online startup but I am not a great coder

Only you know how much you can do for yourself.

Personally, I have been in IT for years, but have done no online/web stuff, so I intend to have someone set my site/sites up for me.  I know I could learn, and probably quickly, but I still prefer to get the job done correctly the first time - I will then have time to have a go myself for future projects.

You have to look at the time it is likely to take you, then think of what else you could be doing with that time.  If you can afford to have it done (and going by the offers made on this forum and others it is not as expensive as we might first think), then why not have it done and spend your time making it successful.

Good luck

Mark

www.ComspecComputers.co.uk">href="http://www.ComspecComputers.co.uk">www.ComspecComputers.co.uk  -  Home/Business Computer Services

thanks

Time and productivity are the two important factors when building commercial software. Your own time and productivity are free if you work nights/weekends while still employed. Effectively your wage is "subsidised" by your current employer.

Your productivity is related to your experience with the technologies / systems used to build your product. If you haven't done much with Linux then setting up a web server, firewall, mail server is going to take you longer than someone who has been working with Linux for years. Similarly with any programming language.

You will have 10-50 hours a week available. The more hours you work, the more you get done with your startup – but the greater the cost will be to you family, social life and health. This cost can be very expensive - it may end up in divorce if you are married, a nervous breakdown or some form of chronic fatigue illness. Note that these are worst case scenarios.

You could also live off savings for a certain period of time and commit full-time to your start-up. This does put pressure on you to deliver a product that will pay you a wage after your savings run out, unless you can manage the sales and support if you have to take a job after your funds run out.

Another option is to tighten your belt and work part-time - this will give you 20-40 hours a week without the sacrifices of moonlighting. Finding a part-time job that pays the bills and lets you eat is the challenge here.

You could seek investors - so you can commit full-time to build a product. But it's not easy to get venture capital funding, and this is a whole new topic!

Lastly, as you are alluding to you can hire contractors to help build your dream. If you are working full-time you will still need to spend time after hours to liaise with your contractor(s) and work on the myriad of other tasks to establish the business. For this you will need savings to pay your contractors.

In summary, it boils down to time and money. Your time is free, but if you are moonlighting the cost can be very expensive. Time provided by contractors cost money, but it means you will be able to build a product faster than doing it on your own.

Regards,
Scott
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A lot depends on your previous software development experience and aptitude, and how much your new business venture would actually benefit from your improved software development skills.

If you can describe your previous software development experience, and what type of website you are hoping to create, I could give you some indication of how easy or difficult you will find developing your own site (I'm assuming it is an advanced site you want, dynamic, database driven, e-commerce etc). Please bear in mind that creating a great site requires much more than just coding skills. Also, is your website so different that it requires creating from scratch? or would it be better served using and customising some off-the-shelf system?

If your new business venture isn't really software development related, e.g. you want to set up an online jewellery shop, then you may find that your time is better spent on business and marketing relating issues rather than web development. Solving business and marketing issues can be just as challenging as solving a software development issue, perhaps more so.
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Paul - www.awebapart.com - 'a web apart'
create, update your website today - the online professional site builder

Certainly it does all depend on what your startup is to be but there are ways of cutting corners and letting others do the work for you. Our DIY web building software allows the complete novice to create a full e-commerce solution without any programming skills. The Software also allows the html editor to put their coding to use.

Not sure how far you want to go with your website in terms of what industry you are gearing your website at but if you want to sell online its a good place to start.

Eddie www.unitechnology.co.uk

Eddie make a good point. Whatever you do don't write your own shopping cart/catalog system because there are a plethora of quality commercial and open source systems already available.

Wherever you can, buy or obtain existing software. Time spent researching to see if there is existing software to fill your needs can repay itself a hundred-fold.

Regards,
Scott

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