Trying To Come Up With A Sellable Software

posted by Michael Olafusi , on , 4 comments
I have been doing some jobs lately that require building some Excel software in the process; software I now think a lot of people might have a need for and I could make a commercial version of.
image: talk.payloadz.com
This week has been a crazy busy week for me. Not slept well and going from one client deadline to another. I did a job for a client that involved taking lots of phone numbers and converting them into a text file format that is compatible with Bulk SMS tools. Rather than do this manually, I built a software for it and did the conversion with it. I have a belief that many people face the same problem of having phone numbers in a format that they can't import into a Bulk SMS tool and they would like a tool that can do the work of putting the phone numbers in the right format and as a text file. My tool can also handle millions of phone numbers and generate text files with a specified amount of phone numbers per file (e.g 20,000 numbers per file). Do you think it will sell?

 I spent Thursday night building an organization/club members database software in Access. It allows you to handle the common tasks done on a database list. And all in a very cool and life easing way. I did it as a volunteer job for an NGO and they were very happy with the tool. Now I'm considering making a commercial version. Do you think enough people will have a need for such a tool and be willing to pay to have it?

 About 4 months ago, I built another Access tool to manage the examination and test records entry and processing for several schools and students, as many as 90,000. I did it for a client who has a good taste in software aesthetics and after many reviews I was able to build one of my most beautiful and complex data entry software. Now I am considering taking time to modify it and build a commercial version of it. Again, what do you think?

 Those are the software ideas I have now, besides the investment analysis web application I want to make. Do you think any of these ideas are good enough or you have an idea of how I can make them good enough. Or you have a completely different idea of what I could build that people will need and be willing to pay for. Please do share with me. I promise to give you a significant portion of my first sales.
Michael Olafusi

4 comments:

  1. OmoJanuary 31, 2015 at 11:53 PM

    Hello Michael. I came across your blog a few days ago and I must say it has been a huge wake up call for me especially with regards to personal finance - I have really learnt a LOT from this blog in the last few days.

    Regarding the software, I think the tool to manage the examination and test records entry and processing is a good one and will do well commercially. I am Business / Systems Analyst (I basically design business processes as well as software requirement specs) - I think I have some ideas around how you can optimise the application for commercial use.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael OlafusiFebruary 9, 2015 at 11:02 PM

    Hi Omo,

    Thanks for this very valuable advice! I have already began talking with a developer, in order to help speed things up.

    And I'm glad find my blog posts interesting.

    Thanks again,
    Michael

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  3. Dominic HoltApril 18, 2015 at 7:05 AM

    Hey Michael,

    I'm a software engineer and have been approached by several people on doing something like this. I say go for it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Michael OlafusiApril 23, 2015 at 8:03 AM

    Thanks Dominic!

    ReplyDelete

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