A couple of additions to MicroISV Central…
I’ve added a couple of sections to the Micro-ISV Central aggregator which I hope will help make it a more useful resource for entrepreneurs and entrepreneur-dreamers. 
Firstly, I have added a Micro-ISV directory that provides an introduction and links to the websites and Twitter accounts of the feeds read by the aggregator.
Also, I have added a forum for discussion of issues related to running our ISV businesses. Every so often I read posts of people looking for somewhere to congregate and have discussions about uISV issues, as well as unhappiness with other forums out there. This may or may not turn out to be the place where people want to come, but it’s there and available so feel free to make as much use of it as you like.
Enjoy!
So… is BackupBrain still alive?
I’m sure there’s noone left following this blog, since I haven’t regularly posted here since 2008, but I am still alive and so is the business. In fact, I have been running full-time since the beginning of 2010. That’s right… I “escaped cubicle nation!”
That’s the good news; the bad news is that development of ThoughtFiler and my other ideas has stalled, due to needing to ensure enough income to live off of. Therefore my focus to date has been on building and supporting my consulting client base, and marketing around my local area to let other businesses know of my availability.
Fortunately, although I’m not making any promises yet, I may be reaching the point where I am able to dedicate time each week back into development. Which is exciting to me as that’s the primary reason I started this business.
Belated maintenance for MicroISVcentral.com …
After almost a year and a half of service as the aggregator of Micro-ISV blogs (after the original Planet MicroISV closed down), MicroISVcentral.com has received some much needed maintenance.
It has been moved onto a new server with more space and bandwidth and had upgrades to WordPress and its various plugins to ensure it keeps serving the community for more time to come.
I have added some blogs to it that I have been created since it was created and also linked it to Twitter. If you follow @microisvcentral you will have another way to keep up with the posts of our fellow uISV entrepreneurs! All the links on Twitter go directly to the original author’s site.
Feel free to let me know if there’s any other blogs that should be added (or removed) from this aggregator.
Enjoy!
How to know your blog has been forgotten?
…when you’ve just had to clean up over 3,200 SPAM comments from it!
Wow, I never thought I would end up leaving this blog dormant for so long!
A stimulating offer for Micro-ISVs…
This might be a useful offer for other Micro-ISVs out there; Atlassian Software, makers of the Confluence enterprise wiki and the JIRA issue tracking systems are offering 5-user licenses of Confluence or Jira for five dollars!! That’s right. $5.
Not a bad deal if you were looking at getting into wikis or issue tracking. Even if your company is big, if it’s just going to be your IT staff, or just as a proof-of-concept for documentation, this cannot be beat.
The only catch is that there is only three days left for ISVs to take up this offer. Go check out their stimulus page…
Microsoft BizSpark…
Looks like other Micro ISV’s are discovering the amazing resource that is Microsoft BizSpark. I signed up for this myself yesterday.
As Scott over at The Recursive ISV said, “…it’s utterly brilliant.”
Similarly to Scott, I too was wanting to develop the desktop portions of my ThoughtFiler project in Delphi 2009 but the price of entry is out of my league at this early stage of development and CodeGear don’t appear to have any equivalent programs running. I daresay this will be a huge mistake for them in the future!
The benefits of Facebook…
Sometimes Facebook is a just a time sink and can waste a lot of time and others it can reconnect you with old friends who also happen to be heading down the Micro-ISV path.
Last week, through FB, I reconnected with an old school Friend, Paul, who is developing some of his ideas at HomepageHome. Unfortunately, he’s not blogging his progress yet
Anyway, I wish him all the best with his upcoming v2.0 launch…
Another bootstrapper goes full-time!
Congratulations to Paul over at LogicalVue Software on making the jump to full-time Micro-ISV.
It’s great to see someone being able to pursue their dreams. All the best to Paul & his family!
Finally developing!
Finally, after much initial excitement, thinking and planning, things are really moving again this time. Development has actually started on things… that’s it; it’s decided – next year I quit.
2007 was the year of making a start. 2008 will be the year of making it real!
To actually be developing now feels good. Better than I expected…
A MicroISV is a lifestyle…
Ian hits the nail on the head with his post, MicroISV or Startup:
“A big part of which is which is determining your goals. Do you want to run a business with an office, a secretary, 10+ employees? If so that’s a startup. It may just be you in the beginning, but if you envision that environment as your endgame then it’s a startup. A MicroISV is a very different thing. It’s a lifestyle as much as anything else. Are you content making enough money to have a high standard of living, but not enough to have an office of employees? Would you rather run your business than be a manager in it? Are you content sacrificing a higher probability of success for a lower probability of getting rich? If so then you’re starting a MicroISV.”
Most people I have talked to about my business plans assume that my goal is to eventually grow the business to a nice office and numerous staff. They always give me puzzled looks when I explain to them that that is not my goal and I am embarking on this endeavour for both the challenges and the lifestyle.