
Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? - kewball
How many people on hacker news are running successful<i></i> online businesses on their own? What is your business and how did you get started?<p><i></i> Defining successful as a profitable business which provides the majority of the owners income.
======
patio11
Even if you were to scope it just to software/SaaS product companies, there's
minimally hundreds of these in the world and dozens of them have HN accounts.
Most don't post on threads like this, so I feel the need to pipe up and say
"This is quite doable, and done, much more than you might expect."

I run a small software company (two, technically). Products include Bingo Card
Creator ([http://www.bingocardcreator.com](http://www.bingocardcreator.com)),
Appointment Reminder
([https://www.appointmentreminder.org](https://www.appointmentreminder.org)),
and occasional offerings for training for other software companies. I used to
do consulting, too, but quit to focus on products.

I'd describe it as "modestly successful." It's the sole financial support for
my wife and I. I'm the only full-time employee of the business (for a very
quirky understanding of the words "full-time").

~~~
zerr
It really requires a different mindset. For instance, while BCC makes sense, I
can't imagine someone willing to pay for something like Appointment Reminder.

~~~
patio11
Suppose you run a professional services business where you have appointments.
If people don't come to an appointment, you don't get money. You might pay an
office manager to call people the morning of their appointment to remind them,
so that they come into their appointment, so you get paid, right? Appointment
Reminder is like an office manager who costs $200 a month, not $4,000 a month,
is vastly more likely to successfully reach a customer, (virtually) never
forgets to call, and does not consider boring, repetitive work to be an insult
to her intelligence. For many of my customers, $200 is substantially less than
they earn for a single appointment. (Think less "hair salon" and more "HVAC
repair firm.")

~~~
zerr
I didn't mean appointment reminding in general - which is a good thing
obviously. But I thought it was a long time solved problem by other means (and
not necessary by office manager), be it some "enterprise" calendar or todo
software which are integrated in most of the "enterprise"/business software
products, etc...

~~~
patio11
Substantially all problems were solved by someone else first. That doesn't
meaningfully inhibit you from solving them, too. Reasons why this could
redound to your advantage include superior marketing, positioning, ability to
attack different niches, lower cost structure, or the ability to survive off
the crumbs the big guys don't care about.

It's totally worth it for me to have the CEO and head of product development
talk to your office manager for 30 minutes then custom code an import script,
to get you onboarded at $200 to $500 a month. The 800 LB Gorilla basically
doesn't care about you below $1k a month.

------
gmays
I'm doing [http://justaddcontent.com](http://justaddcontent.com) solo and
self-funded. It turned into a bigger project that I anticipated, especially
for my first product.

I started working on it full-time in October. It started as a hobby project
about two years ago. It took particularly long because I have a non-technical,
military background and had to teach myself to code, design, write copy,
marketing, etc. It's been a fun challenge.

I still work on it 12-14hrs a day on average, but I still love it and I love
the problem I'm solving. The last few months I started focusing on product
again and my customers absolutely love it, which is awesome. Now I'm turning
my attention back to marketing.

Like the other guys, I'm not making millions yet, but I'm 100% self-funded and
in no danger of running out of money. I continue to put 100% of what I make
back in the business after my essentials.

I'm not sure when I'll start hiring, but I have some pretty major plans that
I'll need help executing. It's just one of those things where it'll completely
change the game, but it'll also change the dynamic of the business.

~~~
imjk
When you say, "built on the same platform trusted by Ford, NFL, Sony, eBay,
CNN," do you mean they use the same backend technology, or that they're
actually customers of yours?

~~~
gmays
The same backend technology. Most of my customers are small businesses or
marketing departments in larger businesses.

------
raffi
I run a business selling penetration testing software that I develop. It's
completely bootstrapped. I do very little services work (I actively send this
type of stuff to friend's companies). Right now, it's just me, although that's
probably going to change. By most of my own definitions and the one you posted
here... it's successful.

How did I get started on this? Sort of by accident.

I was working for Automattic after an acqui-hire thing. After a year there, I
found that I missed working in security. I found a full-scope penetration
testing gig three blocks from my apartment.

In my spare time, I started to tinker with a few ideas and released them as an
open source project. Said project saw a lot of interest within the hacker
community very quickly. I didn't expect this. Folks formed an opinion on it
pretty quickly. Some people hate it. Others love it. Of those who know it,
very few are in-between.

I left my pen testing job with a decent amount of money saved up. I didn't
know exactly what I would go and do afterwards. I spent some time tinkering
with Android, just for giggles.

I was very reluctant to start a business that used my "successful?" open
source project. Partially because it leverages another open source project
owned by another company.

I was at a conference in 2011 and someone from a US government agency asked if
I was selling anything. I said no. He said that was too bad, because he had
end of year money, and he liked my open source stuff. It was then that I
decided to look at expanding my open source kit into a commercial product.

April will mark the two year anniversary of my first customer. My customers
are well known organizations and they trust my software to assess how well
they protect their networks. I'm constantly in awe of this.

~~~
brador
When's the end of year money period?

~~~
spydum
Pretty much oct, nov, december you will see large enterprise shops who have
unspent capex budget, and are afraid that if they do not spend it, the next
years budget will be reduced to last years spend.. So most enterprise fiefdoms
spend 99-100% of capex budget regardless of if they needed it or not.

------
ivan_ah
I run a small one-man-show publishing house:
[http://minireference.com](http://minireference.com). I produce math/physics
textbooks for adults. I'm the author, business person, marketing person, and
strategic partnerships person. Revenues are not stellar, but they keep me off
the streets...

The value I provide is synthesis of a lot of educational material that exists
out there into a coherent package (a book). In many ways, my work is similar
to what linux distro package managers do: ensuing prerequisites are covered
before the main package is installed.

I remember hearing one of the early Internet/www inventors saying the Internet
will allow people to "live from the fruits of their intellectual labour." Does
anyone know who this was??? With eBooks and print-on-demand this is finally
possible now. I would encourage everyone with deep domain knowledge about a
subject to start writing about it and publish a small book. I think
"information distillation" is of great value for readers. Feel free to email
me if you need help/advice with the publishing stuff.

~~~
tictac232434
I read the preview to your book and it looks fantastic. Just what has been
missing in school. I'm an engineering student and like many other will greatly
benefit from this text. Have you considered writing more on math and physics?
I would surely buy even more advanced topic like electricity, magnetism, and
discrete math (Sets, proofs, induction etc.)

~~~
ivan_ah
Hi tictac, and thank you for the kind words.

I actually have a draft on E&M which is 70% done, but I've now learned that it
takes me about 1 year to get a book into good shape so I won't try to finish
it just yet and instead spend the next six months working on the business side
of things: scaling distribution and sales.

Two other topics which I feel competent enough to write about are probability
and vector calculus so by 2015 I'll get to these topics too. I don't feel I
have enough experience teaching more advanced topics to write about them---
also there is less need for _No Bullshit_ guides, because advanced math/phys
books are quite good and bullshit free. It seems it's the freshman-year books
that suck the most.

------
bemmu
I run [http://www.candyjapan.com](http://www.candyjapan.com)

It just crossed 500 paying members. I started it with my wife, but recently
the shipping part is no longer done by us two manually, but by a local
supermarket. In the beginning it was just an email to some previous customers
asking if they might be interested in a club like this. Then a landing page
and a HN post. From there it grew through blog mentions and now there is a
trickle of organic traffic coming in.

Before this I had some small apps on social networks that made more money, but
were much more unstable. While Candy Japan could wither away, I expect the
death would be more gradual. I still have some of the older sites / apps which
together are still making around $500 / month, which is a nice bonus.

Probably anyone working as a salaried programmer in the US is making a more
money than I am currently, but I enjoy the freedom and the thought that there
really is no upper limit. If we ever do hit 1000 members I'm planning to have
a celebration :-)

~~~
daniel-levin
I love this.

I clicked on the link, and being South African, I've been conditioned into
thinking that all sorts of cool services/products from overseas either aren't
available here or are prohibitively expensive to import. So, I was delighted
when your page said, "Free shipping from Japan, even to South Africa". Thank
you.

~~~
AlexMuir
It generates that text from geolocation and is a brilliant move.

------
danpat
I created:

[http://skitrails.info/](http://skitrails.info/)

I'm an avid cross-country skier, and traditionally daily trail reports are
done by hand by the maintenance staff after they're out all night working on
the trails.

I had the bright idea of putting GPS tracking devices in grooming equipment
and creating the "what's been groomed" report automatically, in real-time.

It took about 4 seasons to really get it right, and there was no appreciable
income for that period. Lots of lessons learned about equipment (antennas,
good wiring practices in vehicles, power cleanliness in big equipment, etc),
good ways to present the data, map projections, how to deal with messy data,
dealing with non-technical users, cross-border shipping tarrifs, mobile-
network provisioning rules, the list goes on. I did it alongside my full-time
job for the first 4 years.

It's a tiny niche, and one I never expect to get all that big, but it looks
like I'll be able to make it my sole income source next season.

Which is great, because it'll let me go skiing more.

~~~
kyleblarson
This is cool. I live in the Methow Valley and the MVSTA should use this!

~~~
dublinben
Or they could use a service that doesn't charge the public for the
information.

~~~
danpat
I don't charge the public. Ski areas pay me a yearly fee to publish their
reports. I handle all the data processing, generating maps, keeping servers up
and running, mobile device provisioning, equipment testing, warranty, tech
support, etc, etc.

There are a couple of areas that have tried to DIY, with limited success, they
usually simply don't have the technical knowledge on staff. I've been
surprised myself at the breadth of technical turf I've had to cover to create
something that works reliably and simply. For a reasonably technical software
engineer with a bit of hardware experience, it's not a big deal, but for
everyone else, it's too complex a problem.

One of the really interesting problems I had to solve was reliably figuring
out which trail the grooming equipment was traversing. Unlike roadways, the
GPS data for the trails is typically either non-existent, inaccurate or just
plain wrong. Cleaning that up is a bit of effort for each ski area. In
addition, ski trails are often in much closer proximity than roadways, which
combined with GPS error margins, means that I had to do some fairly gnarly
stuff to avoid jumping between nearby trails constantly. It looks simple
enough on the surface, but it required some real hair-pulling to get working
reliably.

Contract negotiations with cell-network providers weren't much fun either.
Many ski areas are in pretty marginal cell-network coverage regions, so
finding devices that behaved well in that environment was critical (in
addition to handling very cold weather, i.e. -40F for 8 hour stretches). The
grooming staff are typically completely non-technical, working weird shift
hours, etc, so the system has to be completely hands-off after installation.
Finding a device that would do that, handle the harsh environment and be
properly certified to operate on the north american mobile networks was no
easy task.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
How do you handle installation? Do you go to every site to do it yourself, or
is it contracted to someone local? I have had product ideas where this was one
of the hurdles I couldn't cross: how to get non-technical people to install my
product on equipment I had never seen before.

~~~
danpat
The devices are pretty easy to install, 3 wires (power, ignition, ground).
Because this is heavy equipment, there's usually a mechanic somewhere nearby
that can handle at least that.

I also make a version of the tracker that I pack inside a Pelican case and
expose a cigarette lighter plug, for use on snowmobiles. Most people can
handle plugging that in, no instructions required.

My local ski area has a couple of machines that they let me crawl through, so
I take lots of photos of the important parts of the installation process, best
places to place antennas, etc, and put them in an "install guide" PDF that I
print and include in any shipments I send. I also wrote up a "how to
test/verify that the unit is working" guide, and ask people to go through that
before contacting me for troubleshooting. If they call, I ask if they've gone
through the test/verify guide. If they haven't, I tell them to do that, then
call back if it's still not working.

So far, so good.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Thank you for replying. That was very helpful to see it from a different
perspective.

------
dangrossman
Hey there. /raises hand.

[https://www.improvely.com](https://www.improvely.com) and
[https://www.w3counter.com](https://www.w3counter.com)

Five figures a month, just me, I've written about my solo business a couple
times in other Ask HN threads. Ten years ago (almost to the day), in my
college dorm, I was looking at the Webalizer web stats report my web host
provided for my blog, and thought "I could do something much cooler than
this". So I did. I had built a few educational sites and threw some ads on
them for a couple years before that, but W3Counter was the first service I
actually charged a subscription for, and now I make a living building and
selling this stuff.

~~~
leobelle
Ghostery blocks w3counter so it blocked pretty much everything on the actual
site, maybe use a static domain that isn't blocked by ghostery. :O

~~~
dangrossman
You're running Ghostery for the purpose of blocking W3Counter and every other
site like it. You can't really do that then lament the fact that it worked.
I'm not going to invest time and effort into evading you; if you want to see
web stats sites, you can just turn off the extension. Somehow I don't think
there are any Ghostery users looking to sign up.

~~~
leobelle
I meant you should use a different domain for static content on your marketing
page, and I'm not lamenting anything. Just giving you some advice. Ghostery
has been installed over 1 million times just in Chrome. Any one has ghostery
installed and is going to your site will see a completely broken webpage.

~~~
chill1
Why was leobelle being downvoted? I can understand disagreeing with what they
were saying. It's an opinion after all. But, what they were saying wasn't that
far off base..

~~~
djt
Probably because the adverts that are blocked pay for the site. Kind of like
asking musicians for zippy share links to their music.

~~~
dangrossman
Ghostery isn't an ad blocker, it's an analytics blocker. It's for people that
don't want to be tracked on the web.

------
ohashi
1 man startup -
[http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/compare](http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/compare)
I do web hosting reviews. Not the scummy pay-for-placement stuff you see, but
an actual review site. It tracks what people are saying about hosting
companies on Twitter and publishes the results.

The story is told a bit here [http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/25/web-hosting-
reviews-are-a-c...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/25/web-hosting-reviews-are-
a-cesspool-review-signal-wants-to-fix-that/) I was just tired after 10 years
of still relying exclusively on my experience and the experiences of people I
knew. Figured there must be a better way and I had been working with Twitter
data for thesis and saw this opportunity.

~~~
BorisMelnik
wow, love this. may actually be the first web hosting review site I would ever
look at. I get more spam on my blog from web hosting review sites than anyone.
not sure why but seems like you have a lot of blackhat competition.

love your site & framework. good luck! Will share.

~~~
ohashi
Thank you! The competition is incredibly black hat. Try running the sites
listed for 'web hosting reviews' under some SEO tools and it's often very
clear which black hat strategies they are using (blog spamming, edu/gov spam,
etc). I haven't been able to crack the top search terms yet because it's
incredibly competitive and it's not a level/fair playing field. But working on
creating some interesting content and building high quality links will
hopefully pay off in the long run.

I am always open to ideas and suggestions for how to market this better. And I
appreciate you sharing it!

------
fookyong
[http://beatrixapp.com](http://beatrixapp.com)

Solo, self funded and profitable. I work on it while traveling around Asia.

Agree with patio11 there's probably way more than would speak up here. I
seldom contribute to HN or the bootstrapping forums mentioned in another
reply. I browse a little, but 99% of my time spent in front of the computer is
spent working on product or replying to customer emails.

How I got started:

I've built SaaS apps before but they were the dreaded "solution looking for a
problem" type.

Then I decided to do things strictly the Lean way. Got out of the building.
Talked to customers about an idea I had. Pretty soon I discovered an adjacent
problem that everyone had, that sounded fun to solve, and that I had specific
domain knowledge in. I built and launched my MVP in one month, from a beach in
Koh Samui. I've been traveling ever since then, spending each month in a
different country.

Charged from day 1. Had paying customers from day 1.

I find changing my environment enables me to compartmentalize my work better -
like I try to get major new features rolled out before I head to my next
destination.

Not planning on doing this solo forever. Not ruling out hiring some help down
the line and maybe a permanent office somewhere.

But for now it's pretty fun the way it is!

~~~
bemmu
If I understand correctly, this will post automatically to a Facebook page
when users sign up. Any trouble with token expiration? I think it was changed
from unlimited to a shorter time recently.

~~~
fookyong
It's handled gracefully in the app. If it expires and the app tried to post
something unsuccessfully the user gets an email asking them to reconnect.

Facebook tokens aren't unlimited but they are long enough such that the user
doesn't have to reconnect all the time.

------
gblanchette
Hello from Quebec, I am on Hacker News, as a big reader not commenting. My
online business, is profitable, it make all my income, an ok salary for me
:-). I have read the book '4 hours week' and work only few hours a week. The
business start with a shareware game (1990), quit my day job (2002) to create
more sharewares, fail at the first one (the password/unlock was hack the first
week). So I come with the idea of having a client/server game (2004) (harder
to hack). That work enough to make a small salary. Then I build another
client/server game (2011), almost the same as the first one but localized in 3
languages. Then I received a lawyer letter (2011) to close both of my online
sites. I did make some modifications, after 2 years they leaves me alone...
Being afraid of closing, I was looking for a plan B (2012), I works hard on
web sites that have a lot of visitors to make money with AdWords, it works.
Now half of the revenue come from the 2 online games, and the other half come
from AdWords. The shareware, online games and web sites are all related to a
very popular crossword game.

------
cperciva
I run Tarsnap: [http://www.tarsnap.com/](http://www.tarsnap.com/)

I got started because I wanted good backups and there were no solutions
available which I was satisfied with.

~~~
balladeer
Are you planning to build sth on top of Glacier or include Glacier as an
storage option (seeing it's on S3 anyway)? It will bring the cost down a great
deal.

~~~
ch0wn
See [http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2012-09-04-why-tarsnap-
doesn...](http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2012-09-04-why-tarsnap-doesnt-use-
glacier.html)

~~~
balladeer
Many of us have alternative backup solutions. Like I use CrashPlan to backup
pretty much everything and the most important files are backed up also to my
external hard drive and a friend's machine (all via CrashPlan). Having said
that I still consider I've only one off-site backup that is CrashPlan servers
and though they provide excellent service they have failed many times before
and hence I need an insurance. My entire laptop (except OS and apps) glaciated
by Tarsnap can be that insurance policy which I'll most probably never access
anyway, until when My laptop and all those three backup destination fail at
once and in that scenario I will be willing to pay that cost seeing I saved a
lot during those years/months.

------
lettergram
I don't know exactly how you define "successful online business," but I am
currently a university student making $500 - $2000 a month at about 5 to 10
hours a week.

Basically, there is a market for vintage computer hardware, so I post some
adds offering to take away old office items they can't just throw away. Such
as old keyboards, terminals, etc. and they pay me a nominal fee ($1 - $5 per
item depending) to rid them of their "trash". I then resell those items after
cleaning them up a bit for extremely high profit margins $35 - $120 for 20
minutes of work (since I was payed to take away the trash).

One of the things I did was sold Model M keyboards which I made USB
compatible:
[http://austingwalters.com/keyboards/](http://austingwalters.com/keyboards/)

Another way I make money is by tutoring or helping out with programming, I use
to help out local people, but I have since switched over to Google Helpouts.
Usually, it's just explaining some algorithms and writing some C code. Pretty
easy, no real upkeep, and I can set what ever hours I want.

------
mattront
Just launched Pinegrow Web Designer
([http://pinegrow.com](http://pinegrow.com)) two months ago. The company is
actually run by my wife and me, but I do all the work with Pinegrow while she
is taking care of our other projects.

Pinegrow has been paying most of our bills since launch and I have a lot of
expansions in the pipeline: full support for Foundation alongside Bootstrap,
developer edition that'll work with templates, a similar app for designing
emails...

~~~
girvo
Gosh pinegrow is a cool project, but the massive deal breaker for me is a lack
of a Linux client :( any chance of that at all? For distribution (cause
packaging is a bitch, to be honest) you can use something like Ermine to
compile twice (i386 and x64) and then convert to a single static binary.

For now, I'll continue playing with it on my Mac, but Linux support would be
the best.

~~~
mattront
Actually, I have an experimental Linux build. Didn't really have a chance to
test it. Here it is, if you would like to try it out:

[https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gyzegb9sae3jlwh/Bv9NtDF96z](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gyzegb9sae3jlwh/Bv9NtDF96z)
(select ... and Download as zip).

Please let me know how it works out.

~~~
girvo
Giving it a try now, will send you an email with how I go :)

------
itengelhardt
I don't know whether HN is the right place to ask this question. The crowd for
this frequents either
[http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm](http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm) or
[http://academy.micropreneur.com](http://academy.micropreneur.com)

There's also a number of podcasts (notably "Startups for the Rest of Us" and
"Bootstrapped With Kids")

~~~
davidw
Hi Christoph! I came here to post the bootstrapped.fm link too, but I think HN
is a fine place to post this discussion too. I think the small, bootstrapped
company is where it's at for many of us who don't want to or can't do the VC
thing in SV. That's probably a large majority even on a site like this.

Rob's book is an obbligatory reference in this space too:

[http://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-
Launching-...](http://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-Launching-
ebook/dp/B003YH9MMI/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=&tag=dedasys-20)

My own thing is not 'successful' in that it's not my main source of income
just yet, but it's not too far off, either:
[http://www.liberwriter.com](http://www.liberwriter.com)

One of the key things I've learned from it is to go do something that matters
to 'ordinary people', rather than something that's "cool" from a computer guy
point of view.

~~~
itengelhardt
Hi David! Great to hear that you are doing well with LiberWriter. That
definitely is a pain point for people.

I like that you kept the layout simple using only bootstrap. that's a lot
faster & cheaper than doing a full blown design.

~~~
davidw
Our customers could not care less about the design stuff as long as it looks
decent, so it is not something I have bothered with even now that I have some
money I could spend on it.

~~~
itengelhardt
Interesting, considering that you actually DESIGN their products. :)

~~~
davidw
eBooks don't actually allow for a lot of fancy design if you want them to work
well on a variety of platforms.

~~~
itengelhardt
I image cross-platform compatibility is a PITA. But I find it interesting that
people who pay for ebook design, don't care about website design. Mind you:
That's no criticism of you OR your work. I just love the fact that people are
more interested in the value than in the website design, even if they get
value out of design work.

Hope that makes things clearer. Again: You're doing a great job!

~~~
davidw
eBooks are mostly about stripping out people's "design" stuff and replacing it
with some fairly standard components that actually work, and adding in some
various bits and pieces in XML, a hyperlinked table of contents, and stuff
like that.

------
amitmathew
I run a small business called Cram Fighter
([http://cramfighter.com](http://cramfighter.com)) that is targeted at
students (mostly medical) that are preparing for standardized exams. I got the
idea after watching my wife preparing for her board exams and it seemed like a
perfect little project to learn iOS programming. Initially my goal was to do
earn maybe $5k annually, but now I'm on track to surpass my salary as senior
developer by next year.

You'll find a lot of one-person businesses targeting tiny, but profitable,
niches like mine. What's great about it is that often when you find a tiny
opportunity, it opens up a lot of other problems that need solving that you
would never find otherwise. It's also a great way to learn the skills of
running a business in a relatively stress-free way (at least compared to
running a startup).

The only downside is if you're anything like me, you'll get antsy working on
small projects and yearn to tackle bigger, more ambitious problems. Sometimes
1-person companies have the potential for turning into a company with startup-
like growth, sometimes not. I'm still trying to figure out how far I can take
my company.

------
christiangenco
I've got three:

* Textbooks Please: a textbook search engine for college students. It's grossed ~$20k, almost all of which has been reinvested, and not paying myself that much. * dbinbox: an inbox for your dropbox for receiving files too large to email. It's got ~25k users, but has made less than $1k in donations. I need to give this one a reboot soon. * Email Tip Bot: send bitcoin with email. Launched two weeks ago and I've already got my first 200 users :D

I really enjoy the process of making these kinds of things, but I find it
enormously exhausting to do the other half of marketing, SEO, publicity, etc.
I'm working on getting better at SEO, but would love to find someone that
likes the marketing side.

PS: [http://solo.im/](http://solo.im/)

------
stevesearer
I run [http://officesnapshots.com](http://officesnapshots.com) which publishes
photos of office design projects from around the world.

I started it in 2007 as a gin side project to teaching history. I'm no longer
teaching and it is the majority of my income.

~~~
cocoflunchy
Just a heads up, I can't see any text on your website (Chrome 33.0.1750.146 on
Mac)

[http://imgur.com/Ptmxgsm](http://imgur.com/Ptmxgsm)

~~~
stevesearer
thanks for the heads up - I haven't been able to reproduce it myself but have
received a couple other reports of that happening.

if you inspect element, is there no text as well?

~~~
pinakothek
This is possibly the chrome webfont rendering bug that's been popping up on
chrome 33, WordPress sites seem very susceptible to it:
[https://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/chrome/tYHS...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/chrome/tYHSqc-
fqso)

~~~
stevesearer
Excellent! Thank you - I'll take a peek to see if I can find a working fix.

~~~
pinakothek
Please let me know if you find a good one, that bug is affecting me as well.

~~~
ivanca
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22011139/google-fonts-
are...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22011139/google-fonts-are-not-
rendering-on-google-chrome/22025804#22025804)

~~~
pinakothek
Haven't had good results with that one, but thanks.

------
Ecio78
I'm not sure he is particularly active on HN but Rob Walling[1] is a solo
entrepreneur managing at least a couple of Saas products: Hittail[2] (which he
bought and then grow) and Drip[3]. He also conducts a podcast on Saas[4] and
also organises a conference for self-funded startups[5]. In the past Patio11
spoke there too

[1] [http://www.softwarebyrob.com/](http://www.softwarebyrob.com/) [2]
[http://www.hittail.com/](http://www.hittail.com/) [3]
[https://www.getdrip.com/](https://www.getdrip.com/) [4]
[http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/](http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/)
[5] [http://www.microconf.com/](http://www.microconf.com/) [3]

------
Orthanc
Not sure if this is what Hacker News would normally consider a business but I
run a YouTube channel as my one-person business:
[http://www.youtube.com/cgpgrey](http://www.youtube.com/cgpgrey)

~~~
benhohner
Your videos are so informative. Thank you! I especially loved the series on
FPTP voting.

------
bdunn
My company consists of just me, and is fairly profitable. And to reiterate
patio11, there are quite a few of us. I detailed income and how much I
contribute monthly to each of my income streams here:
[http://planscope.io/blog/how-i-changed-the-world-
in-2013/](http://planscope.io/blog/how-i-changed-the-world-in-2013/)

------
danoc
I didn't create it, but Pinboard
([https://pinboard.in/](https://pinboard.in/)) is a great example of a
successful one person business.

Founder Maciej Cegłowski wrote about it here:
[https://static.pinboard.in/xoxo_talk_thoreau.htm](https://static.pinboard.in/xoxo_talk_thoreau.htm)

------
gadr90
You should check out the SideProject Book[1]. It's specifically about
bootstraped, successful, single owner projects. It features some of the
projects that appeared here, actually, like BCC.

As of myself, I am currently trying to educate myself into dividing my time
better between my "day job" and my product. Hard to do, though, when your day
job absolutely rocks... It's very easy to work all day long without realizing
you should have stopped in the middle of the afternoon. Not a bad problem to
have, mind you.

[1] [http://www.sideprojectbook.com/](http://www.sideprojectbook.com/)

------
Osiris
I sell a laptop battery meter
([http://batterybarpro.com](http://batterybarpro.com)). It's not income
replacing; it makes about $1,000 per month, but it's been crucial in saving
enough for down payments one two houses.

I've tried to get the revenue numbers up, but I've never been able to break a
$2,000 month.

~~~
huhtenberg
> _I 've never been able to break a $2,000 month._

Try charging $9.95 instead of $8.00? :)

~~~
Osiris
I did. It used to be $10. I've tried a whole slew of different pricing
options, like cheap, but time-limited, as well as price points between $4 and
$10. I've found that for a simple tool, people seem to find $10 a bit off-
putting. I've been running a 50% promotion recently (for over a month now) and
revenue is up about 70%.

------
spiritplumber
[http://www.robots-everywhere.com](http://www.robots-everywhere.com) I used to
employ two people, but I automated them away. I am successful in the sense
that I have clear title to my home at age 33, if that counts.

~~~
Blahah
Did the employee contract include a waiver:

"The undersigned, for one, agrees to welcome our robot overlords."

Also, clear title at 33 should meet anyone's definition of successful. I just
got a mortgage at 28 and that day is a long way off. Must feel good :)

~~~
spiritplumber
Yeah, it did actually. The whole thing was written fairly tongue in cheek.

------
bjoerns
I run [https://www.spreadgit.com](https://www.spreadgit.com), a hosted version
control system for Excel. Doing this solo and full time. It's been a hell of a
ride so far but I love it.

~~~
emilioolivares
Wow this is an awesome idea. Every business has this problem with multiple
people trying to modify the same excel file.

------
hartcw
I develop and sell Smart Shooter.

[http://kuvacode.com](http://kuvacode.com)

Its a traditional desktop app (windows, mac), but only sold online via our own
website or the mac app store. I created it about 4 years ago, and work on it
solely in my spare time. In fact I'm employed full time at a major tech
company but this I keep separate.

To claim its profitable is a bit misleading, because of cause the major cost
in developing such software is my own time. I've incorporated as a limited
company here in Finland but do not pay myself a salary, so the only costs to
the business are web hosting and occasional hardware purchases (computers,
cameras).

I started this as a project for personal interest; at the time I was working
as a software engineer developing financial trading software. Smart Shooter
was a good way to develop something that covered both my interests in graphics
programming and digital photography, to alleviate the borebom from my day job.

So for me its been successful, its still an pleasureable hobby, allows me an
excuse to play around with the latest cameras, and brings in some pocket
money. It doesn't generate enough revenue that I could quit my main job, but
the possibilities could be there if situations change.

------
zrail
I wrote a book[1] that generates about $2k of revenue per month. Not quite
your definition of success, but it's given me a taste. I'm now in the beta
testing process for my next thing[2].

[1]: [https://www.petekeen.net/mastering-modern-
payments](https://www.petekeen.net/mastering-modern-payments)

[2]: [http://www.pagesnap.io](http://www.pagesnap.io)

~~~
ortuna
Just want to say that I'm using Docverter to _try_ to make a new business :D.

~~~
zrail
Awesome! Email me if you have any questions or need any help.

------
bizifyme
I am running a complete payment gateway that supports VISA and MasterCard and
mobile payments by SMS.

The name of the service is: [https://www.bizify.me](https://www.bizify.me)

For an introduction to the service: [https://www.bizify.me/hacker-
news/](https://www.bizify.me/hacker-news/)

~~~
medwezys
FYI HN is not indexed by google :)

~~~
bizifyme
Sorry for the long text. I had a pre-written text that I used for an earlier
presentation, so I just copied the text and made some minor corrections. But
hopefully, the text is a good introduction anyway. :)

------
fiatjaf
[http://nomadia.com.br/](http://nomadia.com.br/)

A website generator and a login/fetch user info/filter service attached for
brazilian firms/hotels/inns that offer rooms to rent for long
periods/temporary housing.

A very niche market in which I fill myself inn, was developing something just
for me and got the idea of offering it to others. I have just one client (so I
don't qualify to "successful"), but I'm following patio11 advice of offering
services do niche underserved markets. Does anyone has any advice?

My biggest problem is how to market to such a niche. I'm trying to email
people, but the people in niche are really non-computer users, so it is
difficult.

------
goodproduce
I've worked full-time as a consultant since 2007 and make a little over low
six figures after taxes and paying contractors. We
([http://www.goodproduce.net](http://www.goodproduce.net)) do a lot of basic
services like content development, web design (mainly WP), social media
management, hosting, deck creation, and general "digital" consulting for high
net-worth individuals (primarily athletes and their brand partners.

In the early days, I worked to stay visible through conducting interviews for
my company blog - that got us on the map in the sports community. It also
helps that we never say no to a request...ever.

~~~
scottclark
What billing model are you on? Hourly? Retainer? Fixed?

------
dm2
I do consulting and software development and am technically a small business.

I'm down to a single client (much easier to manage than multiple clients) so I
can pretty much pick my projects, work at my own pace, and get paid fairly
decently.

I don't make millions, but I make enough and am happy.

Below isn't really business but was a brilliant idea by someone. It isn't my
site but maybe it'll inspire someone to do something similar:
[http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/](http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/)

~~~
IndieDevClub
I remember that website. In college my friend and I called it the Pet Rock of
the internet. Still can't believe that idea made $1 million.

btw - I'm making a club for people to discuss/show their side projects and
startups with other devs, check my profile for the link.

------
phantom_oracle
I like reading about stories like this (from all the successful solo
founders).

It proves that you don't need to get multi-million-dollar valuations to be
successful and that the general entrepreneur is pretty content with the amount
he/she is making (+1 to thousandaire).

These are stories entrepreneurs (who are realists) should read about and we'd
probably all be better off avoiding those "billion dollar acquisitions" (for
fear that it will consume us mentally, physically and emotionally).

------
mihaela
I sell Asterisk reporting sw for win @samreports.com. It makes about $1000 a
month in revenues. I also work as iOS developer for the man. I have a free iOS
app on the AppStore (HRTecaj), soon to be commercial, when I add ATMs. I was
Asterisk integrator, and learned a lot about the system, made software to
present call reports in customisable and pleasant way. SAMReports has been
selling, consistently, for 4 years. I made a few updates, but now I'm working
on a major update.

------
scottclark
Great Thread....

I live entirely in the consulting space working on SEO/SEM and content
marketing, and have done so alone since 1997. After a few pivots in web
design, hosting and domaining, I've ended up in a place where I can be picky
with clients and charge good fees. I hit the website development market on its
first big wave, and moved into search before 99% of other SEOs even knew the
discipline existed (and before some were even out of elementary school!)

I make much more than a full-time employee would, but there is a lot of bosses
and stress comes in waves. I have learned how to fire clients (hard to do) and
how to size up opportunities. But the company is me. It's not saleable - no
intellectual asset exists beyond what I bring to the table. So it's never
going to have an "exit." This is my main gripe.

Also, I relocated to Kentucky after writing tons of code in The Valley and
ended up in Lexington, KY - a great university town with a highly educated
population (and a Google eCity.) This has offered me a nice lifestyle, plenty
of time to raise my kids and material rewards for probably 60% of Santa
Clara's cost. My company is at
[http://www.buzzmaven.com](http://www.buzzmaven.com). Good luck!

~~~
enigmabomb
Cheers Scott, I consult in this space also, though recently I've been trying
to productize my way out of it. I built
[http://killswit.ch](http://killswit.ch) to help folks like us who are one
person agencies and have to deal with sending traffic to sites they don't
control. It sucks when your KPI's suffer because of someone else. Let me know
if you want to give it a whirl.

------
marxdeveloper
I run a small online game called RPG MO([http://rpg.mo.ee](http://rpg.mo.ee)).
It gets about 20k unique visits every month. Money wise it generates enough
payments to pay for the server and associated services and leaves a little for
advertising as well. It doesn't cover all of my bills yet so I have to
maintain a full-time job while studying in the university. I still have high
hopes in this project though.

------
coreymaass
I build MVP's for people who have an idea for a web app. It's at
[http://builtFromIdeas.com](http://builtFromIdeas.com)

~~~
fiatjaf
Do you have much clients? How can you work with a fixed price?

------
hgfischer
I live in a draconian tax country. How can I open a online international
business and receive money from anywhere in the world? Do I need to move to a
tax heaven?

~~~
CyberFonic
You might not have to move, just have your company operating from an
appropriate tax haven. You typically need to pay lawyers, accountants, etc to
achieve what you are thinking about and they end up costing more than the tax
you would have to pay. Do your numbers first before you get too preoccupied
with the tax. As a very general comment, in some low tax countries you need to
spend a lot of money to have what you get more or less for free in other
higher tax countries.

------
thinkcomp
I run PlainSite:

[http://www.plainsite.org](http://www.plainsite.org)

~~~
boksiora
Nice project

------
abdophoto
I didn't create this, but [http://viralnova.com](http://viralnova.com) is
known for being run by one person and has been quite successful. Maybe the
most successful that I've ever seen. [http://www.businessinsider.com/viral-
nova-considering-a-sale...](http://www.businessinsider.com/viral-nova-
considering-a-sale-2014-1)

------
pcunite
I've worked goffconcepts.com full time since 2003 entirely alone (the "we" is
my wife). My new product FileSearchEX is highly pirated so I'll probably be
moving on to other things. I only recommend SaaS, forget about fat client
software. The search engines enable a very toxic landscape otherwise.

~~~
huhtenberg
Can you elaborate? This is really interesting.

Do you have any (basic?) license enforcement and anti-reversal protection in
your code?

What do you mean by toxic search engine landscape?

------
yanonymator
My sales are $2000/day, 7 days - I'm in my 15th year of business. 100% of my
presence is automated (I do nothing day-to-day). The only advice I'm qualified
to give, is how to succeed: don't listen to anyone elses advice: use your
brain. It is 100% common sense - everyone elses opinions are uninformed and
almost always from someone who doesn't really know. Nobody who has succeeded
will willingly reveal how to succeed - they're too busy enjoying the fruits of
success to waste the time. If you find someone who is willing to tell you,
they are usually fake - the "telling you" part is a cog in whatever scam
they're involved with (stock investment, bitcoins, realestate, whatever).

Read my lips:

COMMON SENSE.

And, no, I like my income. I'm not telling what I'm doing!

------
NicoJuicy
I'm trying to do a business on the side (besides my full time job).

Currently i created a member management site on www.ledenboek.be/EN for sport
clubs, i'm still improving this. But it's also a test for marketing and
gaining clients.

Next up is Surveyor ( a email/sms marketing web application which i used
myself (not public yet). I'm going to use it first for clients who ask me to
create their website.

But the big one is a document management system, that is totally different
from the existing onces. I already have interest have a company with +/\- 100
users and we are setting up a small demo in April there (ps. This will hit
Hackernews in about 2-3 months)

------
pushkargaikwad
I am running inBoundio - [http://www.inboundio.com](http://www.inboundio.com)
(I call it basecamp of marketing) and is the only guy so I do all the work.

I am really not that worried about slow growth or not making much money, I am
enjoying what I am doing, works on average 6 hours a day and can spend rest of
my time on learning new things and thinking about life and philosophy.

I started because I felt that market (and so do I) need such simplified
software. Most of the options were too complicated and were very costly.

I will soon be touching 100 paying customers so will write a detailed post and
share it on hackernews.

------
graeme
I run [http://lsathacks.com](http://lsathacks.com), and have a related book
series

I sell e-books on my site and through affiliates, and sell print books on
amazon. All told I make around $3,000 a month in passive revenues. I also make
$4000-$5000 more in tutoring revenues.

However, the site is fairly new (I just sold the books through
affiliates/print previously). As I grow the site I expect I may be able to get
over $10,000 per month passive.

The LSAT is an admission exam for American and Canadian law schools. My
materials/lessons teach people how to do better on it.

------
blantonl
I own and operate
[http://www.radioreference.com](http://www.radioreference.com) and
[http://www.broadcastify.com](http://www.broadcastify.com). I do all the
development, business management, and support.

I have a team of community volunteers that do a lot of day to day moderation
and member management.

I got started simply building a set of community resources for the radio
communications and hobbyist market.

We're very profitable and these businesses provide the majority of my family's
income.

------
rbchv
I developed the Electrician Calculator Pro, a National Electrical Code
compliant calculator for engineers, electricians, lighting designers, etc:

[http://www.electriciancalculator.com](http://www.electriciancalculator.com)

I first created the Android version about 3 years ago, then the iOS version
about 1 year ago. It currently makes just enough to cover some bills, although
I believe it has a greater potential. I'm currently looking for ways to make
this a recurring revenue stream instead of a one time payment gig.

------
T-A
PierreA seems to be doing well:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6934352](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6934352)

------
rs
I run [https://xp-dev.com](https://xp-dev.com) and more recently
[http://deployer.vc](http://deployer.vc) and
[https://zoned.io](https://zoned.io) \- all as a solo. I am hiring now, have
used freelancers for help over time, but generally it has been a solo effort.

Do tell if you have any specific questions, and I'll be more than happy to
help out!

------
nns1212
Not sure if this counts. I have created a simple landing page open source
project: [http://rails-landing-page.herokuapp.com/](http://rails-landing-
page.herokuapp.com/)

I get a lot of consulting (development + design) business when clients learn
about us via this application.

I also use it set up landing pages for any Startups/SMEs are developing their
MVP/Beta application with me.

------
musgrove
I run a web design and development studio that is just myself, although I
established it as an LLC, and have been successful with it. I focus on
WordPress solutions and started it by just diving in head-first and work
pretty hard at it. I have a marketing background which helped me get it off
the ground quickly, and am good at managing time, which has helped. I totally
love it.

------
vladstudio
I've been running [http://www.vladstudio.com](http://www.vladstudio.com)
(where I publish my wallpapers and other stuff) for several years, and for
quite some time, it was my primary source of income. Unusual, because my
premium accounts are not really a "product", but just a way to "like" or
"donate".

------
zengr
I think newsblur.com (YC S12) is run by Sam alone.

------
waqas-
hey. The good thing about a one man operation is that you dont have any
overheads. I started my startup with 4 people, but later learned that one was
enough to start off with and i should scale according to the profits im making
- instead of putting my own money into it (which i didnt have much of anyway).
My startups: ([http://opensource.com.pk](http://opensource.com.pk)) and
([http://sells.pk/](http://sells.pk/)) are web agencies specializing in
different areas. The former provides managed freelance outsourcing for larger
projects and the latter specialized in e commerce for small/medium businesses.
The first few clients help you pay the bills and buy bread, but if you keep at
it and be persistent after a year you will have more clients than you can
handle, that is the time to get employees. I am almost reaching that point,
and that is what excites me these days.

------
nunodonato
For those who have successfully started a one-man online business/app, how did
you get it known? Adwords? Advertising?

~~~
cpncrunch
My own product spread virally. I think that is about the only feasible way to
do it. I've tried advertising a few times myself, but it never, ever pays for
itself.

~~~
gk1
> "I think that is about the only feasible way to do it."

It may be the only way to do it _very quickly._ Most companies don't just go
viral on day 1, they work very hard to get customers. Some times advertising
makes sense, other times it doesn't, but it's certainly not the only option.

~~~
cpncrunch
I meant, it's the only feasible way to do it if you're a single founder with
zero funding.

~~~
gk1
I still have to disagree. You don't have to look far (patio11's Bingo Card
Creator) to find single-founder businesses that reached level of success
without going viral. (I suppose this all depends on your definition of viral,
too.)

~~~
cpncrunch
Yes you're right - he seems to be using adsense to drive traffic. I guess if
adsense didn't work for small businesses, google wouldn't be making the money
they do :)

------
lalwanivikas
Matthew Inman runs The Oatmeal
([http://theoatmeal.com/](http://theoatmeal.com/)) alone and he crossed
$500,000 annual revenue in 2012.

Source:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oatmeal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oatmeal)

------
xpose2000
I run [http://www.fantasysp.com/](http://www.fantasysp.com/), which provides
tools and services to help people manage their fantasy sports teams.

I started it because I wanted a faster way to get my player news... fast
forward 7 years later and its a full fledged business.

~~~
MattyMc
Forgive me for asking, but what is your revenue model? (If you wouldn't mind
sharing). Love the service.

------
dtracy4
I run [http://flevy.com](http://flevy.com). It's a marketplace for premium
business documents (e.g. business frameworks/methodologies, financial models,
presentation templates, etc.). I do contract work out via odesk/elance from
time to time.

------
andersthue
I run TSR Watermark Image software, a Windows Software (!) that people
downloads and pay for once (!), it covers around 50% of my salary, the rest
comes from consulting.

Working on other windows software, and working towards starting a SaaS app,
blogging about it all :)

------
fleaflicker
[http://www.fleaflicker.com/](http://www.fleaflicker.com/) (A fantasy sports
site.) Started solo, sold, bought back, now operates as a team of two but I am
the sole technical member.

~~~
MattyMc
How do you generate revenue from this free service?

------
braindead_in
I ran Scribie. [http://scribie.com](http://scribie.com).

I started it in August 2008 and was the only person working on it for 5 years.
In 2013 we established our first QA center and now we are around 20.

~~~
emilioolivares
Wow this is very cool. This you actually do the transcribing, I'd imagine you
outsource this, correct?

------
senith
I run [http://www.graduatetutor.com/](http://www.graduatetutor.com/) myself.
It is technically not one man because there are other independent tutors
working with me too!

------
bobosha
Not my business, but www.DuckDuckGo.com (Gabriel Weinberg) is a good example.

~~~
dangrossman
DDG isn't a solo business, not anymore at least. They've got "11-50 employees"
now.

------
dotmic_com
I run a product search engine called Dotmic
[http://www.dotmic.com/](http://www.dotmic.com/) .Recently we partnered with
60+ store and now we are profitable. :)

~~~
nebulasri
How do you market your site? Do you advertise (adwords perhaps)?

How do you get stores to partner with you?

------
gtheme
I am running premium Ghost Blog marketplace
[http://www.gtheme.io/](http://www.gtheme.io/)

I solo doing design, develop, marketing, as well as writing contents around
Ghost.

~~~
santa_boy
What kind of traffic are you getting? What is the source of traffic?

I was contemplating something like but thought themeforest may be a better
channel to sell.

How do you market the site?

------
_fountainhead_
I run [http://getreplied.com](http://getreplied.com)

It's a very simple app to help people get their email replied.

~~~
manish_gill
Hey,

So I just clicked on your app, and ended up "cancelling" when Google OAuth
asked to manage my email address. The app then took me to a Django debug log.
Looks like you are running the app with DEBUG=True. You might want to change
that, so it would show a generic error message instead of providing me with
all the view/template info!!

------
albumedia
[http://albumedia.com](http://albumedia.com) Just a one-man show creating
simple web and mobile apps.

------
whalesalad
plentyoffish.com

------
cacahuates
[http://www.writtalin.com/](http://www.writtalin.com/)

Content-based site.

------
useflyer
www.lawdingo.com is a single founder which is absolutely killing it

------
singingfish
I spent a number of years wasting time on IRC looking at and chatting to
people about techincal issues, plus a bit of humourous banter. These days the
all of my income comes from activities where IRC is the main means of
communication.

~~~
iends
You run botnets?

------
reboog711
Since you didn't specify the type of business ( [http://www.dot-com-
it.com](http://www.dot-com-it.com)) ; I run a consulting business as a
programmer that is just me. In the 'early' days (I started in 1999) I sort of
fell into it. I was burnt out and walked out of a job.

Networking got me 2 consulting client, and things just ballooned from there. I
fell into it accidentally and learned a lot of hard lessons along the way.

In the early days I did a lot of fixed fee projects for small businesses. On
some projects I made tons of income; and on other projects I put in a lot of
unpaid time [due to me incorrectly bidding the project and/or improperly
handling change requests.

I tried my hands at podcasting with a sponsorships model (
[http://www.theflexshow.com](http://www.theflexshow.com) ). That made ~$30K
throughout its' life. Even though I had a huge audience for the size of the
market, no one was trying to sell anything to that market. I make ~$30K or so
throughout its run and gave away a bunch of sponsorship in exchange for other
services. Not bad; but not enough to pay the bills.

I took the profits from the consulting business and pumped them into a product
business selling advanced components to Flex developers (
[http://www.flextras.com](http://www.flextras.com) ). I did this full time,
stopping all consulting. The business was, in essence, a failure. It generated
$10K per year which is a nice side income; but not a "pay your bills income.
The business was slowly growing, until some Adobe PR mishaps killed executive
confidence in the Flash Player as an application development platform; which
killed our sales. It was generating about $10K per year and was growing. But,
that is not enough to pay the bills. I shut it down and open sourced all the
code.

Now; I'm back to consulting, however the bulk of my clients right now are
hourly as opposed to fixed fee. This is very profitable because many clients
just keep renewing contracts and giving me work. However, it is the least bit
satisfying because there is no defined end point and it feels like I'm just
churning my wheels to kill time. Sometimes it feels like clients are creating
just enough work to keep me busy so that I'll be there when they really need
me.

Despite having multiple ongoing clients; it doesn't feel like I'm a business
owner because they are paying for my time, explicitly. That isn't scalable in
any way.

I'm prepping to launch a book under the Nathan Barry's "Authority" model which
will teach Flex Developers how to program in AngularJS. More info at (
[http://www.lifeafterflex.com](http://www.lifeafterflex.com) ). People seem
excited about this beyond anything I ever expected. I asked my newsletter if
anyone was interested in reviewing a pre-release copy and I got 20+ responses
which is a significantly higher response rate than usual. If the early
interest is any indication; more people will read my book than ever bought a
Flextras component.

I've also dabbled with a in Mobile Game (
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.igorKn...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.igorKnots.magondaMaze)
), a recording studio (not online), and a CD duplication business (not
online). All had varying levels of success.

~~~
scottclark
Sounds like we are in the same boat, er, treadmill. I always want to develop
more products because I don't scale.

~~~
reboog711
Yep, exactly. Product Businesses are tricky these days.

------
fathobbitss123
i run dealsextra.com.au

------
paulhauggis
You can have a successful online business with one-person, but there will
always be a maximum to the amount of money you can make and it does not scale
well.

I ran a 1-person company for the past 3 years (B2B SAAS). I now have 2 other
partners in the company to pick up the slack and we will be hiring a few
employees next month.

It's difficult to: maintain your current business (IE: new features, bug
fixes, customer service) while at the same time, trying to get new business
(marketing, new ideas, planning) and also have any kind of life outside the
business.

You also won't be able to go on any kind of real vacation and time-off is
challenging. I didn't think about these things at 20, but at 30, it's starting
to become more and more important.

~~~
cpncrunch
Actually, vacation / time off shouldn't be an issue. I've been doing this for
15 years and now my product runs like clockwork. Generally unless I'm doing
new dev work, I only have a few support emails per day. As long as I go on
vacation somewhere where I can at least have wifi in the evenings and mobile
data during the day to occasionally check my email, it's not a problem. Also I
regularly take long breaks during the day, or take days off to go on trips
somewhere. I think you need to do this otherwise you'll be in danger of
burning out.

It also helps to plan for the worst. Right now my slight concern is lack of
RAID on my server. However I back up every day to a separate disk on the
server (plus offsite downloads every couple of weeks), so in the worst case it
will probably just take me an hour or two to get most things up and running on
a new server. Obviously not the best thing to happen on vacation though :)

~~~
SyneRyder
I was going to post something similar - I was able to take 3 months to travel
overseas as a 1-person business, and the business didn't collapse or run into
any calamities. I always had my laptop and answered customer emails every
couple of days.

Maybe it's an issue if you're running a SAAS business. Instead my stuff is
consumer downloadable software, so if there was a problem it was usually just
a single customer, not my entire customer base at once.

~~~
cpncrunch
Well my business has SAAS and downloadable software versions. However I've
been refining it for 15 years, so it generally runs very smoothly unless I
screw something up. I usually don't touch ANYTHING in the 1-week before I go
on vacation, just in case I break something.

