blaksol
Possum Trot
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
16%
- Feb 23, 2014
- 92
- 15
- 40
I have read TMF and been lurking here for a couple of years. I have tons of ideas, some of which I have wasted tons of time on, so after my phone call with Jack Edwards I spent a couple months narrowing down my ideas and ended on this.
I want to build software for the industry I have worked in for the past 8 years. I will try to make this as concise as possible and if more details are necessary for input please let me know.
What my company does: Resell services on a monthly recurring basis. For example, we pay $200/month, we sell for $400/month. We sell a lot of these services (I would guess about 500,000 units in any month), which creates the opportunity for what I do.
What I Do Now: Recover money by finding services we are paying for that we are not receiving revenue for (partially caused by laziness of other employees, but this is expected), to the tune of about $10,000/month (monthly recurring, so if I find $10k in January, accounting shows it as $120k recovered). Some of the units I find have been losing money for up to 5 years in extreme cases. I make a little over $40k a year for this. And so do the other 15 people that do similar jobs in my company, and will continue to forever unless the problem stops.
What my software will do: Solve the problem by making the incoming and outgoing cash more closely tied and forcing users to complete necessary actions through the system (for example now an "order" can be closed out by clicking a button saying a task is completed without any proof the task is actually completed), stop the losses of cash for those long periods of time (roughly $5 mil a year), and save the money our crew is getting paid (about 1.5 mil a year). Also it should save time for numerous other teams that are causing the problems to begin with (and cost some of them their jobs). Also, I could migrate the current data into the new system within a couple months time, so it wouldn't have to be entered manually (which is what usually happens after a merger or acquisition and takes upwards of a year for a team of 10+ people to complete).
About the market: There are at least 2 larger companies (all 3 are publicly traded) with the exact same model as the one I work for in the US that use the same software (which, in part, allows the same mistakes to be made). I have met other people that work for these companies and it seems the same problems exist, though I cannot be sure how aware management or shareholders are of the extent of the problems.
My personal barriers:
1 . I can't quit my job unless I have an investor. I have a wife, mortgage, car payment, student loans for an MBA, etc. I would last literally a month if I quit before I had to start selling things. If I could quit, I may be able to finish the project in about 3 months of 60 hour weeks - except I wouldn't have access to the systems at work anymore which could make it more challenging since I would no longer have access to their software and tables (current software is not simply something I could copy or download) - this also would pose problems if I wanted to hire a programmer, but I don't really want to anyway because I know how to make it and I would be more on top of any issues that come up with a project this size.
2. Assuming I don't quit, I will spend about a year completing the software, and I am not sure how to sell it. I am a terrible salesman, and I don't think doing the copywriting challenge is going to help me in this instance. Even if I was great at sales, I can't approach the company I work(ed) for to sell them software I made while employed there. I will need a partner that has experience with how to get this in front of the right people. Employees and even a few VPs will not want to change software because they have been using the same systems for up to 20 years depending on their time in the industry, and the current system does not cause them much personal pain. However, some financial VPs and all the shareholders would jump on this product if I make the benefits known to them.
So, I guess that about sums up my situation. Any thoughts or advice will be greatly appreciated.
I want to build software for the industry I have worked in for the past 8 years. I will try to make this as concise as possible and if more details are necessary for input please let me know.
What my company does: Resell services on a monthly recurring basis. For example, we pay $200/month, we sell for $400/month. We sell a lot of these services (I would guess about 500,000 units in any month), which creates the opportunity for what I do.
What I Do Now: Recover money by finding services we are paying for that we are not receiving revenue for (partially caused by laziness of other employees, but this is expected), to the tune of about $10,000/month (monthly recurring, so if I find $10k in January, accounting shows it as $120k recovered). Some of the units I find have been losing money for up to 5 years in extreme cases. I make a little over $40k a year for this. And so do the other 15 people that do similar jobs in my company, and will continue to forever unless the problem stops.
What my software will do: Solve the problem by making the incoming and outgoing cash more closely tied and forcing users to complete necessary actions through the system (for example now an "order" can be closed out by clicking a button saying a task is completed without any proof the task is actually completed), stop the losses of cash for those long periods of time (roughly $5 mil a year), and save the money our crew is getting paid (about 1.5 mil a year). Also it should save time for numerous other teams that are causing the problems to begin with (and cost some of them their jobs). Also, I could migrate the current data into the new system within a couple months time, so it wouldn't have to be entered manually (which is what usually happens after a merger or acquisition and takes upwards of a year for a team of 10+ people to complete).
About the market: There are at least 2 larger companies (all 3 are publicly traded) with the exact same model as the one I work for in the US that use the same software (which, in part, allows the same mistakes to be made). I have met other people that work for these companies and it seems the same problems exist, though I cannot be sure how aware management or shareholders are of the extent of the problems.
My personal barriers:
1 . I can't quit my job unless I have an investor. I have a wife, mortgage, car payment, student loans for an MBA, etc. I would last literally a month if I quit before I had to start selling things. If I could quit, I may be able to finish the project in about 3 months of 60 hour weeks - except I wouldn't have access to the systems at work anymore which could make it more challenging since I would no longer have access to their software and tables (current software is not simply something I could copy or download) - this also would pose problems if I wanted to hire a programmer, but I don't really want to anyway because I know how to make it and I would be more on top of any issues that come up with a project this size.
2. Assuming I don't quit, I will spend about a year completing the software, and I am not sure how to sell it. I am a terrible salesman, and I don't think doing the copywriting challenge is going to help me in this instance. Even if I was great at sales, I can't approach the company I work(ed) for to sell them software I made while employed there. I will need a partner that has experience with how to get this in front of the right people. Employees and even a few VPs will not want to change software because they have been using the same systems for up to 20 years depending on their time in the industry, and the current system does not cause them much personal pain. However, some financial VPs and all the shareholders would jump on this product if I make the benefits known to them.
So, I guess that about sums up my situation. Any thoughts or advice will be greatly appreciated.
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