Image by dbking via Flickr
Yesterday, I got a call from a college friend who was all excited about his new project. It is a web based application that will ultimately help students establish portfolios, past work, etc for colleges. As he is telling me about all the bells and whistles, I couldn’t help by think – “Yes, but how are you going to make money?”
The bottom line is if you aren’t making money on your project, or mini-business, than how is it going to be sustainable? How are you going to be able to afford to continue dumping time into it?
Here are some things that caught my ear… And what I didn’t like about them.
Standards based coding is for proven applications – not startups
Standards based coding is great, and essential to any web-type business. You want to be as cross-browser compliant as possible, but you can’t sacrifice time in the initial stages of development. This is especially true of one and two person shops that are trying to get out the door and make some money.
Quickest path to cash is always, and will always be, the number one priority.
Web hosting should be done off-site, not in your office
I don’t care if you have all the money in the world – unless you have someone who is extremely well versed in network architecture, you shouldn’t be hosting web servers yourself. Especially in the early stages. I understand that you want your data to be secure and you want maximum uptime – but for all the time that my office Internet connection is down due to bugs running around in Time Warner’s wires I am glad I pay someone to do my hosting.
Government and small business grants won’t come
I have gotten accustomed to not relying on relief from anyone else when it comes to my business’ money. It doesn’t matter how many economic development agencies say they will help – money doesn’t come too readily. And if someone is pushing you to get into a business and you realistically can’t afford it without a grant of some kind – think long and hard about how bad you want to be a small business owner…
Business is about cash. It’s about revenue. And it’s about sustainability.
The rule of the day is this – if what you are doing isn’t directly related to your ‘Quickest path to cash’ then it’s a waste of time. If you find yourself caught up perfecting something that you plan on launching at a later time – STOP IT. In order for you to have a future in business, you need money. Which means you need to figure out how the best way to make it is. Forget that future product launch or future revision if the next one isn’t out the door yet!
With that being said, anyone have any small business grant horror stories? I am particularly jaded when it comes to that issue. I have been working with three different companies who are falling apart – and their angel in the sky is a development agency promising money.. I am seeing these people’s business crumble right before my eyes.
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