Following on from my post on The Idea Comes By Solving A Problem, we have found several issues in our business that we are going to solve with a web app.
We use a range of tools to manage our business, basecamp, lighthouse, sugar crm, as well as custom built internal apps, and none of these really integrate. So we are going to build a suite of apps to help manage your business. Nothing revolutionary but it will be a one stop shop for small business owners.
Some people will be saying so why have you told everyone your idea, do you not want to keep it secret?
The answer is no there is no need to keep your ideas secret; because telling people your idea does not matter.
The more you talk about your idea, the more you will understand it and be able to articulate it when you start the marketing drive.
As you talk about your idea with people, people will give you feedback, advice, offer ideas, make sure you listen, but do not let negative people deter your from your vision. Also talking about your idea will create a buzz surrounding it, that will keep you energised in the tough times.
This idea is solving a need in my business that needs to be addressed, so if someone else beats me too it then that is great.
I also think I can build this tool better than anyone else, and even if I don’t there is more than enough businesses to target so there is more than enough pie to go round.
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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Naked Web Apps.
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“…Nothing revolutionary but it will be a one stop shop for small business owners…”
What would be the revolutionary part…or is that secret squirrel?
What I was trying to say that the idea my is not revolutionary, it is simply an amalgamation of lots of ideas that are already out there.
I think if you wait for the revolutionary ideas, most times you will be waiting forever!
Would it be better to build clever communication links to these already competent applications…or to start from scratch and rebuild? Many companies have built very successful businesses by creating middleware that is never seen. The clever middleware acts as messenger between applications allow you to feed data from one to the other with ease in real-time…
That is something we looked at but could not find a suite of solutions that solved our needs. However that is something we will consider for some parts of the app.
What would you consider to be the essential functions for the suite? Would it be modular so small businesses could choose the features they required?
Yes definitely modular, some of the modules we have thought about are: finance/ bookkeeping, operations, CRM, reporting, marketing. All the tools to run a small business in one place, simple tools these are not for enterprises with complicated operations. When you start a business there is a lot to think about, and having all your tools in one place is one less thing to think about.
It’s a great idea…if built correctly could be ‘revolutionary’.
I do have concerns though about the variety of requirements for small businesses. Some need complex accounting, eCommerce requirements for their sector, operations/logistics function particular for their sector etc.
If this was started in one market and then migrated to others (similar to the way SAP started – after all this would be effectively a small business ERP) then it may work. A ‘general’ release which is not sector specific may leave it falling between all the cracks.
Good luck!!