Five Questions to Ask Before Starting Your Agency – Q4
Hey, Congrats!
I commend your desire to launch out and create your own agency!
Entrepreneurs are the drivers, the movers and shakers of the world. They make things happen. If you launch your agency, then YOU will begin to make things happen in your part of the world.
I want to help you get there.
(See my first blog in this series about my history in this regard.)
Here are the Five Questions to ask before launching your own agency:
1. Why? The Question of Motivation
This question has been answered here.
2. When? The Question of Urgency
This question has been answered here.
3. Who? The Question of Clients
This question has been answer here.
Today, we look at the fourth question in this series on starting your own agency:
4. What? – the Question of Services
What will be the Goods and Services which your new company will provide? In our examples, we’re discussing How to Start Your Own Software Agency. But the lessons apply to all types of creative agencies, whether graphics, web design, even IT agencies. But my focus is on software agencies.
If you read and applied the previous blog about “Who?”, you should have narrowed your focus for your Goods and Services. The “Who?” question helped us begin to focus on a particular niche of clients to target. The “What?” question will bring that to crystal clarity.
What services will you provide for your clients? After all, “software agency” is a broad category. Let’s narrow it down. Here are a few questions:
- What kind of software will you be developing? Will it be PHP? FileMaker Pro? Python? etc.
- What kind of deployments will you focus on? Web-based? Desktop? Mobile? Tablets?
- What kind of markets will you address? (This should be answered from the previous blog of “Who?”)
- Will it be stand-alone software? Web based? Will it be SAAS?
There are a lot of questions you need to answer. Do your best to “niche down, in order to ramp up.”
Factors which Can Affect the Services of your New Software Company
The Software Industry changes rapidly. In just a few years, previously favored systems get dumped for new ones. Some stay for a long time, but others fall out of popularity.
Here are some questions to ask:
What do the Trends say about this Software?
Where are the current trends? Is this software taught in the universities, or is it dying? For example, COBOL, although still being used in a number of legacy systems, is no longer taught.
Does the software have Staying Power? That is, What is the Installed Base?
If millions of machines around the world are using the software, it will be around for a while.
Is the software being improved each year?
The software code needs to be updated regularly to stay relevant. We are primarily a FileMaker company, (although we do lots of web work too.) But Claris, thankfully, is constantly updating their code every few months to make it more powerful. This assures us it will be around for a long time.
Two other important questions to consider:
What are you passionate about?
What do you love doing? Obviously if you are going to be spending 40 – 60 hours a week coding, it needs to be something you love.
What are you good at?
You’re probably good at what you love. But you should know for sure. Compare yourself objectively to others in your industry, and ask some hard questions. You don’t have to be the best to be in the field or to make a living at it; you can either hire others to do the work, or you can position your company to focus in a niche that you are good at.
Starting your own software agency is a wonderful way to make a living and have fun at the same time. Make sure you can be successful at it. Read through this blog and answer all the questions provided in all five pieces.
The last question, How? will be discussed in the next blog:
IN SUMMARY, we are here to help. We can provide the software to get you started, and weekly coaching sessions to get you off the ground and soaring towards success.
If you are interested in using our proprietary software to run your software agency, and would like some consulting or coaching help to get launched, feel free to contact us.
Here are a few other general steps to get you started on your agency:
- Sign up for our “Automate Your Business” eNews to receive future articles right in your email box.
- Download and try some software to help you run your agency: projects.highpowerdata.com
- Keep reading the next set of blogs.
~William Miller
Minneapolis, MN
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