Loading...
Answers
MenuVeteran software/mobile developer. Trying to decide best model for a new business. Advice?
Answers
How important is scaling?
For example, if you're charging $400/hour for consulting and filling 20 hours a week, would you need to scale?
Products are great, but there's a lot of unbillable hassle involved in the path toward getting there. Your product needs to have a big enough audience to give you a strong paid user base. You need time set aside for marketing, support, new features, maintenance, and all the little things that are sure to come up. You probably need to create a second (and third, and so on) product as time goes on.
And if the product only grosses a few grand a month, it can feel like you're stuck: on one hand, you have paying customers; on the other, you're making barely $40K/year for the effort.
All that being said, a product with a solid user base and a solid team can pay serious dividends in the long run (assuming all goes well). It's just the struggle through the opening months/years to get the product to a place where you can actually pay yourself and staff and marketing budgets and such.
I've had successes with product businesses, but they've always been a bit more high-touch than I prefer. (That whole "there's no such thing as passive income" thing.)
Consulting offers a much shallower curve, and you can always "scale" by raising prices until you hit the proper blend of hours:billing.
However, consulting also puts more responsibility on your shoulders to be available to your clients.
In my experience I've found it's not impossible to make a good living as a consultant without killing yourself (six figures, <30 hours a week) if you set things up responsibly at the outset and know how to sell your own value.
I'd be happy to share my strategies on this with you if you're interested.
Good luck!
I've been providing professional development and consulting services since 1991. In 2001, the company developed some products and have been selling and supporting our clients for the last 14 years. While the products provide a good return our business has continued been a split of consulting and products.
The secret to consulting is to provide exceptional services and in many cases being able to field a team of consultants. This can be difficult for a small company and you need to have a roaster of associates to fill gaps on projects that require a team rather then just you.
With products you also need to maintain a high-level of support services and updates to satisfy the client base.
Marketing is critical to both and we have found that client referrals are the best form of marketing. Keep your customers happy and satisfied at all costs to ensure they speak well of you and give you glowing reviews to potential clients.
Marketing in consulting can also be a drain on resources. Too often "free consulting" is provided in marketing phases that can impact your bottom line.
When developing products you need to ensure you have strong client needs built in. The bottom line is driven by sales and if your products don't meet the needs, no sale.
Being an entrepreneur is extremely rewarding and full of risks. Deciding what product and service best suits your business is ultimately by your market.
My recommendation is to do some consulting and develop products while building your client base. You may also discover in your consulting the needs that you can fulfil with products.
Let me know if you would like to discuss this topic further. I'd be happy to share my experiences and offer my advice.
I'm glad you've mentioned that you have experience in both Marketing and Growth Hacking, because if you are planning on going into Consulting, that's mostly what you will be doing when you start, with a bit of sales added in.
If you'd like to be a developer, great, but first get a steady income. Developing software can take a while to get something that will become revenue generating, and creating a full-scale marketing push for something is time consuming. You will be working for yourself unpaid until you have money coming in from that source.
So, find someone to support you while you work on your more lucrative project.
Establishing yourself as a consultant to start will be difficult if no one knows who you are and you don't have the leads to get jobs in your area. If you have a client list already, then you're all set. If you don't, whip out those skills at creating a targeted lead list and get calling and pounding on doors until you find people willing to pay you. As a developer you have options like Guru.com and Freelancer, but you can may make money by going to the local coworking centers and networking mixers in your town to find people who are looking for ongoing developer talent.
Next, figure out what revenue model you want to follow for your own project. Schedule 2 hours or so per day for your own thing in addition to the work you're doing for your day job. Block it out, and then you'll be able to get something done quickly enough.
My recommendation there is to look at the top app lists on all the platforms, see the commonalities and try to find something that is either missing on IOS or can be done better by you. Then, simply do it and use a full scale marketing push to make people aware of it.
Native development means writing code using Java or Kotlin for building Android apps or using Swift for building iOS apps. My recommendation is to start by learning a native technology. If you already have a Java background, I recommend spending 1 or 2 weeks learning Kotlin. It is a very flexible language that allows you to do things that Java does not easily allow. On the other hand, if you have no background with Java, I recommend starting with Java. The reason is that there is still a lot of tutorials and resources out there written in Java, and it would be easier to understand if you know the language. However, as soon as you feel comfortable with Java, move to Kotlin. I personally started with Java, since I already had a Java background, and then moved to Kotlin. However, I still prefer reading documentation and tutorials in Java. For example, my first native app was for iOS just because I had an iOS device at the time. I eventually moved to Android for two reasons. First, because a client wanted me to build an app in Android and second because the Android market is larger than the iOS market. Regardless if you develop apps for Android or iOS, the best way to learn how app development is simply by coding and practicing. Now more than ever, there is a significant need for mobile developers. The best way of learning is by creating simple apps for yourself and trying to recreate existing apps. To do so, follow your favourite blogs, authors, and read job listings to stay up to date with the technologies and skills companies are looking for.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
Related Questions
-
How does my startup hire an affordable marketing expert?
I don't even know how to answer this. Do you know what the difference between McDonalds and the local burger joint that is filing for bankruptcy is? It's marketing. McDonalds is worth billions of dollars not because of the quality of their food, but because of their marketing. Marketing is not an expense. A janitor is an expense. Your computer is an expense. Marketing is an INVESTMENT. Would you shop around for the cheapest heart surgeon? Of course not. Because you would likely end up dead. Why, then, do you shop around for a marketing expert? Are you ok with your company going bankrupt? Is that worth the small savings to you? No. Of course not. Hire someone who is good at marketing. Hire someone who knows what they are doing. Buy yourself a Lamborghini with your profit the first quarter. Get a beach house in hawaii. Grab a yacht. Or, try to find your business the cheapest heart surgeon you can and then spend the next five years wondering why such a solid business idea failed in the first 6 months. I'm passionate about this exact topic because all those statistics you read about "70% of businesses failing in two years" are solely because of horrible marketing.AM
-
How can I become an idea person, as a professional title?
One word: Royalties This means you generate the idea and develop it enough to look interesting to a larger company who would be willing to pay you a royalty for your idea. This happens all the time. Rock stars, authors and scientists routinely license their creative ideas to other companies who pay them a royalty. Anyone can do it. Your business, therefore, would be a think tank. You (and your team, if you have one) would consider the world's problems, see what kinds of companies are trying to solve those problems, and then develop compelling solutions that they can license from you. You have to be able to sell your idea and develop a nice presentation, a little market research and an understanding of basic trademark and patent law. The nice thing about doing this is that if you develop enough cool ideas you will have royalties coming in from a lot of different sources, this creates a stable, passive revenue stream that requires little or no work to maintain. Start in your spare time and plan on the process taking 3-5 years. Set a goal to have a few products in the market that provide enough revenue (royalties) to cover your basic living expenses. Then you can quit your day job and dedicate more time and increase the momentum. A good idea business should have dozens, if not hundreds of license contracts generating royalties. It's possible to pull this off. And it is a fun job (I'm speaking from experience).MM
-
I have this social media idea,but no coding skills. How do I get someone to do the coding (cant afford to pay them) and not give away half of my idea?
Dilip was very kind in his response. My answer might be a bit on the "tough love" side. But that's for you to decide. My intention, just for the record, is to help you (and those like you) on your path to success. And that starts with having a viable philosophy about entrepreneurial-ism and business. And I'm going to answer this because I get asked some form / version of this question very frequently from newcomers to entrepreneurial-ism. The scenario goes something like this: "I have a great idea. It's amazing, I love it, and I just KNOW it's gonna make me a ton of money. But I have no money right now so I can't afford to (fill in the blank with things like "to build it / create it / market it / etc" or "to hire the required staff needed to work in my business to sell it / develop it / etc"). And I don't want to tell anyone about my great idea because I'm worried someone will steal it and make MY million / billion dollars. But I can't afford to legally protect it either... So how do I launch without the skills to personally create the product AND no money to hire anyone else to do that either??" The answer is ... You don't. Look - let's be honest. All you have is an idea. Big deal. Really. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. I'm not saying that if properly executed it couldn't make you a million / billion dollars... But an idea is NOT a business. Nor is it an asset. Until you do some (very important) initial work - like creating a business model, doing customer development, creating a MVP, etc - all you really have is a dream. Right now your choices are: 1. Find someone with the skills or the money to develop your idea and sell them on WHY they should invest in you. And yes, this will mean giving up either a portion of the "ownership" or of future income or equity. And the more risk they have to take - the more equity they will want (and quite frankly be entitled to). 2. Learn how to code and build it yourself. MANY entrepreneurs without financial resources are still resourceful. They develop the skills needed to create what they don't have the money to pay someone else to do. 3. Get some cash so you can pay someone to do the coding. You'll probably have to have some knowledge of coding to direct the architecture of your idea. So you will likely still have to become knowledgeable even if its not you personally doing the coding. (This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of options... And I'm sure some of the other experts here on Clarity have others to add - and I hope they do) To wrap up - Here's my final tip to you that I hope you "get"... It's FAR more valuable to have an idea that a very specific hungry crowd is clamoring for right now - One that THEY would love and pay you for right now - Maybe even one they'd pre-order because they just have to have it - Versus YOU being in love with your own idea. [Notice I didn't say "an idea that some as-of-yet-undetermined market would probably love"] I wish you the best of luck moving forward.DB
-
If I have a business idea for a large company, how can I give it to them and mutually profit, without them just taking the idea and squashing me?
Probably not the answer you're looking for, but companies have so many unimplemented ideas that the likelihood of partnering to implement someone else's idea is really low. And besides which, the idea is not something that has much value in and of itself. If you're passionate in the idea, build it yourself. That's the only way you can have leverage.TW
-
I just opened a small, upscale, boutique style hair salon. Any ideas on how to market?
I have no experience with salons, but marketing is my thing. So I'll give you some suggestions of what to think about, followed by what to do. Do you have clients already (let's say from your working days at another salon)? If so, you can start profiling them. You can ask them to fill out a form in exchange for a free gift (maybe one of those creams you use in the salon), or an entry to a raffle (where the prize is valuable). In the profiling, you want to look out for which neighborhoods they live in, what kinds of activities they like to do, what kinds of social events they love to do, and their occupations. Then, using each of those profile data, you can market to more prospects who share the same characteristics. For example, - You can set aside a budget to send flyers to specific neighborhoods. In order to get people into the door, maybe you can offer a certain procedure for free in exchange for opportunities to win new regular customers. (You could theoretically do this with Groupon too, but you have less control of who comes into your door) - You could set up joint venture relationships with organizations like ball room dancing schools, professional associations, etc. You could offer an exclusive discount with those groups to entice potential customers to try out your service. More opportunities for you to win regular customers. - With certain demographic data, you can probably make the same offer by advertising on Facebook. If you target specific enough, you can get the price of acquiring the lead to be pretty cheap. You would have to figure out your typical lifetime value of your customers before deciding whether advertising on Facebook would be worthwhile. One last thing, you can offer gifts for your existing customers if they refer you people. If you have any more questions, I'm happy to chat with you. Hit me up on this platform.SL
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.