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Tom is a programmer and Jerry is a designer. Just have a look at this small conversation between Tom and Jerry.
Tom: Hey Jerry, you are a good designer. I know how to program. Why don’t we start an IT business?
Jerry: I too was thinking about starting an IT business. Lets think about this.
Tom: What we need initially is a Company name(domain name), design and functionalities for the company website.
Jerry: But we need an office right?
Tom: We dont need it now, we just need an address. We can put our home address as the office address in website.
Jerry: Ok, Thats a good Idea.
Jerry: How will we get work?
Tom : We can get it from elance and freelancer. Also we can do some seo to our website and get some from Google. We need to create a facebook page and can do facebook promotions.
Jerry: Great! Lets do it. Can’t wait for it.
So, thats all and a new IT company is formed. What all factors played key roles in the formation of the company?
1. Low Investment
As said in the above conversation. IT business is the business which require zero initial capital(investment) . What you require is your pc and the internet.
” If it doesn’t cost me money, I would like to try it ” .
This common attitude reflects very much in the IT business. This is one of the major reasons why lots of people try their luck in IT industry. The salary gained by an average employee is limited and he/she gets into business to fulfill their dreams and desires. Unlike any other business, an IT business can be started with less resource and moderate business skills(say communication skill and all).
To make this point clear lets assume the case of a Food Business. You’ve launched a new food product into the market, say something like lays (as a snacks). What all things you need to take care of while doing such a business?
- Production environment – You may require advanced machineries, food materials, man power,quality control(highly essential for a food product, if something goes wrong, you are in prison) .
- Vigorous Marketing – No one buys your product if its not marketed. No one tries a cola if its unknown(people only try branded colas like coke or pepsi). So you need market vigorously. You need to build your own brand in the industry.
- Time Limit – You need to sell all your food products before it get expired, or else you will be suffering huge loss.
- Transportation – You need to transport the product from dealers or to sellers and buyers. It depends on how you run your business. But in all manners transportation expenses (starting from the raw materials to final product and to buyers home ) will play a big role. Now, whats the deal with transportation in an IT business? You are transporting product (service) over the internet (which ideally means zero transportation charge).
2. Venture Capitalists and Other Supports
The support given by the venture capitalists and other authorities are also one of the major reasons for these startups. Some of the leading venture capitalists are,
These capitalists provide funds for IT business especially if you have a really good idea and an awesome team. Also the government in many countries are promoting IT startup,s offering free office space and connectivity. In India(who leads the IT outsourcing all over the world), the government has opened various IT parks for the IT start ups alone.
3. Availability of Resource
This is another main reason for a “yes” to an IT business. Lots of programmers, SEO , designers, SMO, writers or whatever related to the IT sector are available in large scale. If not in your country, you can hire them from countries like India, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, China etc.
2.97 Million IT professionals are there alone in India (Thats very much closer to the total population in countries like NewZealand). Well as English is getting global, you don’t need to worry about the English in these countries too. Both the written and spoken English level of the the employees(IT sector ) in countries like India and Philippines are pretty good. Many of the IT companies in these countries offer good quality and service too.
4. Global Visibility
Owing the fast transportation, internet and other technical advancements, two countries are no longer distant. Considering the above example, you need to export your food product and face all the risks and difficulties if you need to expand your business to other countries. Whats the deal with IT ?
- Do you have to export something in containers ? – NO.
- Do you need to worry whether your ship sink? – NO.
- Do you need to fly abroad ? – Probably No , as your product or service is digital .You can describe everything about your product through internet.
Anyone in this world can check your portfolio or products through your website. Anyone can buy your products or services online. Anyone can communicate with you easily. And if you are launching a product(tool) (say, A Website builder tool ) you can market it all over the world through multiple channels (Adwords, Facebook etc ).
5. Fame and Glamour
People live in the IT industry today. Everyone have got facebook and gmail accounts. So naturally, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are celebrities. The movie Social Network was widely accepted by wide range of audiences(especially the youngsters ). Being a programmer or in the IT industry was considered as a geeky stuff before. But things have changed drastically. A successful IT professional got great value and status in the society today. If your online product (website) gets successful and viral ,you will be famous in no time.
6. Money
Well, here comes the most important part of every business. How much money can you make in this field? The answer would be “pretty good” (if operated wisely). The most successful IT service companies(in terms of profit) does business in highly developed countries like USA, Australia or England and outsource the service to countries like India or China (Where you can get the services done in 1/10 th of the service cost in these countries ). As I said before as two countries are not distant anymore, one can get clients from these developed countries. Lots of online money making sources are there like ,
- Google Adsense
- Affiliate Programs
- Business in Online Market Places
- Content writing
These sources gives great confidence to the new start ups as there are lots of success stories of people around the world making millions of income through these sources.
7. Google
Google should be added up as the synonym for knowledge. Google gives answer to almost all questions in this world. Google gives you the confidence to learn different leading technologies in the IT industry. Google and stackoverflow solves almost the major part of issues were a developer is prone to get into . Making it simple, if some one is asking a non technical person who intend to start an IT company (say in PHP ) like “What do you know about php ?” Its very much possible that he reply “I don’t know anything, but Google can teach me!” . This is also a major reason for the increasing ratio of IT start ups.
