Who holds the keys to your system? One email to send this week.
If your software firm controls the accounts, the domain and the code, you don’t own your project. You rent it.
You asked your software company for the admin login to your own system. The answer came back polite and vague: “We’ll send it after the next milestone.”
Pay attention to this moment. Ask yourself three questions this week.
- Whose name is on the account where your system lives?
- Whose name is on your website address?
- Where is the code you paid for, and do you have a copy?
If the answer to all three is “theirs” or “not sure,” you don’t own your project. You rent it from the people building it.
Why it happens
Most software companies set things up this way for convenience, not bad intent. Nobody asked them to do it differently. The risk still lands on you. If the relationship ends, or their company folds, you start over. And your first large corporate customer will ask the same questions during their vendor review.
Picture a family-owned freight company ten months into a custom customer portal. A billing dispute comes up, the developer goes quiet, and the portal turns out to live on his personal account. Getting it back takes weeks and a lawyer’s letter.
The fix
Send one email asking for three things: admin access to every account, a copy of the code, and a list of every service you pay for through them. Ask for a date.
A good partner says yes the same day. A slow answer is your answer.