I have been extremely busy in the past few days, working through bugs, moving house, so I haven't had time to Blog since the 8th. Once again, it is great to get feedback from the people following my blog, as you don't know how much it pushes me to write more and more articles from my experiences. Insert emotional tears here :)
But it is that time again, time to get into the next installment of the series on contracting and optimizing your time. Keeping in the same vein as last week of giving people advice in times of economic crisis, I have decided to talk this week about working on contracting projects that you know will work in times of economic downturn. Ok, so this isn't going to help out a lot of people that don't have contracting work at their fingertips, but then again, every other week has been about that, so I thought it was only fair to offer advice to people who have been very succesful in their contracting work but also face the problems that other contractors will always face. My company has been working on a few projects lately and it is keeping us all very busy (however I don't really do a lot with it anymore, it guides itself). Some of the ideas (that I won't disclose as they are confidential) are the kind of ideas that, as soon as you hear it, you say to yourself..."Yes...I can really see that working". Others, although we still love taking them on as clients, require a lot more research from Jerrong Web Solutions to discover how they could rise above the competition. To be honest, and this is the relationship that we have with our clients, if I run an idea past some of our staff and we all don't think the idea will work, we will definately tell the client. However, our stand is, that no idea is a bad idea, it just needs to be scaled to cater for today's market.
So without further jibberish talk (I am well known for this), what questions do we ask ourselves at Jerrong Web Solutions that make us believe that a product will either work or not?
- The first important step is to have multiple people analyse the project from different perspectives. We usually get a technical perspective, a marketing perspective and a third party perspective.
- Who are the competitors in the market and why are they the best at what they do?
- Is the idea simple? Will it take a long time to get up and running?
- How enthusiastic is the client about his/her product? (I kid you not, sometimes I have worked with customers that really don't know what they want. Sometimes these are fun, because it gives the team a lot more flexibility to be creative.)
- What growth is there in the business idea? Is it the kind of business model where if they don't get 1000's of users, then the product doesn't work?
- What financial backing does the client have?
These aren't the kind of questions that are YES or NO answers. There are a lot more indepth than that. Without going into a lot od detail and boring you, here are two sample answers to these questions, one that gets the "thumbs up" from us, and the other that gets the "this needs work".
EXAMPLE 1: A Project that Jerrong Web Solutions gives the "thumbs up" to
- Who are the competitors in the market and why are they the best at what they do?
Company A has 5 huge advantages over the rest of the competition. Most importantly, the company
has a charity aspect, credit card integration and a client that is well networked in the area of the product.
2. Is the idea simple? Will it take a long time to get up and running?
The project will take the Web 2.0 approach of simplicity. One page, with the intention of getting the user in and out (bouncing) within 1 minute.
3.How enthusiastic is the client about his/her product? (I kid you not, sometimes I have worked with customers that really don't know what they want. Sometimes these are fun, because it gives the team a lot more flexibility to be creative.)
The client is the product. They have great ideas of how to enable the business and have ambition to dirve all the marketing and advertising themselves.
4.What growth is there in the business idea? Is it the kind of business model where if they don't get 1000's of users, then the product doesn't work?
The business has a great model, as it will scale the business to meet the demand. The area of work would be interesting and fun, so finding employees would not be difficult. Product will work if the client has 10 clients or 1000 clients. There is no rush to make this product large, straight away.
5. What financial backing does the client have?
The client is self funded as well as having a lot of support from the community and financial sectors.
The startup cost to the business is small and in the event of the business not working, the losses would be minimal.
EXAMPLE 2: A Project that Jerrong Web Solutions would say to the client that they need work on either their idea, their business model or other factors.
- Who are the competitors in the market and why are they the best at what they do?
Company A is getting into a market that already has a lot of other large and well established players. Although the company has
great ideas, it is the kind of market that, the project would have to offer a lot to entice other users to stray from their other product.
2. Is the idea simple? Will it take a long time to get up and running?
Site has a complex structure as well as a lot of functionality. Estimated time or completion is 6 months.
3. How enthusiastic is the client about his/her product? (I kid you not, sometimes I have
worked with customers that really don't know what they want. Sometimes these are fun, because it gives the team a lot more flexibility to be creative.)
The client has seen another product and bascially wants to replicate it but with a slight spin. Therefor the clients research is only off the back of other companies research. The client is not very open to other ideas.
4.What growth is there in the business idea? Is it the kind of business model where if they don't get 1000's of users, then the product doesn't work?
The business has a great model, as it will scale the business to meet the demand. The area of work would be interesting and fun, so finding employees would not be difficult. Product will work if the client has 10 clients or 1000 clients. There is no rush to make this product large, straight away.
5. What financial backing does the client have?
Although having a large financial backing, the client wants the product built as cheap as possible. This is
obviously understandable, but if for example, the specs change, the client would still want the project
to cost as much. The client is not willing to invest in advertising and marketing.
I thought that showing an example would be much better than just stating the obvious. Feel free to comment or send me feedback on experiences you have had.
Hope this helps,
- Tim
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