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Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

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

#31
post #16

Stratechery is an example of this. If you get the FEI newsletters, many of the businesses they are brokering for sale are one person efforts.

I have not heard of the FEI newsletters yet and cannot find them via Google. Would you mind sharing the link?

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

#32
post #26
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because transparency is good. Also competition is good, stop being afraid of competition or people "stealing" ideas.

Good for customers but not for business. Competition tends to minimize margins and profits. While main business goal is to make money, competition is against business goals.

Ideas are cheap, execution is everything.

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

#34
post #15
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why people share their revenues? Every product can be copied. If you know revenue, you know what product you should copy.

Because transparency is good. Also competition is good, stop being afraid of competition or people "stealing" ideas.

I don't think this is so simple with one person shops, as knowing one's value propositions, revenue/profit numbers & acquisition channels etc goes vastly beyond the concept of the presumably worthless 'idea' that people usually refer to in this context.

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

#35
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because transparency is good. Also competition is good, stop being afraid of competition or people "stealing" ideas.

Exactly. An idea is just that, an idea. It takes months and years of hard work to turn an idea into an income stream.

Most of the businesses in the list are very easy to copy. There are neither rocket science, neither patents to protect them, neither big money to pay lawyers to protect their work.

Knowing how well the product sells, you can copy it piece-by-piece by saving a lot of time trying different approaches. Author of original product already did all the hard work guessing what will work the best. You just come, copy and profit from his work.

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

#36
post #17

I've been running https://www.candyjapan.com for about five years. It has (just barely) made enough to support my life in Japan. I'm currently writing a "year in review", will probably post it next week.

I have just discovered the previous write-ups about your business numbers [0] and it is awesome! So much valuable information. Thanks for taking the time to share!

[0] https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes

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

#37
post #26
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because transparency is good. Also competition is good, stop being afraid of competition or people "stealing" ideas.

Good for customers but not for business. Competition tends to minimize margins and profits. While main business goal is to make money, competition is against business goals.

Many one-person businesses focus on niches and do one thing great. Often they also offer great (aka personal) support. Also, quite often, they are great in building a community around their service. Additionally, many of the solo entrepreneurs are good teachers and share what they know. All these factors together make their services (and themselves) so valuable that a competitor with a slightly better price will not take away all customers.

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

#39
post #26
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because transparency is good. Also competition is good, stop being afraid of competition or people "stealing" ideas.

Good for customers but not for business. Competition tends to minimize margins and profits. While main business goal is to make money, competition is against business goals.

Competition can also grow a sector, bringing in many new customers that may have otherwise dismissed an idea or might not have even heard of the idea without the exposure driven by the competition.

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

#40
In 2016 I took content creation somewhat seriously and the end result was enough income to sustain living in NY.

Not sure if it's worth blogging about yet. Are other developers interested to see how to potentially make software engineer-tier salaries without having to work for another company?

(Note: I also started with nothing. No mentors, no following, no existing profile, no paid advertising, etc.).

Edit: If you're interested, my site is https://nickjanetakis.com.

If you sign up anywhere on the site, you'll get notified when I release content related to starting your own business / building up your brand as a software developer.

I recommend filling out the form at https://nickjanetakis.com/learn-in/2017, because you can include what you want to learn most about which helps me figure out what I should start writing about first.

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