Internet Business

[jjdoyle]

I have a question I am hoping some of you have had experience with. I started a small business when I was in college that by the time I sold it at age 26 I had 25 employees. I recently came up with an idea for an internet based company where there is a high demand with little to no competition at the moment. I have little to no knowledge when it comes to the internet side of business although I have been cramming as much as possible in my head the past three months. Has anyone been in my shoes and went down the path of hiring out a web designer/architect while learning as you go or did you partner up with a developer that in terms became the Chief technology Officer. I see one as like climbing a stair well and the other taking the escalator with off course losing some shares along the way. Any advice?

 

[djbaxter]

Welcome to BizWarriors, jjdoyle. I'm glad you found us.

Over my career, I have been an employee, a partner, a sole proprietor in a group, and a sole proprietor. The role I found the most enjoyable with the least stress was sole proprietor with no partners and no group.

So my personal preference would be to hire someone for specific tasks and keep control of your business.

Others may have different views on this, of course, but there's my input.

 

[Peyton White]

I have a question I am hoping some of you have had experience with. I started a small business when I was in college that by the time I sold it at age 26 I had 25 employees. I recently came up with an idea for an internet based company where there is a high demand with little to no competition at the moment. I have little to no knowledge when it comes to the internet side of business although I have been cramming as much as possible in my head the past three months. Has anyone been in my shoes and went down the path of hiring out a web designer/architect while learning as you go or did you partner up with a developer that in terms became the Chief technology Officer. I see one as like climbing a stair well and the other taking the escalator with off course losing some shares along the way. Any advice?

That's quite normal in a business during its trial period. You have to plan ahead and have enough knowledge about what type of services you would like to have on your internet business. It's a continuous learning and you need a lot of patience. But if things are okay, it will run smoothly.

 

[Edvin]

...little to no competition at the moment...

It sounds like you found an opportunity; but, keep in mind indirect competition is still there. In my case; there are no robotics and coding classes locally; but, the studios like dance, music, karate, or events like soccer, baseball, scouting, tutoring are all my competition because if they weren't around then I would be the only outlet for parents...

As for the strategy; there is no right way. You have to figure out what makes sense for your time, budget, and vision.

...Has anyone been in my shoes and went down the path of hiring out a web designer/architect while learning as you go or did you partner...

Couple years ago a family member solicited my help for a joint venture; but, I didn't share his vision and opportunity. I certainly gave him direction and guidance... later he partnered with someone techie who helped manage offshore web-development. After he exhausted his funds, he sought investors. The product looks polished and he is still actively nurturing it because it still isn't profitable.

It is my opinion that he would have saved more time and money if he iterated on existing technologies and focused on bridging them with integrations. For example, they recreated their own contact management portion.

His tech guy obviously had a different view about flexibility, growth, asthetics, and time to market.

Finding an experienced and knowledgeable architect is not easy.

If you give us a high level idea of what you need ( i.e., shopping cart, subscription, map, reservation, video, contacts, communication, ads, etc.); someone from the forum might be able to tell you what software solutions/components to bridge

Good luck.

 

[jjdoyle]

Thanks for responding.

This site would include ads but the main focus would be a rating site with reservations. I know there’s tons of these types of site outs there but none that fit under the market I will be reaching. The main issue I see is where my time will be spent. Like I stated above I have little to no experience in the website business world.

I have two options both farming out the construction of the site. First being just hire the architect to design and build the site while I run the day to day operations with the technology and business side. Or partner with a CTO of sort while he builds and runs the day to day with the website and my time would be spent on running the day to day business itself. One I’m paying for in upfront cash the other I’m giving % away.

I know I can learn the criteria’s of running the site day to day but is that taking away from where my niche in business really is. I’m comfortable with both guys on either option and both have extensive back grounds in tech with one having more entrepreneurship skills as well.

 

[djbaxter]

I have two options both farming out the construction of the site. First being just hire the architect to design and build the site while I run the day to day operations with the technology and business side. Or partner with a CTO of sort while he builds and runs the day to day with the website and my time would be spent on running the day to day business itself. One I’m paying for in upfront cash the other I’m giving % away.

I think you've already had some responses in this thread to those two options. Which one do you prefer personally?

I know I can learn the criteria of running the site day to day but is that taking away from where my niche in business really is. I’m comfortable with both guys on either option and both have extensive back grounds in tech with one having more entrepreneurship skills as well.

Are you saying you have specific individuals in mind to fill those roles?

 

[Edvin]

You don't need a developer; instead, a websavvy marketer can be more beneficial. There are many turn key COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) as well as open source (free solutions) with easy to replace templates.

For simplicity, let's say you use managed WordPress with plugins for your desired functionality (e.g ads, reservation, rating, subscription, payment gateway, security, caching performance, etc). You can always grow your technology stack when needed.
The devil is in the details; for example you may not like the process flow or interface; but, you won't be able to easily quantify it; so, pick a solution and you can iterated on it as needed.

This will result on working more on the business than product to run the business.

 

[djbaxter]

You don't need a developer; instead, a websavvy marketer can be more beneficial. There are many turn key COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) as well as open source (free solutions) with easy to replace templates.

That depends on the individual and how comfortable s/he is with technology. Even with turnkey solutions, there is a learning curve, and for platforms like WordPress the curve is even steeper.

 

[Edvin]

That depends on the individual and how comfortable s/he is with technology. Even with turnkey solutions, there is a learning curve, and for platforms like WordPress the curve is even steeper.

Agreed; the right person still needs to be behind the driver seat. But utilization of COTS, in most cases, is both cheaper and faster than green development project.

 

[djbaxter]

Agreed; the right person still needs to be behind the driver seat. But utilization of COTS, in most cases, is both cheaper and faster than green development project.

Absolutely. That's exactly why I recommend the WordPress platform to my small business clients. No need to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to!

 

[jjdoyle]

Are you saying you have specific individuals in mind to fill those roles?[/QUOTE]


Yes, both are extremely qualified in their categories. Both have knowledge with web development one with more experience with entrepreneurship. So that's where I struggle. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[NMarkovich]

Hi jjdoyle - if you're still exploring options, take a look at You don't need to be a coder. which is "one-stop" codeless web-app development, i.e. User Interface, Database and Logic. Hosting is also included (runs on AWS). No need to learn HTML/CSS/JS/Node.JS/etc. Lots of plugins (FB, Google, Stripe, PayPal, Zapier etc Bubble Plugins) and an API connector.

In my experience dealing with 3rd party vendors, you can create web-apps using Bubble in 1/4 the time and price (if you outsource - I learned Bubble and do my own web-apps so my time is the price; I don't recommend outsourcing).

For startups, I point them to Bubble for creating proto's/MVP's. Saves a lot of time and money (speaking from experience). Bubble also scales for production; there are use-cases of 10's of thousands of users on apps created with Bubble.

While I have my own apps, I also consult to companies. My advice to all of them is to have the "Crown Jewels" controlled internally. So either one of the founders or someone on the team with tech-chops takes point on the dev work. I help/coach them up the learning curve but they need to take 100% ownership of Dev work over time.

I'd be happy to chat more. Best wishes...

tx
Nikolai