Earing money with Python software (was: More on Protecting Source Code)

[brueckd at tbye.com]

On Wed, 18 Sep 2002, Michael Ströder wrote:

> brueckd at tbye.com wrote:
> > free-for-personal-use-but-companies-must-pay approach when possible.
> 
> The problem with getting some bucks from a company is the amount of time 
> spent during decision taking and ordering process. For you to earn 300 
> bucks for your software the company spends another 500+ bucks for 
> working time until the money gets out.

Well, it really varies by company of course. Most places I've worked only 
require that much bureaucracy for larger purchases. For small stuff (under 
a few hundred dollars) it usually amounts to me informing a superior that 
tool X is needed and worthwhile. After that I just buy it myself and turn 
in a simple expense report.

> IMHO that's why it's so hard to 
> sell small packages of rather cheap software to big companies.

That's why you don't sell it for $300. Seriously: if it's a small and
cheap package then $300 (I'm assuming US$300) is often too high for small
businesses and many individuals anyway, and for large companies it might
be expensive enough to trigger more purchasing overhead (at my current job
that price could go either way). So... you sell your product with a single
seat license for, say, $100 and then offer a site license for e.g. $500
as well as a renewable support package for $1000 a year or whatever. You 
also give 'em discounts when you release a new version next year.

-Dave