Advice Wanted for Selling Software

[AlTech]

Hi,

 

I've been working on a project for a while and it is almost completed.

 

I want to sell said product but I don't want to make too much money. This is my first foray into making money and I'm currently studying at University in the UK.

 

Based off information other people have given me about their projects, I'm expecting to sell less than 2000 units.

 

There are 2 main existing products on the market which could my project could compete with. I'll call them Product 1 and Product 2.

 

I am planning on making a free restricted version since Product 1 is free and Product 2 has a free tryout version with limited featureset.  It is worth noting that Product 1 hasn't been updated in over 3 years.

 

Product 2 has 2 main price points: 12 GBP for the Standard version or 80 GBP for the PRO version.

 

I don't want my product to cost too much or too little since this will effectively be my part time job for now. I know it's probably hard for you (the reader) to suggest a price when you don't know all the features that the project will contain.

 

I'm thinking around 10 pounds for a perpetual license of the Standard version or 5 pounds per year for a subscription.

 

I'm considering maybe making a Pro version or Pro Upgrade later on but idk.

 

Are there any legal things I should consider since I am a Student in the UK with an EU passport? I'm planning on consulting business people before launching the product.

 

What are your thoughts on this?

 

Thanks much.

[TrigrH]

4 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

It is worth noting that Product 1 hasn't been updated in over 3 years.

Is product 1 fraps?

[AlTech]

Just now, TrigrH said:

Is product 1 fraps?

No. Fraps hasn't been updated in 4 years .

[TrigrH]

Just now, AluminiumTech said:

No. Fraps hasn't been updated in 4 years .

well you said over 3

[AlTech]

Just now, TrigrH said:

well you said over 3

back OT: Product 1 is able to be offered for free because the company who developed Product 1 has a paid product which is significantly more expensive.

[Nicnac]

It's really hard to suggest a price for something you give us barely any info about. It sounds like a side/ university project you worked on that became a fully fledged piece of software later. As such and this being your first product I'd say charge 7 pound or something like that for a perpetual license. It would be really hard to convince people to get a subscription I believe

[Alpha_Krk]

Maybe charge 10EUR for Standard and then get a monthly subscription for the PRO version

[Bananasplit_00]

feels a bit strange to not buy the full thing, £10 is quite cheap and haveing the subscription at £5 per year dosent make it feel apealing over a perpetual lisence of just the doubble. do you want two years or forever basically. pretty clear choice to me unless its something i KNOW i wont use more then once or so. its hard to really put a price on it compared to the other products seeing as i dont know what it is, and how the features compare. if you have a massively more feature rich version as well you could put that at £40 maybe, but its really hard to put a price on it as i said

[imreloadin]

57 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

I want to sell said product but I don't want to make too much money.

Said no businessman ever

 

Back on topic however I would definitely consult with a lawyer in your area as you will most likely also need to get a business license and will have to deal with local and national tax laws as well.

 

Also what kind of support structure do you have set in place for when customers inevitability break said software? How often do you plan on updating the software? I know you said that you're only doing this as a part-time thing but can you realistically provide support for hundreds of users while doing everything on the business end and creating product updates at the same time you're in university? If someone pays for your software they're not going to care if it breaks the night before final exams, they'll want support then.

 

Maybe I'm over thinking things too much but it's just other stuff to consider.

[AlTech]

6 hours ago, imreloadin said:

Said no businessman ever

If I make over a certain amount of Money then Tax will probably get nasty.

6 hours ago, imreloadin said:

Back on topic however I would definitely consult with a lawyer in your area as you will most likely also need to get a business license and will have to deal with local and national tax laws as well.

Yeah.

6 hours ago, imreloadin said:

Also what kind of support structure do you have set in place for when customers inevitability break said software? How often do you plan on updating the software? I know you said that you're only doing this as a part-time thing but can you realistically provide support for hundreds of users while doing everything on the business end and creating product updates at the same time you're in university? If someone pays for your software they're not going to care if it breaks the night before final exams, they'll want support then.

 

Maybe I'm over thinking things too much but it's just other stuff to consider.

I plan to release Major updates s probably every 2 years and several times per year for Minor updates.

 

I don't necessarily need to start a business to sell software as many Distribution Platforms point out however many choose to do so.

 

If someone experiences issues then they're almost certainly not gonna get a response within 24 hours unless I'm not busy. This is true of many types of software though. It's rare that I've personally been given proper support within 24 hours of requesting support.

 

I will set up dedicated email + possibly dedicated forum (depends on how much money I earn). Yes, I know this won't be a great solution if a large percentage of users have issues.

[AlTech]

6 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

feels a bit strange to not buy the full thing, £10 is quite cheap and haveing the subscription at £5 per year dosent make it feel apealing over a perpetual lisence of just the doubble. do you want two years or forever basically. pretty clear choice to me unless its something i KNOW i wont use more then once or so. its hard to really put a price on it compared to the other products seeing as i dont know what it is, and how the features compare. if you have a massively more feature rich version as well you could put that at £40 maybe, but its really hard to put a price on it as i said

The subscription would be there primarily if people knew they would always want to own new versions of the product in the future.

 

7 hours ago, Nicnac said:

It would be really hard to convince people to get a subscription I believe

Why though?

[Bananasplit_00]

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

The subscription would be there primarily if people knew they would always want to own new versions of the product in the future.

 

Why though?

oh, so no updates for one time pay beyond bug fixes im guessing? then i can definatly see an apeal to the subscription model

[AlTech]

3 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

oh, so no updates for one time pay beyond bug fixes im guessing? then i can definatly see an apeal to the subscription model

Not entirely. it would mostly be bug fixes and possibly new features within that version.

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Not entirely. it would mostly be bug fixes and possibly new features within that version.

but no new versions then and all version updates for the subscription? yah i can almost see myself signing up for the subscription, depending on what it does and how far between versions would be that is