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Our story
I. In the Beginning
Amerco International Limited and the Aimiya Software brand began as a project designed by two friends who spent many years working for a large company dealing with the implementation of accounting and management systems.
One of those two people was a specialist in finance and the other was a lead programmer. The work was tedious and routine and they spent many hours training people and maintaining the already designed systems. Corporate finance being what it was, there was not much room for advancement and no room for creativity. There had to be a better way to make a living and the time had come to make a move.
Personal Finance was a new venture for both people. The core concept behind the Aimiya Software was developed using a spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel. Several years of trial and error lead to a data model that left only the most valuable instruments which immediately showed performance and position.
The model was initially based on an individual achieving financial independence by the age of 40 and to design all the aspects and conditions of the finances around achieving this goal.
One of these portfolio decisions was the creation of a personal business.
In 2007, the idea of creating software for personal financial management, based on the results and conditions of the Excel model was born. The two friends got together, worked out some terms and guidelines for the product and Amerco International Limited was born.
II. The Great Minds Merge
Meetings every held every weekend to discuss the project. Hours upon hours were spent, drawing and printing graphs, finance scenarios, screen designs, tables and so on. A description of the project and mission were set as the core values for the project.
Once the product mission was decided the work become easier and moved forward rapidly. Every time the two disagreed about some aspect of the product, or could not decide which way to go, they would refer back to this mission statement to remind themselves of the purpose.
Some of the key goals of the software were simplicity in use, multi-currency, not to use any internet connection with security issues and the ability to run the software on all mobile phones starting from old models and finishing with the newest.
Many of the product ideas were rejected after long discussions and others were deferred for future releases of the product. Other features were rejected because they would require too
much legal research and financial indemnity to be able to include them in the product. It was decided that any advice offered to investors would NOT be offered with the product but offered separately via a financial blog on the web site for the product.
III.Our Business
Everybody knows, that product itself does not represent business. The core idea created by the leadership, who knew the technology and could solve the marketing, financial and legal issues, became the company.
After spending the time to find good testers for our software a few additional features were incorporated into the program, but all basic functions of the program worked properly. A web site was designed using the payment system 2CO (2chekout) and an affiliate program was designed.
IV. The Software
From technical point the software is written using the Java platform. Because originally it was decided to make product simple and compatible with all cell phones and other mobile devices Java was chosen. New devices and platforms are added continuously in order to keep up with the demand of the users and the new technology.
V. Our Marketing
One of the most important aspects of any company is marketing a product and it is no different with this product. The product is promoted using the Internet and we have found good people to help us with site design, international marketing and creating web content. The web site is under constant review by specialists to improve its content and usability.
One of the best features of the Aimiya web site is the Blog page. It not only gets used to promote the product and let users know what is coming next, but it is also used to post articles about personal finance, and gather feedback from the users, which we will use in order to improve our product.
Amerco never stops looking for ways to improve the product and every day new experiences add depth to the business. Sharing that knowledge and experience with users and customers is key to our success.
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Things to remember when starting any successful business.
1. Think well about your idea and execute good marketing research before you start. Spend more time for this and it will save future additional investment and time for additional modifications. Timeisthe mostimportantresource.
2. Do not forget about the five areas you need to cover starting in business. You need to clearly understand who will deal with each of these issues in your team and if you do not have a relevant person, find one. Invite people to the project to make it better, just make sure you invite the right people.
3. Be open, share with people your knowledge and ideas, provide your product for testing to everybody - feedback is very helpful, only do not forget to make consider legal issues in order not to loose you intellectual property rights and ideas.
4. You need to wait and have patience! It is very difficult to make everything right from the first time spent and became a millionaire over night! Today’s market is highly competitive and only really profitable and excellent products have a chance to be popular. For this purpose you need knowledge and experience but you need to get moving, even if your first step is wrong, because the best knowledge is real experience that you could build into any business you want. |
Good luck!
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