What Does Open Mean For Business Today?

photo credit: O'Reilly - Oscon 2002

The advent of open source software has sparked a big debate in the global economy, an economy that is so used to secrecy for the sake of control. Open is a trend that is not going away. Open source software is created by volunteers from all over the world at no cost to the end users. These volunteers work for free because they need something, not because they see money in it(ie: http://zenfoc.us). They help themselves while helping others in the process.

But what does open mean for business today. Does open reduce the potential for profit(aka making a living)?

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Small Presence Update Feb 25

I’m going to stick with DBA for now. I’d have to redo my bank account if I changed to LLC. I’ll go to the end of the year and see how things turn out. If everything goes as planned, I’ll setup the LLC and and new bank account and new merchant account and then switch over with no down time.

I’m also putting the Small Presence client interface on hold for a week or so so I can focus on my neglected clients. They have work that needs to be done. No point in having a client interface if I have no clients to use it. The interface has been built out pretty far, though. I have a good amount of user needs defined and a nice template to work with. Still thinking through the whole business process to ensure I’m covering all the bases.

I have the VPS setup with virtual email users using postfix and dovecot now, too. I still need to make some adjustments, but I’m that much closer to accepting Small Presence-specific emails. So yay.

Another note, I’m reading some good books on business and usability. I’ll post some reviews and my thoughts on them soon.

I’d like to get some interviews posted soon, too, but I haven’t had a lot of spare time. I’m getting married next Friday! Too much to do, no time to do it.

Small Presence will be going full throttle by this September. My goal is to have 20 clients going by October. I’d like to have at least $40,000 revenue in the first 12 months. We’ll see how that goes as I continue to refine the business and marketing model.

Also, I received the debit card and checks. Checks had ‘Small Prence’ on it though, so I had to reorder them. Not sure how they messed it up that badly, but whatever.

More to come soon.