Software developer in search for business opportunities, any ideas?

Question

After doing some side business for a while and working for several years for big companies I think I am ready to take the next step.
I am a software developer in the GTA (Great Toronto Area) and I don't know where to start.
Initially I thought of advertising in a local newspaper, preferably one focused on small businesses, offering my development services for free and charging for maintenance or hosting (if the customer decides to have access to the application from anywhere). Of course, I will have to evaluate the proposals and choose one that is also attractive to me as a business, therefore it will become sort of a win/win situation.
After this stage I will start commercializing the applications I initially built for free.

Please let me know your thoughts on this approach. Or, if you have other ideas please feel free to expose them.
Also, if you have a small business and have a need, let me know.

Answer 1

you may want to focus on an industry type, develop a type of usefull software for that industry type, and then template it so that you can easily adapt it to many users so that you can charge a more reasonable cost on the front end and have the user and service fees cover your on going cashflow requirements.

example
Realtors, car sales, insurance, mortgage brokers, and other professional sales people, all need and want better contact information systems (although there are many in the market)

create one that has some magic bullet, offer it to the agents, their brokers, the industry in general and off you go.

another way is to form a partnership with a company in need of a software and web based solution to a business opportunity. they have the business concept, you create the web and software solution for marketing and distribution around it and sell the product and or service.

a third way is to work with for instance an educator/ public speaker, and create a partnership where you make it possible for the speaker to offer his her wares, on line by subscription, and instant access. (learning on line).

I have a few ideas in regards of this type of services and would not mind discussing it with you in a different medium.

I hope this helps you Good Luck