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Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

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

#11
post #9

When I started http://fairpixels.pro (UX/UI Design for B2B Saas Companies) I grew it pretty quickly to a very profitable one-person business. (Not 1 person anymore) The origin story is somewhat organic. - Started as a logo design company - then kept getting requests to help with UI/UX Design so I did - then realised the most fun projects to work on were B2B SaaS companies - today we're still growing and can happily c…

Just FYI, do you know that your site is missing a tag?

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

#12
post #9

When I started http://fairpixels.pro (UX/UI Design for B2B Saas Companies) I grew it pretty quickly to a very profitable one-person business. (Not 1 person anymore) The origin story is somewhat organic. - Started as a logo design company - then kept getting requests to help with UI/UX Design so I did - then realised the most fun projects to work on were B2B SaaS companies - today we're still growing and can happily c…

Just FYI, do you know that your site is missing a tag?

Yeah I know. The website hasn't been updated in a few years. We've been talking about a redesign for over a year (just didn't get to it because it was so busy) Finally added some extra hands to get it done. Should be live in 2 weeks or so. Despite the handful of technical issues we have today.. the conversion rate is still very healthy.

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

#13
post #8

I run a business called FontPeek ( https://fontpeek.com ). It doesn't provide the majority of my income, but it does provide a meaningful amount and it's constantly growing (pretty linearly). It's a simple tool that allows font designers to add a secure font previewer to their web store. Only needs like an hour of technical support a week, and it's currently costing me nothing to run because Firebase has incredibly g…

(not a designer) I would not start my 7-day free trial without beforehand having more information on what the product looks and feels like.

In the "How FontPeek Helps" section there's "Show your fonts" sections, but it shows no fonts. I'd love to see some demo fonts/pages with embedded fonts at least, perhaps a list of links to the designer's websites showing the widget (I assume it's a widget, there's no info on it) if they consent.

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

#14
I run https://pageflows.com and have been living off it full time for a little over a year.

The business makes a bit more than what I was earning a few years ago as a junior developer in London, so it's not a huge amount of money, but it's enough.

It's a fairly boring business to run and not as predictable or sexy as some sort of micro saas, but it's I'm happy with how things have been so far. Happy to answer any questions you have.

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

#15
I sell carnivorous plants online. It's not my main job/revenue so it doesn't fit your description of successful. It could certainly be my main income but I like keeping it as a side job.

Here's a few things I do that made it "successful":

- Obviously, selling good quality product is the most important thing.

- Offering rare species that are hard to find elsewhere

- Having a good website that works, is well organized and easy to use.

- Friendly customer support, I like to talk to my customers as I would talk to a friend (to a certain extend).

- Fast shipping after receiving an order, or at least let the customer know when their order will be shipped.

- A good logo made by a designer, this has been super helpful for brand-awareness

- Good packaging that minimize most damage the plants, with printed plastic labels for each plants (with my logo on them)

- Active presence on social media, with good quality picture posts (with my logo on them)

- Always give more to the customer than what they expected to get. Even a small surprise when they open their package will make them feel good about their purchase.

- SEO optimisation so that people can find you on google. I struggle with this because google keeps autocorrecting my name.

Most of these points feel obvious to me, but I would say 95% of the other sellers fail at multiple of them. Mainly the customer support point, a lot of them feel like I'm talking to a robot.

I would say the part that I struggle the most with is staying on schedule and not forgetting about people who order via email/private message. Thankfully cold weather in the winter allow me to take a 6 months break each year. During that time I can relax and dive into other projets.

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

#16
post #3

I'm guessing many Youtubers / Instagrammers would qualify.

I doubt that. The success rate for running a profitable social media powered business is very, very low. Of the hundreds of thousands of people who try maybe 5% of them make any money, and 0.05% make enough to quit their jobs. The number of people who qualify as what most people would call financially successful (eg a stable mid 6 figures income) is even lower still.

The creativity and freedom might still make it worthwhile, but the chances of being a breakout star are effectively zero.

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

#18
I always hold up https://pinboard.in/ as a poster child for a successful one-man shop. It's so successful he takes several months off at a time, right now he's in HK reporting on the demonstrations.

He's very generous with sharing his financials on his blog: https://blog.pinboard.in/2019/07/i_cant_stop_winning/

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

#19

I run https://pageflows.com and have been living off it full time for a little over a year. The business makes a bit more than what I was earning a few years ago as a junior developer in London, so it's not a huge amount of money, but it's enough. It's a fairly boring business to run and not as predictable or sexy as some sort of micro saas, but it's I'm happy with how things have been so far. Happy to answer any que…

Neat! What's your business model?

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

#20

I run https://pageflows.com and have been living off it full time for a little over a year. The business makes a bit more than what I was earning a few years ago as a junior developer in London, so it's not a huge amount of money, but it's enough. It's a fairly boring business to run and not as predictable or sexy as some sort of micro saas, but it's I'm happy with how things have been so far. Happy to answer any que…

Nice project! I keep onboarding screenshots for most Sass/web apps I use to get inspiration later for my own projects so I definitely find this very useful (bookmarked!).

How do you monetize the project? I can't see any paid plans in the public website

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