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Six Months of Tiny Projects

tinyprojects.dev

11–20 of 151 posts

Re: Six Months of Tiny Projects

#11
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of the book "The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work". Just because you are a good engineer, does not mean you are a good entrepreneur. Most engineers think it's just about building a good product. This is not true.

It actually is entirely about building a good product if by good product you mean something people want.

First “actually” reply I’ve read today, congratulations. 8:08 AM is a bit early though.

Re: Six Months of Tiny Projects

#12

> I believe there's a big advantage to this "micro-bet" approach of launching many tiny businesses These aren’t businesses. These are websites. Most people on HN can build a website. It takes some coding and some tech knowledge. Not everyone can build a business. That involves marketing, advertising, customer acquisition, cash flow management, legal, on and on. While what the author did was neat and fun for him, let’…

But sometimes this is what it takes to find something that sticks or find some meaningful spin-off that generates hundreds and thousands in revenue.

This is the best approach starting out to see what the audience responds to, but the next critical step is to stick with what works for at least 5 full years doing all the things you've mentioned plus SEO (which is a big big).

Re: Six Months of Tiny Projects

#13
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of the book "The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work". Just because you are a good engineer, does not mean you are a good entrepreneur. Most engineers think it's just about building a good product. This is not true.

It actually is entirely about building a good product if by good product you mean something people want.

Building a good product will get you a pat on the back. What you need is a good product + leverage. http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html

Re: Six Months of Tiny Projects

#14
post #7

> I believe there's a big advantage to this "micro-bet" approach of launching many tiny businesses These aren’t businesses. These are websites. Most people on HN can build a website. It takes some coding and some tech knowledge. Not everyone can build a business. That involves marketing, advertising, customer acquisition, cash flow management, legal, on and on. While what the author did was neat and fun for him, let’…

I took this same approach and from about ~50 things, 5 made enough money to make it time well spent overall. They were tiny like the projects listed here, so it's possible it could work out for the author, and I'm still sticking to the same approach now. Launch something quick with little self-criticism, then double down on anything that seems to have traction.

This is what MVP actually is.

Re: Six Months of Tiny Projects

#15

> I believe there's a big advantage to this "micro-bet" approach of launching many tiny businesses These aren’t businesses. These are websites. Most people on HN can build a website. It takes some coding and some tech knowledge. Not everyone can build a business. That involves marketing, advertising, customer acquisition, cash flow management, legal, on and on. While what the author did was neat and fun for him, let’…

I am not so sure it didn't work. What if you had a massive success every 100 tries? That would be worth it, almost the same as VC funding.

Re: Six Months of Tiny Projects

#16

> I believe there's a big advantage to this "micro-bet" approach of launching many tiny businesses These aren’t businesses. These are websites. Most people on HN can build a website. It takes some coding and some tech knowledge. Not everyone can build a business. That involves marketing, advertising, customer acquisition, cash flow management, legal, on and on. While what the author did was neat and fun for him, let’…

Please keep in mind that we may not all share the same idea of what a business is, what a meaningful amount of money is and what success looks like.

When you repeatedly make sales and profit, you’re past the hurdle of not losing money on the operation. It’s a nice milestone on the entrepreneurship journey and worthy of a bit of celebration.

Re: Six Months of Tiny Projects

#17
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took this same approach and from about ~50 things, 5 made enough money to make it time well spent overall. They were tiny like the projects listed here, so it's possible it could work out for the author, and I'm still sticking to the same approach now. Launch something quick with little self-criticism, then double down on anything that seems to have traction.

So 10% worked - is that not about normal for business?

It's normal for boom or burst startups. It's way bellow normal for small business.

But well, it's a perfectly fine ratio here.

Re: Six Months of Tiny Projects

#18

> I believe there's a big advantage to this "micro-bet" approach of launching many tiny businesses These aren’t businesses. These are websites. Most people on HN can build a website. It takes some coding and some tech knowledge. Not everyone can build a business. That involves marketing, advertising, customer acquisition, cash flow management, legal, on and on. While what the author did was neat and fun for him, let’…

While there is a danger of spreading yourself too thin (as the author notes, one project a week was far too intensive) there's mileage in the idea of "throw a load of ideas at the wall and see what sticks". It helps you validate an idea quickly and, if nothing else, builds a portfolio you can show to potential employers or clients.

Rob Walling has some good stuff on building micro-SaaS businesses https://robwalling.com/

Re: Six Months of Tiny Projects

#19

> I believe there's a big advantage to this "micro-bet" approach of launching many tiny businesses These aren’t businesses. These are websites. Most people on HN can build a website. It takes some coding and some tech knowledge. Not everyone can build a business. That involves marketing, advertising, customer acquisition, cash flow management, legal, on and on. While what the author did was neat and fun for him, let’…

I’d bet there’s few “micro-bets” that are generating any meaningful amount of money.

The narrative would change and it wouldn't be getting called a "micro-bet" anymore if it did though, no? ;-) We used to just call these "side projects" which I prefer as a term for any sort of cheap experiment you throw at the wall to see if it sticks. I've had several, had two acquired for non-negligible amounts, and another has been my full time business for 10 years now.

Re: Six Months of Tiny Projects

#20
Nice! Just build it!

It's a blessing to see that there are people who can just build things instead of whining around like: ohh it's not a business... ohh it won't make any money... ohh it's not so simple to build a product... mkay

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