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Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

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Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#101

Post by needmoney »

melipone wrote: post #69
needmoney wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really varies depending on your industry. Generally, being a social person (which does not come easily to me at all) is very helpful. If you have a lot of friends, it's very likely one of them will be able to help you market or sell in some way or another. I relied heavily on friends and friends of friends. I still do. More specifically, figuring out who are major journalists or trend-influencers (potential custom…

You're only telling us general trivia. If you've done a wordpress theme, post a tutorial or a how-to.

I run a bakery, so I found members of the media I wanted to get along with, got to know them, and gave them free samples of my products. Many of them are now customers and friends.

I imagine a similar process would work for online-only businesses.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#102

Post by mleonhard »

barnaby wrote: post #34
Jasitis wrote: post #17

how do i start doing this

Guys don't downvote somebody on their FIRST POST on HN. This guy may legitimately want to know how to do this, that's one hell of a good reason to be on HN. Jastis, to answer your question, you do it one step at a time, because if you try to do too many things (or too big of a thing) at once then nothing gets done. Bite off one small thing a day and you'll be amazed how much gets done in half a year.

Get a personal wiki program like ZuluPad and start making lists of things you need to do to build your business. Break each thing into many small tasks so you can check them off and see the progress you're making.

I've been working steadily on my startup since I left my job in April. My "DONE" list has 88 items. Last night I finished another task: adding proper logging to my web service. There are a lot more tasks on my "TO DO" list, but now there are none blocking me from launching the beta version of my service next week.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#103

Post by tszming »

bl4k wrote: post #96
olalonde wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

400$ a month is doable in China but forget about nightlife or cockroach-free apartments. Disclaimer: I lived a few months in Shenzhen.

You mean Disclaimer: I lived in one of the only economically liberal parts of China where most Chinese are restricted from traveling to and there is a large influx of foreign money? Shenzen ain't China and 400$ is a lot of money in the rest of the country.

$400 is really NOT a lot in a decent city in China, e.g. Shanghai, Beijing,　Guangzhou etc. It can just barely cover your basic living expense, e.g. housing, travel, food etc ( if you are not living with your parents)

Disclaimer: I live in Hong Kong and have a number of coworkers and friends in China.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#104

Post by barnaby »

Hexstream wrote: post #89
barnaby wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guys don't downvote somebody on their FIRST POST on HN. This guy may legitimately want to know how to do this, that's one hell of a good reason to be on HN. Jastis, to answer your question, you do it one step at a time, because if you try to do too many things (or too big of a thing) at once then nothing gets done. Bite off one small thing a day and you'll be amazed how much gets done in half a year.

Hum. Do you always check a user's profile before downvoting if you don't remember seeing him before? I can't imagine myself doing that. Or are you using some sort of plugin that gives you more info inline?

I wish I had a tool like that. No I just had an intuition to check this time. I've probably been guilty of downvoting newbies myself without checking.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#105

Post by carbocation »

heresy wrote: post #97
csomar wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read some of the Wikipedia article about it. However, the bank won't give you 20% yearly, yet barely enough to cover the inflation. Nor the stock market and real estate do, so I wonder how compound interest would help and in any way?

Sorry, let me clarify. Let's say you started investing/saving at the age of 18 up until 65, and lets say the amount you put in per month over that period of time was $800 per month - this is pretty low, given how much your income should increase over time. At a conservative rate of return of 5%, at age 65, it would be worth around $1.8 million, $1.35 million of that being the compound 5%, and only roughly $450,000 be…

5% is not a particularly conservative rate of return.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#106

Post by sliverstorm »

needmoney wrote: post #55
eof wrote: post #2

Awesome. What is your business?

Well, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you all and tell you I run a bakery. I know you guys were expecting a tech company. I wasn't actually planning on revealing this, but you guys seem to really want to know and the community has been good to me. And maybe you can give me more advice. I actually have a degree in CS and I love to code, but I tried for a while and never managed to make money on my own with my tech…

Disappoint? My great-grandparents owned a bakery, and it's one of my small personal dreams to do the same, though it is probably a dream I will never realize.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#107

Post by [deleted] »

csomar wrote: post #82
heresy wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can learn the power of compound interest at your age, you're going to retire very comfortably.

I read some of the Wikipedia article about it. However, the bank won't give you 20% yearly, yet barely enough to cover the inflation. Nor the stock market and real estate do, so I wonder how compound interest would help and in any way?

[deleted]

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#108

Post by zackattack »

carbocation wrote: post #105
heresy wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, let me clarify. Let's say you started investing/saving at the age of 18 up until 65, and lets say the amount you put in per month over that period of time was $800 per month - this is pretty low, given how much your income should increase over time. At a conservative rate of return of 5%, at age 65, it would be worth around $1.8 million, $1.35 million of that being the compound 5%, and only roughly $450,000 be…

5% is not a particularly conservative rate of return.

Hasnt the stock market historically grown at a 10% annual rate

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#110

Post by carbocation »

zackattack wrote: post #108
carbocation wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5% is not a particularly conservative rate of return.

Hasnt the stock market historically grown at a 10% annual rate

Yes, I agree (~8% over the very long run I think). But it's not timescale invariant. Look at what it's done over the past 10 years, for example (-1%). I'm not trying to say that the stock market doesn't grow over time. I'm just trying to say that if the mean annual growth is truly 8%, it has a really high variance. Thus, there are some things that I wouldn't count on (say, the ability to arbitrage from a 3%-interest loan into straight profit, for example) which I might try to do if the return was consistently 5%. I suppose that for me, when I think conservative, I think consistent.
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