Jan 17
This is a little late, but I’m going to comment anyway 
A couple of weeks ago, Bob Walsh posted about plans for his mymicroisv.com site and mentioned that he was going to add a wiki to the site. I added a brief comment over there about PMwiki being easy to setup and use.
I just thought I’d add that I also have a private copy, sorry not ‘net accessable, that I use almost every day to track anything and everything related to my business. Any ideas I come up with for ThoughtFiler or other potential products or services go there, budgets, plans, goals and pretty much anything else I need to record about the business goes into the wiki. Makes it quick and easy to retrieve later.
Jan 17
November, 27th! Heck, that feels like so long ago now it’s not funny. Definitely what I would call a blogging hiatus.
So much for my monthly goals, eh! I did one so far (updates on that shortly). Some of you may have thought that I have given up on this whole Micro-ISV or “escape the cubicle” dream. Not at all! I still believe that there’s a market for my ThoughtFiler idea and I fully intend to build it, but… once I quit and am building it full-time I am pretty sure that I will want to eat, pay some bills and have somewhat of a life.
To that end, I have been rethinking my plans a bit. I have been thinking about contracting sources in my local area and of various other services I can offer businesses around here to provide income streams. I will post some thoughts on all this here shortly if only to provide clarity for myself (as I’m sure most of you have long since left for more exciting uISV blogs!)
Nov 27
Every so often I come across ideas that really excite me with their potential. Several days ago, I discovered Kiva.org which gets me more excited about their concept the more I look into it.
I suppose, in one sense, it’s a type of social networking site but, unlike all the others out there it actually lets people help each other in practical ways. Take a look at it for yourself.
They have a 1 page summary (PDF) that provides a good introduction to the concept. Here’s a short quote from their about page that summarises what this is all about…
Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you’ve sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.
And a 15 minute PBS doco on their MySpace page. I’m still looking into it myself but, as I said before, I find the whole idea real exciting!
Oct 05
Ian Landsman, of Helpspot fame, has just launched his first experimental “mini-site” here: Open Source Help Desk List.
I like the honesty and confidence that this shows: honesty because the site doesn’t hide the fact that this is helping to drive traffic to the HelpSpot site, and the confidence that he obviously has in his product to hold its own against the competition.
It’ll be interesting to follow the results of this experiment to see how much of an impact this has on his sales.
And, Ian, the only other opensource product I can think of that you’ve left off is: ZenTrack.
Oct 05
To keep things moving, it’s time to set my first monthly goal, even if I have missed the first week already.
By the end of the month, I want to have a functioning Customer Portal/Payments Gateway up on my site. It does not have to be “finished” in terms of complete functionality but it has to be ready to create customer accounts and accept payments via at least one gateway (e.g. Paypal).
Why have I chosen this as my first goal? Well, I have one small customer with the possibility of a second one and this facility in place would be useful for them as well as myself. Also, being able to use & fine-tune it with a few actual customers will be helpful.
Oct 04
I made a decision tonight that I hope will help really get things going around here: each month I will pick one thing to do with my business and then I will have four weeks to research, develop/purchase and then implement a solution to that goal.
This came about as I was thinking again about payment processing and customer portals, etc and I realised that I’ve looked at this stuff before, yet still haven’t implemented anything!
From here on I’m going to (attempt to) discipline myself and proceed in a more structured way, including at least one post for each goal to be made here.
I think this should help me to focus my efforts and achieve real results.
Oct 03
Speaking of the offline side of business… I recently got my first set of business cards printed; And I’ve already passed out quite a few of them around town. So far, I’ve had positive reactions from those who have shown an interest in what I am doing and planning.
And, apart from the obvious benefits of beginning to get my name out and about in my local area, there is something to be said for having a physical item that can be picked up and held. Also, the act of actually spending money on something helped me to stop and consider how serious I am in this.
Somehow it confirms that this Micro-ISV thing is real - that it’s not just a business name, number and website. This is real! This is the next chapter of my career and life. I am really doing this.
It has reignited my enthusiasm and excitement levels!
So my recommendation is, if you too are starting a Micro-ISV and are serious about it (eventually) being a full-time gig, get some professional business cards printed and start talking about your ISV with the people around you that are interested. You may just be surprised at how much that can enthuse and motivate you.
Oct 03
Gee, I can’t believe it, it’s almost Christmas!
I also can’t believe that I haven’t posted anything here since July, which I guess means most of you have given up on me as an MicroISV dreamer with no follow-through…
That would certainly be an understandable assessment, as activity online has progressed slowly (to say the least!).
Offline though things have been steadily progressing. The plan is still to quit the day job and make this a full-time venture within the next one to two years. However, in order to do that I’m going to need more alternative income streams and, to that end, I have been evaluating various options around my local area. Opportunities that would use my current skill sets and mesh with my future ISV vision.
On the Micro ISV side, preliminary ThoughtFiler development has begun with an initial interface for the desktop version (the web services will come later).
Anyway, I’m still around and hope to be posting a little more regularly from here on.
Jul 08
I first discovered John Gunning’s ISV blog, SmallISV, back in February. I was interested in his blog then as he is a fellow Aussie ISV. However, at the time, it seemed like he lost interest in posting to his blog, but now I know why: he’s been busily coding his first product, which has launched recently: Bi Documenter.
Congratulations on your first launch, John!
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