A noob hoping to build things
Hello pple,
I am a software developer, I have two ideas of side projects that aim to start.
I really want your opinions about the two of them, and if you can help me choose the first to start with.
I from a State in north Africa, work in Europe, I want to launch my project this summer (during my 1 month summer holidays) and build it meanwhile.
Projects :
1- A website for global football fields ( 5 vs 5) reservations, to be used by public for free. Clients are field owners, that should pay monthly for the service, I'll try to offer 6 month free for first 5 clients, and then try have many users so that it can be interesting for other clients to subscribe.
2- A website for public reservation of medicine consultations. Used by public users for free and doctors or cabinets have to pay monthly for the service, and example of this is "doctolib" (in France). I may then add more features to manage prescriptions and generate legal documents so that it replaces the actual software they use (c++ ugly app)
The two ideas does not exist in the country, (for the first one, reservation are done by phone ... and written in paper)
PS: This is my first project & attempt
Please do not hesitate to give ANY sort of advice.
Sorry for my English.
MANY THANKS
Hey I can speak to both. 1 from experience as a user and 2 as an entrepreneur.
This is way more doable than 2 in your given time frame. You may need to play with your business model a bit before you find the right fit. For inspiration on what kind of business this could develop into checkout this company operating a similar business in Singapore https://strangersoccer.com/.
This is a huge job. I worked on a similar project in Malaysia where we do housecalls. Eventually 95% of our business came from caregiving. It really depends on the market in your home country. In any case I can see some barriers already (I experienced them when exploring the market)... the first is that clinics have old pre-web software and no way to port the data. I played around with some of the files but realised that the effort in writing data porting software to transition them was not worth the money. Second, we had backing from established doctors who opened the doors to the market for us. Without this we would have had trouble entering for sure. Thirdly the doctors just aren't that motivated and savvy to grow their business. They are already rich(ish) and don't see the point to engage with us. The ones that are motivated tried setup their own competitors. I'm not saying that you won't be able to build an awesome healthtech business but it will take years to build not months.
I hope this helps you with your decision.
Many thanks for your reply.
This really gives me a wider angle of view these two projects.
May be I can start with the first one, since I think it is the one that solves a bigger problem to end users since actually they are using paper to register.
But I believe I should build a mobile app rather than website, and I have to solve match cancelling problems in a country where no online payment method is possible
Thanks
For the first one, that sounds doable and you see how the current situation could be improved. How many customers have you talked to? Both in the user side and on the paying customer side?
First thing is to talk to those people and get a sense of whether they actually want/need it and how they envision such a product working. If they wish they could already be using it then you are onto something good. If they just say "yeah that sounds good" they might not actually be so interested. Key thing is to talk to them as much as possible before coding.
Hello, thanks for this reply.
To be fair, I didn't talk to anybody because of many things :
1- Because I am not in place (I work abroad, come one month by year, so even the time is so tiny to just talk...) I know this is bad
2- Because I am a user :) I am an amateur footballer and I feel that need, I see it work in other countries, but you are right, I am not sure field owners will see this so interesting that they will pay for, this is why I ll preview a 6 month free plan ...
3- Because in my country, I don't think things goes that way, they should have something usable to say if they want it or not
4- And finally because I am noob :)
Thanks
Hi, great to see your motivation :) in a indie hacker approach, you should choose a project you can complete almost by yourself and with no or almost no money (except if you already have money to invest).
Think that devs always undestimate the time to complete a project. So choose a project which seems really possible to complete. Even if you think it's gonna be simple, you gonna need 10x the time you thought you needed before starting.
For the second idea, think about possible legal issues you could encounter because you gonna need a lawyer and it's pretty expensive, especially when you have no money at all :D
Good luck!
Thank you for your reply.
Exactly, I (unfortunately) have no money to invest and I will do it completely by myself (coding, hosting, marketing ...).
But I cannot see how the second idea requires lawyer ? it is just a consultation booking web application, does it means I need a lawyer to have a contract with doctors ?
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I see.
Doctors I target are rather private businesses, I really don't know if they have regulations on what they use to just book consultations
There is likely to be regulations around how data is stored and processed etc. It's not the kind of domain you get into with no experience.
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Hi, Thank you, I understand your point of view regarding the medical one.
But I think I may not explained well my second Idea.
In fact, I aim to create a reservation portal to footballers (not professional ones) that come every week and plan a match with friends (5 vs 5) to play, they will book a football field, and in my country the booking process is by calling by phone them and they write the registration in paper ...
So, it has nothing to do with fans, but with pple who want to play football with friends (I do).
Why football owner may pay me for the booking service ? because I (will) have some (many) users that uses my system, and he may have more clients by using my service (And he will also have a clear calendar of bookings, and track payment more easily, and then come features that I ll add later, like organizing ligues, enhance player profiles (photos, record goals and matchs ..., score ?...)
I hope this is more clear
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