Re: The Small Developer
Re: The Small Developer
- Subject: Re: The Small Developer
- From: Trygve Inda <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 07:53:10 -0700
>
What i'd like to know is what it takes to become a successful small
>
software developer. First, let me clarify what i mean by 'successful'.
>
Successful to me is defined as making enough in revenue to cover any
>
relavent expenses and be able to pay the developers a decent salery
>
(say, around, $40,000 a year). Is there some critical mass a small
>
developer would need to achieve to reach this sort of goal? Can one
>
person do it? Do you need a 2 person company? 6 person? 12? What? (let's
>
assume that the software these people develop is of the quality people
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expect from a Macintosh program, and that it does either fill a void or
>
differentiate itself from competetors enough to be viable)
Where I live, $40K a year is ok for a developer. A 4 hour drive west in San
Francisco is it not.
It is certainly possible to make a living writing software, but it is not
easy and will take a long time to get up to speed in most cases. My own
software started in about 1990 or so (first Mac was a IIcx for $5400).
During the first 8 years, the internet was in its infancy and I just did it
as a hobby - occasionally selling a few copies through the mail, but doing
little marketing.
Once I setup a webpage and online payment, it REALLY improved, and today I
am able to pay the bills through it. Actually, I just returned from 6 weeks
holiday in Eastern Europe to find my "day job" was gone so now my software
(and consulting on the side) has become my real job.
You will need a good product that is priced right and fills a void or does
something far better then anyone else. Once you have this, it is not smooth
sailing, you will be constantly needing to improve it and probably add
products.
It is just to hard to give a hard and fast rule.
Trygve
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