Products vs. Services. It’s always a dilemma for a software company because they both compete for our precious limited time. Products have the lure of eventually being more profitable, if you can get sales, and are highly scalable. Services have the advantage of bringing money in now, but generally only scale to the amount of time you have to give. Although, I continue to work on LogicalVue products, I’ve also decided to take on some consulting work to help with our cash flow.
I’m starting small and will ratchet it up over time, as demand warrants. This means that initially I’m only looking at REALbasic-related work. I’m pleasantly surprised so far. After just a couple short weeks of actively pursuing opportunities, I’ve landed several smallish contracts with some prospects for other larger ones.
I’m using Big Contacts to track my sales contacts and leads. For managing projects, I’m using Basecamp, which I, and my customers, like very much. It’s a great way to keep all information about a project in one place, instead of having it scattered in a bunch of e-mails.
If you’re also doing the consulting thing, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
What kind of jobs do you mean by “smallish?” Can you give some examples please (if possible.) Also, how are you finding your experience with these clients overall? Thanks!
September 5th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
George,
By “smallish” I mean less than 20 hours each.
So far, all the clients I’ve worked with have been great. Very responsive, flexible and understanding of what they want.
September 8th, 2007 at 11:38 am
I know the answer to your question: It Depends. No, really.
If you can devote 20 to 30 hours per week engaging in contract programming then services makes more sense. You can make a lot of money. You also need to enjoy contracting because it can be a major pain dealing with customers.
If you don’t have that much time to devote then making a product might make more sense. This gives you an opportunity to hone skills and create something that people might want. The drawback is that you might sink a lot of time and effort into something that doesn’t sell. You may never ‘break even’ for your time and effort with product sales.
I’ve discovered that I really enjoy doing programming for others. It’s always interesting work and it changes on a regular basis. Sure, I have my own products, but I’m not overly active in updating and sending out press releases and all the other junk you have to do with a product.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Bob,
So far, I’m enjoying programming for others more than I thought I would.
BTW, I look forward to reading your new column in REALbasic Developer Magazine.
September 10th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
@Paul
Thanks! Well, we’ll see how many people I can get to disagree with me. Hopefully I won’t get any threatening mail.
September 10th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
BTW, the RSS feed should be working now on the BKeeney Brief’s site.