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Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

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Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#281

Post by mattront »

mattblalock wrote: post #280
mattront wrote: post #17

Just launched Pinegrow Web Designer ( 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…

Man, 3 days is nothing! Give me some time to fall in love, and I'll happily pay. It seems so shortsighted, as if I'd somehow use up all the usefulness of your app in 7 days or perhaps even 30 days. Its a tool for work, and if it can reduce my load in any significant way I'd pay $500 for it. Now, I'll never really know. Too bad... for both of us.

Matt,

I get your point and have thought a lot about it before deciding on 3 days.

3 days was a compromise between having a short sales cycle (we are bootstraping the app) and letting users try the app before they buy it. We also have an online version available for free without any time limitations. The only thing the online version can't do is open local files.

We'll reconsider extending the trial to 7 days.

If you like the app and feel it could be useful to you it would be a shame to blow it off simply because of the short trial. If you need to try it out for longer, just send me an email and I'll set you up.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#283

Post by collyw »

dm2 wrote: post #2

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 som…

I remember the million dollar homepage when it appeared. I thought it was a terrible idea, but it got enough attention on the tech sites that it worked.

Then came a whole load of copycat sites. As far as I know most of those failed.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#284

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

zerr wrote: post #138
patio11 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 suc…

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...

Very late to this party, but...

I'm used to my dentist's office manager calling me every six months to remind me about my cleaning appointment. This last time, the call was automated and I instantly thought "hey, Appointment Reminder."

No, it turns out it was SmileReminder that the dentist uses. When I went in for the appointment I spoke to the office manager and the light in her eyes was obvious: "Now I don't have to spend hours calling everyone to remind them. I love it" No idea how much they pay for the service, but it's obviously worth it to them.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#285

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

danpat wrote: post #267
dublinben wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

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.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#286

Post by rbchv »

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

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.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#287

Post by danpat »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #285
danpat wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

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.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#288

Post by bemmu »

Osiris wrote: post #236
joelennon wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered building a mac version? I love little utilities like this, especially at your price point. Nice product.

I've never written Mac software. If someone is interested in going in on a port with me, let me know.

Maybe you might consider adding at least a form for "Looking for the Mac version? Enter your email to get a notification when BatteryBar Pro is released on it."?

Then if eventually you release that version, mailing that list could make quite a bit of money for very little effort now. If the list grows very large, it would add further justification to develop that version too.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#289

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

danpat wrote: post #287
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 mach…

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

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#290

Post by pharaohgeek »

stevesearer wrote: post #52

I run 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.

I don't know why, but I've always enjoyed looking at things like this. Companies that have really cool workspaces always fascinated me. Great site! Keep up the good work!
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