> I've made a decent living for the last decade and a half off of > FoxPro, but I've never made a single dime off of selling copies of > Fox. How is that any different? >
I agree with Ed in large part, with a twist. As with Ed I have been making a nice living from providing VFP based applications to my clients. I charge nothing for the M$ VFP app, I only distribute .app and .exe files built with VFP and InstallShield. If they want to tweak the table data, and prefer to license VFP as opposed to using Ed's (free) vRunFox, then they incur that cost themselves. If they want to buy a VFP license through me, no problem. I do not mark it up even a dime, and make certain they know that. In my case my income is almost entirely based on a monthly recurring license fee I charge each client that uses my software solutions. My clients save and/or make a lot of money using my software, and all I ask is a little bit of their realized benefit in exchange for its continual use. I have been doing this full time for 5 1/2 years, and part time for 10 years prior to that. That begs the re-asking of the question, "How is that different from using PostgreSQL, Firebird or MySQL?" The difference, from where I stand, is that the PostgreSQL, Firebird and MySQL database solutions are far more scalable than a pure VFP table environment, which has begun to become a potential issue for me. I am fearlessly and gladly migrating to PostgreSQL for the production tables needed for my applications. I foresee no loss of revenue. In fact, since I will be able to scale larger, and will be using a database designed to be used over a ThinNet connection, my opportunities will expand. Another area to consider is the "Goodwill" aspect of providing solutions on a No Charge basis. Or, in my case, providing consulting on issues other than my area of responsibility (my application support) on a No Additional Charge basis. Sure, I burn a lot of time on answering questions totally unrelated to my apps. But, consider this. I do not generally exchange time for income from my clients. My apps are automated and extremely stable, so I do almost nothing in the way of putting out fires, explaining things away, etc. For me I get to continue to build a close and comfortable relationship with my clients - many whom have become good friends. They trust me, and will sometimes ask me to intercede on their behalf when another computer solution vendor (with unrelated solutions) is having a problem, and my client wants a straight answer. I don't ding them additionally. Could I? Yep. Would my clients pay? Certainly. So why not charge them extra? Deep running Goodwill, and a sincere desire to help my clients do better in their market. I do almost nothing for them with respect to my own software, get paid well, and when called upon for unrelated matters I cheerfully assist them without digging into their pocketbook - a far cry from what they are used to. So, how has that helped me? When I introduced an additional solution to my clients, it was a slam dunk to tack on more revenue the other year. I am not chasing down new clients to keep my revenue stream going. One client has decided to accept a free add-on test application from a large in-house solution provider. Their add-on is normally a billable feature ($15k up front, $1,500 per month per franchise thereafter for Tech Support) It is a solution that supposedly fully integrates with their older solutions. It is largely what my software provided when this vendor failed to offer the services their customers were asking for. And, they spent about 6 years developing the solution, releasing failed half-effort versions every so often. But locally it is being positioned as a free add-on specifically to hurt me (Nothing person, it is business. Recently I hurt that vendor deeply with an as yet incompletely settled billing audit where I found $285,000+ in overbillings for a client. The in-house vendor thinks they are punishing me <g>...). The dealer called me over to his office, told me of the free add-on, and I kept listening and smiling courteously. He then told me that although he did not see a need to have both my software and his in-house system vendor's new software, theirs was free, and fully integrated (actually, it isn't. But that will come out later <g>), but he does not trust them. He acknowledged I had pulled his nuts out of the fire many times in areas not anywhere near my area of responsibility time and again. Therefore, he wanted to replace my software revenue stream with a consulting retainer revenue stream, and keep my software running in case the in-house vendor solution failed to deliver (which he and I both fully expect to happen). Wow! Is that what Goodwill buys no-a-days? Count me in! Lest anyone think this is a fluke, a 2nd dealer client out here recently received a similar offering from the same in-house vendor. That dealer actually had me come in to help negotiate the deal for the new "free" software with a full system upgrade. They also advised me they wanted to do The Right Thing for all my years of service. invaluable marketing software capabilities, and in appreciation for having me on call 24 x 7. They asked me what level of retainer I would want for continued consulting service, and also want me to keep my software running "just in case the new stuff screws up". I told them I would be fine with any level of compensation they would feel comfortable with, and they decided to keep it where my recurring revenue level has been for the past 5 years. In both cases it is the relationship that counted more than the app itself. I made myself invaluable to their operations with my applications and service, and earned their trust over the years (hard to do with car dealers). Had I priced myself in a traditional manner I am certain the outcome would have been far different for me with these two clients. Hmmm, how many hours do I spend normally each month with my "no additional charge consulting services" for these 2 clients? About 0-5 hours per month. I had been billing them a mere $400/month for the recurring license. Not a bad return for Goodwill... My apologies to our ProFox members who may be tiring of my ranting every few months about the benefits of charging a relatively small recurring license fee as opposed to a single up-front fee, or pure consulting fees, for solutions they offer to their clients. And, yes, I call it a Recurring License Fee as opposed to a Support Fee - support comes at no additional charge for licensed clients in my world. I had the good fortune of being able to tough it out the leaner startup years while building up my monthly recurring revenue stream. I trusted the market would reward me for a low price & obvious high value impact with many clients, as opposed to competing in a higher price field with The Big Boys on a single shot plus Tech Support billing basis. For me it worked out. Realizing my clients far prefer to pay a smaller amount perpetually, and spread the budgeted amount over multiple departments monthly, was one of those hard to catch concepts I managed to hallucinate my way into. I tried it, hoped for the best, and it worked. Gil > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ed Leafe > Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 5:42 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Revenue model for open source databases (was Re: Anyone > usedSQLExpress?) > > > On Oct 29, 2006, at 4:58 PM, Stephen the Cook wrote: > > >> The commercial license is for those projects who want to distribute > >> MySQL with their software, but do not want to make their software > >> open. If everyone would start distributing GPL software, there would > >> be no need for the commercial license. > > > > Then how do you make any money? Glory doesn't pay bills these days. > > Support, custom development... > > I've made a decent living for the last decade and a half off of > FoxPro, but I've never made a single dime off of selling copies of > Fox. How is that any different? > > -- Ed Leafe > -- http://leafe.com > -- http://dabodev.com > > > > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
