Well after much debate I decided to finally launch a blog about my software I've been working on this past year, and about the development process behind it and the business lessons learned. Since this is an introduction, I'll try to keep it brief, but I have a tendancy to ramble and rant.

First about me. I continue to work a full time job, and did not wish to quit to work "fulltime" on this project. Some people choose this route, but I was in no rush to get this business going. I'm not trying to get some Web 2.0 tech out the door before someone beats me to it, I'm not trying to get something to sell to Google, and I like my job. So no rush. I've attempted to create quite a few software products in the past, but most of them ended up being half finished. For example, I have a Bug Tracker that is neat...but not awesome: http://2see.com . But I have a huge interest in business, running a company, competing, and designing software. I am a hard core believer in automation.

Now about the company, and product. Last year around this time, i had finished one of my half-finished ideas...it was a Auto Shop management software, so mechanics could check in cars, give people auto maintenance histories etc. I showed it to one of my friends, and he thought it was neat, but I never tried to sell it, and kind of moved on to other things. Well two weeks later, the same friend calls me back and says another mutual friend had an idea. He was a Chimney Sweep and really needed some software to manage and run his business. Lets talk I said...

Well we got together, discussed the specifics, and after looking at the market, realized this might be something that others could use. The product we came up with would be generic enough to work with almost every service industry (HVAC, Plumbers, etc), but have specific plug-ins and value adds for each specific area we would target each time (The first people targeted will be Chimney Sweeps). And so our company was started. How we came up with the name and some other things will be discussed later, but for now the website (yes its a cheesy template) is http://www.SearTech.com

Since I am publishing this blog AFTER I've done most of the development (the release candidate for 1.0 is going to testers today, and the final product will be on sale Jan 1st), the next couple of posts will be about the development process, the business process, and more details about everything in between. Plus come January you get to start hearing about how we do at conventions, mail marketing etc. So stay tuned.