Today I'm closing my business. It's been making software for 23 years and has officially been a corporation for 18 (IIRC). But, the cost of simply filing the periodic paperwork to keep on the good side of the State finally exceeded what sales brought in. So, that's that.
Alas.
On a bright note:
When I decided to close it, about a month ago, I did my first ever mass-email to all the customers of one of my products. This product was a toolkit used by other programmers to do image processing tasks (read a JPG, resize it, rotate it, etc.); we made the source code for the toolkit available for purchase as well because that allows programmers to find and fix any problems they might encounter, which provides insurance against things like my biz going out of biz. I told them, in the email, that the biz was closing and that they had until today to purchase the source code. In the first week after that, there were more sales than the past two years combined. Even today, people are doing source code purchases.
Hate to say it, but unsolicited email works.
So will you open-source all that imaging goodness? :)
i would, but i can’t because of some contracts.
someone today, the very last day the biz will exist, asked me about purchasing the source to one of the apps. not sure i want to do that, though.
Good luck, cleek.
Ya might want to post something over at OBWI about ” But, the cost of simply filing the periodic paperwork to keep on the good side of the State finally exceeded what sales brought in “, just to watch all of us trip over each other switching team bleachers.
:)
i wish i could blame the government. but it was simply the fact that my old stuff stopped selling and i don’t have the energy to come up with new products anymore.
i was probably spending $1000/year on an accountant + routine govt fees . but when i couldn’t even cover that (and i hadn’t paid myself in a year), it was time to pack it in.