11–15 of 15 posts
Or you forget bootstrapping and seek out investment. It sounds like a small startup incubator would be perfect for your needs, they take some equity, you get funding $$ and the chance to build your product!
* not quitting a job, change job, negotiate higher pay, long weekends (done ;)
* figure out what side project I actually want to pour myself into
Based on what I hear, B2B is easier than B2C, and info-products (book/course/e.t.c.) are easier than SaaS. Bonus points if the problem solved by the course could be turned into a SaaS later on.
After I would have my bright idea, I would start reaching some potential customers, (blog? mailing-list? cold-emails? conference talks? this is the biggest problem for me probably?) to get some confirmation somebody would actually buy the product. I know there is a cottage industry just for creating landing pages and getting emails of potential customers.
After I would see the idea has traction, I would have time (due to my 4-day/week job) to write/record the damn thing, and sell it, to the people that presumably wanted it enough to be on my damn mailing list :D
My big inspirations in this regard are Amy Hoy [0] with her methaphorical brick-stacking course and Nate Berkopec [1] with his book on ruby.
My biggest set-backs are that I am mostly too tired to actually execute on the plan, so I mostly use my extended weekends for more recovery/family time :)
Second, I am not sure I have enough expertise on a anything that would warrant writing such book/make course?
I.e. I was thinking about writing about Jenkins, but I am not sure my expertise is enough, and I work with it much less than a year ago when I was thinking about that most :-)
I wish you luck!
[0] https://stackingthebricks.com/ [1] https://www.nateberkopec.com/blog/2017/03/10/how-i-made-self...
> I am building a B2C website after work and on weekends, however it is very slow going and at this speed I think it's going to take at a minimum 12 months before I have something to launch with. This is frustrating on it's own, since I want quit my job and build something that I can pour myself into, but I'm never able to make any meaningful progress between work and family. I really beleive in this idea, however I am trying to be realistic.
Don't spend 12 months building something. Please. Unless you mean 12 months of building something while showing and selling it to people along the way every week or so. Whether you believe in your idea or not, it's the opinions of your customers (and more importantly, their wallets) that will decide whether you've got a business here.
> I am building a B2C website
Understand that the #1 challenge in B2C will be marketing. It doesn't matter if you build the best version of something, or a completely new something that people find amazing. They will not know it exists or find you, unless you put a ton of effort into marketing. More than development.
I learned this the hard way. I've built a B2C product that users love, but getting users to it is challenging, even though the product has some built-in virality. I'm actually pivoting the core technology to a B2B use-case that I can sell to companies for recurring revenue. To be honest, I wish I had done this from the start.
> I have a wife and 2 young children, and my wife is getting upset that I spend all my free time working on my side project instead of hanging out with the family. So it's getting to the point where something has got to give. My initial thought is to quit my steady decently paying full time job, and move to contract work.
Yes, this is a good idea. I didn't even start getting seriously into entrepreneurship until I had established a successful consulting business. Your family, especially your spouse, are going to be your number one support through the tough times. Do not take them for granted - they need to be on your side.
> Am I just being naive? Is it a requirement to risk my families savings on my business idea?
The naive aspect that I see is that you haven't really presented any real validation or traction for your "idea". Pre-sell it, build a fake MVP, etc. there are tons of ways to get out there and validate an idea before building it. Just please, don't spend 12 months where you're primarily developing software, because it's such a small part of a successful business. Find out whether your idea is something you can sell and people will pay for first.
Look for B2B ideas not B2C.
Don't focus on big ideas, I read a dry old book a long time ago, called the 'wealth of nations'. The key bit that stood out for me was an observation that the workers in the looms and mills built machines to improct things for them, and then capitialsed on it (where their landowners/lords etc supported them)
With that in mind, the best comment I ever read was 'every spreadsheet tool you see in a business is an app crying out to be made'. Look around the company and business area you already work for/in. You have an advantage in knowledge of their business and where the shortcomings are.
You will need to tread carefully as you don't want to loose your idea to a byline in your employment contract.