Ask the entrepreneurs advice
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
You could turn this whole thing into a blog post. Pretty solid information. Thanks a ton.
I have considered blogging about this subject but I am better when the interaction is conversational. I am rubbish when it comes to just talking about something, but if someone asks me questions I do pretty well. The problem I have is I don't know what people want to know.
Feel free to come back and ask more questions if you need more advice. Happy to help. May I ask what country you are in?
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@stillwater you may also consider reading this thread start to finish. It is 600 posts but there is some good information buried in it and it has stayed 95% on topic. A goddamn miracle around these forums.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
May I ask what country you are in?
India.
@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Go make your own job and do it the way you wish. That is what I did. It doesn't have to be a startup as it were.
Are you talking about something equivalent to a freelance consultant?
@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
For myself, it was more freedom to do things on my own terms and later on part of my definition of success was that I want to pick my kids up from school every day. That is something I did not want to compromise on. If I wanted to compromise that point I could easily make more money. But what good is it if you can't enjoy the things you love?
These are the kind of things I prefer optimizing. Not kids exactly but the ability to use your hard earned money as a means to better facilitate you to spend time on things that actually matter. I've seen people bring their kids to office parties and then the dad has a plate with cake on one hand and checking his email on the other and the kid just stands there looking sad. It's more wrong than sad. I'm very actively trying to avoid a career progression that optimizes for a ton of money and material comfort at the expense of personal life.
@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
A friend of mine is starting up a software venture that is targeting the educational sector. He thought as you did when he had the idea. Then I went over the numbers with him and it came out to he could be close to replacing his current income when he has two schools as clients. That is an achievable goal. At four schools he has enough revenue to hire another developer and still make money off of them.
He did this all by himself?
@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater you may also consider reading this thread start to finish. It is 600 posts but there is some good information buried in it and it has stayed 95% on topic. A goddamn miracle around these forums.
I avoided reading it cos I assumed halfway down, the thread would have gone off into a tangent. The one time I am prejudiced for the right reason I'm proven wrong.
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
He did this all by himself?
Is that so surprising? I sold software targeting the educational sector when I was 12. It was written in VB 6 and it was horrific (for me) to look upon. But it worked. And as @Polygeekery said, that's what businesses care about.
Had my dad as a partner in that endeavor but only because it's hard to get taken seriously at that age. No reason I couldn't have gone solo as I got older; I had the network.
I think you're overestimating the difficulty.
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@heterodox said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Is that so surprising?
It is not surprising. I'm just more interested in the time and resources needed for one person to do it all alone.
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
It is not surprising. I'm just more interested in the time and resources needed for one person to do it all alone.
When work (or in my case, school) is over, it turns out there are a lot of hours left in the day (at least here). I'm pretty sure about 90% of entrepreneurship is time management. I wish I still had the discipline now.
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They should have asked...
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@boomzilla Yeah, that's just what I want to see while eating
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@TimeBandit why is it that the people who are nudists are always the people you don't want to see naked?
Also, I can give you three words to explain why this is a bad idea.
Fecal. Coliform. Bacteria.
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@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Fecal. Coliform. Bacteria.
Specially since it's in France, where people are known to prefer perfume over bathing
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@otter said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Polygeekery You follow the sociopath CEO stereotype so tightly I'm convinced you're not a real person, but a character someone created to troll the forum. Maybe you're the same guy behind blakey or @fox.
Don't be ridiculous. He's a @Karla alt who we're pretty sure is a @boomzilla alt.
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@TimeBandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Fecal. Coliform. Bacteria.
Specially since it's in France, where people are known to prefer perfume over bathing
To be fair, they were targeting foreign nudist tourists when they visit France.
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@boomzilla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
They should have asked...
Or maybe it was their business plan to do something shocking, suck money out of early birds, then close up once people realize how stupid it is. Kinda like electric-scooter-sharing rental companies.
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@Gąska said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Kinda like electric-scooter-sharing rental companies.
Yeah, apart from having millions of customers and being the biggest change in urban transportation in the last half century, those companies are total bullshit.
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@anonymous234 why did they close up a year after opening in every city they've been in?
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@Gąska winter?
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@boomzilla that's a really long winter. Fifteen months and counting!
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@Gąska said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
that's a really long winter. Fifteen months and counting!
Welcome to Canada
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@TimeBandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Gąska said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
that's a really long winter. Fifteen months and counting!
Welcome to Canada
You mean centuries don't you?
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@Jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
You mean centuries don't you?
No, every couple years we have a summer day
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@TimeBandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Yeah, that's just what I want to see while eating
It's when it's dangling in your water glass, tip's supposed to go on the bill...
Edit: My Grandpa has a story from when he was in the Colonial Service out in West Africa. He was trying to change a tire when a fly kept landing on his ear. He kept brushing it off but the damn thing kept coming back! Eventually he looked over and it was the unmentionables of the bushman he was travelling with carefully positioned by his ear. Needless to say, the bushman was beside himself laughing :)
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@anonymous234 said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Yeah, apart from having millions of customers and being the biggest change in urban transportation in the last half century
So what? Change does not necessarily equal improvement or advancement. Millions of customers does not mean they are profitable.
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@Gąska said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@anonymous234 why did they close up a year after opening in every city they've been in?
[citation needed]
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@TimeBandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
You mean centuries don't you?
No, every couple years we have a summer day
When I lived in Washington, the standard joke was, "Last year, summer was on a Tuesday." I suppose you could adapt that for a climate where it doesn't occur every year.
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@HardwareGeek said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I suppose you could adapt that for a climate where it doesn't occur every year.
I joke about it, but we now generally have shorter winters and less cold ones.
This time of year, winter should be in full swing. Today, it was around 0° Celcius
That's far from cold for Montreal
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@HardwareGeek "I remember last summer. It was three years ago."
Jokes is easy.
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@Gribnit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@HardwareGeek "I remember last summer. It was three years ago."
Jokes is easy.
No it isn't. You still haven't come up with a punchline for the one from chat.
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@Polygeekery "Check for a trail"?
Still think it's better without a punchline, though. Like a crowded party and everybody suddenly shuts up except for Rodney Dangerfield.
Anyway I don't wanna this thread all up. Sucker me makes software for my kids' school for free, for obligatory on-topicitude
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@anonymous234 said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Gąska said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Kinda like electric-scooter-sharing rental companies.
Yeah, apart from having millions of customers and being the biggest change in urban transportation in the last half century, those companies are total bullshit.
He said scooters, not Uber
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Today I an car shopping with my mother-in-law. She test drives a couple of cars and one is exactly what she is looking for. This is her third dealership she has been to. The other two are with my brother-in-law We get down to one car and it comes time to talk numbers. The salesman goes to talk to the sales manager. He comes back with an offer.
"Let's make this easy. I talked to my sales manager and we are going to offer you invoice pricing. This is literally the lowest price that Honda will allow us to sell it at."
I look at the offer, it is almost $1,000 less than the other offers we have received. Keep in mind that one of those prices was from a dealership where a member of their family was in our wedding.
"Uhmmmm, wow. Ok, fair enough. The price is good. The best one we have seen so far. I wasn't expecting that. Normally people leave something on the table to negotiate down with."
"I told my sales manager that you didn't seem like the type to have a high tolerance for any run around and would probably walk if we didn't come in with a good offer."
"Ok, fair enough. -turns to mother-in-law- You brought me along to negotiate. I honestly don't see any reason to. Do you want to go grab lunch and think about it?"
"...ok then. If you are happy with the offer I am ready to buy."Sometimes I guess you don't even need to negotiate if you just seem like the type?
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@Polygeekery Say, I'm looking for a new car now...
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@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Sometimes I guess you don't even need to negotiate if you just seem like the type?
Maybe they saw the mugshot on the wanted posters?
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@loopback0 said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Maybe they saw the mugshot on the wanted posters?
The salesman neighbour's house was burned down, and he recognized him
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@lolwhat said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Polygeekery Say, I'm looking for a new car now...
Well, it also helped that we weren't going to finance. Not sure what your situation is, but that generally gets you a lower price. When you have to finance it gives them more opportunity to hide price increases elsewhere.
If any salesman has ever done a "Four-Square" on you, that is what they were doing. Sleight of hand as it were.
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@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
If any salesman has ever done a "Four-Square" on you, that is what they were doing. Sleight of hand as it were.
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@Polygeekery Well, it was a j/k moment. I'm good on vehicles currently.
Edit: I buy used cars, cash only. I fucking hate to do otherwise.
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@lolwhat said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I buy used cars, cash only. I fucking hate to do otherwise.
Good man.
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How did you get over the "support" hurdle?
In my dealings with various organizations, they've been really hung up over "support." This isn't support as I understand it, where they can call me and ask questions or receive patches/updates. This is more geared towards having warm bodies to do manual data fixes and rework constantly. I have no interest in acquiring warm bodies (because I'd be looking to sell quality software that doesn't need that sort of support) so I've been sort of stymied on that point.
Was there some way you convinced them not to require warm body "support" or did you just move on until you found smarter clients?
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@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I chose what I liked working with and what would do the job I needed to do.
There is the very important detail that you live in america instead of a shithole. Most people that try to open some business just lose all their savings, it's almost like saying your retirement plan is to win the lottery.
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@Zenith said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
This is more geared towards having warm bodies to do manual data fixes and rework constantly.
That sounds like Ops rather than Dev. Ops consumes effort, most of which is just running around fixing up manually after fuckups (their own and others'). If you don't do that, you need to be clear that you don't. You might wish to point out that you specifically don't want to have access to their production data; it is theirs, not yours.
I'd be looking to sell quality software that doesn't need that sort of support
Users gotta user.
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@sockpuppet7 said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I chose what I liked working with and what would do the job I needed to do.
There is the very important detail that you live in america instead of a shithole. Most people that try to open some business just lose all their savings, it's almost like saying your retirement plan is to win the lottery.
I would expect it to be fairly similar in implementation (people are basically the same everywhere you go). The biggest difference would be the additional expense of government wheel grease, which, admittedly, could be a large percentage of the operating costs.
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@djls45 the government is a factor, another is that the market for anything that isn't essential is tiny.
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@dkf said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Users gotta user.
There's only so much you can blame on users. I would seriously not be exaggerating if I said the last three applications I controlled had fewer data fixes between them over 8 years than either of the last two I "supported" had every 8 hours. My applications have been virtually abandoned for 5 years and I do not see the "supported" applications surviving 5 weeks without "support." That's why I don't understand why "support" is so valued...you should want something to plug into your workflow and move on instead of babysitting it, right?
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@Zenith said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
There's only so much you can blame on users.
Yes… but putting weird data into systems and then needing someone to go through and patch it up later, that's totally how some users roll. Not all, but enough.
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@dkf said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Zenith said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
There's only so much you can blame on users.
Yes… but putting weird data into systems and then needing someone to go through and patch it up later, that's totally how some users roll. Not all, but enough.
It doesn't help when the client says their data must absolutely in every case always fit into this specific range, so we configure it that way, but then one of their users produces data that absolutely must be something else. I'm an Operations Developer, so half my job is the program configuration, and the other half is these sorts of data fixes.
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@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Today I a
nm car shopping with my mother-in-law......aaaaaaand it's totaled. That didn't take long.
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@Zenith said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
How did you get over the "support" hurdle?
There are hurdles in business. Growing pains. When you see one coming, you need to play for them and adjust your plans accordingly.
@Zenith said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
In my dealings with various organizations, they've been really hung up over "support." This isn't support as I understand it, where they can call me and ask questions or receive patches/updates. This is more geared towards having warm bodies to do manual data fixes and rework constantly. I have no interest in acquiring warm bodies (because I'd be looking to sell quality software that doesn't need that sort of support) so I've been sort of stymied on that point.
Once again I am not entirely sure what you mean. When most people talk about "support" they mean the first thing. Do you mean just additional employees? People to do the grunt work so you can get back to higher level things? Also, if you plan on making something that doesn't need support (good luck with that, if you figure it out say the hell with your own business and consult to mage corps on how they can do it, you will be a billionaire), then why would this be an issue?
I am confused as to what you are asking about. Try to clarify if you can.
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@Polygeekery Jeez. I hope everyone is okay.
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@Zenith said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@dkf said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Users gotta user.
There's only so much you can blame on users. I would seriously not be exaggerating if I said the last three applications I controlled had fewer data fixes between them over 8 years than either of the last two I "supported" had every 8 hours. My applications have been virtually abandoned for 5 years and I do not see the "supported" applications surviving 5 weeks without "support." That's why I don't understand why "support" is so valued...you should want something to plug into your workflow and move on instead of babysitting it, right?
In an ideal world, sure. But we are not in an ideal world. Business requirements change, software environments change, everything changes.
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@Erufael said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Polygeekery Jeez. I hope everyone is okay.
She's fine, the car is fucked. Proper fucked.
She bought the car based on its safety features, now I am glad that she did.