Newbies Guide to Making Software by Michael Rasmussen and Jason Tarasi - HTML preview

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Step 1: How to Get Started: The Idea

The most important thing you need to have is a goal – in this case, what kind of software you want to develop.

An Unlimited Marketplace – It’s Not Just Microsoft

There are tens of thousands of software products introduced each year by developers large and small. These run the gamut from every kind of personal entertainment product to utilities, to specialized business software of almost any kind, to applications designed to super-charge or unlock special features of other software or make them work better.

Actually not only is the majority of new software not developed by big companies like Microsoft, almost all real software innovation is from smaller firms, since they have the impetus and flexibility to be adventurous in their thinking and to move quickly without layers of management, funding, and outside stakeholders causing delays and offering opinions.

You may well not make billions with software, but software can be a fine supplement to many kinds of online businesses.

Filling a Need – Or Defining One

Chances are if you are thinking about developing some software products, you already have some idea of who you want to sell to.

While the possibilities are really only limited by your imagination, let’s take a moment and think about major software buying audiences and major categories of software by type that it can make the most sense for a small independent developer to work on.

There are a lot of ways to categorize all the kinds of software out there but here are a few convenient, generally agreed-upon MAJOR categories. There are of course dozens, if not hundreds, of specialized categories within them:

• Audio-Visual Software – such as music and video management tools
• Business Software – such as CRM and ERP tools
• Design and Photo Software
• Desktop Enhancements
• Developer Tools – software for making software
• Drivers – software to make software or hardware work
• Home and Education Software
• Internet Software – for getting more out of the Web
• IS/IT Software – for managing enterprise systems
• Utilities – specialized software that typically does one thing such as spyware removal or registry management

Software for Individuals

Individuals buy a lot of software for fun, to keep their computers working well, to organize information, for fun and entertainment and for other reasons. The popular categories include:

• A/V Software – the popularity of digital music and video has created a revolution in this area in the last couple of years
• Design and Photo Software – while businesses use many of these products on the higher end, individuals buy the majority of simpler tools to manage graphics
• Desktop Enhancements – mostly geared towards individuals, they add fun and function to the computer experience
• Drivers – system-resident programs that make other programs and hardware work together, though probably too technical an area to experiment with for a novice development company
• Home and Education Software – by definition for the personal market
• Internet software
• Utilities – specialized small programs that perform a custom function. Among the more popular in recent years would be programs that deal with eliminating spyware and viruses; firewalls and other Internet security functions; organization of large groups of files like photos, music, video clips; file conversion programs to allow users to use different file types with different programs; and much more.

Software for Businesses

Businesses buy a lot of software, to keep their computers working well, to organize information, to manage aspects of their businesses, for security, and many other reasons. With businesses, bear in mind that the transaction methods may be different and that you may need to consider more complex licensing rules, which we’ll consider in the sections on selling and supporting your programs.

The popular categories include:

• Business Software – by definition, for businesses of course! We’ll discuss some of the major sub-categories below.
• Design and Photo Software – higher-end tools
• Internet software
• IS/IT Software
• Utilities – specialized small programs that perform a custom function. For businesses, the most important utilities would have to do with keeping computers safe (such as firewall, encryption, anti-virus, anti-spyware kinds of programs) and specialized business functions, which will vary by the industry.

While all businesses are different, most businesses have many common business functions they need to perform, and today, there are software programs – and software opportunities – to address these areas, especially for the small and medium business marketplace.

Major business functions that benefit from software include applications, auction tools, finance (including spreadsheets, tax programs, and more), presentations, sales management, program and project management, legal and accounting, add-ins and custom extras for major business programs like MS Office, communication tools and much more.

Before You Start Developing

Even with the hints we’ll share, making software can be fairly expensive. Before you get started, have in mind the following:

• What you want the software to do
• What you want the interface to look like
• What kinds of other products are on the market that are similar
• What you plan to spend to have the software developed or “made”
• When you plan to make the software available

Great…now that you know what kind of software you want to make and sell, let’s start thinking about how to do that!