Selling apps or paas or saas etc Is it a viable business model for anyone here?

[Gaz_M]

That's not too bad ..... these things take time, effort and yes a lot of "risk" ( risk being you put in the effort but get no reward ). Getting some money, even a small amount on a regular basis is the best validation you can get of your idea.

My suggestions are that you try and run a series of experiments to validate your business model rather than thinking "I am building a complete business today, from the ground up".

Your objective should be to prove or disprove to yourself that there is a viable market out there for whatever you are producing / selling and that you can effectively reach it.

Once you figure that out you will be more inclined to put the effort in to reach that market.

Thanks for taking time to reply - it's nice to know that there are like minded people out there.

I proved to myself that there is a viable market before I even set out with the website. I did an awful lot of research & I even made an appointment to travel 300 miles to meet the guy running the only business in the UK doing the same thing. He was extremely helpful & is even supplying me with my first stock. He has up to £200k worth of stock & employs 4 people and I know he's selling a LOT of stuff. If I could just get a slice of it then I'd be quids in.

As you say, it takes time, time & more time but I'm sure there's a good viable business out there. It's my Plan B and simply has to be better than the boring world of IT

[tomtomagain]

As I say, this is 15 months old & is now bringing in a couple of hundred quid a month. I'm still contracting full time & do this in the evenings whilst stuck in a hotel. I started this off as a four year plan so have just under three years to go & I'm determined to make it work. The hardest part is all the work you have to put in without ever knowing if it's really going to work.

That's not too bad ..... these things take time, effort and yes a lot of "risk" ( risk being you put in the effort but get no reward ). Getting some money, even a small amount on a regular basis is the best validation you can get of your idea.

My suggestions are that you try and run a series of experiments to validate your business model rather than thinking "I am building a complete business today, from the ground up".

Your objective should be to prove or disprove to yourself that there is a viable market out there for whatever you are producing / selling and that you can effectively reach it.

Once you figure that out you will be more inclined to put the effort in to reach that market.

[Old Greg]

I'd love to do that too, and that business model as you call it can work wonderfully well.

You need an idea though.


And it has to be either:

• original, and people want it
• a new take on an existing thing, and people want it
• an existing thing with a large enough market for your version

Either way, you'll need hard work, and a dose of good luck for it to make it beat the contracting rates.

Not everyone can be Zuckerberg or the Tumblr guy though.

Just because you know how to build stuff doesn't mean you are the right guy to have an idea, start a business, and start selling a product.

Good luck though!

I've got one project off the ground and am just pondering a second. I've never written a line of code in my lif,e and in the first project, I have a partner who is a coder and understands the business very well.

For the second, which is extremely niche and I have in depth business expertise and links to the only feasible client in U, I need to think about how best to get it off the ground - it's not functionally rich at all.

[Gaz_M]

I started a website 15 months ago to try to earn from affiliated marketing, Google Adsense etc. That has made me pennies even though I have found a very niche market.
However, not to give up I have now opened an eBay store with links from the website.
Next step is to fully integrate website into ecommerce.

As I say, this is 15 months old & is now bringing in a couple of hundred quid a month. I'm still contracting full time & do this in the evenings whilst stuck in a hotel. I started this off as a four year plan so have just under three years to go & I'm determined to make it work. The hardest part is all the work you have to put in without ever knowing if it's really going to work.

[stek]

Nor can I - maybe we should team up and not do anything in a more dynamic way?

Well I just bought three IBM bladecenters with 42 blades, inc POWER ones, looking for hosting options / fame servers - dedis - aix lpar blades...


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[bless 'em all]

That's not fair - I wanna do all that but I can't be arsed.

Nor can I - maybe we should team up and not do anything in a more dynamic way?

[stek]

Yes per month. Not it's not bad.

First year was 5k ... for the entire year.

Of course I had to build a product, website, marketing material, answer support mails to get that.

As I say, it's a slog. A lot of sacrificed evenings, weekends, holidays.

Certainly not to be undertaken lightly.

That's not fair - I wanna do all that but I can't be arsed.


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[tomtomagain]

Yes per month. Not it's not bad.

First year was 5k ... for the entire year.

Of course I had to build a product, website, marketing material, answer support mails to get that.

As I say, it's a slog. A lot of sacrificed evenings, weekends, holidays.

Certainly not to be undertaken lightly.

[jmo21]

I've developed a product that I sell, maintain and improve.

It is a long, hard slog.

Currently it makes in the region of £5k - 10k PPM.

However it has taken several years to get here.

If you think purely like a contractor then you would never take the risk to build your own product.

However if you do it can scale well beyond what you can earn as an individual.

PPM? if you actually mean PM, per month, that ain't too shabby!

[tomtomagain]

I've developed a product that I sell, maintain and improve.

It is a long, hard slog.

Currently it makes in the region of £5k - 10k PPM.

However it has taken several years to get here.

If you think purely like a contractor then you would never take the risk to build your own product.

However if you do it can scale well beyond what you can earn as an individual.

[jmo21]

I long to develop a product that I could sell, maintain, improve and sell some more, be it an app, a website or a platform.
I'm sure I would enjoy so much more to 'own' a product and develop it for myself than for a client.
But every single time I run the numbers, it doesn't appear to be competitive with consultancy on a daily rate.
Not only is reward pushed back in time but also minuscule compared to what I would get consulting/contracting in the meantime.
Does anyone here find this business model to be competitive with their daily rates in terms of income?

I'd love to do that too, and that business model as you call it can work wonderfully well.

You need an idea though.

And it has to be either:

• original, and people want it
• a new take on an existing thing, and people want it
• an existing thing with a large enough market for your version

Either way, you'll need hard work, and a dose of good luck for it to make it beat the contracting rates.

Not everyone can be Zuckerberg or the Tumblr guy though.

Just because you know how to build stuff doesn't mean you are the right guy to have an idea, start a business, and start selling a product.

Good luck though!

[yasockie]

I long to develop a product that I could sell, maintain, improve and sell some more, be it an app, a website or a platform.
I'm sure I would enjoy so much more to 'own' a product and develop it for myself than for a client.
But every single time I run the numbers, it doesn't appear to be competitive with consultancy on a daily rate.
Not only is reward pushed back in time but also minuscule compared to what I would get consulting/contracting in the meantime.
Does anyone here find this business model to be competitive with their daily rates in terms of income?