I'm not a security expert.
Requests for comments from career security experts: is this any good?
Requests for comments from career security experts: is this any good?
It's a bit procedural and admin focus... but if you execute all of it, at least it's easier to defend yourself during an hack towards your clients or third parties.
I would have prefer something a bit more technical, but it's a good entrypoint, at least to help hire or consult a security professional.
As a "solo" anything you are going to fail sooner or later. At minimum one requires a gray-beard IT person/consultant with a vested interest in your survival, legal consultant in corporate contract/employment laws, legal consultant in Intellectual Property (Copyright/Trademarks/Patents), a commercial Accountant familiar with tax laws, and a customs broker to handle international shipping rules.
No one is an "expert" all the time, but without key people a small firm will get squashed pretty quickly. =3
Contracts and trade rules can leave you with a warehouse full of widgets you are obligated to pay to store at a loss as things get sorted out ($74k/quarter.) Also, legal mistakes can end up with you paying for nonsense services due to shady EULA ($14k annual recurring fees for some SaaS-hole), or a subcontractor decides to declare dependent-contractor status on their tax return putting you on the hook for $70k in additional taxes.
There are dozens of scenarios people learn the expensive way (down-votes are proof a few people will try), but getting paid gets trickier as the business gets larger. This funny talk is a bare minimum crash course on the core of building a business, which is capturing revenue for delivered products and services:
"Mike Monteiro: F*ck You, Pay Me" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkLVRt6c1U )
>I doubt my local plumber or a freelance software engineer has any of these.
Sure, up until they buy consumables wholesale, track customer service, preserve accounting records, and or need to recover money from someone that can't or won't pay for services rendered and products consumed.
If people try to do it all themselves, they will either end up conned, over-worked, in court or fined for naively doing something silly. ymmv =3
In general, it is great when everything goes right, but I have had a few close calls over the years by extending far too much credit to large clients. When I advise kids turn down any deal larger than 15% of annual revenue, it is a policy that will keep a sustained growth with mitigated risk.
When you are a small firm, burning $50k/month on labor means you don't get to make too many mistakes before you are out of business. About 1:22 startups succeed past 3 years, and product based firms are 5 to 7 times lower odds.
The software business isn't about writing software, but reselling the same software many times over. If you let one client use you as a staffing agency, there is no product at the end of your labors.
Good luck, and never try to do it all by yourself. =3