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Costs of running a macOS app studio business
141–150 of 220 posts
Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business
#142[flagged]
I took it to mean "do something with no real purpose" except they don't need to Slack/Zoom/Scrum/Checkins/8 hours a day.
Doesn't really seem like highroading, more like efficient use of their time.
Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Just be one of the vanishingly few to 1.work at FAANG + 2.as a L6-or-greater SWE + 3.in the Bay Area” is not a realistic strategy. Yes, if all those miracles come true that lottery winner can retire early, but I don’t think that is a broadly applicable plan.
It's not even just FAANG anymore. Plenty of places pay over 350k for a senior. And Seattle is probably a much better place with respect to taxes and cost of living. Most other cities where FAANG will employ are fine. Don't have to be #1 to win. Still a lottery winner with respect to the global employment market. But if you graduated with a US software engineering degree, you can make this happen.
You also need to be okay working at a FAANG.
After working in a 4k person org, I don’t think I could stomach working at another giant company.
Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business
#144The taxes seem low? If you earned that much on a w2 in the US it would be much higher by the time federal, state, and local tax came out. I have no idea what the tax implication would be if the earnings went to an llc. Might even be worse.
Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business
#145> Time I could have spent with my wife, my brother, my dog, instead of answering support emails from my first waking moment to right before sleeping
That’s painful to read.
I remember Marco Arment saying he didn’t do support at all via email. The argument was that it would take all his waking hours or he would have to hire a whole team just for that. I thought it was arrogant and, honestly, unacceptable back then, but maybe he was right after all.
Congratulations on the apps, they seem incredibly polished. And kudos for the clarity of direction in life. I’d choose to make 3X what I do and deal with the Zoom and soul crunching day to day.
Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business
#146> Time I could have spent with my wife, my brother, my dog, instead of answering support emails from my first waking moment to right before sleeping That’s painful to read. I remember Marco Arment saying he didn’t do support at all via email. The argument was that it would take all his waking hours or he would have to hire a whole team just for that. I thought it was arrogant and, honestly, unacceptable back then, bu…
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Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business
#147[flagged]
I took it more as in when you’re part of a big enough org, even if (perhaps) what you’re doing has some purpose or positive impact in the world, you may be detached enough to not feel it.
You may not care for the right command app (though I do actually!) but the thing is being a solo dev, the author will figure out if it has a purpose or not in a rather direct way since income is tied directly to people buying the app.
Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business
#148There is a buzz word = turn-key ap. That is an app that installs and runs and they you have a pack of youtube/? videos for all install problems that you can use to prune support calls, along with remote access ap that you send to client on the basis that you as dev or your employee are so good at this stuff that once on his desktop you can solve all problems a lot faster than chatting on the phone.
The first aspect - turn key = sell and never see them again apart from the annual fee = it must have seen-all/solved-all installation bugaboos, and eveyt ime you get a new one = fixed.
Unless you reach turn-key, you are a boat with a leak, double sales = 2 boats = 2 leaks and you need more people on the pumps. You need a boat with no leaks at all - as if that was ever possible, so you get as close to that as possible so you waste less time on support = more in the bank.
Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
It really depends on the percentages, so I can mainly speak about Germany: For example you have a revenue of 100.000. If you have a limited liability company (UG or GmbH in Germany) you pay 30% taxes on the profit, so you have 70.000 left at the end of the year. If you want to transfer it to your personal account you will need to pay additionaly taxes of 25%. So you are left with 52.500. If you directly pay yourself…
The best would be probably to let the company cover the PC / tablet / phone costs as they are business expenses and payout yourself the remainer as long as long as you can still increase your business operations. A good tip I once got was that you should always try to get money out of your company while you can - having it on your personal bank account is better then in your companies one.
>The best would be probably to let the company cover the PC / tablet / phone costs as they are business expenses
Depending on how your local tax codes are structured and how strictly your local tax authority interprets them, letting the company buy the electronics and then subsequently using it for non-business use might count as a fringe benefit and therefore be taxable. In other words, if get your company to buy you a iPhone 15 Pro Max and a 16 MBP Pro with M3 Max, but all you're doing is some light macOS app development, they might (rightly) think that those aren't really being used for business purposes and are actually a sneaky way to remunerate yourself.
Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business
#15064% net income. I totally appreciate the frustration the author has in various fees needing to be paid. But zooming out, having a business with 64% net income on sales is insanely good . We should never take for granted the margins in tech. Where almost all other industries have margins around 10%.
>having a business with 64% net income on sales is insanely good.
...when you don't factor in labor costs. If this was google or similar, the company would need to hire a developers, which are a major line item on their budget.