The Game Changer

Excited about my new business venture, I stayed up late last night thinking about my game plan for success. I have some exposure to the Software as a Service (SaaS). I began to outline how that may impact my plans and goals for the new born company. What I came up with seems fairly sensible. I will have a basic software offering where the customers will have an a-la-cart type menu to select from. The first service will cost $30 a month and they choose three options that best meet their needs. They can add additional options for $5 a month is they choose to do so. This gives the company the ability to select what is best for their organization instead of only getting the services I choose for them.

Under this plan a given customer could be up and running their projects for as little as $30 a month. This also gives me the flexibility to deliver my software as it is completed, rather than delaying the release until I have every option I want to deliver. I will start my focus on communication, task lists, and a calendar. I will be making these free to the public starting out so I can get feedback from users who adopt the technology early.

I will be developing the early framework myself to keep the costs down in the early phases of the company. Many refer to this as bootstrapping, as that seems to be the latest buzz word in the IT start-up world.

If not now, then when?

If not me, then who?

This simple quote is what is keeping me on track at the moment. I no longer have a team to employees reporting to me for direction. As an IT manager, I had this luxury for the last few years in a small company. Now I must climb the mountains myself with little guidance outside of a couple great mentors. I am also kicking around the idea of organizing Meetups to discuss business Ideas and combine like minded individuals whether it be in a coffee shop or online is not fully clear in my mind just yet. There are benefits to both, as well as drawbacks.

One advantage of keeping it local is that I will be able to meet new people and share my experiences and understand their needs and requirements on a more personal level. Doing it online, however, opens the borders to people around the world who are also interested in sharing knowledge.

I will be posting all of my plans online in this blog and make it very easy for competition to copy my strategy and learn from my mistakes. This is not in error on my behalf, but a desire to see everyone step up their game in the project management arena. There are already successful ventures out there. 37 Signals is a great example. Jason Fried is a great leader, however, I do not always agree with his vision on what other companies need in his products. But his delivery of simple to use limited products do offer a quality launch pad for companies to get their feet wet in project management. He is not interested in offering products to large corporations, he has defined his niche market and exploited it to the best of his ability.

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