Challenging Competition (OT)

Yes, this post is very off-topic. It is not perl-specific in any way, let alone specific to programming or even computers. It can and does however, relate to computers, programming and Perl. As a matter of fact, if you have a job, this applies to you, as it is an aspect of life as we know it. What I'd like to discuss is the subject of corporate competition: where we find it, how competing companies manage to co-exist, when it is best to leave well enough alone, and how we rise above and become favored over our competitors. Read on if you might be interested to hear my thoughts on the subject and my questions.

Terminology Used Within this Article:
Just like a contract or a license, I'm just going to point out what I mean by some of the words I'll be using throughout this article.

Me, my, myself, I: Me of course. Any statement has one of these words in it is either my expressed opinion, concern, or ideologies. I am not imposing my opinions on you, so if I say something you do not agree with and one of these words is mentioned, you don't have to say "How dare you imply that!".
You, your, yourself, your company: If you say any of these words, than I am pointing something out to you or asking a question of you that I hope to hear answered.
Us, we: By this, I mean people involved or employed in the computer industry. If I make a statement containing one of these words and you do not agree with it, please do point out my error so that I may correct it so that I am not imposing my thoughts on others.
company, business: Every time I mention one of these words, I mean a business, company, or an individual working for themselves. That means an individual or a group of people who work to produce a profit.

Part 1: Where Competition is Found
As I already mentioned, competition is everywhere: I don't think there's a company out there that doesn't have competition to worry about. In this article, I'd like to keep a focus on companies within the computer software and programming sectors. Foremost, I'd like to keep an eye on those who wish to start their own business. I realize that this is a very narrow area of business, but it's the area I'm looking into and have my doubts and opinions about. Within the computer sector, competition can be as tough as the cometition found in any other industry.

Part 2: When to (not?) Challenge Competition
It can sometimes be tough to enter a certain area of computer programming or engineering and hope to make a profit. You have to be original, creative, and take the consumer's desires to heart. You have to be equal or above your competition in order to ensure that your business will stay above ground. Starting a new business is tough: you either have to come up with a new idea that nobody has yet imagined or you have to spot the weaknesses in the big-time companies and know how to improve on the situation. Myself, unlike many other people on the planet, imagine a world where I get to be my own boss, working on my own terms and my own time, and profitting based on what I manage to accomplish. But where to start? Where to get some fresh ideas on projects to begin?

Part 3: How Competition Manage to Co-exist.
You see it quite often: a company that manages to succeed into entering the big-time. How can people enter an industry that has major competitors and somehow make a profit? It's quite simple really: the new company has new innovations that the current big-time companies never imagined, or they simply offer better value for the consumer's buck. Essentially, the customer finds something in this new company that they couldn't possibly get from the currently existing corporations. Now, the above isn't always true: oftentimes customers will go back and forth between businesses based on preference of different aspects of each of the companies. Take grocery stores and fast food restaurants for example. I don't always go to the same store, and I don't always eat at the same restaurant: I go where I know I will find what I want to get. Convenience also plays a big part: which store is closer? Which restaurant is on my way home from work? There really is a lot to consider as to how such a large amount of businesses stay put when they basically sell the same services.

Part 4: Beating the Pants of Competition
Okay, here's one: how to get ahead of your competitors without losing your diginty (or integrity, whichever word you prefer :)). Sorry guys, that rules out setting fire to the competitor's headquarters :) I've already discussed most of this: put simply, you have to be as good or better than the competitors. You have to offer something creative and fresh. But how can you truly accomplish being better than your competitors? Unfortunately, I think that a lot depends on how much money the person or company has to budget into areas such as advertising. Somehow, you have to let the world know you're there and willing to serve consumers. If you just put up shop on a corner of a street, you'll only get the locals dropping in: you have to let yourself be heard.

Part 5: Getting Business
Okay, now let's take an average joe like me. I'm not rich, so it's hard for me to do any "real-world" advertising. I want to have people come to me asking me to write programs and design websites for them, rather than me writing stuff and trying to sell it to multiple people. I want to earn money while doing so. I don't want to get a job at some company where they take 90% of the project's money and you get the leftover 10%. This is the part that I imagine having the most problems with. I don't have friends (or friends who have friends) that need programming done, so I can't look there for help. I need to find complete strangers that are willing to hire me and who are willing to trust me to get the job done. Am I just dreaming up a fantasy? Am I going to get stuck in a 9-5 job where I just know I'll be miserable, working to make a few other people rich, while I make just enough money to live by? How can I, one single person, find people to hire me on a per-project basis, rather than having them go to some big-time corporate business where they will have 10 people working on it simultaniously? It's kind of funny, because really, if I can find even 2 people to let me complete a project for them and I prove that I am worthy of being allowed to do this work, they will come back to me time and time again, and they will pass the word of mouth to their friends and co-workers, etc etc. The problem? Where to find these first few people that will give me a chance!

Conclusion: Have I just gone completely bonkers? Is there no room for an average person like me to make headway in this industry? I'm not looking to become the next Bill Gates here. I honestly don't want to make millions upon millions of dollars. I just want to enjoy programming, while making enough money to be happy and enjoy life! I'd like to hear your opinions on this, even if it's to tell me I wasted my time writing this up :)

Update: Added <ul><li><li></ul> tags for nicer format.

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Re: Challenging Competition (OT) by l2kashe (Deacon) on Feb 07, 2003 at 07:51 UTC
I personally don't think you have gone bonkers, and you raise questions Ive asked myself a few times. While I don't provide direct answers to your questions, I do have tidbits which have helped friends land jobs, and thoretically could help you as well. The first thing is getting known. Generally people I know have managed to edge out others because they were documented as being part of a team which produced some piece of sofware. They have also maintained a site(s), on which projects they have participated in were documented. One guy managed to score a job for having rewritten major pieces of a MUD. Had absolutely nothing to do with the job at hand, aside from being a programming experience. But there were measurable results (I.e the original buggy MUD, and the new lean mean extended stable MUD with an average of about 60 players on constantly). What is your target market? There is a big difference between writing code for ma and pa, vs a small/startup biz, vs mid-size biz, etc.. Ma and Pa want it straight, fast, easy, and cheap. Small/startup are willing to wait for functionality if they can't do it themselves, and sometimes will avoid spending money if they can work around an issue. Mid-size and larger generally want shrink wrapped from what I have seen. I work at a fairly large cable provider, and 9 times out of 10 they spend money they dont have because they have a contract that says its the other companies fault if it breaks. So can you handle the extra baggage of insurance, if the site/program is used in illicit ways, or is possibly used to gain access to the company's assets? Again friends have managed to edge out others due to the fact they had worked with certain other types of businesses or even not worked. One case in point is a web developer, who only did sites for smaller businesses. Some people wanted to hire him, and made sure he didn't work for any big, nasty, corporation I think the term was. (They were worried about who would own the site and domain and such, after hearing some bad stuff about other peoples plights) I've seriously considered attempting to do contracts for "glue coding" as I like to call it. Using perl to link together all manner of system info and functionality. But right now it isn't right for me. I have a decent network of people who could probably find me the work, but I just can't deal with all the possible ramifications. To incorporate or not, if so what type of corporation to become, etc.. On a side note if you create a business and do not incorporate, then if someone attempted to sue you for whatever reason, they could go after your house, your car, etc.. Whereas if you incorporate they can only target company assets and not personal assets. But then you have to deal with payroll (you need to get paid, but the money isn't yours its the corporations), taxes, whether or not you turn a profit, etc... So while I didn't answer your questions, hopefully I added something useful. The best thing I can say is get your name outthere. Keep track of stuff you do and document it. Get a site up with the info on it. Get your self regestered with search engines, with whatever meta words you think are appropriate. See if there are charaties that need help, as this could lead to decent word of mouth proprogation with local businesses in your area. Best of luck to you /* And the Creator, against his better judgement, wrote man.c */	[reply]
Re: Challenging Competition (OT) by digger (Friar) on Feb 07, 2003 at 13:27 UTC
I have found "Getting the Business" to be the most challenging. You don't have to have big bucks to get started, though. If you don't have money, make time work for you instead. I have spent the last 3 years working 9-???, making contacts anywhere/anyway possible, doing pro-bono work, and taking on small projects to build word of mouth (and of course researching at the monestary). Still working 9-???, but more project requests are coming my way, and more real money is ending up in my pocket. It all depends on your goals here. If you want to jump headfirst into the marketplace and quickly stake out a dominant position or niche, you will need money and contacts now. But if you build your business slowly, I think you will find that you gain a following of loyal customers that return to you repeatedly, even for things you may never have considered. just my $.02 digger btw - I am most definitely not rich. Sole breadwinner, 3 children, debt etc, etc. And, I am just as geeky as anyone else here on perlmonks ;)	[reply]
Re: Challenging Competition (OT) by FoxtrotUniform (Prior) on Feb 07, 2003 at 08:33 UTC
Here's one comment I've seen, on the virtues of exploring "strange" technologies in a server-based environment: Beating the Averages Personally, I think you'll find it difficult, but not impossible, to avoid the soul-destroying 9-5 job. I plan to spend the next five to eight years trying to avoid it (read: grad school). But hell, you know what's out there: that's pretty motivating in itself. Your major advantage is that you're actively looking for new (or at least different) opinions. The more new techniques you bring to the table, the better chance you have of finding something that nobody expected to work, that does work, and well. Bring a new approach to the table, one that's particularly suited to the problem at hand (but that nobody else has seen, because it's "too hard"), and you win. Best of luck. `-- F o x t r o t U n i f o r m Found a typo in this node? /msg me The hell with paco, vote for Erudil!`	[reply]