Posted by There’s something that I hear time and time again from members of Nick-james.com and that’s how, try as they might, they’re still working on a project they began MONTHS ago and are still trying to find time get the project finished so they are finally able to launch the product to the waiting marketplace and generate an income from all their hard work.
The solution to this problem is simpler than you would expect…
Here’s how to make sure you only select the projects that you can actually find the time to complete and get on the market quickly. Using this technique works exceptionally well, when you can’t afford to work full time on your product development business, for example because you still go out to work full-time, or have the responsibility of running the family home and all the jobs and responsabilities that go with it.
Most would-be product developers fall into the same trap. One that keeps them from ever getting a product developed.
That trap?
Choosing projects that require too much time and too many resources to get completed.
For example, if you choose a project that will require 100 hours of development time, but you can only develop an hour a week working on that project, it’ll take you two years to complete the project – assuming you actually spend an hour a week working on the project.
Or if you choose to develop a project that requires you to work in 4 hour uninterrupted increments, but you rarely have four hours of uninterrupted time in your schedule, chances are good you’ll never get the project completed.
It is a problem we all face.
Plenty of ideas, but limited time.
But, there is a way you can develop projects, even when you have very limited time to work on them.
Here’s how.
Choosing the right kind of projects
If your schedule only permits you to work an hour a day on a project, you’ll want to choose the kinds of projects that can be completed in an hour, or choose projects composed of individual components which can be completed in under an hour.
For example, if you only have an hour to work, you might want to choose to create a ‘Google Adsense” supported discussion forum website on a niche topic.
You can easily do that in less than an hour, and the total startup costs can be under £10.00 a year.
If you spend just one hour a week creating niche topic discussion forums, at the end of a year, you’ll have 50 google adsense supported forums.
And all of them should generate some income for you.
Here’s another example.
Suppose you plan to create a package of templates for a popular software program.
You plan to include 30 templates in the package, and each template requires you about an hour to create.
With a project like that, you won’t have to spend many hours each day working on it.
In fact, if you spend an hour to create one template a day, five days a week, you’ll have the project completed in less than two months.
And while working on a project for two months sounds like a lot of time, it really isn’t – especially if it means you actually COMPLETE the project.
Getting it Done
The reality of product development is this: most projects never get completed.
Either the project was too complex, required too much time, had too many hurdles to overcome, or the developer just lost interest.
Whatever the reason, about 90% of projects are never completed. Which means they NEVER MADE ANY MONEY.
If you want to avoid those problems, choose projects that fit the time available to you to work on them.
If you only have an hour, choose a project you can complete in an hour.
If you have several hours a week, choose projects that can be developed in segments in the hours available to you.
Doing it this way means the project will eventually get completed, and you’ll have something you can sell.
My own plans
Currently I’m working on a new software project that will include 50 themed templates, to make the ‘instant websites’ which will be built by my new “SIPS SOFTWARE” look professional and trustworthy.
I’m trying to schedule one hour each day to create and document a new template to add to the project.
I plan to do this 5 days a week, for the next 6 weeks. If I can keep up with this schedule, it will mean I’ll have completed this part of the new software project by Christmas and be on target for beta testing and releasing the software by Valentines day 2012.
For this software project, I have:
- Chosen a target market of people with money to spend
- Come up with something people in that market want to buy
- Come up with an affordable way to let potential buyers know about the product
- Come up with a way to accept payment for the product
- Come up with a way to provide instant digital delivery for the product
- Come up with a product with low development costs and high profit margins
Having a clear strategy like this before you start developing any project, makes it much easier to actually complete a project, and make a profit with it.