Do Your Best #

The better you can do. The better others can do.

Building a software application for your clients that enables them to improve stocks handling or fulfil order faster and cheaper or reduce response to customer inquiries, or the other million things you can help a business do better with software, enables them to do better.

Turns out this makes them rely on you and the quality of your products. 

On one side, If you have built a qualitative product from the beginning, you will charge your customers a fair share, they will be able to build more business, reinvest profits and build new business which makes them have new problems for which you can find solutions, bigger needs for which you can build even better solutions. For sure you will have to fix things now and then, here and there, for a small fee but anyone buying a system knows it comes with a maintenance toll.

With all this surplus, you can pursue new endeavour that might bring even more business to the company.

On the other side, if you have built a mediocre solution you can charge a “fair share” and your customers will still be able to grow their business and they still become reliant on you but for all of the wrong reasons. Continuous maintenance, emergency after emergency will eat up all the surplus you create for their business in support fees and will eat up all the surplus in your business in more staffing and less time for new ideas.

With all this toll on your business, any new venture you might attempt to pursue will not benefit from any windfall from the other ventures.

What has a more potential for a bigger upside? More clients, more business, new products, more clients… ; or Some clients, some business, same products?

This has been true for any technological product since the dawn of time as we always pursue to have better things, faster and cheaper.

Now, do you want to become indispensable to your customers because you help them bring so much business in or because they can’t make it work without you?

Until we reach the peak of innovation, which in an ever expanding universe seems impossible, it is better to offer the best solution and get out of the way.

The better others do. The better you do.