Software you wish would exist to solve business problems

[L555BAT]

I'm looking for some inspiration to start something as a side project, as a bit of diversification and wishfully as a way of avoiding spending the next 40 years as an employee.

What problems do you have in your business, that if there was software available to solve/handle them, you would be glad to pay for it? What software, if you had it, would help place you ahead of your competitors?

I'm taking the approach of asking because IMO so many side projects are started on the premise of "maybe people would want to use this", and that it might one day make money by advertising.

I'm looking for something unusual that would be useful to many people. So no "better Sage" (there are a thousand already), or a time tracking system that's custom made to suit your company. I'm also not looking for the kind of thing that's given away free to 500k users in the hope that 100 of them pay £9.99 a year for the pro version. Consumers expect everything to be free or 99p now, so I'm steering clear of that race to the bottom.

Don't hold anything back for being boring, messy, or sounding impossible or silly - any ideas welcome

[Kinky]

1: Accurate online and offline attribution of sales/revenue to all marketing tactics.

2: Single tracking method/process to track a sale/revenue, from initial marketing tactic through to sale via 3rd party.

[XTR2Turbo]

I would look at software for hand held devices for business needing to manage small teams of field engineers.

The sort of products that large companies will have but too expensive at the moment for sub 20 employee type companies.

Send jobs to them , time sheets / job reports sent back etc,

[ReaderScars]

I'd like an app which taps into some sort of searchable database of businesses who are known to clock off/close early on a Friday afternoon. In addition it could also highlight the businesses which fall way short in terms of their actual capabilities, in comparison to the wide range of services offered on the website which they can only aspire to reach at some point in the distant future.

Or maybe just a GENUINELY HONEST B2B review site woud be a good read for anyone thinking of engaging a specialist of some sort.

[L555BAT]

Thanks for the responses.

Kinky said:

1: Accurate online and offline attribution of sales/revenue to all marketing tactics.

2: Single tracking method/process to track a sale/revenue, from initial marketing tactic through to sale via 3rd party.

1: For offline sales (and online ones not trackable by technical methods), would it be acceptable to ask at the end of a sale how the customer heard of you? Other methods like "ads in local paper in town x probably resulted in y sales from that area in the following month" work, but it's a lot less accurate.

2: Without building something that someone would use exclusively for the whole pipeline, this sounds like it would either require lots of data entry by the user, or integration with a large number of existing software/spreadsheets (some of which will be "closed gardens").

1/2: Quite a few things already out there doing this sort of thing. They might not do exactly what you/people want, only near enough, but I feel that that combined with substantial marketing and sales drive behind them is more important to success than actually doing exactly what you want.

XTR2Turbo said:

I would look at software for hand held devices for business needing to manage small teams of field engineers.

The sort of products that large companies will have but too expensive at the moment for sub 20 employee type companies.

Send jobs to them , time sheets / job reports sent back etc,

Seem to be plenty out there already, most's prices are not public but I found ones for $22 per user per month, or even £2.50 for an app. What do you consider too expensive, or what have you found lacking in the cheaper options?

I don't see much potential in doing X a little bit better and a little bit cheaper than dozens of other people already doing it.

ReaderScars said:

I'd like an app which taps into some sort of searchable database of businesses who are known to clock off/close early on a Friday afternoon. In addition it could also highlight the businesses which fall way short in terms of their actual capabilities, in comparison to the wide range of services offered on the website which they can only aspire to reach at some point in the distant future.

Or maybe just a GENUINELY HONEST B2B review site woud be a good read for anyone thinking of engaging a specialist of some sort.

I thought of this years ago. I think there are technical ways for managing trust, preventing self-reviews better etc., but concluded that it would be a legal headache with being sued for bad (justified and not) reviews and providing a platform for reviewers to libel companies etc.

Something more detailed/structured than consumer sites (trustpilot etc.) could be done, but it's a crowded space, it would be difficult to stand out and also a chicken and egg problem. But I think it's the legal aspect that kills it.

[becker-on-ph]

L555BAT - just wondered what your background is? what skills/experience you have?

Wondered if you have complimentary skills, someone migh consider partnering with you.

[jonamv8]

becker-on-ph said:

L555BAT - just wondered what your background is? what skills/experience you have?

Wondered if you have complimentary skills, someone migh consider partnering with you.

I was thinking the same.

I work in this arena and always looking for the great idea - watching this thread with interest

[Yazar]

I would just like to say that I will be stealing any good idea posted on here and selling it 5% below the ops price.


With a free kitten for the first 10 customers.

[becker-on-ph]

jonamv8 said:

becker-on-ph said:

L555BAT - just wondered what your background is? what skills/experience you have?

Wondered if you have complimentary skills, someone migh consider partnering with you.

I was thinking the same.

I work in this arena and always looking for the great idea - watching this thread with interest

When you say you work in this arena, what are you refering to? taking good ideas to market? or something else?

My reason for these questions and general interest in this thread is I have a couple ideas - with one I've built a crude prototype.

[L555BAT]

becker-on-ph said:

L555BAT - just wondered what your background is? what skills/experience you have?

Wondered if you have complimentary skills, someone migh consider partnering with you.

Software development, reasonable amount of client facing. I work full time so don't have the capacity/time for a commitment involving anyone else.

Yazar said:

I would just like to say that I will be stealing any good idea posted on here and selling it 5% below the ops price.


With a free kitten for the first 10 customers.

Always the nature of business/life.

For every kitten you send out, I'm going to kill ten ducklings

[z4RRSchris99]

we sell flats. i would like a bit of software that logged advertising / marketing / out calls / ppc spend against website views / enquiries, viewings, offers, etc etc etc.. plus a bit of a viewing and pricing management system to keep on track of the agents.

it might exist, who knows.

[StevieBee]

Anything that would ease the process of preparing a public sector tender proposal.

[jammy_basturd]

StevieBee said:

Anything that would ease the process of preparing a public sector tender proposal.

Matches?

[jonamv8]

StevieBee said:

Anything that would ease the process of preparing a public sector tender proposal.

I get some potential matches come through, the process if horrendous. Its no surprise the public sector overspends

[StevieBee]

jonamv8 said:

StevieBee said:

Anything that would ease the process of preparing a public sector tender proposal.

I get some potential matches come through, the process if horrendous. Its no surprise the public sector overspends

There's plenty of matching services available - we use some of them and are pretty good. The issue is the time it takes to prepare a tender bid. I realise that this may be somewhat utopian but a bit of software that provides first a level of likelihood of us winning a bid (i.e. 70% chance and we go for it, 50% - 69% - we go for it but only if we have the time to do so, etc)...and then something that simplifies the process.