Our Startup Story

I was flipping through my news aggregator and came across this post on SlashDot. Some guy is wondering if part time IT jobs exist.  While the post doesn’t relate to the purpose of this blog, one of the first comments in there struck a nerve in me.  The quote worthy of note is:

It takes more than one person to provide something of value.

This is the absolute most ridiculous thing I ever heard.  During the course of my life, I have met plenty of people who have provided value as an indvidual.  I remember working as a “Sales Associate” at Waldenbooks.  As you might expect, such a retail job had tons of turn over in employees. During my 8 year “tenure” there, I worked under many different managers.  Most of them were easily forgotten.  Except one!  Kristen was the last manager I worked under.  She lasted the longest.  She was also the most organized person I’ve ever known.  She got the store “in shape” for the company, while using less than her company allotted man hours.  That alone is worth something to a company.  However, she went above and beyond just that.  Her organization guided us associates employees to work more efficiently and make better use of our time.  Instead of the haphazard meanderings of the “next step”, we knew where we were at and what had to be done.  There was a lot less frustration about the job and the store.  Although I don’t know numbers, I bet that led to better customer service, which led to more sales.

The vast majority of businesses start as single person ventures.  I find it hard to believe that such ventures would grow if that venture provided no value.  So, when you sit down to think about your business, be sure to consider what the value proposition is.  Be sure to communicate the value succinctly.  Be as direct as possible.  Research your competitors.  What do they offer?  What is their value proposition?   How will you be different?  Don’t assume that your prospects will know; tell them all about it.

When I accidently started DotComIt, I never thought about any of this stuff.  Survival was just dumb luck.  It wasn’t until recently I started to look at this stuff seriously.  The Flex Show podcast is a DotComIt brand.  What is the value proposition?  We help developers learn Flex on their own time!  How do we do it?  By releasing mp3s of developer interviews and screencasts of code tutorials.  They can download–through iTunes or elsewhere–and listen or watch on their own time.

What is the value proposition of Flextras?  We save Flex developers time.  It will be a lot cheaper to buy our interface components than to try to build and test a similar component.  How do they know our component will work for their app?  They will be able to download our developer edition at no cost and test it out.  The Developer edition will help prove to them, to their boss, to their client that the app works in the context of their application.

Traditionally DotComIt has only done consulting development for small businesses.  What was the value proposition there?  We delivered on time and within budget.  Sadly, I never knew this was the value proposition until I recently took a long hard look a the business.  But, consistentcy and reliability is one thing that kept bringing people back.

When you are planning out your idea; be sure to ask yourself.  What is the value I’m going to bring to my customers?  How is that value different from my competitors?