Joshua's Biz Talk posts

Classic business 101 mistake... Not sure how to proceed!

Hello, Thanks for looking at my post! :)

I own a business called debuggle. I have been doing some freelance work for a few friends but nothing that can really be considered “work”. I have a real job so my business is like a hobby more than anything. A long time ago, say 8 or 9 months, I decided to quit my job. I wanted to start my own business, I had issues with my boss, etc. I was and still am 18, have almost 0 expenses, and so it wasn't that big of a loss and it opened up a vast number of other possibilities. I had this idea for some software – having not taken a business class I dove head first into possibly the largest project I have ever started by myself. It was a software solution, a web-based database backup solution to be specific, and here I am 8 months later with what could be an almost-finished product and I feel absolutely lost!

After taking a business class and gaining a slightly better understanding about the enigmatic world of business I entered, I realized there were some flaws with my initial undertaking. I do not know who my product will appeal to, am not sure if it will work, do not have the funding to hire people to help me (I am working on the money part …) am not sure if it is worth getting a loan to continue or if I should just drop it all together, and ultimately realize the very common mistake I made  and am unsure as to how I should proceed. Having spent many hundreds of hours working on this software it pains me to even think about abandoning it and I am sure there would be ways to make money off of it – but I do not even know where to begin from here. Functionally it is basically done (aside from a few aesthetic flaws and a few hours of code-work) and I realize there are a few ways of selling it but my real problem comes down to knowing my market. Having 0 money to spend at this time I have no way of knowing even if a market for my software exists. Currently, to my knowledge, my software is primarily a one-of-a-kind solution and I cant really benchmark it against other applications similar because the functionality and general concept behind my solution is very different from anything I have seen for sale in todays market.

I just feel generally lost because its like, when I think about my software I have no idea what I should be doing with it. Any guidance or information would be greatly appreciated and I thank you for reading my post!

-Joshua

Image Uploading Sort-Of-Bug

Its not really important or anything but when you click your profile image (while viewing your profile) and then click EDIT and upload a new image (while the old picture is still showing) the preview of your old picture will not go away until you leave the page.

Like I said, not system critical or anything :)

Joshua Cole - Software Developer!

It is finally time to introduce my bad indie self! I have had an account here for quite some time (a few months) but never did much with it up until now.

My name is Joshua and I am the C.E.O/Software Developer of a business called "Debuggle". That is a slight exaggeration seeing as I don’t really do anything or actively seek out contracts at this moment yet it is all true none the less. Of late I have been working on a product and think it is nearing the end of its development phase and advancing closer towards the release phase.

About me as a person, well ... I love star trek, had an interest in software development since I was 10 years old, attend a community college (and I am in honors too!). I am only 18 years old but have had 3 jobs so far. Last year, when I was 17, I was a contractor for a small software/website development company (about 8 or 9 months employment) but ended up leaving them to pursue bigger and better things (my own business).

I could talk on and on but for now lets sum it up right there. So far my experiences with this site have been excellent and I think this will be a good place for me to start learning about business in general. Thanks for reading my introduction -- see you around!