I've been developing a dance championship management application for 14 years. My client pays €700 monthly, but I own the software, allowing others to use it too. Although I thought the deal was fair at first, I now realize it's not very beneficial for me. I have the largest dance championship provider in Austria as a client, but I'm not attracting any other customers.
For the last two years, I've worked on expanding the software to manage dance school courses, hoping to generate additional revenue. Unfortunately, not a single dance school has adopted this feature despite my efforts to promote it. With a new baby to take care of, I find that maintaining and developing this software isn't worth the time anymore. The client can't pay more than I'm currently receiving.
I'm wondering if I should walk away from this project or explore other options first. Will I regret my decision to let it go?
5 Answers
Given your situation, it might be a good idea to take a step back. You're not just running a business; you have a new baby now. If it's draining your time and energy without a decent return, it could be best to move on or freeze development and reassess later.
How much time do you actually spend on this each month? It sounds like you might be doing a lot of emergency fixes, which could be more than you expected. Keeping track of the hours can help you see if it’s worth your while.
If I were in your shoes, I'd consider switching to just maintenance at a reduced rate. You could stop adding new features for free and only fix issues as they pop up. This might lessen your workload while keeping the client happy without ongoing development.
If you own the software, why not try to market it internationally? It seems like you've targeted the wrong audience. Expand your horizons and seek potential clients outside your current region. You might find there’s an interest you didn’t anticipate!
You mentioned not many dance schools are using your system. Have you thought about charging for premium features instead of just making it all free? If the software is valuable, some users might be willing to pay.
Related Questions
How to Build a Custom GPT Journalist That Posts Directly to WordPress
Fix Not Being Able To Add New Categories With Intuitive Category Checklist For Wordpress
Get Real User IP Without Installing Cloudflare Apache Module
How to Get Total Line Count In Visual Studio 2013 Without Addons
Install and Configure PhpMyAdmin on Centos 7
How To Setup PostfixAdmin With Dovecot and Postfix Virtual Mailbox