Buy vs. Build
Ok, I admit it - I am getting stuck. Not enough time in a week to work on the business and develop the site. I am contemplating outsourcing the development of the site while I focus on consumer centric activities such as pitching the idea to potential users. However, I feel that I will be missing out on the entrepreneurial journey by not building this site myself BUT on the other hand, the reason I came back to school was to learn how to start a business - NOT code.
So given this dilemma, I posed the question to my mentor, Corey Butler(founder of Ecor Group Consulting) and he had the following advice:
It really boils down to how much window of opportunity you have. If you have the time, I’d do enough to get a beta out the door. This keeps the competency in-house without giving up any ownership or spending any money.
[…]
The best way out of that [question] is to determine whether you can bootstrap the business and how long your own personal funding will last. That’s what determines your window of opportunity and therefore determines whether it’s better to build or buy.
Given that response, I have decided to step it up and stay head down coding. The goal is to get a working beta version by the beginning of the spring softball season - so I do have time. Besides, I do not have that much extra personal funding to pay for a quality consulting house to develop a quality product. That said, I did set some tough customer centric milestones between now and november. I guess I just need to work that much harder to achieve those milestones while still code - that’s the fun part of entrepreneurship right? :)
