Day 6: The Day I Met Martin Fowler.

Dot .Net Dilemmas

I was pretty good with my reading over the weekend and managed to get through the first 4 chapters of Applying Domain-Driven Design and Patterns
Over the next day or two I will update this blog with the notes that I have made from each chapter. I am not sure how much use these will be to others but as much as anything else I want this to be an area where I can look back and see when and why I made certain decisions along the way.

This is just a quick update but as a start-up, I feel that these are two sites and services that I will use over the coming months.

Useful Websites:

• 99Designs.Com: “Need a logo or a new webpage template designed? 99designs connects business owners with a thriving community of designers, who will compete to create the perfect graphic for you.” You basically start a competition with a small financial reward, where you describe your business idea to a community of graphics designers. You then, hopefully, receive dozens of designs from numerous designers and you choose one to be the winner.

• UserTesting.Com: Low Cost Usability Testing. You get a video of a user speaking their thoughts on your site as they use it. You also get a written report describing the problems that they found while following your test requirements. Imagine how much more confident you will be on the day you go live, knowing that your design ‘works’ and has past all the Usability tests you set.

Useful Podcast:
Two (of many) Podcast that I have been listening to:

• The Startup Success Podcast with Bob Walsh (author of Micro-ISV) and Patrick Foley

• Venture Voice: I particularly liked show #56 with Joel Spolsky of Fog Creek software

Finally, I purchased a new book today which I believe could be the bible of Web Usability and a MUST for anyone who plans to have a public facing web site or web based product

• Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug

Day 2: Getting Started on the ‘Elevator Pitch’

Dot .Net Dilemmas

Last night I was reading up on how to create a good ‘Elevator Pitch’. I have to say that I'm not even 100% sure that I need one at this stage. I’m not looking for investment or help from anyone who I would need to ‘sell’ the idea to. However, I do think that it will be a good exercise for me to complete as it will force me to answer some very important questions about what the business should be. It may even have the effect of making me face up to the fact that my idea just won’t sell. I hope not or this could be the shortest-lived Micro-ISV of all time…

I have however, come to the conclusion that I would really like/need to get some help with the ‘Who is your Competition’ question. I know that I could go to Google of Bing and start searching on the web for all the companies and Micro-ISV that will be my competitors and that I will need to keep an eye on. Right now however, I just don't have the business knowhow to assess the success of a business just by looking at their website. I know that perfect person to ask, now all I need to do is get her to say ‘yes’.

I am going to be honest here, this is all very new to me and I am going to do all my learning and make all my mistakes in public so, if I am making stupid mistakes or asking stupid questions, please point them out and if you can, cut me a little slack to begin with.

Day 1: BPD Micro-ISV

Dot .Net Dilemmas

For a long time how I have been thinking about and working towards starting up my own online business which, I have found out is called a ‘Micro-ISV’ . I don't think that I have a particularly brilliant business brain but, I look around and see that there are a lot of people who are just like me (and some that don't have the same skills that I have) running very successful software business. I think that there comes a time for most people when they would just like to work for themselves. Give it your best shot and see how it goes.

The great thing about having a full-time job is that, within reason, if the company has a bad month or you get sick, you still get paid the same as you did last month. On the negative side, when the company does really well and you’ve worked really, really hard, you STILL get paid the same as last month. I don't think that it takes a genius to figure out that, I will ever get ‘rich’ working for ‘the man'…

Micro-ISV
I really don't like the term 'Micro-ISV' (Eric Sink is to 'blame'; he used it in an article for Chris Sells at Microsoft) but it does explain exactly what the business will be, a small Independent Software Vendor. And in my case a REALLY small Independent Software Vendor. To start with, it will be just me…. But that’s ok.

I have a number of ideas and products that I want to try and bring to market and I have settled on one as my first small footsteps into the world of online business. I won't go into what exactly it is that I hope to develop but, I have noticed a gap in the market in an industry that I have some background in and, I reckon I could help fill that gap (or at least make it a smaller gap).

Over the last few months I have been reading loads and loads of articles and listening to even more podcasts on how best to start an online business and what technologies I should use. However, except for that I honestly am at the very start of this journey and this is going to be my online journal of how I get on. The one thing that I keep hearing over and over is, 'Just get it out there', so that's what I plan to do. I hope to have version one of the product available in roughly 4 months.

This is day 1 – “Blank Page Day”. Hopefully, someday not too far into the future, I will be writing a blogs on how I have just made my first sale, my first year in business, version 2 of my product and hopefully (someday) being able to give up working full-time so that I can concentrate on my own million dollar business.

Although the aim of the business is (and should be) to make money (and lots of it), I hope that I learn a lot along the way. I plan to use a host of new ideas and technologies (new to me anyhow) and maybe some of the things that I learn and mistakes I make along the way will help others who are thinking along the same lines. If nothing else it will be an experience and it should be an exciting one.

Books
Ok, I am currently reading 3 books:

1. Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality by Bob Walsh (forwarded by the legend who is Joel Spolky)
2. Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? by Susan M Weinschenk
3. Applying Domain-Driven Design and Patterns: With Examples in C# and .NET by Jimmy Nilsson

So, my plan is, by the end of June 2009, I will read all of ‘Neuro Web Design’ which is a very short and easy to read book. I will move my ‘Elevator Pitch’from my head onto paper and finally, I will be reading 1 chapter a day from Jimmy Nilsson’s book, so in 12 days, I will have the book finished and notes on each chapter on here.. All this, and working full-time, meaning that it will be in the evenings and the weekends..

Wish me luck…