PowerDNN

1.    Introduction
As the DotNetNuke platform grows and evolves, there are tremendous business opportunities for individuals and small companies.  DotNetNuke allows people with low-to-mid technical skills to quickly develop advanced websites as well as vertical solutions.  This document will focus on business advice that will allow you to develop a successful DotNetNuke-based business.

2.    Know your Audience
Before doing any development work, you need to think very hard about the group of people you are targeting.  Who are they?  What do they want done?  Why would they want you to do work for them?  How does your solution fit into their business?  What are they willing to pay?  Will using your solution make them money?  Will not using your solution cost them money?  Why do you want them as a Client?  These are just a few questions you need to ask.

Many times, when people start a business, they assume that they want everybody as a client.  This is not the case.  Whatever your solution is or does, you need to make sure it will be a success for your customer and not just a sale for you.  You need to know exactly what your customer wants and you need to be able to deliver.

3.    Know your Product
This may sound obvious, but completely understand what you are selling.  If you are a technical person, spend some good, quality time getting familiar with the internal workings of DotNetNuke.  If you are not very technical, you need to budget for development, support, and consulting.

Also, realize that your product is most likely not going to meet 100% of what they want.  If it will only fit 97% of their needs, that is ok, but be up-front with your customer about everything.  It is better to promise 95% and deliver 97% than it is to promise 100% and deliver 97%.

4.    Have a Plan and a Road Map
From a management prospective, a big problem with DotNetNuke is it makes development too easy.  Because of the ease of implementation, many entrepreneurs disregard the initial planning and take a “wild cowboy” approach to their project.  Although this may initially work for small projects, long term, it greatly increases your probability of failure.  If you are building a vertical solution, plan out the features that each version of your software will have.  If you are building a website for a customer, know exactly what they expect from you.

A very important planning step is to write everything down.  Although this may seem unnecessary, this will allow you to better organize your thoughts, document your solution, and communicate it to your customer.  I have seen many entrepreneurs go out and win their first DotNetNuke ecommerce development project.   Generally these first projects are marginally successful, at best, because the client keeps changing their mind or assuming that certain features will be included.  For example, many first-time ecommerce developers forget about a credit card processor.  Half way into the project, their customer is adamant that PayPal is not acceptable but also refuses to pay a monthly fee for a credit card processor.  If the project was documented up front, this conflict would have never occurred.

5.    Invest in Quality
Quality must be at the heart of everything you do.  If your customers are paying you for a product, they expect it to work, and when it doesn’t, they expect you to help them.  Quality support, skins, modules, and hosting are all important.  If you are buying a store module for DotNetNuke and you have a choice between a $20 “off-brand” product  and a $100 Catalook Store, you need to consider that there is a good reason why Catalook costs 5 times what the off-brand product does.  What if you go with the $20 solution, implement the shopping cart, find a bug, and the module developer doesn’t exist or cannot be contacted?  The same thing is true about hosting.  At PowerDNN, a large number of our customers come from other hosts because they were not getting the speed, reliability, or support that they need.  Nobody visits a slow website.

6.    Force your customer to choose Quality
Many times, if given the opportunity, small clients will instinctually choose the cheapest product.  Do not let your customers force you to deliver a low grade solution.  At PowerDNN, we actually turn away some potential customers because they are not willing to adequately invest in quality.  You will never hear anything bad about PowerDNN is because everyone who follows our advice has a rock-solid hosting experience and if you’re not willing to invest in the right solution, we would rather not have you as a client than waste your time and our time putting Band-Aids on poor decisions.

7.    Have a Separation of Services
If you’re in the website building business, do not try to do hosting.  If you are in the module development business, do not try to do skins.  A very common mistake people make is trying to do an entire project under their own brand.  Many times it is best to simply take your customer shopping on BuyDNNstuff.com or to refer them to a vendor that specializes in a certain component.  The reason this is good is it causes your customer to know what you are providing and what you are not providing.

A common mistake that many new business owners make is trying to resell other people’s services, especially web hosting, under their own brand in order to make a couple extra dollars.  My best advice is =don’t do it=.  On almost a daily basis I meet developers who have had their reputation tarnished because they were reselling a low end hosting provider who didn’t deliver.  If you resell a product and it doesn’t work, your customer will blame you, not the original manufacturer, for the malfunction.  This is especially bad because, since you’re a reseller, you’re entirely helpless to fix the problem.  If you tell your customer up-front  “This service will be provided by that company”, if something goes wrong with that service, then you can always change providers with much less effect on your credibility.  Don’t put your eggs in somebody else’s basket.

8.    Have Recurring Revenue
Once you build a solution, if possible, you need to charge your customer on a recurring basis because they will need you on a recurring basis.  Websites are not a product – they are a process.  Your customer will always need help and want updates.  One of the best models for web developers is to charge a constant dollar amount per month/quarter/year for a fixed amount of updates and support.  Many module developers and skin designers have moved to this model because it allows them to provide the best service for their customers and still get paid for their efforts.

9.    Conclusion
DotNetNuke is an enterprise-grade application that allows rapid application development.  Even though DotNetNuke allows for rapid and cost-efficient development, it is imperative to not overlook the initial planning phase and to always invest in quality.

10.    General Q & A
Q:  What is the most common problem you see DotNetNuke solution providers falling in to?
A:  A failure to invest in quality.  I have seen many companies who get burned by using cheap knock-off modules or by not adequately investing in a solid hosting provider.  If you’ve just built a nice website for your customer, don’t ruin their experience by putting them on a dirt cheap discount provider.

Q:  I really want my customer to think I’ve built everything (skin, modules, hosting, etc) for their website.  What is the best way for me to do this?
A:  If you’re new to DNN, don’t do it.  Whenever you resell something, you put your reputation in someone else’s hands.  If you’ve been working with DNN for a while, make sure you establish good relationships with your vendors.  Once you know what products and companies are good then you can gradually move these services under your brand.  However, never ever get involved in a “recurring reseller” program.  See topic #7.

Q:  I want to build cheap websites for people.  Is DNN the right platform for me?
A:  If price is your first focus, then you are not focusing on the right thing.  The customers you will get will be low paying, high maintenance, and very high stress.  Don’t go down this path.  When you compete against your competitors, focus on the fact that you are better than them, and if you have to, discount yourself a little bit, but price should never be the primary focus.

Q:  DotNetNuke lets me build things quickly.  Should I charge my customers less?
A:  No!  You should charge your customers exactly the same as if DotNetNuke didn’t exist.  The difference is that your customers will get a much higher quality product than if you had to build it from scratch.  Again – Focus on Quality, Not Cost.