What should the asking price be of the software I made?

[PrimeMinister]

Hey guys, so I'm going to sell a program I made to the local dirt oval racing club. But I'm not sure what the price should be? I had an idea that I'd want to ask R3000 for it (about 200 USD). Is it too high? Keep in mind, that this is the first program that I ever made at a "professional" scale, I also just recently finished high school. So I don't know if I'm maybe asking too much? If so, what should my asking price be?

 

Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

Kind Regards
PrimeMinister

[Loki0111]

It entirely depends what the software does, local market prices, if it was a custom solution written for one customer, etc. If there is competing software solutions what do those cost?

 

$200 USD sounds a bit steep for something written by someone fresh out of high school but it entirely depends what the program actually does.

[TrigrH]

13 minutes ago, PrimeMinister said:

Hey guys, so I'm going to sell a program I made to the local dirt oval racing club.

$100 with a $10 a month maintenance fee

[Letgomyleghoe]

1 minute ago, TrigrH said:

$100 with a $10 a month maintenance fee

if there was a maintenance fee I would at least provide both a compiled and source version. 

[PrimeMinister]

7 minutes ago, Loki0111 said:

It entirely depends what the software does, local market prices, if it was a custom solution written for one customer, etc. If there is competing software solutions what do those cost?

 

$200 USD sounds a bit steep for something written by someone fresh out of high school but it entirely depends what the program actually does.

It's kind of like a office suite..I'll explain right here

 

The "suite" consists of 3 programs:

 

1. A login generator for the "main attraction", the point keeping program. To make things a bit more secure, so that the points can't be tampered with so easily.

 

2. A program that enters the racers that will race in the event into a database, that will then be imported into the "main attraction" itself.

 

3. The "main attraction", the point keeping program. It's a program that will help the people who have to keep score during the event to be able to keep score more effectively and to modernize the process a bit. The functions in the program include importing the racers, inserting points, editing points, inserting certain codes like DNF, sorting the racers according to certain columns and then exporting the racers and their results to a csv file. That file will then be imported by the score keepers into an excel file.

 

[Eigenvektor]

Did they ask you to develop this software for them (if so, why did you not make a contract beforehand?) or did you make it in the hopes of selling it to them? Are you sure they're even interested?

 

3 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

$100 with a $10 a month maintenance fee

I'd be very careful with that. Be sure to set up a contract that details what exactly is covered by this maintenance fee (and what isn't) otherwise you could end up playing their sysadmin for the foreseeable future. If you demand a monthly fee, you can be certain they will want something out of it (new feature, bugfixes, …)

[PrimeMinister]

3 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

 a compiled and source version. 

So I should give the compiled app I have and the source code? Or what do you mean by this?

[PrimeMinister]

5 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Did they ask you to develop this software for them (if so, why did you not make a contract beforehand?) or did you make it in the hopes of selling it to them? Are you sure they're even interested?

 

I'd be very careful with that. Be sure to set up a contract that details what exactly is covered by this maintenance fee (and what isn't) otherwise you could end up playing their sysadmin for the foreseeable future. If you demand a monthly fee, you can be certain they will want something out of it (new feature, bugfixes, …)

My mom is the secretary of the club and she asked me if I could make this program. She helped with the rules and she told me what features should be in it. She told the chairman and his wife (my parents are friends with them) that I'm making a program to help with the point keeping. I demoed it to the chairman's wife yesterday and she was very pleased with it. So I only need to demo it to him and the score keeper and I'm home free. But it's very likely at the moment that they will buy it. So to answer your question, I made it to see if I would be capable to be a programmer in future and I made it in the hopes that they would buy it.

[Mark Kaine]

21 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

$100 with a $10 a month maintenance fee subscription 

Fixed that for you? 

 

Honestly this gets my vote OP, especially if it's something that possibly *needs* maintenance, otherwise 100 bucks sounds really good (200 is too greedy lol) 

[Mark Kaine]

17 minutes ago, PrimeMinister said:

So I should give the compiled app I have and the source code? Or what do you mean by this?

No you keep the source code! never give away the source code..... 

[RedRound2]

35 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

if there was a maintenance fee I would at least provide both a compiled and source version. 

You never provide the source code, unless it's some government thing where some vetting has to take place. If you do provide the source code, and are a good programmer, they will most likely just replace you with someone cheaper in the end

[RedRound2]

I'll go in the middle. Your pricing also depends on your customer. If they seem fancy, you can ask them for a fancy price

 

With the context provided here, you could probably charge them $150 and some maintenance fees of say $10 for 6 months. I doubt your program will need too much modification/rewriting for the task and functions you described above. But make sure that new features, or customer requested modifications does not fall under the maintenance fees, and that you will charge extra for it depending on how much work it is

[PrimeMinister]

1 hour ago, RedRound2 said:

I'll go in the middle. Your pricing also depends on your customer. If they seem fancy, you can ask them for a fancy price

 

With the context provided here, you could probably charge them $150 and some maintence say $10 for 6 months. I doubt your program will need too much modification/rewriting for the task you functions you described above. But make sure that new features, or customer requested modifications does not fall under the maintenece fees, and that you will charge extra for it depedningg on how much work it is

Ok, will try this.

 

P.S do I have to make a contract via a lawyer or something or can I do it myself? (just asking)

[PrimeMinister]

1 hour ago, James Evens said:

Also keep in mind that those communities/clubs have well established networks so ask them if they know more clubs who need it and offer them a lower price if you can sell it to more clubs. 

That ain't a bad idea, I'll look into it.

[RedRound2]

3 hours ago, PrimeMinister said:

Ok, will try this.

 

P.S do I have to make a contract via a lawyer or something or can I do it myself? (just asking)

I presume you are an indie, and there shouldn't be too much complications in the terms for you to bring a lawyer in. That said this purely a personal opinion and if you find you do feel like you need a lawyer, you should

 

Also as @James Evanssaid try to get contacts from them to further expand your scale. This is the easiest way for you to expand your buisness

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Programs, Apps and Websites