

Ask HN: Good Morn. - What's The Quickest Way To A Million Dollars In 1-2 Years? - davidsmith8900


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penguin_gab
Startups are overrated. Start a service-based business. Start alone. For the
first 3 - 6 months, focus on building a portfolio of good work and references.
For the next 6 - 12 months, focus on steadily increasing your rates/prices and
bring on-board one or two technical people to help you on a freelance basis.
You must continue to do sales and ask for referrals. The next 12 - 24 months,
focus on scaling your services and capacity. I know it's easier said than done
- but this is what worked for me.

Background: 25 years old this year, software development firm made $500k in
revenue so far in 2013.

Caveat: 1 million dollars revenue != 1 million dollars profit. Huge
difference.

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Okay thank you very much for this info penguin_gab.

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ksaville00
Find a niche that you can offer something that people will want or better yet,
pay for. It's better to start small or find a way to enter a market that you
can easily differentiate yourself and go from there. Also, you shouldn't try
to hide your idea, most ideas aren't unique, it's how you execute them off
that can make or break them. So don't be afraid to tell friends and
acquaintances and have them give you feedback. There is no easy way to a
million but with the internet there are now more ways then ever.

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Okay thanks for the wisdom ksaville00. I appreciate it.

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LeoSolaris
Start with a $100 mil. 1 Put $$$ in savings account with at least 2% interest
2 Wait ... 4 Profit!

~~~
VikingCoder
Borrow $2 million from your parents. Wait until they die.

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Very funny VikingCoder, but my parents are not that rich.

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keiferski
The most realistic way for you to get there is this:

1\. Have the tech skills to launch a complete web application or project that
can either easily be acquired or generate revenue. If the former, aim for
something viral and exciting. Think Threewords.me, which supposedly sold for 6
figures days after Mark Bao launched it. If the latter, price high and build a
product for businesses or high-net-worth individuals. Assuming 30k of yearly
living expenses, and not factoring in taxes (too complicated to calculate this
right now), you'll need about 1,060,000 dollars. 1000 customers each paying 49
each per month over 2 years is $1,176,000.

2\. Get paid at a salaried job / freelancing using said skills. Assuming
you've got enough experience to do (1), you should be able to pull at least
100k. Live frugally and you can save 50k-100k from this job alone after two
years.

3\. Work on various iterations of (1) in your off-time from (2). Don't be
afraid to sell a site on Flippa for a middling price if it doesn't seem to be
growing huge. 10 sites at 5k each is still 50k.

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Keiferski, thank you for giving me 3 options. I really appreciate it.

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darkmethod
Acquire 10.15 Bitcoins and hope that the 2013 Wedbush Report [1] will be
correct.

[1] $98,500 per BTC [http://www.scribd.com/doc/188644617/Bitcoin-Intrinsic-
Value-...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/188644617/Bitcoin-Intrinsic-Value-
Wedbush-Report-December-2013)

~~~
marco-fiset
The problem with Bitcoins is that you must be able to sell them afterwards.
And this would surely be a huge leap of faith.

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Okay, I will put that into consideration next time marco-fiset.

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Liongadev
Borrow 500k go to the casino and bet on red twice. 25% chance of a million
dollars 50% chance of +- 0.

~~~
ACow_Adonis
Funnily enough, this would probably be the answer that requires both the least
amount of work, and has the best odds of actually succeeding :P

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sharemywin
Start a company get 5 million dollar valuation and investment by making people
think your in it for the long haul. Retain 20% that can't be diluted and has
no strings attached. Get fired. sell said precentage once new CEO takes over.

~~~
Kalki
What would the contract language that prevents a share from being diluted say?

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imahboob
Take 100k and invest 20k in five early stage startups for five to ten percent
of equity.. pray for the next two years that one of them gets acquired for a
billion

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Very very smart imahboob. I first need to get the money to acquire the 100k
first.

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hardwaresofton
<serious> Start a new silkroad </serious>

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Okay thank you hardwaresofton.

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rbanffy
You can start with five and work from there. ;-)

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- lol. Nice. Thanks rbanffy.

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joeldidit
Forex. Stock market. Niche web/mobile app.

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Okay I'll definitely get into those joeldidit. Thank you.

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padseeker
Finance - if you can get a job in finance.

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Okay padseeker, thank you for the knowledge.

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rrzar
Organ traffic.

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Okay thank you rrzar.

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meerita
Make a good SaaS.

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- Okay thank you meerita.

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collyw
Drugs.

~~~
VikingCoder
[https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9nZQu7k930Q/TW5Negr-u5I/A...](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9nZQu7k930Q/TW5Negr-u5I/AAAAAAAABnU/QYxWH0-GKOU/s1600/charlie_sheen_ferris_Bueller.jpg)

~~~
davidsmith8900
\- lol, nice one.

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davidsmith8900
\- I totally forgot that I had ask this question but I will like to thank
everyone for their response. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

