Am I going in the right direction?
I have tried my hand at entrepreneurship for several years with nothing to show unfortunately. Although these businesses were not software or tech related. I realized that my failures were to the simple fact that I simply couldn't afford to start those businesses. Capital was the limiting variable. Since my businesses were in the scope of small business, no venture capital would even bother.
I am switching full gear into programming/software business/SAAS. It evens the playing field. Monetary capital is not the limiting variable anymore. Only my work ethic.
Am I going in the right direction with this technical knowledge?
What I currently know/learning HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Javascript, JQuery, Node.js, Typescript, Angular, MongoDB.
I am having second guesses with the knowledge path I am taking. I have considered switching to iOS Programming to Swift.
My goal is to just have a small goal at first like passive $200/month. I can't seem to decide what problems to build/solve? Every software idea, I see is executed well...then I get discouraged.
Or do I even need to learn programming considering all the website builders and what not.
You're definitely going in the right direction with those technical skills. With those, you will be able to build anything you set your mind to!
Deciding on a problem to solve is a tricky one. I've been discouraged just like you on lots of different occasions. The thing that gets me past the discouragement is building products that I would use myself. They say that getting the first customer is the hardest but dog-fooding your own product is an easy way to jump that hurdle :)
Ok, thanks for the post. To be honest when I have a problem I just look on the marketplace and there always seems to be a good solution already that solves my problem.
I think in general you are going to right direction, but there is one topic which you should think about - your time.
When I started doing own stuff there where many pitfalls which I didn't know at the beginning, and during that time I could earn good money working as a freelancer. What I learned from "doing business" is following - if your time spent on a x project brings your more money then doing own stuff, then go with that and let students or other low paid employees do that new stuff for you.
But when you want really to start into programming then of course you should, it makes fun, happy and you can earn some bucks.
Starting with a passive income goal will focus you on doing limited things... what I mean is .. if you limit yourself to a low income 200$ your thinking and ideas will be mostly simple too. Focusing on real problems or finding those is the hard part, but therefore more rewarding.
When I start new projects I typically search for google keyword volumes, then checkout competition (low, high) and write everything down. For App projects you can check negative reviews on App Store or Play Store. After that research I get a "feeling" and of course motivation of doing or not doing some stuff.
I work most of my time on simple apps and failing very fast, not spending more than three months on a app project. This helps me building a portfolio and learning new things, getting ned ideas too.
Well, I gotta learn to make $200/month passive before I can learn to make a million. Don't get me wrong, I do have big goals. I want to make millions a year, but I haven't even made $1 passively yet.
I will try building simple apps and failing fast though. Thanks.
Depends on where you live. $200 would be very low here, I would have a hard time justifying it full-time when I can earn 16x that for an easy minimum wage job.
The difference is passive vs. active income. the minimum wage is 100% active. I am keeping my goal small, but my end goal is millions a year. Got to learn to make a dollar first before a million
Make something. Anything.
Forget revenue for now, just make stuff. At the very least you’re then learning the process of finishing something.
Then, use stuff. Use tools that try to solve problems you have. Work out which bits could be better, or are completely lacking. Build those - better - as standalone products. They’ll still probably go nowhere, but you’re then making for a purpose. Through that journey, inspiration for the bigger project may well spark up.
Yeah, its hard to stop thinking about revenue/money when it is difficult to breath due to lack of cash.
I will do more building of projects
Hey @TrueIndie
You are definitely going in the right track of learning front-end design along with MEAN stack, the next thing to learn would be react.js as well. If possible it would be nice to learn a bit of sketch or adobe illustrator.
You have two choices of businesses
1.Building your own product, either SAAS or licensing format.
From experience most tech people start at 2 and gradually move into 1 since SAAS or licensing generates recurring revenue.
With regards to ideas, there are plenty of problems out there in the world which require solutions. IndieHackers and ProductHunt are two of the best places. Aim for a very niche market, talk to people, understand the problems and see if there is a solution which can be built. Niche has become the new normal.
Checkout https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/turning-frustration-into-a-35k-mo-product-that-helps-teachers-excel-d2205a1100 , this is very niche community and yet a goldmine.
All the best for your future ventures :)
Stop fiddling with tech stacks and start building. Your tech knowledge is broad enough for that.
If you can't find ideas, you didn't live enough to identify problems worth solving.
Just start making something fun or personal : a portfolio, a cat meme generator ... whatever floats your boat. The more you make, the more you experience. This way you can find annoying issues for customers to pay for.
Talk to your friends and try to identify some pain points they are having.
Write down lots of ideas, even if they seem dumb at first. Maybe someday they will grow into a profitable business.
Another thing : don't start with revenues in mind. Start with people. Then go on to build a beautiful product. Only when you have a beautiful product people want should you think about monetizing.
I wish you the best of luck
Thats mostly front end code you are studying there. I guess thats ok these days.
The other way to approach it might be to choose a framework (eg Laravel Spark or Firebase ... I bet there are better ones ) for building SaaS apps and get good at that and all the technologies it contains.
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What happens if I already find useful apps that executed well that solves my problem. This tends to be the trend for me even if I do get a problem.
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+1 for vue