Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–79 of 79 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#71

Post by dang »

hanyoon wrote: post #52
socialist_coder wrote: post #16

The reason you are getting down voted is because of the wording in your title. "Sure-fire" invokes bullshit get rich quick schemes, the opposite of what the "entrepreneurial spirit" is about. If there was a sure fire way to generate $5k profit monthly, everyone would do it, and then it would not be profitable anymore. That's just basic market equilibrium. If you really just want some ideas, don't use the "sure-fire"…

I misused the word "sure-fire," I stand corrected. My philosophy in a sure-fire way of creating a profitable SaaS or even a simple software is to find an inefficiency in the way businesses are run. However, seldom get to hear the needs of small business owners whom most likely do not have the budgets to invest in a new system. It's usually the "big gun" corporations that have the ability to spend sacks of money to fi…

Ok, we took "sure-fire" out of the title.

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#72

Post by pc86 »

Guest192038 wrote: post #4

Why not work backwards and start making sales before you have stock, so you know if the business is possible, and if so, what kind of margins you're working with to pay for advertising, inventory, fullfilling orders, packing, shipping, wages, rent, etc? For example, setup your online store and buy your Facebook ad campaign for teen girls, and try to sell them the Justin Beiber case that you could potentially order fr…

If you are willing to invest a slightly higher amount to test the waters, you can buy a small batch (e.g. 100 units) but sell at the large batch price (e.g. what you would if you had 10k units). You will lose money overall but if your 100 units sell out in 3 days you might not lose as much sleep placing that order for 10k units.

Depending on the product the variance in price between a small order and a large order can greatly influence perceived demand.

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#74

Post by pc86 »

will_pseudonym wrote: post #14

-please put up an email address in your profile if you want people to contact you. And trust me--if you're starting a business, email just became your new best friend. -read everything @patio11 has ever written. Use your brain and research ability to understand his wisdom. Ignore this advice at your own peril. -start high end markets first. Better margins, better customers. -think about what products suck! Talk to af…

I agree with most of your advice but I couldn't survive without an alarm clock. I've spent the last few years waking up between 4:25 and 4:45 but can't get up before 7 without an alarm.

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#75

Post by sharemywin »

pizzeys wrote: post #69
sharemywin wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

kinda like best way to make a million dollars in a restaurant ... start with 2m...

My favourite Branson quote, though it may well have been an old adage he repeated, of course. "If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline."

that's pretty good.

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#77

Post by zhte415 »

For anyone else thinking 'buy XXX from China' T-Shirts are a great case to learn from: Import quality generic T-shirts in bulk at extremely low cost, then do the branding / dying locally to respond to customer demand. Virtually no risk. Aggressive marketing works in the T-shirt (and other generic clothing) business to discover (key: discover, not compete in. Once discovered, they're gone as of days or weeks) markets/interests in a very short (2-3 day) turnaround time.

Phone cases... seriously though...

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#78

Post by mcintyre1994 »

sharemywin wrote: post #64
reboog711 wrote: post #57

If you want a sure fire way.. Put 3 million in an stock market index fund. In most years you will get at least a 2% increase, which is $60K (or $5K a month). Getting the initial capital for this is easier said than done.

kinda like best way to make a million dollars in a restaurant ... start with 2m...

Just get a small million dollar loan from your father :)

Re: Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?

#79

Post by hanyoon »

dang wrote: post #71
hanyoon wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I misused the word "sure-fire," I stand corrected. My philosophy in a sure-fire way of creating a profitable SaaS or even a simple software is to find an inefficiency in the way businesses are run. However, seldom get to hear the needs of small business owners whom most likely do not have the budgets to invest in a new system. It's usually the "big gun" corporations that have the ability to spend sacks of money to fi…

Ok, we took "sure-fire" out of the title.

Pretty cool that you can do that! Thank you :)
Post reply on HN