Graduating from developer to entrepreneur
Here are some of the most valuable companies in the world, known as GAFAM or Big Five: Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft. What is the common thing among them? All of these companies have at least one founder who was a developer, hacker or a technical guy. This is because the developer’s job requires responsibility, tech knowledge, and soft skills, precision and patience that helps them become good at business.
But entrepreneurship is not an easy path to follow. Here are some of things to understand about this journey before getting the decision to do it anyway.
Code is just a part of your business
Despite the fact, that developer’s skills are in high demand, being a good technician is not enough.
Defining the business is entrepreneurial work, doing the hands-on work is technical work, and the managerial work is the bridge between them. Creating and maintaining a successful business requires all three roles together.
The entrepreneur is the dreamer, the visionary, and the creative mind.
The manager is the person who thinks about return on investment (ROI), near-term success, and productivity.
The technical guy gets the work done. He follows the manager’s guidance and is concerned about today’s success.
95% of developers are comfortable and probably excel at, being technicians. This means you’re good at writing code, producing something tangible, and cranking away on each task, moving one step closer to launch date.
But it takes more than technical knowledge to run a successful business. It’s critical to look ahead into the near-term and determine which features or marketing efforts will provide the best ROI (manager), and to think out a year or more to determine the long-term direction of your business (entrepreneur).
Treat it like you are learning to program all over
Do you remember when start learning programming? You bought 8 different books on that first language all of which basically said the same things but you read them all anyway because you couldn’t get enough.
That’s how you have to treat the transition from programmer to entrepreneur. Read everything you can get your hands on about your target market, running a small business, marketing, general management, time management. Ideally, you should read it before you even start coding. The mistakes you’ll be able to avoid by doing so are well worth the time commitment.
Focus
Nowadays, there’s an endless stream of new technologies, programming languages, and devices to learn about and work with. And there’s no end to the possibilities for new businesses either.
So, both developers and entrepreneurs have to be able to narrow their vision and set their sights on the most critical ones. Being able to filter out what’s irrelevant so that they can fully dedicate themselves to the issue at hand is an important way developers and entrepreneurs thrive.
Flexibility
Things rarely go to plan in development. Project scopes change, clients demand more features, and bugs always seem to appear. Even the most seasoned developers can’t predict all possible scenarios so they have to be ready to go with the flow. And this is the norm in the world of business start-ups, too. Despite the best-laid business plans, entrepreneurs need to be prepared for the unexpected and be able to roll with the punches.
Stay open for collaborations
In today’s connected and complicated world, it’s simply not possible to do everything completely alone. And why should you when you can do it better, easier and more enjoyable with others?
Despite the stereotype of antisocial basement dwellers, the developer is actually a highly social profession that requires constant interaction with both clients and team members. And this carries over to entrepreneurs, too.
Conclusion
So can the developer be successful entrepreneurs? Yes, we strongly believe so. We need to brush up our skills on being better product guys. When thinking product, the focus should be the problem and not the code.
Remember all of these theories and philosophies and practices are only there to guide you. There are no guaranteed ways to succeed, but you guarantee failure doing nothing. So, start now.
