

The Six Phases of Bootstrapping A One-Man Startup - donniefitz2
http://factorthree.com/Blog.aspx?post=236

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idlewords
This article seems to fall into the increasingly popular category "I failed at
X. Here are some tips about how to do X".

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jacquesm
That's true, but seeing how (other) people fail is actually one of the best
schools there is. At least you will not need to repeat the mistakes that you
know about.

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idlewords
This is true, but in those cases there is the perfectly respectable "N
mistakes I made" format. The thing that rankles me is positive advice (you
must do A and B in order to succeed at X) given by people who have just failed
spectacularly at X.

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jacquesm
Excellent point, we should be hearing more from the winners.

Still, I've been part of a couple of failed projects before I set out on my
own and I'm pretty sure that I would have fared a lot worse if not for my
prior experience. That saved me a ton of time and money.

I still found plenty of 'original' mistakes to make though :)

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mahmud
Donnie,

If you can't do it on your own, you need to outsource the sales my man. Sign
up with an affiliate network and let the pyramid schemers take care of it.
Offer them something like 50% on all sign ups; you can afford to pay a big
finder's fee because a CMS is something that people don't give up quickly once
they start using it.

I would strongly urge you NOT to give it up and focus on the sales side of
things, you're done coding for now.

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dejv
I see just two phases in this list: 1\. create product 2\. fail to sell it

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donniefitz2
Thank you all for you posts. I want to make it clear that I'm not making any
absolute statement about anything. I just wanted to share my experience.

I know that I did a poor job of market research from the onset and that
there's a long list of things I should have/should not have done to make this
work. I do appreciate your opinions.

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polinkin
After stage one there is one necessary step that the author has missed: to
calculate whether this idea will bring any money (or at least cover the
costs). It is painful to invest 8 months of one's life into something that
wouldn't have produced any returns in the first place.

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edw519
_It is painful to invest 8 months of one's life into something that wouldn't
have produced any returns in the first place._

Painful, yes. A waste of time, I don't think so.

Although I would never recommend building something without understanding the
business model, all is not lost. OP probably learned more valuable lessons
(and technology) in that 8 months than he would have in a job or at school.
Now is the time to put that education to work. Not doing that _would_ make it
a waste of time.

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donniefitz2
Thank you for noticing that although I have not enjoyed any monetary success,
I have learned a ton about business and product development.

Because of this product venture, I'm currently working on something much more
promising because of the lessons I learned on this one.

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patio11
If I were told to write an article with that headline, the first sale would
have marked the end of Phase #1. I'm not sure that I can fit everything else
you need to do into only 5 phases left, but relabeling the first sale stage 0
is just cheesy.

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edw519
I believe OP has hope. Sounds like he has tons of local businesses who need
what he has to offer but don't realize it. Therein lies his problem. I may be
a little naive, but after reading his post, I still don't know what he has and
why anyone would need it. I know what a blog is, but I'm not really sure what
a CMS-Content Management System is. Why would a local small business need a
"CMS"? Why would they want to blog? If I'm not clear, you can bet his local
prospects aren't, either.

This has the makings of an excellent local lifestyle business which would be
90% product and 10% service. OP's ace in the hole is himself. I know that
small businesses who would use his product would still like to see his smiling
face once a month and be able to call him as needed. This is a huge plus!

My advice to OP would be to temporarily forget about the software, the
technology, and the jargon. Instead, become a trusted sympathetic advisor to
his prospects. Learn about their situations and understand the pain they have
but don't even realize. Meet them on their turf and speak their language. And
most of all, solve their problems and help their profitability. Nothing else
matters.

What I have just described is all the sales and marketing you need to know.
You had passion for the product when you had to, now is the time to have
passion for your customers.

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allenp
8 months initial dev cycle seems long - what is the prevailing idea about how
long this should be once you commit to building?

