My 2nd Reason for Entrepreneurship: Develop a product that is useful to people (Part I)
Merry Christmas! …….I mean happy holidays (politically correct) Anyway, the idea for anyInput was growing in my mind for about 4 years before I decided to begin developing anyInput about 10 months ago. The sources of the idea are work, anyInventory and my first product attempt.
About 5 1/2 years ago, I developed my first product with the guidance of an entrepreneurial salesman. His company is in the B2B business of selling equipment. He thought that a maintenance software product that tracked when parts needed to be replaced would be useful to bundle with the equipment he sells. The maintenance software would indicate to contact his company when replacement parts needed ordering.
The businesses he sold equipment to were usually small with no maintenance software program in use. Further, these businesses just waited for the equipment to break down potentially causing a loss of productivity. In a nutshell, this software would help his customers to run more efficiently and his company to generate money!
Today anyInput supports these small or micro businesses. See this link for more information about using anyInput as preventative maintenance software or asset tracking solution.
So I developed the product with some of my own ideas. For example, instead of only allowing users to enter predetermined attributes, I allowed users to add, remove, or edit (customize) the attributes. When negotiation between the salesman and I broke down, I decided to go on my own by creating a website, puting the product online and selling it as shareware with a 90 day free trial.
To my surprise many people bought the preventive maintenance software I created over the years before I closed the business. Unfortunately, I never really believed in the longevity of this idea because of the shareware model, the old language the product was built in, and supporting my demanding customers with no support staff!