[skalie]

There's this guy I met today who has this idea, basically it involves setting up an internet shop and selling things.

I was thinking of offering my services, I set up the shop for him, he pays for the webspace and whatever, everything he sells he adds on one percent for yours truely.

If the business doesn't work (and I'm almost sure it's doomed for failure), I still have an e-commerce site on my resume, if it kicks off, I'm right up there with the profits, having given a helping hand in the beginning.

Is there a flaw in this logic? Is my price too high / low ????

[Simon Mundy]

How much would you have normally quoted for a job like this? Is the expected return at least 50% of this fee? If the answer is yes, then it's not a bad idea to go for it, if it's not going to interfere with your cash flow or regular commitments.

That's my business-based answer. My good natured side says just go for it and get your name out there firmly plastered at the bottom of each page and write this project off as a learning process with the added bonus of the possibility of being a big money-spinner.

Good luck!

[-Q-]

I have to agree with Simon Mundy. If it doesn't interfere with paying gigs, go for it. Experience always helps even if you can't make any money off it at the beginning...

[DeathMan]

make sure the code you write for him is reusable, and take the time to document it all, and keep it organized and well commented. That way you will have some return on your investment knowing that even if the site fails, you will have something to reuse in the future, that you could charge new customers for.

Don't waste your time if you can't reuse your code. 1% of nothing is nothing, but a solid shopping cart codebase that you trust, and are familiar with is quite valuable.

I'd still try to get something out of the guy though.

[skalie]

Originally posted by -Q-:
If it doesn't interfere with paying gigs, go for it.

That is the essence right there, it wont.

In my city web design companies are either going bust or firing most of their staff. there is a lot of competition for what work is available. To be able to make a living in this business I feel I need to be able to throw an e-commerce site together, and quickly.

The other party is providing the content for this current project and at the same time taking all the risk.

Originally posted by DeathMan:
Don't waste your time if you can't reuse your code. 1% of nothing is nothing, but a solid shopping cart codebase that you trust, and are familiar with is quite valuable.

I'm intending to use an open source shopping cart, so essentially my time will be spent learning how to adjust the tool to meet my (our) own needs, as opposed to coding something from scratch.

The most work will probably be keeping the site updated, but it is my intention to either teach the other party how to do that, or put together a fool proof content management system.

[Simon Mundy]

Have you had a chance to look at OS Commerce ?

It's open-source, PHP/MySQL based and reasonably easy to configure. I've only played with a test copy (the client I had it planned for parted company...) but it looked dead easy and had plug-ins.

[redJag]

Make sure that its legal to modify that open source code and use it in a commercial way. My guess is that it is illegal, but may as well check. They usually allow those things for educational use only, and I'd take that seriously..

[dreilly1]

Originally posted by redJag:
Make sure that its legal to modify that open source code and use it in a commercial way. My guess is that it is illegal, but may as well check. They usually allow those things for educational use only, and I'd take that seriously..

According to their site, their code is under the GPL. (It wasn't hard at all to find that on their site). Which basically means that you can do whatever you want with it:

- You can sell it for $1,000,000
- You can give it away
- You can use it to wallpaper your server room

In exchange for this privledge, you agree to the following terms:

- You provide the complete source code (with any of your changes) with all copies you distribute, and tell people where they can get the source code.
- You keep copyright notices intact on the source code, and don't pass off the entire work as your own.

If all you want to do is use the code, you basically have free reign. In fact, you don't have to even accept the GPL in order to use the code. It's when you want to modify code and distribute those modifications when the GPL comes into play. And once your modifications get distributed, they're protected in the same way (i.e. your name goes on all that code, and nobody can take it off).
This is bad if you want to extract millions of dollars out of every line of code you write, but good if you want to sell complete solutions that add value while building a reputation. After all, I can buy books that tell me exactly how to build a house, but when push comes to shove, I'm hiring a builder, because they've done it before!


I'm sorry if I sound harsh. My venting is not directed at you, redJag. But I'm tired of hearing people assume that Open Source Software is bad for business (just because people think if its free, it must not be high quality) without even looking into the licensing structures. Granted, there are several licensing structures, but the GPL and BSD licenses are the most widely used and should be understood be everyone claiming to have a clue. I think that Open Source is perfect for someone in a consulting capacity, because it lets you deploy tested and peer-reviewed software quickly. Your customers will be buying your ability to put all the parts together, which is still a big task. Ask IBM!

[skalie]

He wouldn't go for it, he wants to pay me upfront, dammit, now I have to put a price on my time.

Originally posted by Simon Mundy:
Have you had a chance to look at OS Commerce ?

Looks nice, thanks.