The microISV forums never really took off and more time was spent removing spam posts and spam users so I’m redirecting all traffic from the forums back to this post where I’m recommending that everyone visit the Joel on Software - The Business of Software forums. Most of you are probably familiar with the JOS forums but if you’re not then I highly recommend you visit. The forums there are very active and always interesting. As always, your comments are always welcome on individual posts.

Bob Walsh’s book Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality is scheduled to go on sale next week. A pdf version will also be made available by the publisher.

Update on release of Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality

Would you be willing to wait 18 years for that “luck” like he did?

It took me 18 years of failure and success to go from being a little bit lucky (Someday I will write the blogpost about how people in the PC/Lan reseller industry used to give me a hard time about how I got lucky selling MicroSolutions at just the right time.:), to a little more lucky (trading technology stocks against the uninformed) , to a lot lucky (the broadcast.com IPO , then sale), then even luckier still (collaring my stock), to even luckier still again (not trying any of the “tax savings options all the brokerage firms were trying to sell me, that would now be costing me hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties), to more lucky, starting HDNet at the right time and partnering with amazing people.

Full Post on Blog Maverick

Eric Sink is the person responsible for coining the term microISV and he did so when he created a program called Winnable Solitaire and wrote an article about becoming a microISV. Eric has just announced that he sold Winnable Solitaire which ends his microISV journey but maybe one day after he’s grown tired of that source control thingy he’ll try his hand at becoming a full time microISV business once again.

Eric, thanks for the term microISV. This community has grown a lot over the last year and it was you that kicked it off.

Gianfranco over at GBGames has a good post documenting his experience of setting up an LLC in Illinois. His post gives a summary of what is required to set up the LLC and also has links to several items to read to give you even more information.

The Wall Street Journal Online has an article titled Working at Home Isn’t The Day at the Beach Office Mates Imagine where the author takes a look at the downside of working from home. The article comes off as somewhat amusing but I can see the true downside to the interruptions and the views of others who don’t work from home.

For those of you working from home, how do you handle the issues addressed in the article?

via Trader Mike

Chris Campbell posts a short guide to starting your business. He covers selecting a business structure and how to handle accounting, taxes and legal issues among other things.

One thing I’ll add to his advice is to not do anything until you actually have a true need to do it. There’s not a lot of use in spending money to have a perfectly structured business when there isn’t a product to sell.

via Stylegala

Web design/development firm Forty Media is coming up on the one year anniversary of the launch of their business. James Archer takes a look back at the first year and gives some good advice for those just starting out.

via Stylegala

Fred Wilson notes that Squidoo has gone live today. Squidoo is where an expert can create a Lens on a topic and aggregate data related to that specific topic. There are already six microISV related Lens’.

mISV
MicroISV
How to create your own online software store
MicroISV Software Kit
Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality
Independent Software Vendor (ISV)

Jay Graves has posted to the microISV forums looking for a developer to help him create a plugin for Microsoft Outlook. He has offered to fund the development and share a portion of the sales. If you’re interested, continue the discussion in the forums.

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has posted a list of his favorite entries that he’s written on success and motivation. Given that his original successes came from technology companies that he created, his stories are a good source of inspiration for us all.

Rajesh Setty from Life Beyond Code has posted 10 Questions to ask yourself when you are small. Rajesh’s list of questions are something that every microISV should give a lot of thought to as they are progressing with their business. His post is definitely one to print and refer to often.

Last Tuesdays post, “Should you be leaving your day job?”, brought a few comments from people who disagreed with me, and I think that’s great! These disagreements, especially Warren who left his day job and couldn’t be happier (way to go Warren!), point out that there is no one solution for everyone. Some people think the only way to succeed to is to remove all obstacles, even if that obstacle is a salaried day job. Others think that leaving a salaried job is insane. Neither method is right for everyone.

It seems that the assumption was that a day job has to be that of a full time salaried employee where you aren’t the owner. There is no reason that your day job can’t be that of a freelance programmer like many microISV readers. These people are supporting their microISV aspirations as an independent consultants, a role somewhat in the middle of full time employee and full time microISV.

Ultimately, the key is to make the decision that will drive you to success. Either way of thinking can be correct depending on the situation. The only bad decision is to do nothing, because you never want to be successful at nothing.

Download Squad has posted the first article on how to create your own game company.

From the article:

Of course, nothing beats a great idea. Unfortunately, good ideas are everywhere. What you need to do is make sure your amazing idea is developed properly.

From the “it never hurts to read it again” department, Evan Williams, founder of Blogger, lists his Ten Rules for Web Startups.