Comments on: Launch a Business, Not a Side Project

By: Nice Emails

Nice Emails — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:29:00 +0000

Thanks for the great post!

By: DIY Garage Repair

DIY Garage Repair — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:15:00 +0000

Research is important. Before you know what to do and how to do it right, you must have the right information. However, it may surprise you to find that often if you focus on looking for what you want, you can do it in a few minutes. Most of the time are spent wandering around from sites to sites.

By: James Johnson

James Johnson — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 08:26:08 +0000

Hey Ryan, thanks a lot for the post! You’ve got many useful articles on here, helped me greatly! One of my friends made that exact mistake you mentioned. Tried to help him but I had just read this thing just now, LOL! Anyhow, it’s a good point to keep in mind for budding entrepreneurs who want to build their own website or web apps.

James Johnson
CEO
Sebo Felix Premium

By: Krisenkindt

Krisenkindt — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:44:32 +0000

Hey :)
Very nice article!
I coach young entrepreneurs in a business plan competition, many of them in the web 2.0 area with iPhone apps, web apps, etc…
I will definitely give them the link to this article. It is really well laid out and has so many valid points in it.
Really good.

By: DELICIOUSPAPER Blog - Quelques liens du 10/03/2010

DELICIOUSPAPER Blog - Quelques liens du 10/03/2010 — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:36:59 +0000

[...] Launch a Business, Not a Side ProjectExcellent article qui explique qu'aussi bonne soit l'idée, mis à part quelques cas à part, beaucoup de temps est nécessaire pour "marketer" la chose. Peut-être la chose que l'on ne sait absolument pas faire chez deliciouspaper.(Tags: business culture marketing development startup project productivity ) [...]

By: MAK

MAK — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:15:35 +0000

thanks again for the post

By: MAK

MAK — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:13:10 +0000

Great post Ryan, and this type of post give us boost to work hard , recently i have launched my website http://www.letseatout.co.in and working hard from last few monts to bring it up…. keep writing ,

thanks

By: Vinu

Vinu — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:32:33 +0000

Good points. The stories of users discovering a great web app built as a side-project is rare in real-life I guess. You have to market the product, and work on that full time.

By: The Solo Founder (Startup) Rap: MicroISV on a Shoestring

The Solo Founder (Startup) Rap: MicroISV on a Shoestring — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:54:50 +0000

[...] Matz, heard of him? His left pec once wrote an interpreter while sleeping. What do you mean you can't market an app In your spare [...]

By: Starting Your Startup – Assessing Options -- TECHNOSIGHT

Starting Your Startup – Assessing Options -- TECHNOSIGHT — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:44:31 +0000

[...] small, and do it on the side approach. Others like Ryan Carson believe that entrepreneurs should launch a business and not a side project. Carson nicely outlines the go to market plans of most of today’s product companies: 1. [...]

By: Carrébarré » Être ou ne pas être entrepreneur

Carrébarré » Être ou ne pas être entrepreneur — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:54:21 +0000

[...] Ryan CARSON a écrit un article très intéressant sur le sujet >> Launch a Business, Not a Side Project [...]

By: Steven Wagner

Steven Wagner — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:35:49 +0000

Two key elements here: Selling and Marketing. Sales should always lead the marketing of the product. There is a great deal of talk about the advertising or marketing but what about the actual selling of the product.

Read Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore, it has great insight into what it takes to get your concept into paying hands. Far too often apps fail because there is no sound sales plan – who, what, where, when, why and how people are going to pay us for our app.

Then the marketing can back into the sales goals. Not the other way around.

And remember adding more features DOES NOT guarantee that you will sell more!

By: izle

izle — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:28:26 +0000

Surely market research is the key. I may well feel the my app plugs a whole in my digital life, saving me time and energy, and my friends may feel the same way, but if I'm going to spend the next few years dedicating all my resources to it, it had better be a time-saver for a much, much wider audience.

A lot of the web 2.0 failures seemed to miss sight of their target audience, focusing instead on great new features, APIs and so on.

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:30:15 +0000

Plenty of huge successes were started as either hobbies or side jobs. The Wright brothers come to mind.

The difference between the winners and losers isn't whether or not something is a "side job;" it's how much effort they put into it. The Wright brothers, for example, were extremely innovative in how they approached their problem and the solutions to the mechanical testing required to make forward progress.

The bottom line with ANY enterprise is that there are far more failures than successes.

Plenty of great ideas have failed as full time endeavors as well! The speed and relative ease of starting a web business, by its nature, invites failure. The broader access to the tools and low initial capital outlay required compared to starting say a small retail shop lets people without a solid foundational knowledge of business get in the game.

Ultimately, your chances might be slightly better if all your attention is focused on one task. It is not, however, a pre-requisite for success and shouldn't deter great ideas and work ethic from being the next enterprise to take flight.

By: sohbet

sohbet — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:55:57 +0000

thanks admin good post

By: thruflo

thruflo — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:49:16 +0000

Hi Ryan,

The gap between being TechCrunched and "Build[ing] recurring revenue till you can quit your day job" is not the major problem "because they don’t know how to market it". It's a problem derived from a lack of value in the product.

Don't focus on marketing the product. Focus on making it better. On delivering real tangible value. That's the lesson of Kathy's (excellent) comment to your community building post and it's been my personal journey over the last few months: http://www.thruflo.com/2009/05/30/how-social-medi…

James.

By: thruflo

thruflo — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:49:00 +0000

Hi Ryan,

James.

By: Work on stuff that matters - Wolf’s Little Store

Work on stuff that matters - Wolf’s Little Store — Sat, 30 May 2009 10:55:21 +0000

[...] uit die bitter weinig waarde creëeren. Iedereen heeft wel een zijprojectje maar waar wie werkt er echt aan een project? In deze video die dateert van september 208 legt Tim O’Reilley zijn visie hierover uit: work [...]

By: Ethan

Ethan — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:38:44 +0000

I'd like to offer an alternate view. If you develop an application, make it publicly available, and then find that no one uses it unless you spend at least two full days per week marketing it, then the application is not something that people want or need.

This is the Web. You don't need to "market." Worthwhile things will market themselves. Undesirable things will fail regardless of how intensively they are marketed. Marketing a Web application is an utter waste of time and money. It may even be immoral. Your marketing message and any user activity that results from it, such as clicking on a link, eats into the world's limited supply of time and attention. People could be creating great art, spending time with their kids, or pursuing vitally important scientific research. Instead they're clicking on your fucking Google ad or reading your spammy blog comment.

"Sure, you may get lucky and the app magically spreads itself…"

There's no luck involved and nothing magic about it. If the app is good and not a waste of time and you show it to three people, they'll share it with their friends because they like their friends and want them to also enjoy good things. It will spread not through luck or magic but through our natural inclination to talk about things we like.

Let me ask you this: do you enjoy being marketed to? Do you know anyone who does?

By: martmer09

martmer09 — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:05:38 +0000

Yes I definitely agree with you Ryan. Building a business really needs time to make it great. You have to spend enough effort, money and more time. Just like the business I built awhile ago (http://www.AssuredProfits.com). You can view some examples in there.

By: martmer09

martmer09 — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:05:00 +0000

By: Ayesha

Ayesha — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:21:32 +0000

Equipment Leasing

By: Ayesha

Ayesha — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:21:00 +0000

Equipment Leasing

By: Ride on cars

Ride on cars — Thu, 28 May 2009 06:28:56 +0000

Interested point of view. But business not just theory, you need practice your business instinct

By: michael Troy

michael Troy — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:22:11 +0000

Ah, I needed to read this. great article, prefect timing. I am currently experiencing much of what you write about here. Kind of in a grey area.

By: jon

jon — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:45:16 +0000

do your marketing before you build your app.

That way you know what to build that will sell well… and if there is no way to build the thing so it sells well, then you've just saved yourself a ton of time and can move on to a new project.

Check out Chance Barnett's blog (chancebarnett. dot com) for more about how to do this. Also see Andrew Warner's Mixergy to hear other interviews.
http://blog.mixergy.com/direct-marketing-techniqu…

By: jon

jon — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:45:00 +0000

do your marketing before you build your app.

That way you know what to build that will sell well… and if there is no way to build the thing so it sells well, then you've just saved yourself a ton of time and can move on to a new project.

Check out Chance Barnett's blog (chancebarnett. dot com) for more about how to do this. Also see Andrew Warner's Mixergy to hear other interviews.
http://blog.mixergy.com/direct-marketing-techniqu…

By: how to lose belly fat at home

how to lose belly fat at home — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:51:59 +0000

there are lots of web owners who thinks that after they published their sites, and that’s it. well its not that way guys. you have to promote your websites by publishing them on different known sites. you can do bookmarking you know. by bookmarking, you can help promote your sites to belong to the top ten in SEARCH ENGINES.

By: Hazel Q.

Hazel Q. — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:55:04 +0000

Great article!! Your advice has surely help me with the project I have going on right now :) Thanks

By: Dan Griffey

Dan Griffey — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:49:56 +0000

Ryan, great post.
We are learning how much time it takes to Market the web app after launch.
Having spent 3 mths working part time on the build of http://filesharehq.com we were lucky that as a new agency, we weren't flooded with client work, however now we have launched the app, we are deciding how much time to spend on Marketing the app. 1-2 days seems sensible, and this is where we are placed at the moment, but it is very easy to get stuck in Analytics / Reports and Twitter search feeds for more time than is allowed.
I am sure we'll learn the good balance at some point, but for the moment we are feeling our way along keeping the focus on both parts of our new business.