Buy a software - determine price

Discussion in 'Programming' started by Fisker, Feb 26, 2014.

  1. #1
    Hello,

    I found a desktop based software that I am pretty interested in buying. They are offering their services for free at the moment but I have other ideas for it.

    But I am not a coder or a programmer and I am not sure how much to offer. I contacted the owner and he asked me to make an offer. How should I determine the price?

    Is it appropriate to post the link here?

    Thanks for dropping by, appreciated.
     
    Fisker, Feb 26, 2014 IP
  2. PoPSiCLe

    PoPSiCLe Illustrious Member

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    #2
    From a business perspective it's probably not that wise to provide a link and share your idea.
    What I would consider are these key points:
    1. Are you planning on making money on this in the future?
    2. If yes, do you plan on selling the software, or a service? (The first takes less resources than the latter, but demands you have a coding team on hand for updates and bugfixes)
    3. How much do you think you can sell the finished product for?
    4. Are you considering giving the current coding team an opportunity to continue developing the product? If so, an option for stock or revenue might be good.
    5. How much are you willing to spend? And now I'm talking absolute maximum.
    6. How much will it cost (approx) (if you don't know the cost, just extrapolate hours of work) to make the current product into something sellable, do you think?

    All of the above goes together to create a total for how much the product is worth today, how much it might be worth tomorrow, and how much you should be ready to spend to make it happen.

    Consider this: if you think you can buy this product, make some minor (or major) adjustments, and then resell it for say... $100 each. (Arbitrary number).
    Then you need to consider how many of these you will need to sell each day, each week, each month, each year, to make money. If the total comes to several thousands each month, walk away. If it comes to 2-3 a day, maybe. It has to do with the asking price vs. the cost of running the business, paying salaries and fixing the app.

    I can't give you a figure, unfortunately, since I've no idea about any of the things I've mentioned, but hopefully I've given you a few things you can look at.

    And, always remember - if you have no direct competition trying to steal this from under your nose, start low, and build up the incentives for the buy.
     
    PoPSiCLe, Feb 26, 2014 IP
    Fisker likes this.