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Starting a Software Business in Today's Economy?
Ryfar asks: "I'm a programmer with 3 years of experience in C, C++, and Java. With the current low economic trends in the software sector, the small software company I've been working for since I graduated is going out of business. Since it's so hard to get a job at another software company with so little experience, I'm considering the option of striking out on my own with a friend with similar development experience and creating a small software consulting company. Naturally, until we were profitable to the point that we could hire other people to work with us we would be both the programmers and the marketers/salesmen. The question is, Where should we start looking for business? How do we capture the hearts and confidence of potential customers when we don't have PhD's from MIT? Could those here with applicable experience on this subject share with the rest of us?"
Open Source Software isn't profitable. Its charitable however... so donate, donate, donate your time money and effort to your favorite potential cheap employer!!!
And then watch as the repo man comes to reposses your house and car cause you're not keeping up with payments because you're not bringing in any money yadda yadda yadda...
FYI letters = words scrabbled on paper.
Just saying it like it are.
Go open a lemonade stand. Given your experience (or lack of it) that's about all you are ready for. It's pretty obvious that you haven't the first clue on starting/running a business and 3 years java/c++ experience isn't going to impress too many people.
How about just hanging a sign around your neck that says, 'will code for food'. Sometimes the truth hurts....
Java is rapid startup language. It's very fast: a manager of new project will find quickly Java developer (after the bubble there too many of Java developers on the market), quickly model a working prototype (OOP is quick with Java) and find that Jav sucks - it is not scalable up, it is not scalable down, Java interface to databases tends to be very hardcoded, Java is too much OS-independent (so independent that it is too hard to do any useful thing with OS from Java). So, you Java skills have some chance only at moment after the project jast started and before the manager will understand that it's time for something real. And that moment is very short - Java makes all process very rapid.
I advise you something radically different. Begin from a small hardware shop. Take orders without payment with next day of delivery, buy spare parts where they are cheaper, assambly PC, deliver it, take a cash and again and again. Some of customers will start to ask you to install a network, a server, a database. Next natural step - they order a program. Usually small program. Usually not requiring any procedural programming - just simple clients to DB. MS Access with ODBC/SQL will work.
Then things will grow for more complicated and sophisticated demands, you apply more programming skills and demand more compensation. Dont's forget to estimate risks earlier show such risks to your customer on a positive note: you've just saved (or you are going to save) the customer from such risks. That certainly should be compensated well.
What I like on SOHO market - customers don't understand technical things, no religion preferences. Therefore you free from any obligation to do it on Java or other crap. Often no obligation to Microsoft crap. Feel free to use Python, Lisp, Prolog or even OCaml. Install it with Linux and PostgreSQL. And don't forget to give up all source code - as a result of increased confidence in you there will be more and more orders for service, support, training, modifications.
Of cource it's good for you to be comfortable with heterogenious systems and various programming languages and paradigms. But that makes you a real programmer. Not a religiously blind fanatic of Java or VB. Instead - full freedom. Did you wat a freelance programming? You got it :)
It is not difficult to recognize that such a scenario worked for me :)
Less is more !
the only advice I can give you is to just give up! I suggest that if you do not have a Ph. D. from MIT, you just scurry back into the hole whence you came.
Everybody knows that everything of any importance exists because of an MIT Ph. D.
Seriously, save us all the disappointment, and just give up now. It is true that Shakespeare, Newton et al. didn't have a Ph. D. from MIT, but they lived in simpler times. We, today, know that without the tutelage of former MIT Ph. D.'s, and the hard work that culminates in an MIT Ph. D., we will all fail in the end, struggling to remember if that algorithm was O(log n) or O(log log n) -- 'tis sad, but true. Save yourself a lot of heartache, friend, and give up now.
I am going to start a new business where I sell accent training tapes to out-of-work IT people so that they can pass as docile, underpaid, desperate H1B visa workers.
Indian Accent: $19.95
Chinese Accent: $24.95
Pakistan Accent: $24.95
Ebonics: $19.95 (May not help employment, but is a real hoot at parties)
Table-ized A.I.