Sam On Software

I’ve been working full time on my software business for 9 months now.

So in theory I could have made a baby by now.*

Sales growth has been slow but steady.

Here is everything that I have learned from first hand experience in that time.

3rd party endorsements can be much more powerful than advertising

Getting a nice review had an immediate impact on sales, in fact it did more than $1000 worth of advertising did.

The power of tools

For too long I didn’t have a calendar and task-list tool that I used every day.  Now I do and it has really upped my productivity.

I use CuteReminder for appointments and tudumo for my task lists.  I find tudumo is shockingly elegant, literally, I was shocked at how well designed it is.  I’m not really pimping these two tools though, just saying that it’s really important that you don’t have to remember things.  It was for me anyway.

Partnering (discount not commission)

I talked to some bookkeepers and accountants about partnering with me to sell my software to their clients.  I was thinking in terms of a “commission percentage”  but they were all talking in terms of  “discount pricing”.  Is there a difference ? I think there is, a commission is money the middleman keeps, his payola. A discounted pricing system means that the middleman is able to offer his clients access to a discount, he is providing value to his clients by being in your software’s partner program.  Many middle men can’t keep commissions due to ethical considerations.

Users are more understanding than your insecurity might make you fear. Self explanatory.

Affiliates can work if they are targeted to your software niche. General “software directories” affiliates don’t work unless you’re selling something with mass appeal  (virus scanner, an mp3 player).

Success is indeed a series of failures without loss of enthusiasm.

“No one is going to buy it!”  “I only sold one this month!”  “Two a month wouldn’t pay for a trip to the supermarket!”  “One a week!! what am I doing wrong!!”  “I can’t live off one a day…

I bet if you were able to ask Steve Jobs or some other mega success guy “How’s work going ?”, if they were open an honest they would give you a list of complaints.  “Damn suppliers can only get us enough parts for 7 million IPads !  Google is busting my balls with this Android crap, geez it never ends”.

It’s kind of cool i guess to realize “maybe this _is_  success”.

You can combine testing and content creation

People, mentioning no names, people who sell bingo software, those people, have said how important it is to have lots of content on your website, so people can find you.

Well if you combine testing and generating web content it kind of fools you into thinking it’s not a testing drudge, and at the end your series of tests you have produced a nice web tutorial or a new section for you manual.  So when testing think, can I document this and make it good content.

5 email addresses are more useful that 1000 ip addresses of downloaders you can’t contact

Got this one from Jason Cohen.  If the software ain’t selling you have to talk to the people who looked at it but didn’t buy.  And one great way to do that is to ask for their email address when they download a trial.  Yes it might reduce the number who download, but if your software ain’t selling, who cares.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

* if the girlfriend had had her way I probably would have!

I’m a big fan of the site and forum.

( Flowchart made with FlowBreeze )

Things I’ve noticed in my 31 years that surprised me:

I was surprised to find how unimportant knowledge is and how important practice is.  I have found this to be the case in all the situations in which I didn’t expect it to be the case.

When I was at university I thought it was half-assed and the work was lacking in rigor, just play time.  When i got out into the working world I was surprised to find it more half-assed and the work less rigorous.

I was surprised to see how many businesses are run based on relationships not product or service quality.  I was surprised to find many business managers literally see product and service quality as tangential to their business.

I was surprised at how hard it is to play a steel string guitar and how fun it is to play a nylon string guitar.

I was surprised to realize that everyone thinks they are a little smarter than they appear to other people.  I think this is because we experience our own thoughts directly but experience everyone else’s thoughts dulled by their ability to express themselves.  It was frustrating to find how difficult it can be to communicate an idea that is easily conceived.

I was surprised to find Employers who provide training and ‘professional development’ simply ask their employees “what training do you want to do ?”.  I had assumed they would all have a master plan for the organisation and would be the ones directing who was to be trained and in which area.

I had assumed that the most effective and honest way to deal with problem staff was to discuss the problem and possible solutions directly.  I was surprised to find that managers with a deft hand can solve problem while appearing to do nothing.  Often this route leads to less long term disruption all round.

I was surprised to realize that who is speaking is usually more important than what is said.  Go and find some before and after images of people who have lost a lot of weight.  Cover over the after picture with your hand, look at the before picture and imagine they have walked into a meeting at your workplace or you are talking to them at a party.  Honestly think about the immediate assumptions you make about the person.  Now cover the before picture and imagine the same scenario with the person in the after picture.  I’m not saying these kinds of non-verbal value judgements are evil, just that they are more important than I realized.

The pace of change has been a lot slower than I expected.  In politics and economics but also in technology.  People talk about the amazing pace of change in technology but it has always seemed pedestrian to me.