Don't Start a Business

Unless you have people willing to pay for your services

http://www.businessworld.in/index.php/B-School/-Don-t-Start-A-Business.html
Philip Anderson, professor of entrepreneurship at INSEAD

Its a great article and touched a nerve. A lot of my ventures have revolved around starting a business rather than figuring how its going to pay for itself. I've always thought that if i built a great service, the money would come. I suppose, in part, i've been led by services websites around me but that really hasnt happened. I may have gained some experience but i've also lost a whole lot more in terms of opportunity and time.

When i started the math website, i had the alternate opportunity to become a coder at a pay that was 50% better as opposed to what i am getting right now as a GA. And this is about 5years ago. If i had stuck to it, i would have been doing a whole lot better. Ass that i am, i "didnt want to code" and so preferred to stick it out with the math website. End result-- Peanut husks for all my efforts.

I was exploring setting up another services thingy when i read the above article. Given that i am in the middle of a job hunt and end of term, i've put that on hold. I was never sure how i'd make money off it anyways and my job is more important right now.

Lets see if i ever come back to it.

500+ Users!!!

My app on facebook currently has 614 users! That's a huge number! With about 60+ daily users. That's a small but steady stream. Should figure out a way to monetise them now :D

installing wordpress

For the .info domain that I have been working on, i had to install Wordpress on the various sub-domains. The problem is that i have a huge number of sub-domains. At last count it was some 70+. And for some reason Fantastico wasn't installing wordpress correctly. So i had to install them manually. Let me tell you what a huge pain it is! If you've ever tried installing WP on one domain, then you know how cumbersome the process can be. Imagine 70! I had to copy the installation files, manually create the databases and run the installation. Theming is still left. I gave up and focussed on my top 13 sub-domains. I have begun populating them via FireScribe so hoping that makes my job easy. Not sure though since FireScribe seems to be buggy. Or atleast 1 installation of wordpress is.

I also decided i need a mouse. However, given my past record of spending before making a dollar, i decided to not make a purchase till i get some money selling some text-books. Not sure if this is a good idea. On the one hand, if i do go ahead and buy the mouse, its pressure on me to make up that money. On the other, i have used a similar excuse and still not lived up to it. I need the mouse badly and i'm sure the inconvenience will only spur me to make the money faster.

Here's to people buying my text-books :D

Social Experiment

On the off chance that deals2buy might have something interesting, i hit jackpot!! A .com domain for only 99cents!! usually, depending on the registrant, anything between $7 to $10.

So yeah, i went and got myself one. Will have to start keeping track of all these domians :D AND make some money off them as well :D

This time its for a little experiment. I dont expect to make any money off this one except in donations, and while people do tend to be generous,i'm hoping that they'll be generous enough for me to be able to recover my renewal fees and hosting expense for next year. This year, hosting is free but i dont know about the next.

Oh well, High Risk High Reward :)

Welcome a new domain

A .info domain to my little kitty of domains. Admittedly not a very big kitty, but it still excites me every time i buy a new domain :)

My investment in building this site is only going to be $1.19 and time. I have free hosting from IFTK Hosting (thanks to facebook forums and thank you to IFTK too for re-activating it so quickly after i let it go inactive)and am using Google apps for e-mail. Might use Weebly for the frontpage. Am definitely using Social Media Toolkit

I did want to use Alstrasoft's StartPage software but the price is prohibitive, i dont have SSL with IFTK( cant expect everything on a free account no?) and Alstrasoft doesnt seem to have a free co-branded option.

Quite a lot seems to be getting done for free :D

If you have an Idea

What do you do when you have an idea but

* Dont know if a Market Need exists as such
* Dont know if you'll make any money
* Know implementation will cost you a bit in money and a lot in time

Do you go ahead and implement it anyway?? Or do you just get a move on and look for something that can be more profitable?

Teach India!

http://www.teach.timesofindia.com/

From their website

" Teach India will bring together those who need some hope

and those who have some to spare"

I think by far the most awesome initiative ever undertaken. As part of my course-work in Class 10, I taught tribal children Hindi(those in ICSE will remember we had SUPW that was graded by the school) the joy you feel when at the end of the year they can recognise and write Hindi alphabets, the way they laugh when they read out stuff to you can make the whole thing worthwhile. That was the point i really got hooked into teaching.

All TOI is asking is for something more valuable than your funds--Your time. 2hrs to be precise.

Share some hope :)