Earlier quoted context omitted.
*Revenue though, not profit
Not many expenses, though.
Then why not just list the profit?
Typically when I see revenues posted it means the profit must only be a fraction of that amount.
Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
41–50 of 277 posts
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#42Newsblur and Overcast come to mind.
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#43So today is the day of the week I feel stupid for not being rich (yet) thanks to my skills in coding.
Thank you, @pyeu ;-)
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#44This is my story
I started a resume company focused strictly on ATS optimization immediately after college with my best friend after we noticed how many peers were woefully underemployed.
A year later, after mild adoption and the co-founder deciding to focus on his career, I moved to South Korea to localize the company which the goal of supporting Korean universities & to escape the competitive pressures of the US.
Things are going well these days.
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#45I sell random stuff on Amazon, buying wholesale. Current run rate is ~200k/month, more in Q4, figure profit somewhere between 5-20%. Started 2 years ago buying from stores etc, shifted to wholesale a year ago.
If you're referring to the "Amazon drop-ship" business, I think that space is probably already overcrowded. Those who got in and figured it out - and got a head start, probably still have an advantage. But you must realize that Amazon can, at their whim, change anything at any moment and kill that business. Plus you have unscrupulous competitors who will throw a little money in to buy a bunch of your products as soon…
I got out of drop-ship and pivoted to wholesale a year ago.
Agree with you on saturation, margins are tiny but some people are making serious bank, I know a couple 8 figure (gross) accounts
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s great! Do you ever physically handle any product?
Rarely. Returns are a bother to handle, I put it off then go through a bunch of boxes every so often.
That's interesting. I just heard about a guy who is in the returns auction business where he'll take all your returns and then get rid of them without you ever having to get involved, then you get a cut after he sells the product.
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#47I ran a one man side gig for a couple years (farm management software). Got it to $200k and growing after 6 months in the market but I needed to bring the development in-house. Could've used outsourced talent for all dev and customer support but interestingly enough the reason why I hired was "what happens to all of our customers if I die?". I felt like I owed it to them to put a team in place, albeit a small one.
How do you get in a market like that? We tried but failed because the owners didnt like the fact that we where from "the city".
I was doing consulting work in the space, saw a need, and built the product. I came into it knowing the traits of farmer, the lingo, etc. That and a good product have helped us gain trust
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#48Pieter Levels is the creator of: - https://nomadlist.com/ - https://remoteok.io/ - https://hoodmaps.com/ And he just broke €50,000/m a few days ago: https://mobile.twitter.com/levelsio/status/96802754410347315...
Here's a recent talk by Pieter - https://youtu.be/6reLWfFNer0
I think it's really good. Probably the best startup talk I've seen in a while.
In my opinion, there are benefits to doing things alone, but you have to be able to learn a lot of things quick, have a lot of available time with few distractions, and be very focused and persistent.
Cons: it's not as fun, and will probably take longer than working with people with specific talents.
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#49This article can be useful for you: https://roobykon.com/blog/posts/86-what-is-a-marketplace-bri...
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#50I run one-man security consulting business. Pays well enough to live comfortably and provides enough free time to work on side-projects.
Six months ago I started transitioning from service to product oriented approach with online vulnerability scanning service https://getroot.sh aimed at network administrators and webmasters.
I have another product targeted at penetration testers in works, to be released in couple of months.