The ability of the Internet to change every facet of our lives never ceases to amaze me. Like the electric motor, the Internet pops up in the most mundane and yet surprising places. It’s pretty common these days to make purchases over the Internet (I can’t remember the last time I bought a book in a ‘bookshop’). But how do you go about turning yourself into a budding Amazon?

The Internet, with its essentially zero cost of transporting information, is what an economist might term a new ‘production frontier’. With a new boundary and new ways of doing things, new possibilities arise - such as turning yourself from a Dilbertian ‘cubicle slave’ to being your own boss and setting yourself up as an ‘independent software vendor’ or ISV. 

But going from cubicle slave to being your own boss is a mighty big jump. If you want to get started down that road, you might do worse than look at ‘Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality’ by Bob Walsh.  The book starts out by pointing out precisely what I mentioned above: that the Internet offers new possibilities for ISVs (the author terms them ‘Internet Software Vendors’) and that being a one-man band is no longer a limiting factor for an ISV.

But - and it’s a big 'but' - if you are the chief executive and the chief bottle washer, how do you go about organising things? And spend 14 hours a day writing your new product? In Micro-ISV you’ll find a great deal of practical advice on how to make the most of your limited time and resources – from how to organise a ‘to-do’ list (sounds trivial, but it’s just about the most important thing to get straight), to ‘getting things done’ and even to the importance of blogging in advertising your software.

It also covers thing like employment law (biased, admittedly, towards California: ah yes, I like the section on finding a good lawyer), dealing with the government, keeping a weather eye on Microsoft, getting your licensing sorted and so on. All the myriad details that you, with only 1440 minutes per day, as the author never ceases to point out, have to do.

A fair bit of the book is devoted to interviews with successful micro-ISVs. These are very illuminating – and also very encouraging. If your rear end is being chewed by the proverbial alligators and the IRS have just shoved another few sacks of forms through the door, it’s nice to know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. However, it would have been good to get interviews with micro-ISVs who failed too or, better, micro-ISVs who failed the first time, learnt from their mistakes and succeeded the next time. In the real world, most startups fail; it would add to the usefulness of the book to cover the reasons why.

The other minor criticism I have is that the book is a bit too USA-oriented (not unreasonably, since the author is American) though there are good sidebars on doing business in England and Australia. For example, the advice on dealing with the VAT authorities in England is sound – “Don’t muck around with the VAT you collect or you’ll be very, very sorry”. If you’ve never been in business before, you may not realise that the VAT guys are serious about collecting their cash. The VAT-man doesn’t send polite letters; he arrives with bailiffs and distraint warrants.

Micro-ISV covers just about everything you need to know about starting and running an ISV. There’s a heck of a lot of things to cover, so some of it is necessarily a bit sketchy. But overall, its worth every penny. If you are a budding micro-ISV or just a humble cubicle slave with an idea, get this book. It’s an excellent introduction to starting and running your very own software house. Get out there and do it: you have nothing to loose but your cubicle!

You can buy this book at a discount from Computer Manuals (UK).

Dermot Hogan

March 2006