Sounds like it would be a good candidate for a side project, yes.I have been working on this web app for a few years, that I started as a coursework project when I was in school. It is a quiz app that makes assessment more fun and engaging for students.
After 1 year of working on it full time, I'm now starting to make £1-£2K per month (£500-£1K profit). There are some problems though and I'm starting to wonder how feasible this really is and whether I'm better off doing something else:
- It is in a high competition industry where the problem is already solved
- There are several big players, VC funded and offer free versions of their software: Kahoot, Quizizz, Socrative, Gimkit (not VC funded, started by a high school student but I honestly think their product is awesome and better than mine which is why it has grown so much)
- It is hard to see how I can compete with these
- The target market is mostly teachers
- If you want to get a teacher to pay for something, often it is like trying to draw blood from a stone. They mostly look for free tools - which is fair since they don't get paid much. I find it ridiculous that they often need to pay for things out of pocket - the school systems are messed up.
- Free is the expectation
- Teachers are always looking for free tools to use and I have made mine paid so it can be sustainable without funding. I had it the standard freemium model for several years which never worked out, but since changing I've made more income (still nothing substantial) but there's always a few get pissed off about having to pay for it and leave.
- It isn't niche
- Linked to high competition, my app can be used by all kinds of teachers which is a problem because I know it's better to be a big fish in a small pond if you're a solofounder with no team or funding.
There are good things though:
But honestly looking at the cons list, I would never get into this business if I were starting over. I'm only offering a slightly different way of engaging students, which teachers are always looking for (hence lots of organic traffic). However due to the nature of this industry and the fact that I'm not solving a painful problem I think the chances of this becoming a true fastlane venture are very slim.
- I have done barely any marketing, but still get plenty of users (100-300 signups per day)
- I'm making some money, so in theory I can make more (but will be a challenge)
- I have a few loyal users
You might be wondering why I have been working on it this long if I think this. Well, it's mostly because I have mistakenly followed vanity metrics. I have only looked at things like signup numbers and thought I had something of real potential when I hit 10K users and quit everything to pursue it (LOL).
Now I'm trying to look at things a bit more objectively and examine the probabilities. I am leaning towards doing something else and keeping it alive as a side project, but I think it would be a good idea to get others viewpoints on it.
Thank you for reading!
However, a few things to consider:
1. Is there any easy cost effective way to alter or expand the functionality so that you actually solve a more complex problem which will bring higher revenue?
What can you do with the minimum investment of time and resources?
2. Can you outsorce finding paying customers to partners?
Offer a percent of the revenue and just dont bother looking for the teachers yourself.
3. Can you make it more niche, or expand into another niche using the same software?
P.S Also think about reading up on marketing and business optimization.
It might not scale much in your case, but you have a profitable business in your hands.
If nothing else, then you can at least experiement with it, expand your skills in marketing.