Tips for a success software project: Enhancing features, innovation, and little bif of marketing strategy

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Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

Yesterday was one example of some of my unproductive days as I spent the entire day just sleeping. In the afternoon, I just felt that I lacked the energy to work, primarily due to my inability to control my time effectively. The constant stream of thoughts about work, side projects, and my blog prevented me from maintaining a regular sleep schedule. 

I usually sleep very late. It’s become obvious that sleeping late has become a persistent challenge in my life, affecting my overall productivity and well-being. Recognizing the negative impact it has on my daily routine, I have made a solid decision to address this issue and regain control over my sleep patterns, but somehow it works sometimes it doesn't, I guess it’s just human nature.

Balancing Side Projects with Full-Time Employment

Despite being a full-time employee, I find myself with enough time to dedicate to side projects. However, currently, these day job projects I handle have been so low, very minimal tasks. It's one of the happiest moments for me, allowing me to focus on completing my side-project pending tasks. Unfortunately, because I am not doing it properly, the projects fail to gain the expected profits, as the costs are higher, exceeding the revenue that is made out of sales.

One of my main side projects involves selling a Point of Sale software that I personally developed several years ago. I market it through Google Ads, but the advertising costs far exceed my initial expectations. It's like you are working on something that makes money, but actually when you do the math, it’s actually not, the sales performance is very poor. But  I recognize that the project is far from adequate, my software lacks certain features and innovations that the many businesses that see the demo, the potential customers  are not very attracted to buying it.

Analyzing the Lack of Sales

Money is not something that I really want as this side-project is just kind of for my experiment. At least I am so happy that I could sell a product that I made with my own hand. But why are customers not willing to purchase my software? I have made a free and attractive demo, I have dedicated my time to perfecting it. Why? 

Through my experience, I have identified several tips that could enhance the chances of selling my product effectively. These tips include improving the software's features, innovating to meet customer demands, and employing persuasive marketing techniques.

To attract and gain buyers, it is essential to continuously enhance the features of your software products. Give a free starter, a demo but also try to understand what they actually need. This can be achieved by gathering feedback from your free demo users, conducting better market research, like using Google analytics, and identifying areas for improvement. Give a feedback form so the free user can submit before leaving the demo product. Listening to what the customer needs and then implementing the valuable features, developers can create a more comprehensive and user-friendly product.

Learn marketing skills

Even the most innovative and feature-rich software may struggle to succeed without effective marketing strategies. If you are very technical, you should also invest time and resources to learn about persuasive marketing techniques. This involves creating compelling product messaging, highlighting unique selling points, and clearly communicating the benefits to potential customers. Leveraging various marketing channels, such as social media, content marketing, and search engine optimization, can help reach a wider audience and generate interest in the software.

My other Project

In addition to that Point of Sale project, I am also doing another side project that aims to provide affordable, modern, intuitive, user friendly, e-commerce websites for enterprise and small business. However, the continuation of that project still remains uncertain as I struggle to find time amidst my busy schedule and several activities in my life. Simply, I just don’t have enough time. I might get burned out if I force myself to do it.

Tips for Successful Project

I have done many projects and I always finish them because I keep pushing myself sometimes, to the point of becoming a night owl and don't have a social life. It is bad, you must balance your career and social life to be happy, but if you are trying  to build your projects in a timely manner, the only thing you have to do is to sacrifice your social life and be focused on your project. Other than that, I have a few tips based on my experiences. 

  • They always know how to effectively manage time, 
  • They know to set clear project goals and deadlines
  • They seek support from a reliable team, mentor or just be very good at Google searching for solutions

Challenges in B2B Business

Engaging in business-to-business (B2B) ventures is very challenging, it’s due to the limited pool of potential customers, as enterprise customers tend to be highly selective. This selectivity often leads to longer sales cycles and increased competition among businesses. Your product also must have a very strong benefit for them, and also it has to give better advantages than of your other competitor in the same niche.

Everything must be balanced, all that money you chase from your sacrifice eventually leads to your happiness. Happiness is sometimes not having to do with having a lot of money, so be careful when you are having this spirit of entrepreneurial mindset. Your health is also one of the key factors that is very important in your life.

Balancing your life with side projects alongside full-time employment is a not an easy task. It is crucial to address issues like your health, irregular sleep patterns, ineffective time management, the continuous need for product improvement and marketing skills. After implementing the suggested tips I provided above, you may draw some lessons from my personal experiences. 

Entrepreneurs can increase their chances of success and gain a lot of money, but eventually the only thing that matters is your current mental state that must be stable, not feeling tired and that you need to be happy with what you're doing.

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