This is going OT a little bit, but you know how we were talking about the
issue of Whil and how his biz pretty much went down the tubes? On the
surface, the first thought is that the reason for this has to do with the
real or imaged demise of VFP. But I don't think that's the real why. Going
a little broader, I have direct knowledge of three other businesses which
were going great during the same time period, and subsequently went under.
These businesses had nothing to do with VFP or even the high tech industry.
But the timeframe was exactly the same - when the "economy" was going great,
these businesses were going great and they don't exist anymore. When stocks
are going up and up and up, people start feeling rich and start spending
money and any business can do well in such a market. But that's not the
market anymore. The current market is one where tech-spending is minimal -
Y2K passed without a whimper and suddenly spending money on technology is no
longer cool. It's a tight market. People are paying as little as possible
for technology as well as everything else and we are feeling the pinch.
Taking this reasoning a little further says that Whil is going to fair no
better in the Linux industry, although I would admit that I think that there
is more potential for book sales as it's a newer field. I am not picking on
Whil here; I am just saying that I think all business took a hit, not just
us in our VFP world. One symptom of all of this is in-fighting. I have
been a member of ProFox for 4-5 years, and I don't recall any in-fighting in
the first few years. It's sort of like a political party after a loss at an
election, they start finger pointing and bickering among themselves, a sad
state of affairs.
While Wrox took a hit on DotNyet, I would venture to guess that it wasn't so
much that .Net is a flop, but that tech books no longer make it on the
bestseller list, having been reduced to the level of textbooks - sell a few
at a high price. It's just a different market and to succeed, each of us
needs to look at that market and adjust. If the market for custom software
as a lone developer is pretty much dried up, there are other markets yet
left open. I try to be in several different markets concurrently - I have a
corporate job, I have several private clients, I have a vertical market
application, and I have a framework. (Which leaves me without a life, but
that's another story.) But if any one of those should fail, I have all the
others to fall back on.
Anyhow, those are my thoughts for the day.
Greg
-----Original Message-----
From: profoxtech-bounces At leafe .DO.T com [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On
Behalf Of Michael J. Babcock
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2004 6:05 PM
To: profoxtech At leafe .DO.T com
Subject: Re: Fox technical chat on ProFox
Chet Gardiner wrote:
> This was not the only case I've seen where people have destroyed their
> livelyhood by chasing after the myth that newest and fanciest is always
best!
another example: Wrox press and the ton of DotNyet books that they
banked on and didn't sell. Fair?
--
Michael J. Babcock, MCP
President/CSA, MB Software Solutions, LLC
http://mbsoftwaresolutions.com
"Bettering your bottom line by helping you work smarter, not harder,
with custom software solutions."
[excessive quoting removed by server]
©2004 Greg Gum |
