out the Ltd tax free. Has a certain appeal to it.