Software Business Opportunity

[AVR]

Hi

I am a Software engineer having many years of working experience with European multinational. I have recently ventured into setting up a 4000 sqft of Industrial building in India approved for Software development and Electronics manufacturing. As the setup is in Noida (near New Delhi) hence getting employee of any skill level should not be difficult.

Before renting out the whole setup to BPO or call center, which currently is the trend and also the easiest way to earn money, I want to try something which I would like to describe below.

Targeted Market:- Small companies or business's that need a small team (1 to 50) of software professional with high or medium skill level like web developers, internet researchers, embedded programmers, helpdesk etc. etc. In fact any software related job that can be done remotely.

My Proposal:- I will setup the team as per the customer requirement. As the management will be centralised hence my customer pays for the headcount hired for their needs. I will also offer services for short term which are project based.

My Strength:- I am an Engineer and secondly this is my dream project funded 100% by myself. I have full confidence in my concept and it does not matter even if it becomes profitable in 1 or 5 years.

Please let me know if I had missed out anything and also your valuable suggestions that I will remember always.

Thanks
P Sharma

[singaboy]

Sharma,

Welcome to YE and good luck with your venture.

Am a Software guy too, running an IT services biz from Singapore...Send me a PM..We can talk..

Sekar

[jasaunders]

Your idea is already being done by hundreds of outsourcing firms based in India.

[AVR]

Hi Jasaunders

Thanks for your advice. Since I am new to this, hence I thought the market is new for those serving the low volume clients. I may have a narrow view of the market but what I have seen in Noida (No 2 in outsourcing in India) are all with big clients and having a dedicated setups. Yes the client may be in US selling the services to many customers .

What I will be targeting is small(by volume) clients and reducing the overheads by having many such clients. I have been thinking of this for many month (while the construction was going on) and I have made up my mind. Further I am overseas and the country I am living in can itself give me sufficient volume through local advertisement without investing much in infrastructure.

What I am developing is a setup (expandable to 100 techies) with own web presence for marketing. I have my advantages as I am the single owner of the business with my own setup. And If you know Indian (property)market, overall I will be making money from the day one even if I have 1 client and loosing money in this particular business. Hence financially I will never be at loss or will enter into such a situation where I will have to wind up but yes I may diversify. Training is queuing up behind this.

I will be thankful if you let me know any website for this type of business model.


Hi Sekar

I will PM you shortly and you will be surprised. This world is really a small place!!!

Thanks

Sharma

[jasaunders]

Power to you, but this is still being done by hundreds of businesses in India. Go on elance.com or guru.com and you will find them. Ultimately, they want to work with big clients, because that's where the money is, and I have even been pushed into signing dedicated contracts. But many of these companies will do low volume, small work. I have worked with two in the last year, Netsmartz and Icreon. Both have done small projects for me, from 30 hours to 300 hours, on a project by project basis.

[AVR]

Hi Joshua

The first two you have mentioned are rent a coder type. The other two are big software houses.

I will do it differently in the sense that I will offer a programmer/web developer at a cost which would be 1.5 to 2 times(??) the salary I hire in India. The staff will be hired specifically as per the clients requirement on contract basis. This may resemble a modified Rent-a-coder but the client will get better results as the projects schedule or staff efficiency will be closely monitored. The scope is really wide I can even setup team to help in invoicing etc for e-bay sales of big seller.

I am in no way going to challenge or follow big software house having over 250 engineers on payroll.

Finally Joshua thanks for your valuable suggestions. You will be surprised that I have not discussed my project even to this small details with anyone. I am not worried of someone taking my idea (people have better ideas than this), but most of my friends are happy working for others or keeping themselves busy in MLM.

Please let me know your opinion if any.

Thanks

[anuragsharma]

Hi,

What you are trying seems to be interesting. India is a huge market for software and one should not feel hesitant about experimenting with things if he/she can.

I have recently started my own thing. Currently operating from home since I don't have enuff funds to either get a office or hire people too. But, then these are the intricacies of being an entrepreneur.

All the best !!!

[AVR]

Dear Anurag

Thanks for your post. I have seen your impressive website and understand you are based in New Delhi.

I will call you soon for an informal chat.

Best of luck.

Sharma

[ripsaw]

Hello Sharma...

I have read your responses, and your original post.

I am happily impressed by your mental attitude as expressed in response to the posts resonding to yours.

THAT is the key to ANYTHING ONE DOES IN LIFE. Positive, unfailing, moment by moment positive mental attitude.

Of course, one must divine the pathway in business, and not be oblivious to the multi-numerous-to-mention challenges one faces in ANY business venture.

The World is a huge opportuntiy. One who possesses the expertise and capacity you mention about yourself and your financial situation is WAY uptop when working in business. By far the most difficult waters to naviage are the financial wellness from beginning to past five years...you seem to have that chart well planned and navigable from your perspective. That's a leg up no doubt.

By no means do I mean to challenge your thinking, except I know that the bottom line is "sellling a product or service". No matter how capable, or what potential you possess ( anyone ) it comes down to this: "who gets the order", and "who gets paid on time", and "what costs are there", and "do you make a profit."

All of that starts with "somebody selling something".

So, what are you going to do in that regard?

I have been selling for company's all of my life, and at 66 I still think my end of getting it done is the most important. If you don't sell, you don't eat in my business.

[AVR]

Hi Ripsaw

Thanks for your confidence building message.

As you have mentioned in the last paragraph "If you don't sell, you don't eat in my business." is also the most important indicator that helps you benchmark yourself. Since you have been selling for many years and have been successful increases your confidence.

I am working in a manufacturing environment which is challenged by manufacturing plants in china. But fortunately we have maintained our overall plant efficiency to such a levels that we are still low cost even though we are operating outside china. We have been working very lean for many years where every new performance target seems to be impossible. This exposure gives me confidence and due to my training, the business I start will among other things incorporate the principal of continuous improvement which ultimately will make me profitable. And in order not to give up prematurely my business model will be self sufficient in terms of cash flow.

Further as for sales I am planning to advertise and look for business partners for my outsourcing business. My other business plan i.e training is more straight forward as I will be approaching institutes around New Delhi.

Do let me know if you have any business plan that I can contribute to.

Thanks again for your advice and Best of Luck to all YE

Sharma

[anuragsharma]

Dear Anurag

Thanks for your post. I have seen your impressive website and understand you are based in New Delhi.

I will call you soon for an informal chat.

Best of luck.

Sharma

Sure. Would be glad to meet you.