Hello,
Bottom line is simple, I can hire good programmers or developers for a good rate. That means there is profit to be made. Of course its not that simple.
First of all - I read that people are saying that good php programmers goes for even 100$/hour. And they also complain that you can not get a decent one for 30$ an hour. Ok I see that and I know that I can provide very good php programmers for 20-25$ an hour. But when I try to look for jobs on various sites (elance etc) nobody is interested, because they find Indians for 10$ an hour or less. For example they have 10 hour job and when charged 200-250$ for it they say “damn its too expensive”. And then someone pops in with 40$ bid…
So what do you think - php company with good quality programmers charging 25$/hour - is it possible to find customers at that price? I am looking to start slow (3-5 programmers).
Additional question - Is it smart to specialize (position your company as an experts in php, or in .net, or in java… etc etc) or is it better to offer many services (web development+various open source CMS (joomla, drupal, wp, magento, prestashop…) + php + seo)?
Your problem is that you are looking for work in the wrong place. Target companies that take these jobs seriously and recognize that hiring some “Indian gent who lived near Delhi in a tent” (to quote Roald Dahl) is not viable for a reputable company.
That’s also the wrong question. Just advertise yourself as a problem solver. A company has a problem they need you to solve. Don’t trouble them with languages. Just equip yourself with what you need to solve their problems.
Ralph is dead on for both points – The reality is that there are two very different markets and people often confuse them as being one in the same.
While it’s absolutely true that there’s more demand for talented php / jsp / web developers in the Bay Area, Austin, NYC, and other tech hot spots around the world, that does not mean that these companies are looking for outsourced development of which there is an abundance. Being good at coding and a good coder are not the same.
There are teams that buck the trend but they’re rare and don’t tend to be found on the open market – people who have the chops to pull those groups together also tend to know how to carve out a niche and go after their clientele.
Playing in the outsourced development sites can yield business but it’s a cut-throat world where everyone comes across more or less the same and price reigns supreme. The solution is to find a new playground and/or to move out of the cost comparisons by positioning your ability to deliver solutions. It’s not an easy change and means passing up on the low hanging fruit but if you want to up your rates you have to go where there are better projects.
Indeed the outsourcing world is a noisy, sloppy, competitive, sometimes sleazy scene. There are some larger providers (300+ people) who do great work, but most of the vendors are small shops that aren’t very strong. Meanwhile, clients are lining up to ‘try’ offshoring, usually with miserable results.
I don’t think I’ve had a client come to me in 10 years without a story about a failed attempt to outsource something to India. And there is a simple reason why. This of this:
Managing software projects is notoriously hard. Programmers can be good, clients can be good, but without good management/communications/process most projects fail to reach their time/budget objectives and many fail completely.
Managing software projects when the client/vendor are 7000 miles away, have different culture, have never met, and don’t speak the same 1st language is much, much harder.
Now consider that most people can’t really manage a project well domestically - you can assume that those same people have almost no chance of success in the offshore world. Hence, a high failure rate.
My entire business sometimes seems to be based around a single concept, which is that I am able to actually deliver to my clients using an offshore model. We consistently meet expectations, and have done so for 12 years. That said, I am not that cheap - I offer some savings to my clients as compared to local providers but there is no 70% savings to be had. Instead, we offer clients a great value because they get excellent quality, proper management, and a price that is always lower than a domestic company.
So, the answer isn’t in what your services should be or what your margins are. If you CAN DELIVER then you have a business to build. But, can you deliver?
I had gone through the site. Starting an IT company is a best idea, But only thinking about the salaries is not that much appreciable. First of all, we should check the quality of the product and the best quality product or work will be gained only through the best working people. Quality control is a process that is used to ensure a certain level of quality in a product or service. It might include what ever actions a business deems necessary to provide for the control and verification of certain characteristics of a product or a service.
The salaries may be the primary constraint , and if the quality of the product is good automatically, the growth will be fast.