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

Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 666 posts

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

#181

Post by GordonS »

MattBearman wrote: post #172

I run BugMuncher ( https://www.bugmuncher.com ), it started as a side-project 5 years ago, then in September 2015 I packed in freelancing to focus on BugMuncher full time. As of November 2016 BugMuncher reached profitability - ie: it's my sole source of income, and covers all of my living expenses.

My first thought when I read the name was that it only needs the 1st letter changed to take on a whole new meaning as a heterosexist slur. Then I saw you were in the UK too, and wondered if you've also noticed this or it's just me?!

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

#182

Post by chrishacken »

juliangoldsmith wrote: post #161
chrishacken wrote: post #109

I'm not sure if this qualifies as an "online business", but I started an ISP in November '15. It's also not entirely "one-person". I am the sole founder, but I do hire part-time help on occasion if I'm swamped. It started off as a WISP and has finally grown to the point where we are beginning to deploy fiber. The site is https://nepafiber.com I still work full-time as a systems engineer, but the business started brin…

What sort of investment did it take to get started? Have you written anything about starting off, and your transition from a WISP to fiber?

I started with around $15k, but that's nothing compared to what I've dumped into the business since then. If I knew then what I know now, I'm not sure I would have started this.

I have not written about it, yet.

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

#183

Post by tomashertus »

adpoe wrote: post #127

I run an ecommerce store from Shopify which fulfills the orders by drop-shipping through AliExpress. This is definitely doable for one person, and it isn't technically challenging for a software developer--but the hardest part (at least for me) is marketing, creating content, advertising, and so on. Actually running a Shopify store and fulfilling by drop-shipping is simple. I would definitely recommend that as a good…

I've been reading about drop-shipping for quite time and it seems definitely achievable. One thing I'm not sure is how do you handle returns? What is someone wants to return the product back to you? Do you send it back to China or just take the lost? How do you handle the costs for shipping etc?

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

#185

Post by adpoe »

ericcholis wrote: post #174
adpoe wrote: post #127

I run an ecommerce store from Shopify which fulfills the orders by drop-shipping through AliExpress. This is definitely doable for one person, and it isn't technically challenging for a software developer--but the hardest part (at least for me) is marketing, creating content, advertising, and so on. Actually running a Shopify store and fulfilling by drop-shipping is simple. I would definitely recommend that as a good…

This is defiantly an area I'm interested in. However, I find that the barrier for entry is pretty challenging. IE, finding the right product. The other aspects are well within my skill set.

Do you have any longtime hobbies? I've played guitar my whole life, so I sell guitar parts.

It's easiest if you can leverage knowledge you already have. I also tried stores selling items I knew very little about, and it was much harder. =)

There are many tools for finding what's selling though. The best ones are paid, like Terapeak (http://www.terapeak.com/), but you can also search eBay completed listings and get a sense for what's selling.

Finding the right product(s) is definitely the hardest part, though -- you're absolutely correct. Not only is it hard to find products, you also have to find products with margins that enable you to make money. For some of my sales, I only make about $1-2 dollars. Which is something I need to improve, for my own business.

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

#186

Post by gthtjtkt »

adpoe wrote: post #127

I run an ecommerce store from Shopify which fulfills the orders by drop-shipping through AliExpress. This is definitely doable for one person, and it isn't technically challenging for a software developer--but the hardest part (at least for me) is marketing, creating content, advertising, and so on. Actually running a Shopify store and fulfilling by drop-shipping is simple. I would definitely recommend that as a good…

How do you deal with the insane delivery times? Do you tell customers up front that it might be weeks until they receive the product?

Most sellers I've seen on AliExpress estimate 15-30+ days for delivery. In the age of ubiquitous 1 and 2-day shipping, I just can't see customers going for that.

Seems like there'd be tons of people who change their mind after a week or two and then start demanding a refund or pestering you about their items.

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

#187

Post by chrishacken »

bkmartin wrote: post #175
chrishacken wrote: post #109

I'm not sure if this qualifies as an "online business", but I started an ISP in November '15. It's also not entirely "one-person". I am the sole founder, but I do hire part-time help on occasion if I'm swamped. It started off as a WISP and has finally grown to the point where we are beginning to deploy fiber. The site is https://nepafiber.com I still work full-time as a systems engineer, but the business started brin…

Hey Chris, Hello Neighbor! Thought about this idea in the Lewisburg (Central Susquehanna Valley) region and was wondering how the pole access stuff works? Also, what kind of densities do you need to get the WISP profitable to be able to make a move to fiber? Would love to email with you - its in my bio.

I don't see an email in your bio. Mine's chris at nepafiber

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

#188

Post by useruser15 »

I am a South African man looking for help with $300 I want to start a self help project that can earn me some money. I am unemployed and going through difficulties. I have a project l want to do that can help me. l am appealing for your kindness. If you can help Please email me: officew@yahoo.com

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

#189

Post by jasonkester »

DonnyV wrote: post #162
jasonkester wrote: post #67

I'm running two of the same ones from that list 3 years ago ( http://www.twiddla.com/ and https://www.s3stat.com/ ), and have just launched another one ( https://unwaffle.com/ ). Every year that passes makes it easier to get something like this off the ground, as the infrastructure becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, and the knowledge you need for the business side get better packaged into step-by-step guides. It's…

Which one is your most profitable? On average how long did it take to become profitable? Were you able to live off the first sites profits or did it take all 3 to do it? Do you have a family? I ask this because I do and if you do whats your method for time management and is it enough to support one. Great businesses by the way!!

S3stat is the one that let me pack in the day job. Twiddla kicks in enough to bring the total up to "Senior Dev Salary, anywhere but the Bay Area".

Neither one grew particularly fast (aided by my only charging $2/month for S3stat when it launched). It was probably 4 years before it was enough to scrape by on, then 2 more after that before it looked like I'd be able to live off it for real while raising kids.

The big upside is in free time. I can ramp the two established products down to close to zero hours/week for months on end to focus on building the next thing (and playing with the aforementioned kids). Every time I tried that with a normal Software Engineering day job, they stopped sending me money. SaaS just keeps ticking away in the background, and is happy to pay me whether I'm in the office or not.

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

#190

Post by christudor »

I run an online education website called MASSOLIT (www.massolit.io) by myself. We make short educational videos!

Unlike lots of other ed-tech companies (e.g. Khan Academy, edX, etc.) the main focus is on the liberal arts, so there's lots of stuff on literature, history, philosophy, etc.

We mainly sell to high schools, who pay a (small) annual fee to access the vids, with teachers using the vids in class as basis for class discussion or setting them as homework as part of a 'flipped classroom' model.

Not making a huge amount of money at the moment, but growth is pretty good...

Post reply on HN