Hii all, I am a 21 year old student entrepreneur, based in Gwalior.
I had validated my idea and had collected a lot of feedback from real customers. Previously i had managed to keep the things running by learning magento, and web design. Now I want the real product to be developed in the way I had conceptualized it.
The problem is
I couldn’t find developers or designers for the same in the city, although i am from an IIIT, I couldn’t find people aware of platforms, and or they don’t have enough time.
There are no professional agencies here who can assure me of the work.
- I have two options, either i can arrange for some good developers from outside (which i don’t think would be economic as we have to arrange for a lot of thing for them, and they could charge extra for relocation)
- The other option is that i can outsource this project to an agency, based in any of the three cities, “Jaipur”, “Indore”, or “Chandigarh”.
I want to be the work closely with the team so i need to be with them for the period of development. I had specifically chosen the cities as my investor can arrange for residents in these cities only. I am having hands-on experience with CodeIgniter, and good experience with front end design.
Please suggest me which city would be better, considering living expenses, talent availability and development-agencies. Also suggest me some affordable places at these cities.
It would be very helpful for me if you can connect me with the right people.
Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.
P.S. You can read my startup story on trhs!
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Why not Pune or Hyderabad or Bangalore?
Have you detailed WHO you are looking for?
What is the idea for people to get excited?
Puneet Nirogam Aggarwal
Ankit,
If you are very sure of what needs to be done, and can put it in a well-drafted assignment, I would suggest working with high-talented professionals on ODesk.com, or Freelancer.com (Only if you do not need full-time people)
Outsourcing on ODesk is better than outsourcing to a particular agency/company/individual elsewhere, because ODesk has an escrow by which you can control/monitor the provider’s performance.
Regards, Puneet
Ankit Shukla
Thanks a lot Alok Sir, for the reply, Things didn’t turned out that way, and people who have offered for investments only offered these three locations, some more strings came later. I worked with them for one of their projects as they told to do, but after it things changed.
But in this period of time I was able to get back to revise my skills and I developed a working prototype myself. I would message you the link to the close prototype and tell me if it excites you.
Vikrant Shanbhag
Hi Ankit,
As you have not elaborated your business plan here, it will be very difficult to suggest whether you should outsource it or hire developers on board. Assuming that your business module mainly depends on the web/internet; outsourcing will not be an option at all.
Let me share some of my prior experience. I have been a part of a startup that failed a couple of years ago (about which I promised to write an article but still haven’t. SORRY!). One of the most expensive mistake I made was outsourcing my web development even though the core of the business module was the web. The obvious reason for doing that was to avoid fixed cost on board. Just a couple of months down the line, I not only had to scrap my website, but also had to hire a web developer and make him redo the entire site. Not only did I lose money because of my mistake, but also lost precious time and unfortunately even damaged my brand image in the beginning (which can be deadly).
Ankit even though I don’t have any achievements (successful venture) on my profile, yet one thing I have clearly learned about business is that it’s not about making a plan and going out there, it’s about making a plan, testing it in the real world; analyze-learn-develop-analyze-learn-develop. It’s a continuous process where you will have to keep on developing your product (business plan). In case, you’re considering outsourcing your web development, even though the agency does an outstanding job (which rarely happens) your business won’t be flexible enough to develop it further.
Ankit Shukla
Exactly, thats what i learned in last one month, and now i am ready with the same project, the only difference is its now made my me, i know every nook and corner and yes i can control my business now 🙂
Alankar Agarwal
Randomly read your post Vikrant. Good point !!
Amit Shroff
Ankit, Speak to us. We can help you building custom development. We are based out of Delhi and you have a direct connecting train to Gwalior.
Take a look at some of our recent work.
https://www.printawallpaper.com
https://www.theboxerstore.co.in
https://ccds.checkbeta.com
https://www.kapoorlampshade.com
https://international.sonalika.com
https://www.rohanmotors.in
For further details visit our website http://www.72interactive.com or speak to us at 9811122212.
Regards,
Amit
Amit Shroff
Hi Vikrant,
I beg to differ. I all depends whom do you hire. I have seen people hiring a freelancer to save home. You cannot depend on a freelancer, but to save cost people offen work with freelancer. Hence leads to these issue.
We have helped many startups and even helped them to upgrade the product.
Regards,
Amit
Abey John
Ankit,
What you are facing is the classic build vs buy vs rent issue. To decide on which avenue you will use depends a lot on current financial situation, the competitive edge you want to achieve, and how long you can live on maggi noodles.
Assuming you are talking about the grocery ecommerce startup.
The Build option: Most expensive. You’ll need a razor sharp team who understands every aspect of the online world from conversion ready design, databases, servers, networks etc. Outsourcing is a variation tactic on the build option and not advised for a lot of reasons. You’ll also need to pay attention to things like overall software architecture, making sure features and functionality are within a modular framework, which can be quickly and efficiently recoded as market dynamics change without destabilizing the rest of the site. Also time to market is going to be a while… at least a year with a competent team.
Pros: Everything is customized exactly as you want it. Well almost exactly… software also has limitations….
The buy option: Here you buy off the shelf software and then customize it to the extent possible. “Buying” here includes any free ecom solutions like Magento CE. The cost in this case is more predictable and you should be able to be up and running in a matter of months vs the build option, which could take up to a year before it is ready for a public beta. You may need to make some trade off with respect to your processes and the supporting functionality that the software should have for those processes.
Pros: Cheaper than build, faster time to market
The Rent option: This is of course the cheapest and fastest time to market. You can be out of the gate in the market in a matter of weeks rather than months or years. This option is good if you can run your business around available functionality with the cloud based online stores. All you need to do is pay attention to design and focus on making your pages conversion friendly.
Assuming you are still doing the ecom grocery thing, and assuming that you have ruled out renting then I’d suggest going with Magento. You already know the platform and its limitations. Just focus on the design aspect and on optimizing magento for speed. You can find magento designers on oDesk and other other places as Puneet pointed out. IMO this will be the cost effective route for you and personally I feel that the build option is overkill, without a revenue of at least 1 crore plus and a fairly conclusive growth trajectory.
Your issues are not the platform. Your issues are margins, customer satisfaction, timely delivery, inventory churn, supplier relationships, and so on. The standard nataks in the retail industry with a new twist of a web UI rather than brick n mortar. The web platform is the least of your problems. It is the delivery window for your services.
Correct me if I am wrong but the analogy from the brick n mortar that springs to mind is something like this:
– you have set up a few stores in a few street corners and have seen its potential but for various reasons have had to shutter it.
– now you want to open a mega store with all the bells and whistles and are looking to hire a contractor to build this for you.
Question: Are you the architect who will supply the contractor with the building plans? Have you laid down detailed specs for plumbing, power supply, customer parking etc (coding platform, software architecture, db management, server sizing, backup redundancies etc)? Sorry the contractor won’t do that for you….. he will promise he has the skills to do all these things but…
And so on….
My suggestion: Buy an existing mega store (magento ce for eg), give it a face lift and a fresh coat of paint, adjust your processes to work around the limitations of this building and be and up running and MAKING MONEY. Which I guess is the real goal here neh?