
Ask HN: At what point does your side project become your job? - iqonik
I run www.propertywizard.io and also work full-time. I launched in December and I am at £544 monthly recurring revenue. The cost to run is roughly £1k a year, so I&#x27;m profitable if you don&#x27;t take into account my time.<p>I have a child and a mortgage to upkeep so I cannot leave my job until it is making significantly more, however, I know it needs my full attention to reach that stage.<p>What would you do?<p>I&#x27;m wondering if I should seek investment to cover my living costs. I&#x27;m not sure investors would be happy knowing their money is literally buying my time?
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saluki
Congrats on developing a SaaS with revenue . . . keep bootstrapping . . . you
don't need investment.

Polish up your app and code . . . there are some rendering issues on initial
load and validation on the login form. Test, improve, polish provide the best
UX you can to keep existing customers.

Start a blog with articles on how realtors can use social media, publish often
and collect emails/build a list, email that list valuable information and
details on PropertyWizard.

Invest some of your revenue in contacting realtors, test out some ideas and
see what your ROI is. Try calling realtors in person make a goal of 1, 5 or 10
per day, approach an office with 50 realtors and offer them a group package,
test mailing out 100 postcards, track the realtor/office names/provide a
unique URL and track signups. Find out what's working to generate signups and
focus your efforts there.

Add a signup process on the site (checkout stripe), test three subscription
levels, offer a annual discount sign up for 12 months (price of 10). Add an
Office package up to XX realtors, email us for custom plans/more realtors. I
think focusing on real estate offices with multiple agents might be a good way
to grow your subscribers.

Add a favicon, minor but I always notice when they are missing from a site.

Don't sell a piece of your pie at this point, keep growing it.

Good luck, update us on how it's going.

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siquick
Agreed with all this.

Definitely focus on your CTA on the site. It's not very clear that I can sign
up for your service on the site.

I'd also offer a 30 day refund for unhappy users, this helps put new users
minds at rest.

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imdsm
> I'm not sure investors would be happy knowing their money is literally
> buying my time

Isn't that what most investments do in the beginning? Pay for the time for the
idea to become a reality and give the founder(s) the ability to realise it?

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iqonik
I agree to some extent, but normally they would expect there money to be spent
on marketing etc. rather than to cover my household bills?

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brudgers
In the context of a Hacker News discussion, there are really two types of
investors worth distinguishing. The difference centers [or centres?] around
the meaning of "startup".

In Silicon Valley, a startup is a company designed to grow fast and structured
to take outside investment in exchange for equity [i.e. a Delaware C
Corporation]. Everywhere else, to a first approximation, recent shifts in
popular culture have made "startup" mostly synonymous with "new business": the
local chamber of commerce will refer to new restaurants as startups and
restaurant owners as founders. These "local" startups are organized to meet
the needs of local investors and local investors focus on cash flow [in the US
an S-corp or an LLC so as to avoid double taxation].

The difference in structure is reflected in a difference of investment
management. Silicon Valley style investors achieve returns via capital gains.
"Local" investors primarily try to achieve returns via dividends, profit
distributions, etc.

To put it in perspective, the YC investment model [as a sub-type of the SV
model] is exactly about covering living expenses to allow founders to do
things that increase the value of the underlying equity. That includes
activities such as raising additional funding to allow more of the same.

In contrast, a "local" investor may not want additional investment because
growth increases the risk of failure or a drop in profitability.

Lastly, one of the advantages of a US C-Corp is the legal requirement that
employees get paid a legal wage. It avoids situations like that mentioned.

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iqonik
I should mention the reason I haven't made an 'Apply HN' post is the money
available ($20k) wouldn't be enough for me to cover my expenses and quit my
job.

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herbst
I would try to invest your current revenue in someone who can help you make
your product more visible.

~~~
iqonik
Any ideas on how? I have tried Facebook/Google/LinkedIn Ads' and didn't get
much response, it's a high touch sales process that involves pointing out the
problem they have, most are aware of social media, have created accounts but
then do nothing with them.

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herbst
Thats why i thought about a third party. Not sure where you would find such a
person/company but you are providing a solution for a very specific need which
is most likely not easily advertised to. Basically i think you need a sales
guy.

