SOWPub Small Business Forums - View Single Post - Do you need to be an expert in coding to build a successful startup??

#13 February 28, 2012, 04:30 AM

WOW! Thanks for the "Tidbits". You can ignore my "P.S" in my previous post. you answered my question here about your team.

And you hit on a CRITICAL point about SUPPORT. I am jumping up and down agreeing with you. This is like a Blindspot, that some small business owners just don't THINK THROUGH.

This was one of the major reasons I've "shied" away from looking at software type solutions. The cost of maintenance/support is sometimes NOT worth the effort.

We used to run a Help Desk for some clients and while I was greatful to provide the service and add value, I still have some "shell shock" from the quantity of SIMPLE to ABSURD requests that come through. ( A Lot of the questions were NOT related to I.T AT ALL. Hence my "Absurd" comment

)

The volume can quickly become overwhelming if you are not prepared.

Thanks again Cornell

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cornell

Hi Dien:

Thanks for mentioning the software.

My partner and I did develop the AthenaGold software.

When we started out we had a $15,000 budget....well....we have blown that right into outer space with costs that hit 6 figures 2 years ago....that is just developers fees by the way.

If you don't mind I would just like to input a bit more.

People that decide to have a script written generally overlook an area that can be a killer.... and that is support. It gets very costly and time consuming and someone has to be paid to do it.

A little $37 or $47 script that gets developed and sold is cool, and if it catches the sales could go into the 1000's. of copies...if a script sold 5,000 copies at a $47 one time fee it would yield $235,000 in sales....

Now just imagine 5,000 users hitting you for support...and no matter how simple the script is the requests will come. And they will continue as long as the software is being used (Heck...Bill Myers discontinued support on his eShowcase V2 software back in the late 90's after he sold it and the the new owners pretty much stopped supporting V2......I still field 4 or 5 requests for assistance with it every year even though it is so outdated and insecure that it shouldn't be used).

It won't take long for the support and further bugs, etc., to eat into that nice big figure that was so enticing.

So....if you are considering software script development you need to be aware of this and I would suggest selling the script on a continuity basis (membership)....even if it is just a few dollars a month. If you don't have a residual income coming in the ongoing costs of support are going to eat you up.

Another area of concern is security....

The last thing you want is a major law suit because your script was vulnerable and a hacker figured out how to use it to break into a site or server.

We spent a full six months on security development alone. We have so many failsafes built in that it would make your head spin....We get detailed reports from the software each and every day of failed attempts to break in....not just on our own sites but on sites that have the software installed on them...we get everything in the report - the site attempted, the url attempted, any code they tried to enter, time, IP address, the hosting server from which the attempt came, and lots more. We even get a detailed report on each and every install where suspicious activity (such as incorrect login info) has occurred on the login to the admin area.

Those are just a couple of more tidbits to consider if and when you get the script development bug

)

Again ...thanks Dien.

Cornell