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Are you thinking Startup? How about starting a Software startup company? 

If you are reading this, I am sure that this thought has come to your mind quite often before this. However, fact remains that starting a Software company is no simple feat. There are many factors to be considered, many tasks to be accomplished. So how do you go about it? What are the important factors you should consider? What mistakes you might make?

Of course, everything cannot be covered within this small blog, but let’s make a start shall we? 

Penning It Up: Starting your software company is an idea, and ideas are in-tangible, they are surreal. First and foremost, you need to make this idea tangible. You need it penned down to give you a proper direction. Discuss it with people you think might be your future users. Try to find out if they would want to buy what you are wanting to sell. 

Market Research: For any start up, the first step remains the same – the market research. Conduct Research about your target market, your competitors, and the current situation of the market. This will eventually help you for making decisions within your next steps.

Product Idea: A business is selling a product or service. Thus, initially, it needs a product, or rather a product Idea. The market research you have done will help you in formulating a product idea, and let you know if it is viable. You can then discuss it with some experienced software developers like Techasoft or other professionals. Remember, you are a startup and would need expert guidance. 

Protection: Your next immediate step is to protect the idea. Believe in everyone, but trust only yourself. It is important that you immediately get the necessary trademarks and patients for your product idea. When discussing your product idea, do not forget to sign non-disclosure agreements. Remember, ‘Trust only yourself’. 

Business Setup: Next what you need is a doable business plan. Describe your business, the purpose of it, what are to be your products, which is your target audience, what is your marketing plan, what will be the approach towards branding, what is the competition, what will be your operations, what will be capital required, how you plan to acquire it, etc. Once you have a Business plan, decide upon what will be your business’s legal structure – whether it’ll be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation, etc. Immediately after, decide a name for your business, register it with relevant authority, get a license, get a tax identification number, and get insured. You need to be legally knowledgeable about all these factors to survive. 

Capital: Money speaks. You require money for everything. So, now that you have a registered business, you need to raise capital for the same. There are various options available with you such as various grants, loans, funding sources, etc. take your time, and choose wisely.

Infrastructure: The next step is to set up your business. You should set the infrastructure, purchase of implements, machinery, etc. You need a tangible office from where your business shall be operating. 

Team Up: After setting up your office, you need to recruit a team that is well qualified, professional, not afraid to speak the truth, be able to give their own input, be able to support the decisions you make, and be loyal. You also need to hire qualified developers to develop software for you. Of course, you can outsource developers. However, even though outsourcing is cheaper, it is not a long term solution. If you wish to, you can outsource developers initially while you are busy establishing and your business.

The Product: At this stage, you can finally begin to develop your product. Initially, you can develop a software prototype. You can then test this prototype first so as to confirm if the product is truly viable. This is a precautionary step. Later, get to develop the product. Lead our team through the development process, set up the deadline for the product development, and supervise everything. 

Testing: Once your product is ready, you need to test it. You can carry out your own testing which is a bit cheap, or you can outsource the testers. Of course, outsourcing will also give you newer perspectives on your product and related improvements. Or else you can carry out testing of your products from the same company from where you outsourced the developers. The final choice will be yours. Oh yes, don’t forget about all the legal aspects while outsourcing. Remember ‘Trust’?

Marketing: As your product is being ready to be launched after testing, work on its marketing aspect. You can either directly sell your product to small and mid-size businesses or even large conglomerates, or you can sell it to a website from where consumers will be downloading your software. What is your target market, what is your marketing strategy, is solely up to you.

Pricing: Last but not the least, you need to set the price for your product. A product can be given for free or sold for high prices. The prices you decide will depend upon you. Let your market research help you in deciding upon it.

These were some of my pointers on how to go about starting your own software company. My only advice to you now is to get going for it NOW!