New Company Launched and more news

So, since WWDC I have felt an amazing pressure to get out and do
something. Yesterday I got two steps closer to doing just that:
My hours are officially reduced to two days per week and the paperwork
for my new company arrived from LegalZoom. July 9th will be
my official launch of my company as well as my new life. My first
milestone for this is to get my first product, WinePad, onto the
Apple App Store. I am hoping that this will be done by the App Store
launch date.

Just Read a Great Blog Post for Entrepreneurs!

The author says it better than I can so:

Here it is

Blogging is a Lot Harder than it Looks + Google Analytics

Blogging turns out to be a lot harder than it looks.  Each time I sit down to write a post I have a great writing idea that I think people would be interested in reading.  But, the execution so far has fallen flat and the idea only gets half expressed.  Maybe it is just the amount of time that I can actually put into it...

One of the reasons I am doing this blog is to get into the habit of blogging and learning about the tools that are used to understand and drive traffic.  I will write a more detailed post on this later, but an amazing tool that I am using is Google Analytics.  This tool presents all the data about the users of your sites (how many are unique, how long they stay, where they come from,  etc).

Google Analytics has this great feature that overlays an image of your site with the % of times people clicked on each link.  This is a great way to listen to your users - they tell you by clicking what they want. 

What I found is by far the most clicked link on this blog at the very bottom where there is a list of links to other independent business sites (26%).  The second most clicked thing was something like 10%.  So, what I am going to try next is to add to this list resources that I think are valuable and see if these component still gets as much attention.  I'm also thinking of a way to make that component more visible so that maybe it will draw the attention of the majority of users who simply click away from this site after being referred from StumbleUpon or Digg.

When Do You Know Its Time to Leave Your Job for Your Business?

Anyone who has thought about starting a new company has had to wrestle with the idea that their life was going to change drastically as a result.  Most people have grown comfortable in the typical 9-5 workweek that ensures a steady cash-flow and routine of a corporate safety net.

For a time, people already in the workforce may be able to run their side business as a hobby but in order to fully develop an idea most people know that they need to focus as much time on it as they can.

Lately, I have gotten to this point but frankly I didn't really know what to do.

Should I just get up and leave my job, burn my bridges and jump into my new life as many authors suggest?

Should I try and sneak my company development into my current work schedule?

Should I just drop my business?

For the truly courageous entrepreneur the best move indeed may be to simply pack up and leave and burn all your bridges.  This ensures that you will be as motivated as you can to make it work.  Honestly, especially for those of us who have enough money to support ourselves for a year this is probably the best way to go.

At this point in my life I could not stomach the first option.

A friend recently pointed out that other startups have been successful even though they spent their first year as a side project of people who had full time jobs.  37signals is the name of the company and the advice is start small and develop a cash-flow that can be built on.  Here is a link to their blog post on this.

These two approaches seem to represent extreme ends of the spectrum.  I for one did not want to burn my bridges, but I do want to move things along more quickly than I could while working at my job.  Also, my better half is not willing to drop out of paying bills completely...

So, what I am trying to do is to negotiate working only 50% with my current employer.  They are not really happy with this, but they certainly think its a better deal than 0% time.  This is my compromise and I believe it is enough for me to get my business moving over the next year.

Maybe this is something that you could try before one of the two extremes above.

To answer the question posed by this article, you know you are ready to do something drastic when you have a burning desire to start.  If you are thinking about your business idea all the time and truly want it then the time is going to come when you are going to have to start pushing the boundaries of what you are comfortable with.

The key is to come up with a plan that will work for your life and then follow it through.

Apple's bait: Application developers swarm to iPhone

This article was a great read for anyone interested in upcoming iPhone App Store business.  Of course, a lot of it is rampant speculation but it probably represents the best of the rampant speculation that we have.  Also, check out the Digg.com comments for this article - it is very telling what the attitudes among future users and current developers are.

These are exciting times to be in mobile development and I think we can expect a lot of drama in the next five years.  Is it going to be making millionaires or will the App Store be a billion dollar a year business?  Or is Apple simply courting developers to their platforms so the rapidly defecting Windows crowd will have shiny new desktop applications waiting for them on the Mac?

Well, That's About It for WWDC

Great conference, I feel like I learned a lot but at this point my brain is over saturated with the stuff.  It pretty exciting and I think that the people at this year's conference are going to be influencing what happens in iPhone development over the next few years; by extension what happens with iPhone over the next few years will be influencing the mobile market as a whole.

It will be very interesting to see what happens in July when the App Store comes online and when the NDA is lifted (so developers can talk about what they are doing).  From what I can see, the developers are sniffing out an opportunity fast.

For me, I can not wait to resume serious work on my own product.  But, right now this traveling has worn down my cognitive abilities (hence writing out a blog instead of coding).  I'm quite happy that they will be releasing videos of the content since its rapidly leaking from my brain as I type.

At any rate, I got a real sense that a future is being created in a way that will impact us in a big way.  Its pretty exciting to be a part of it.

Bare Naked Ladies @ WWDC

WWDC Beer Bash

Glossy Icon Hangover

WWDC is an odd combination of international vague coolness.  As I walk the through the conference I heard languages from rich countries like France, US, UK, Japan and Germany (or at least German speakers).  It all has a surreal techno-freaky vibe to it.  There is also a pinch of American Unix geeks through in.  You can identify these buys by their beer bellies and full beards.  There are also a lot of artists and designers thrown into this mix.

Also, there is an over abundance of glossy icons and snappy slogans everywhere at WWDC.  At WWDC you get weird associations like "Debug and Conquer" or for the App Store, "Applications Accepted Here".  That last one has Orwellian consequences to the developers hoping to get their creations on to the store.

However, I can't help but wonder if M$ is able to tap into this reptile brain in the same way as Apple.  I doubt it.  That being said, Apple's ability to engage non-engineer types into application development could be the key to their success in the future.  Technology and programming will be a fully realized technique when people who are not math majors can do it.

Resistance is ...

Cocoa Heads (Real Indy)

After the conference today I stopped by at a live "Cocoa Heads" meeting at the SF Apple store (Here is the link).  These guys are the real deal, all but one essentially work for themselves by writing Mac software.  The other guy is working on a real cool startup after escaping his other job working on the iPhone.  His company is basically creating a web application that looks like a desktop presentation tool.  And they created a web framework that behaves as desktop development environment to do it.

All of these guys are getting paid to do what they believe (and do rather well) directly by their customers.  It was great to see them in action after hearing them on a few odd podcasts here and there.

Was there a take away message?  Not sure, these are all guys who sort of fell into it or simply turned a hobby into a business because people took notice of what they were doing and pretty much demanded that the give their products to the public one way or another.  But, they were mostly normal guys who just decided to go for it.  So, I guess the take away message is to do what you need to do to bring your vision to the world.

Also, they all implied that you need to stay engaged with other people - customers and other people in the field.  They all worked with people who were friends...  Another interesting note is that many of them came from odd backgrounds - not all computer science, many had art and design backgrounds.

This makes me wonder if the Mac truly is the platform of the future.  The Mac platform has developers with a truly fresh perspective.  Programming frameworks are advancing to the point (at least on Mac) where talented people (who are not just engineers) can use these frameworks to create artful programs.  The things that these people are doing are state of the art in technology, but also lifestyle and vision.

Finally, to the Content!

Ok, now that the massive press of people has passed by after the keynote we can get on with the business of learning this stuff.  My first session today is at 9 and will be an introduction to iPhone development.  Of course, I have already been introduced but each time I heard the iPhone story I seem to pick up something new.  What I am really looking forward to are the detailed sessions of "Views and Controllers", "Table Views", and interoperating with other iPhone systems such as contacts and the camera.

Al Gore is an Apple Developer?

Wow, Al Gore is here; maybe he will announce for vice president. Hah, yeah right.

Sweet, in

Turn towards the light!

Let us in!

Fear and Loathing at WWDC

Or stairway to <Jobs> heaven?

Waiting for Keynote

WWDC In the Door

Don't see this at SAS conference:

Picture of Our Cat Vishy

This pic captures one of Vishy's charming habits-falling asleep while
standing up.

WWDC

On Sunday I am taking a trip to California and making the biggest investment into my business so far. I am going to the Apple Developer's Conference (WWDC) - a massive gathering/training session for people who write programs for the various Apple platforms. After all is said and done I will have spent about $3000 which is about what I expect to pay for 1 week "bootcamp" seminars.

What I plan on learning is all the basics about working on the platform (everything related to what they refer to as "UIKit"). Of course, I do have some knowledge already of Objective-C and Cocoa (the main development tools), but what I really want is to spend some focused time in the most cost/time effective way I can on learning this stuff.

Networking will also be a priority and I have printed up some business cards to that end. This perhaps will be a harder skill for me to acquire, but absolutely necessary.

By the end of this conference I expect to have the skills I need to finish developing my first product. Specially, I want this:
-More familiarity with Objective-C/Cocoa
-Understanding of delegation
-How to use Camera, Mail, and UI components

Why Should You Create an LLC?

Here is something you should probably do if you want to go into business for yourself: create an LLC. This means "Limited Liability Corporation" and it is essentially a legal structure that separates your business concerns from your personal concerns. The LLC is your business.

That being said, why do it if you have an unproven business idea? Well, the most important reason is to protect your personal assets from any liability from your business actions. IE: if something you do as a business hurts someone they can only sue you for your business assets and not personal assets such as your home and beannie baby collection.

Another reason is that you will gain credibility with your clients. People want to do business with an entity that they perceive as being established in some way. The ", LLC" at the end of your business name and product could be enough to cement the sale in some people's minds.

Finally, formally creating a company is a sign for yourself that this is serious business. The **** is on now! This calls back to the notion of "mindset" and a lot of the people I have been reading say that success simply has a lot to do with mindset.

So, on that note I have submitted paperwork to get the process started in my home state. I used the online service LegalZoom which put me back about $600. However, you can get a real lawyer for more or try to do it yourself for less (~$200). In the next few weeks I will update this blog on the success of this part of the process of setting an small business.

The iPhone Registration Has Arrived!

I will not get into the gritty details (more on that after the beta period), but my Apple registration has finally come through!  This is very exciting news for me since I have spent a considerable amount of time learning the Objective-C ropes.  Now, I can let go of the nagging feeling at the back of my head that I am wasting my time. 

It is very nice to see my own apps running on my phone and I am very excited about the apps that will soon be available from the App Store.

As a side note, I am not with a big company and even though I am a programmer I do not have any special ties to Apple or any particular certification other than applying for the program.  For everyone else out there like me I have to assume your certification is in the mail as we speak.  Good luck and hunting.

What this means for me is that I can focus on the iPhone internet business first.  I have about three apps in mind and one in the prototype stage that I hope to have ready by the end of the summer.  This is very good news for me, now I can't wait to do to next week's conference and see if I can't get some learning on!

You Gotta Network!

Well, I just finished ordering some "cool" business cards for next
week's Apple Developer Conference. The entire card looks like a
mainframe computer screen and simple lists my email, blog, and
Twitter. The reason I did this is because "you gotta network" and this
will be a chance to try my "glad hand". As you can tell from the tone
it is not my favorite activity but I believe its important.

The cards will hopefully make this easier (people will not want to be
writing junk down I assume).

Yar.