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To-make-money-in-FOSS-build-a-business.md (2802B)

    

  1. ---
  2. title: To make money in FOSS, build a business first
  3. date: 2021-03-03
  4. ---
  6. I've [written about][0] making money in free and open source software before,
  7. but it's a deep topic that merits additional discussion. While previously I
  8. focused on what an individual can do in order to build a career in FOSS, but
  9. today I want to talk about how you can build a sustainable business in FOSS.
  11. [0]: https://drewdevault.com/2020/11/20/A-few-ways-to-make-money-in-FOSS.html
  13. It's a common mistake to do this the wrong way around: build the software, then
  14. the business. Because FOSS [requires you to surrender your sole monetization
  15. rights][1], building the software first and worrying about the money later puts
  16. you at a huge risk of losing your first-mover advantage. If you're just making a
  17. project which is useful to you and you don't want the overhead of running a
  18. business, then that may be totally okay — you can just build the software
  19. without sweating the business issues. If you choose this path, however, be aware
  20. that the promise of free and open source software entitles anyone else to build
  21. that business without you. If you lapse in your business-building efforts and
  22. your software project starts making someone else money, then they're not at
  23. fault for "taking your work" — you gave it to them.
  25. [1]: https://drewdevault.com/2021/01/20/FOSS-is-to-surrender-your-monopoly.html
  27. I've often said that you can make money in FOSS, but not usually by accident.
  28. Don't just build your project and wait for the big bucks to start rolling in.
  29. You need to take the business-building seriously from the start. What is the
  30. organization of your company? Who will you work with? What kind of clients or
  31. customers will you court? Do you know how to reach them? How much they're
  32. willing to pay? What you will sell? Do you have a budget? If you want to make
  33. money from your project, sit down and answer these questions seriously.
  35. Different kinds of software projects make money in different ways. Some projects
  36. with enterprise-oriented software may be able to sell support contracts. Some
  37. can sell consultants to work on integration and feature development. Maybe you
  38. can write books about your software, or teach courses on it. Perhaps your
  39. software, like the kind [my company](https://sourcehut.org) builds, is
  40. well-suited to being sold as a service. Some projects simply solicit donations,
  41. but this is the most difficult approach.
  43. Whatever you choose to do, you need to choose it deliberately. You need to
  44. incorporate your business, hire an accountant, and do a lot of boring stuff
  45. which has nothing to do with the software you want to write. And if you skip
  46. this step, someone else is entitled to do all of this boring work, then stick
  47. your software on top of it and make a killing without you.