We have looked at how entrepreneurial and software development skills are an excellent pairing. This situation becomes even more useful as you get over the hump of building a broad technical foundation. When you spend your early years mastering the various areas of software development, it opens up incredible possibilities. The best of these may be the option to build entire software systems on your own. Of course, size and effort may limit what you can do by yourself. However, at least you can design and drive implementation.
Late Blooming Entrepreneur
The usefulness of a side hustle along the lines of creating a product was noted earlier as related to growing your skills. As that goal becomes less critical, there is still the option to take a side hustle software product and turn it into a form of passive income. The sky is the limit with this option. Think of some wildly popular software titles like Angry Birds or some of the small utility programs like WinZip. You could create your retirement plan with a solid product like one of these.
Combine Strengths
Look at the ways to approach software development in your later years. You will find specific skill pairings that can significantly improve the odds of success. The first is experience with failed and successful projects. You learn more than you know about how to be successful in creating software products over a decade or two of being in the middle of it.
You also have the strength of being much more productive in writing code than junior or mid-level developers. There are products a single senior can create that would take a small team of lesser developers. When you factor in the costs of managing a team and resources required for team communication you will see that your costs to develop a product can be substantially less than competitors. This provides for higher profit margins or underselling the competition.
Retire Early
The best part of focusing on entrepreneurial skills in the second half of your career is that you can stay technical. More importantly, you can remain technical in the areas you enjoy most. This provides the best of both worlds. You can earn a substantial passive income while doing what you love. Some people would call this “retirement.”
