[golson]

Greetings all, first time poster here. Let me introduce myself. My name is Greg and I am an industrial engineer from Chicago who is looking to become an entrepreneur and escape the cube. I have a particular idea in mind which I am fairly confident would capture a specific nitche in the real estate market. I would tell you the idea, but then I would have to kill you . As this would be an internet based company that would require extensive back-end programming, I lead myself to this question:

Should I learn to program PHP/MySQL myself (already on the way with this, but the learning curve could kill time to market), hire a contractor (fast but expensive), or offer sweat equity in return for share in the company (fast but limits my potential earnings). So I figured I would look to you guys for a pseudo-poll just to see what others think.

Any thoughts?


Greg
Industrial Engineer and Aspiring Entrepreneur

[mxer210]

equity or hire a contractor. I would definately not learn and do it yourself. I've chosen this road several times and it really hurts the business. You end up focusing on development aspects fo the business, as opposed to the more important business/marketing aspects, and you also end up with usually a poor result, and a lot of time wasted.

[Muddy]

In my opinion, I get what I want when I make it myself. So I decided to learn PHP and MySQL, it wasnt easy but it was fun also funding was an issue for me

[dean29]

Programmers will naturally say do it yourself. PHP takes a long time to learn, so it depends how advanced your project is. I can probably do it for you.

e-mail: dpaletz@gmail.com

[peewee]

Unless it's a really simple job, don't do it yourself. If you are serious about your business hire a pro.

[peewee]

Originally Posted by dean29

Programmers will naturally say do it yourself.

I'm not sure programmers would say that. Would surgeons say "operate yourself"?

[Lex]

Im in the same dilema, i want to launch a site but the programming is going to cost me $2000 to get it done by a professional whos very highly qualified, this is without the webdesign, and thats alot to me

So thinking on that its $2000 coding, $500 design (which i dont plan on doing myself as i want top notch stuff). I could really use that $2000 for the marketing budget (i still havent made that much) if i coded this myself however it would take me months to do :/

[golson]

Yeah, the site I want developed is sort of a real estate web site with ebay-type complexity, so I think I am going to have to go with a pro. I'm also leaning towards the sweat equity, because I'm going to need a partner who can help maintain it on-going. But first, I'm going to spend the next few weeks documenting the structure of the site and maybe sketch out some of the look and feel of the site. I also am going to contact the author of a course I purchased about a year ago and see if he would be interested in offering his expertise in exchange for free advertising for his book and possible even part ownership. Just having his name involved could be like free advertising in itself.

So, any skilled web designers / programmers interested in future sweat equity opportunities?

[dean29]

Originally Posted by peewee

I'm not sure programmers would say that. Would surgeons say "operate yourself"?

Given you have probably never touched any code, I'll excuse your incompetent response. Surgery is different, it involves anestesia and the ability to look down at the patient...