Building a Business is a massive task from the moment of inception. Building a business using open source tools, makes that task go from massive to massive, and sometime difficult. For years, I’ve considered what it might mean to break off and build my own business. I have several in mind, but neither the time, nor the funding to pursue them.
on the funding front, Open Source definitely gives you a leg up. Most Open Source software is available for free, so startup cost from a financial perspective is very low. Many times, however, open source software is more involved when it comes to setup. Not always, so don’t take my words to be a blanket statement. There are plenty of great open source products that are just as easy to install and start using as any of their paid alternatives.
As a Business owner, my dream would be to reach a point in my business where I could pay the makers / maintainers of those open source projects that I use for continued updates, support, and everything else that costs them time and money.
I would like to have a business that also contributes back to open source, and even makes an open source product, but the model for making money from open source is not an easy one to hone in on. There are, in fact, several models, and each has it’s pros and cons, but that’s for another article.
If you are interested in running a business on Open Source, then the linked article might give you a great place to start.