Thread: Should I Become a Programmer or Just Outsource?

Personally, I think having tech skills is ultimately where all the money is at. I can't help but think of Facebook, Google, and Microsoft all projects started by men who had programming skills that were leveraged into billionaire dollar businesses.

The problem is time. It takes years (some say 10 years in fact) to really develop proficient programming skills. However, once you have those skills, it's game on!

But is it worth all that time? I'll be, hypothetically speaking, 34 years old when I'm getting started on building my fastlane business! The other option would be of course, to hire other people to build the "software" (I don't actually have a solid idea yet of what that software will be), and build the business from there. With this option, by 34 years old I would be towards exiting the business. However, I would have to rely on (read: pay) other people to handle all of the technology: to create it, troubleshoot it, maintain it, and upgrade it. I lose some control, but gain back some time.

What do y'all think, which path should I head down?

This question comes up very often. Here are a couple of my responses from recent threads:

Hey programmers, what software do you use?
Is it realistic to think...

@newbiextra: This is exactly my dilemma right now... I saw the same things you mentioned (10 years of learning), looked into the different programming languages, what it all takes... it's a big bite to take, especially when someone has absolutely no programming background.
It's not impossible however, but it does take a long time.

I'm also scared that the speed at which technology is going at right now, who knows if Java or C++ will still be the biggest languages in 10 years? What if something new and a lot bigger comes along and today's technology will be oldish and on the way to be outdated?

It's pretty confusing...

Originally Posted by newbieXtra

Personally, I think having tech skills is ultimately where all the money is at.

I would say people skills are more important to have than technical skills, you can always hire technical people to do the work for you assuming you can manage them well. Obviously Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg because wealthy due, in part, from their technical skills. But technical skills alone would not have done it, they needed business skills and people skills. I haven't done either, but I assume it harder to run a billion dollar company that it is to program a complex website.

Originally Posted by newbieXtra

The problem is time. It takes years (some say 10 years in fact) to really develop proficient programming skills.

Looking back at my programming education, and knowing what I know now, I could probably develop proficient programming skills in a year with full-time dedication. That's assuming you can learn 6+ hours a day. I would say that I learned the majority of my programming knowledge, which will allow me to duplicate a Facebook or eBay, with about 4 years of on-and-off studying. The quality of their coding would be far superior, but I could get the site to function similar nonetheless.

Originally Posted by newbieXtra

However, I would have to rely on (read: pay) other people to handle all of the technology: to create it, troubleshoot it, maintain it, and upgrade it.

Ultimately, this depends on your resources available -- time and money -- and whether you can dedicate yourself to many hours of getting down with your "inner geek." Programming is like a foreign language at first and will take some dedication.

Originally Posted by newbieXtra

I lose some control, but gain back some time.

You will gain control by having other do the work for you. You control your time. You will also control your employees. Don't think that just because you're having someone else do the work that you're not in control. You're the business owner, they serve you. Otherwise, find a new employee. Hope this helps.

Sure people who invented facebook and google and what not had backgrounds in programming but it was the idea that did it for them.

Once you have an idea, you can learn as you go and then make bank on the idea that you EXECUTE either with employees or your own work.

Here's the def of an entrepreneur:

"1. A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on financial risk to do so."

You are the organizer and operator of the business. It doesn't mean you have to do all the grunt work. You hire people who already have the skills.

You just organize it into a marketable idea.

Originally Posted by wade1mil

I would say people skills are more important to have than technical skills, you can always hire technical people to do the work for you assuming you can manage them well. Obviously Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg because wealthy due, in part, from their technical skills. But technical skills alone would not have done it, they needed business skills and people skills. I haven't done either, but I assume it harder to run a billion dollar company that it is to program a complex website.

You're absolutely right! I didn't mention it in my post, but I was thinking I would have a major advantage over both programmers and business people because of the fact I would have both the idea and the ability to be able to implement the idea. Programmers are usually just programmers, and business people stick with business.

Originally Posted by wade1mil

Looking back at my programming education, and knowing what I know now, I could probably develop proficient programming skills in a year with full-time dedication. That's assuming you can learn 6+ hours a day. I would say that I learned the majority of my programming knowledge, which will allow me to duplicate a Facebook or eBay, with about 4 years of on-and-off studying. The quality of their coding would be far superior, but I could get the site to function similar nonetheless.

How would I going about doing that? I have the time, I'm willing, I just don't know what I should be focusing on the speed up the process? Also, I don't need for the program be perfect, I just need it to work.

Originally Posted by wade1mil

Ultimately, this depends on your resources available -- time and money -- and whether you can dedicate yourself to many hours of getting down with your "inner geek." Programming is like a foreign language at first and will take some dedication.

You will gain control by having other do the work for you. You control your time. You will also control your employees. Don't think that just because you're having someone else do the work that you're not in control. You're the business owner, they serve you. Otherwise, find a new employee. Hope this helps.

I have the time, but I don't have the money. I'm in debt, and am going to need to get a job soon to pay it off. Money is one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to do it myself. I use my time and next no money to build it myself, launch it myself, and once it starts taking off, then bring on other people to help further develop and build it. Also, the other big thing is I don't actually have an idea yet, and was thinking that I could be learning some skills in the meantime, while I come up with an idea to implement.

Originally Posted by Mike McAleer

Sure people who invented facebook and google and what not had backgrounds in programming but it was the idea that did it for them.

Once you have an idea, you can learn as you go and then make bank on the idea that you EXECUTE either with employees or your own work.

Here's the def of an entrepreneur:

"1. A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on financial risk to do so."

You are the organizer and operator of the business. It doesn't mean you have to do all the grunt work. You hire people who already have the skills.

You just organize it into a marketable idea.

So, I should worry less about how to do it, and focus more on what aka the idea to do?

Bill Gates is an OK programmer. He is more of a shrewd business man than a programmer. They bought their first OS spiffed it up a little bit and sold it to IBM with the option to keep the rights to it. That was checkmate in one move. Once Microsoft grew bigger they just bought what they wanted, added a few features and sold it as a Microsoft product. No matter what you are doing or are going to do it is all about the business angle.

Originally Posted by newbieXtra

How would I going about doing that? I have the time, I'm willing, I just don't know what I should be focusing on the speed up the process? Also, I don't need for the program be perfect, I just need it to work.

You need two things to start programming: and Internet browser (Firefox, etc.) and a text editor (Notepad, etc.). That's it. Then you start educating yourself.

You can get a good general idea of most languages by researching them on the internet. After you have an idea of how they work, I find it's best to buy a programming book and follow the author in the book by coding the exact same website as him. Don't go on to the next page until it works. If it doesn't work, find out why. A lot of your time coding will be spent correcting mistakes.

While going through these books, think of practical ways you can use the code you're learning in business For example, if the author is teaching you how to turn a background blue, I would then think of in what scenario I would want to change the color of the background. If you wanted to build a website for 14 year old girls, you may want to make the background pink. Just by learning programming, you might think of good ideas for a business.

Once you feel like you have a decent grasp on a particular programming language, start going deeper into it. Research experts on that language and read what they have to say. Think of something you want to do to your website, and then figure out how to make it happen using the programming language you've studied. Bottom line is, you just have to start programming in order to learn how to do it.

Programming languages:
HTML (basics)
CSS (layout)
SQL (for databases)
PHP, ColdFusion (dynamic programming)

Here are some resources to get started:
W3Schools Online Web Tutorials
HTML Goodies: The Ultimate HTML Resource
Free Webmaster Tutorials - Quackit.com
Software training online-tutorials for Adobe, Microsoft, Apple & more

Originally Posted by wade1mil

Programming languages:
HTML (basics)
CSS (layout)
SQL (for databases)
PHP, ColdFusion (dynamic programming)

Here are some resources to get started:
W3Schools Online Web Tutorials
HTML Goodies: The Ultimate HTML Resource
Free Webmaster Tutorials - Quackit.com
Software training online-tutorials for Adobe, Microsoft, Apple & more

Thanks for the wonderful resources. I went the W3Schools tutorial, and realized quite quickly that I have no desire to build the physical website from the ground up. CSS just looks like a frustration and a half, what with it not working properly across all browsers. I'm thinking I'll ultimately pay someone else to build my website, and just focus on producing web apps because so far it's much more interesting and fun!

Originally Posted by wallstreet

What language/framework do you want to learn?

I've been doing some research, and I plan on starting with Python because from what I've found it's the most recommended for beginners, but still can be used to do advanced stuff.

In fact, I've just started and thanks to wade1mil's recommendation have already selected a book that I'm going to work my way through. It's Dive Into Python. I even have a little program I want to try and create after I have finished the book.

There is really no good or bad choice on either learning or outsourcing. It all depends on whether you end up getting into it enough to learn enough to develop the app/website in mind. No other factor should be considered when deciding. Not even time. Let me explain a little.

Most people that have never even tried to learn coding image its fun, easy, cool and impressive to be like those guys on "The Social Network". The reality is that it can be but only if you get into it. Meaning you really end up liking coding, solving problems and all of the challenges that comes with it.

You get into it so much that you even loose track of time and really enjoy doing it. You find it so interesting that you even take your laptop to the crapper to not stop coding. (Not me but I know a few that do this lol.)

But thats not what happens with most people. Most people start learning with excitement and motivation and after about 6 hours of it, realize they just cant get fascinated with coding like kids get with blowing soap bubbles.

They start dreading the time spent on it and soon after decide its not for them. But thats after spending time wondering and asking folks what to do. Well commons sense, coders are going to tell you yeah its a good idea. None coder will tell you to outsource. People in the middle will tell you to learn a little but outsource most of or develop on wordpress. It all depends on you.

Here is what I would do...

Go to Lynda.com and get a 7 day free trial. This is the best tutorial website to learn any type of programing/design. Give it your best shot. If you decide its not for you cancel and dont pay a penny. Otherwise its $37 a month.

But before you cancel watch the wordpress tutorials. They are great for non coders but want to still build their own site. Outsource the rest and focus on your strengths and the things you can really get into. Its a talent to find the right talent to do the work for you.

Outsource! I'm doing it now and I love it. If the goal is to create passive income sooner rather than later -- outsource! Besides, it kind of fun to watch how quickly things happen. If you were left to your own devices could you really put together a complicated fastlane site in a couple of weeks?

Hire professionals that have been doing it for years that can do it quicker and better than you at this point. You can hire teams where you have 10+ people working on your site and 10 of them is better than 1 you. I swear by it. The whole goal is to save time and make money faster and more passively. OUTSOURCE, OUTSOURCE, OUTSOURCE!

I'm struggling with the same concept, I concluded to the fact that the level of expertise my site requires is far beyond the time I would need to invest in creating it. In my opinion you should still have a good understanding of code, logic, terminology, frameworks and front end/back end concepts to to be effective. Someone else mentioned open source solutions or CMS (content management systems), that's the option I am persuing since you should not need much once the build is complete. There are several outsourcing sites on the web where they bid for your work, but you should be prepared before you post and layout your vision. The CMS framework will allow you to manage the content via an admin site. There are tons of modules which act as plugins to help you scale over time.

Good luck!

Me and my partner realized that we will most likely be outsourcing our programming needs.
Neither her nor me has any ideas about how C++/C# or Java (or any object oriented programming) works, and we feel like we don't want to delay our project for the next 3+ years until one of us (most likely me) learns to program sufficiently good enough to be able to go on.

That being said, I bought the book "Head First Java", and intend to try my hands and mind at learning it.
Definitely want to learn at least the basics so I know what our future programmer will need to have in order for the programming to go as fast as possible. That way we'll save money on his hourly wages hopefully.
(Mind you, we've been planning to get everything ready from the get go... we have many many pages of plans, questions, answers and everything in between already done.)

We have no idea where to get a programmer from though, since our budget is almost nonexistent.

I'm also going to learn how to use Dreamweaver, fortunately I have some friends proficient in that so they can help me with it.

I'd say if one has the money to outsource, then DO IT, but nothing prevents you from starting to learn the stuff yourself. This way your fastlane business won't stagnate for a year or more just because of lack of your programming knowledge at that point in time.