Maybe this is me being a little wet behind the ears, but I don't know if lifestyle businesses are really possible to start at the moment, given the uncertainty of the current software sector.
The economics of software creation is changing, so it stands to reason how people engage with software will change too. Finding a niche may be a game of luck more than observation/perspiration at this stage, similar to discovering oil on your "barren" property rather than building a farm. As someone who's generally independent, though: I'd love to be wrong here!
Your accountant will be configuring their own work software.
Your project manager will be developing their own work software.
Custodians will not necessarily be developing work software.
Most non-tech desk-staff start to lose focus after the fifth reply on a social media thread…
I do not believe they’re going to be able to perform the three required steps for building software solutions:
1. Know what you need (vs want).
2. Know how to ask for it.
3. Have a process for validating it.
I also don’t think it gets too much simpler than Docker et al for self-hosting, yet those concepts are genuinely a foreign language to even “tech-savvy” consumers.
I think we’re in a bubble, here,
and I am personally betting on one niche (of many) where value ($$$$) is still placed upon having another team to outsource responsibility to.
Responsibility for keeping an important tool up-to-date, keeping it able to capture data,
and most importantly: rigorously tested to ensure it’ll perform calculations correctly.
Responsibility for peak tooling, so a busy end-user can stay responsible for their craft without taking a sabbatical to build software is not going anywhere.
Whether these “peak tools” will be (validated, packaged, delivered to the user, maintained) by me,
See this thread from a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48118727
The economics of software creation is changing, so it stands to reason how people engage with software will change too. Finding a niche may be a game of luck more than observation/perspiration at this stage, similar to discovering oil on your "barren" property rather than building a farm. As someone who's generally independent, though: I'd love to be wrong here!