SaaS and E-commerce are king, this is why

Reading about all the ways a software engineer could make an online business I found about SaaS and E-commerce.

We have some consulting services, a freelance who is pretty good, but it´s ok to explore others.

I will tell you why SaaS and E-commerce are the kings of online business.

A long term entrepreneurship

Building a business is a long-term job. You would need to have many hats, marketing, operations, selling manager, development, etc.

E-commerce and SaaS aren’t different, you will need to build the product and get the clients.

An excellent way to start is to find a market, the best is a niche market where you can sell to interested people.

For this, you have Twitter, Reddit, or your local newspaper to find what people are interested in.

Then you build the MVP and start thinking about payments in the first place, so you won´t have problems incorporating payments later.

An addition to your career

As software engineers we know it´s not only about code but there´s an entire process to everything we can develop.

Building a business on the side will allow you to improve these skills.

Making this side hustle can benefit your overall career even if you aren´t successful.

VC or bootstrapping?

Ok, this is a big question because at this moment of our time bootstrap could be great at a certain point.

Don´t get me wrong, I´m aware of the cons of both approaches.

Venture Capital money

Venture Capital money makes you grow at a faster rate, hire more people. Also, their mentorship + networks are worth it.

It could take giving away some percent of your company, start studying about equity, and how to have your board happy.

Bootstrapping is not a road full of roses

On Bootstrapping, for example, you have the benefit of starting now, building your company to a certain point where becomes profitable and later thinking about other stuff like selling or continuing with the business.

This approach also takes drawbacks, especially if you don´t have some previous technical experience on the problem that you are trying to solve.

The ideal scenario is when you make your company profitable either find your target niche, then start thinking about VC.

A long road is ahead

Wherever you choose to create a startup or join one, you know at the early stages that it could feel a long road.

We know the uncertainty could scare even our most experienced engineers and is true is not for everyone.