The Profit of Ownership

Nothing is free. I will expound but before reading on please challenge this notion on our Tumblr page. Easily ask a question and we will respond. So based on this notion a business can virtually set up an online presence without paying any out of pocket money. Time is money, but let’s put the time argument aside for now as we venture forward.

A free website what is the cost, what if you come up with an idea that will revolutionize the way you do business over the internet. I really hold to the truth that any business can. If you are based in any box usually the confines in the box will prevent you from too much customization. There are a lot of questions that you do not even have yet that result from heavy use on your website.

Cheap hosting, usually won’t let you configure everything that you need to. Customer support for anything more than basic hosting takes hours, here comes the time is money argument. Most people have their own thoughts on this and I think it is deserving of it’s own article. I will link back when I get the opportunity to write it.

Facebook, uh oh I shouldn’t go here, but cannot resist. They own anything and everything you post for life. Most people are OK with this and I live a pretty basic life where I don’t mind. Tell me my high school years were on there and I would vastly regret it. While I don’t mind sharing my past with friends knowing that at sometime info could be used against me if legally obtained yeah that I have a problem with. Without going any further I graduated high school with a 1.8 and maintained a 3.8 through graduate school. So yeah I figured things out and thank God I got a fresh start.

Big Business, there is a reason Facebook owns it’s own database a simple application got a 100,000,000 investment for 1% ownership, because Microsoft knows the power of owning your own software. They learned the hard lesson when they did not buy Google for 1,000,000 and now Google has surpassed them in many markets and is taking chunks of market share out of their flagship Office.

If you are a business looking into making sure you develop your own software the dividends are huge when you go to sale. I would say that it can be up to 100 times more valuable than renting a box your own software. In most cases over longevity it is cheaper to build and maintain your own. You do have to be an ideal business but in most cases when you go to the negotiating table what you have installed in a box will significantly reduce the proposal.

If you read me at all I am a huge advocate for creating and developing your own software. Employees come up with the best ideas. They will feel more a part of your company. Your customers will tell you what they want and help extend your business further. You will engage your company further with new business opportunities that could not happen otherwise. It will lead to an innovation environment where people come up with little things to improve every process.

Just like every person is different, every business is different also. From something as simple as taking down tasks you can make a full application out of. Just look at Asana.

If your business is big enough I have seen professional studios acquired and used for all projects ongoing and these are the companies that have made it a success and have no idea that we were even in a recession. A fun study would be to look at random business’ affected in the recent recession. I would put money on that most of them were not moving forward digitally and were being surpassed by options that were digital. One big lesson of the new century is executing your website plans effectively. The first recession saw many websites and tech shut down, but the second there lessons were learned and most website companies thrived.

With a box solution you are reliant on your vendor to keep up with technology, you are reliant on them to run their business effectively. Hopefully there base of technology works for the future. What if they get bought out and the company buying them goes in a total different direction leaving your segment behind. You are reliant on their customer service, sometimes they only have one or two people that can help for critical areas of your solution what if they leave now you got to hope they can train up new people to be just as effective.

Building your own you can always bring in different developers to work on it and upgrade it. Always make sure your developers are following standards. It can be a vital part of growth that every employee has input over.

Box solutions are effective, but I view them as a solution to one problem that can be built around your software infrastructure. So many times I see this in the reverse. People go to great lengths to customize software they bought, costing more than the solution itself and now you are reliant on all upgrades to work with anything that you have built.

Owning your own database if built correctly allows you to interface that database in any way you want from a tablet computer, to a digital output on a fridge, or any digital output that needs the products you offer even in a car or warehouse. You can instantly have it put on a mobile device for commerce to happen that way, or if you can partner with other companies you can have an API built and distribute your products that way.