In the past few weeks, I've been helping my girlfriend and her family do a few calculations to help them save some tax for their company. After doing these calculations, we realized that there was value that would have otherwise been missed and that there isn't much information or software out there tackling the problem we looked at. Hence, we're thinking about developing a software and selling it.
If you've had any experience developing and selling software in Singapore, I'd really appreciate your advice. Specifically, I'm pondering the following questions:
What government authorities would I have to check in with before selling this software? IDA?
I am already working (i.e., receiving an EP) for a company we established that has a principal activity of business strategy and evaluation. Does that need to be changed to encompass developing and selling software?
What are the legal/licensing implications of developing and selling an Excel spreadsheet/code versus a software developed in, say, C++ and compiled as a standalone application? I'm fairly certain that there will be no implications going the Excel route since the end user would need a copy of Excel to run the software anyway.
How important is securing the software? Should I be expecting software copiers trying to duplicate the software the minute it's released meaning, or is this relatively rare and something I can guard against with basic protections? The market is SME business owners, so it's not something that would be marketed or be exposed to the general public.
