What are the biggest time wasters in your business?

[Jmcrist]

Hi all,

I'm an aspiring entrepreneur still in the idea phase of the process. I see that most folks here are seasoned business owners, so I hope it's okay to ask this newbie question!

I am wanting to develop custom software solutions that solve problems for small business owners.

Would anyone be willing to answer some of the following questions? I would love to hear your responses!

1. What is your business?
2. What's the most important aspect of your business?
3. What pains do you experience related to that?
4. What are the most tedious tasks you perform?
5. How often do you perform those tasks?
6. If there were a software solution that helped solve your problem, would you be willing to pay for it?
7. Would you be willing to talk with me over the phone about this problem?

If you've read this far, thanks for your time.

If you reply to ANY of the questions above, I would be VERY grateful!

Thanks, and take care,
Michael

[Carsten]

1. What is your business?
Pre-press and other services for rental companies in a construction business niche

2. What's the most important aspect of your business?
Machine data research and editing

3. What pains do you experience related to that?
Very time consuming

4. What are the most tedious tasks you perform?
Address and contact research

5. How often do you perform those tasks?
Try to do this one day per week

6. If there were a software solution that helped solve your problem, would you be willing to pay for it?
There is one for it but it is too expensive and too unreliable

[Wozcreative]

1. What is your business?
— Freelance Graphic And Web Designer

2. What's the most important aspect of your business?
— Scheduling projects and getting them done on time.

3. What pains do you experience related to that?
— Some projects tend to overlap due to project specs getting larger, or slower responses from clients, or missing content or having to go back and re-structure something.

4. What are the most tedious tasks you perform?
— When I'm working on projects that require incremental changes of text/translations. Often these are rush requests and I have to stop what I'm doing and change projects.. this causes me to lose focus and interest.

5. How often do you perform those tasks?
— Every other day.

6. If there were a software solution that helped solve your problem, would you be willing to pay for it?
— Yes, but I don't think that would happen as the reason for all the incremental changes is because its due to too many people having a say on the final product. You can say why not use a project management system? Well I've tried a variety of things and clients just don't want to use it.

7. Would you be willing to talk with me over the phone about this problem?
— No

[Jmcrist]

Carsten,

First, thanks for your reply. I really appreciate it.

Wow, doing that kind of research one day a week would add up. You mind if I ask what software you looked at and how much it was?

Thanks and take care,
Michael

[Jmcrist]

Wozcreative,

First off, your talent is awesome. I really dig some of the logos you've created. The Hostboss and FixGo we're both pretty sweet.

So, based on your reply, you finish a project, shoot it over to the client, and then they respond (sometimes slower than you would like) with some tiny changes they want here or there. Did I get that right?

You do that every other day? How many hours a week do you think you burn on that?

Thanks,
Michael

[Wozcreative]

Wozcreative,

First off, your talent is awesome. I really dig some of the logos you've created. The Hostboss and FixGo we're both pretty sweet.

So, based on your reply, you finish a project, shoot it over to the client, and then they respond (sometimes slower than you would like) with some tiny changes they want here or there. Did I get that right?

You do that every other day? How many hours a week do you think you burn on that?

Thanks,
Michael

Financially it is fine because I charge for the small changes (usually minimum 1 hr), but the issue is that it takes away my focus from other projects.. the solution would really be to hire someone to do the minor things for me so I can focus on the small projects.. but often times it's not worth it.

[Carsten]

Carsten,

First, thanks for your reply. I really appreciate it.

Wow, doing that kind of research one day a week would add up. You mind if I ask what software you looked at and how much it was?

Thanks and take care,
Michael

I don't remember the name no more. It was a tool offered from a germany company that should check the content / information on the "about"-section of websites and compare this with information on my address database. Basically I was not too convinced about it especially in relation to the price.