I want to start an online business so I can be financially secure ... But is that really a good enough excuse?
I got into web development so I could work and travel, call the shots when I want to work, and be my own boss (to some degree). I love what I do and my current situation - I'm freelancing and working with great clients ... but I'm getting to the point where I can't easily scale my wage / working hours / earnings per hour. I'd like to get more serious with life and invest more, perhaps buy a house, have a family, etc.
That's where building an app/product/website/service/business comes into play ... It could be the way to financial security ...
I have the time to spend 15ish hours a week on a project but I really struggle with solving problems / finding an idea / knowing what to build and I just keep running in circles not know what to do or build...
I have a feeling that is because my reason for wanting the thing (the business) is just not a good enough excuse? ¯\(ツ)/¯
I would love to hear your thoughts
I think it’s a perfectly valid reason, it’s mostly how I started out as well.
What you can do alternatively is look around at existing solutions and think of which solutions you could do better (this is how I started selling on Envato) or create a similar solution but aim it at a specific niche / make it less generic.
By the way, I could be freelancing (and I did for a while) and I would earn more money doing that, but it doesn’t scale, and eventually (probably in a year or so) income from my products will surpass what I could make freelancing. You have to think long term.
15 hours is plenty of time to get started (I started out with 4).
I say go for it!
Thanks for the advice and help! I definitely am trying to think long term because I know it's the logical next step towards having a scalable income. Of course I can keep raising my freelance rates but it's not a long-term solution.
I think I want to start out building a product like a WordPress plugin, or a browser extension - not a full blown SaaS but a product that is easily installed and consumed. Basically exactly what you are doing 😂.
Thanks for writing, I really appreciate it!
I am new to Indie Hackers and browsing the threads to get to know the community and see if my pain points and questions have been answered already. Your question is pretty much what I joined for, so it resonated with me.
Something else to think about, if you have not already, is to raise your rates to the point it is uncomfortable for you or until you start losing clients. If you are doing good work, most clients will stick with you. You will also recoup some time to focus on your ideas, while making more money with your day job.
Hey Jack, nice to see you here! Jason from 200wad. I think that's a perfectly valid reason. Not even an excuse. Many here are for that reason as well I believe. To make fun of a SV cliche, "changing the world" is not the only reason for creating software lol.
I'm also on this journey now myself, so don't have much to share. But overheard this IH podcast with Laravel creator, and he said something about how we got to have a low threshold to pain when it comes to finding product ideas. As devs, our pain threshold is high, we want to figure things out and will spend the time to do it. But often there's a market for people who don't want to have to spend hours/days debugging something. I really took away that lesson and relooking at my past ideas again with that lens!
Hey Jason, thanks for the reply! Yeah I suppose we are all here for the money to some degree or another - that's why you go into business, right? But I just want to get away from that being the main driver, even though it really is the most most powerful driver ... Perhaps, combined with just making money it's the idea of working for myself, not being a cog in a wheel of some company, and just being financially independent & generating value for others on my own. Short - I like being my own boss and don't want to give that up.
And thanks for the little nugget of wisdom there - you're right, us developers have SO many pain points - every day is full of challenges and annoying hiccups. There are multiple times a day I just WISH there was an answer to my problem ... so yeah, perhaps time to think smaller 🤔 ...
Yes same! Prefer to be my own boss. Less drama.
Looking fwd to seeing what you'll build!
This is my primary reason for wanting to have a few side projects generating revenue. I live as a resident in Mexico but work remotely for a US company, and I'd reallllly like to gain complete independence from needing to be employed by a US company. My dream is to have a couple of side projects generating enough revenue to pay my bills back home (aka student loans) so that I can start my own local business here and focus primarily on it. And I personally hate having meetings/bosses, even though I feel like I've got the best boss in the world right now.
In regards to your inability to scale up even more:
That's an awesome vision and I hope you can achieve it! Thanks for the good questions, currently here are some short answers:
Remember money is a by product of your good service or product.
So you should aim to come up with great product or service.
Financial security happens by itself.
That's very true, and well said. I think that kind of thinking is important - thinking about the "money" is always so short-sighted ... but I get it, when times get tough and you simply need cash in the bank / to pay the bills, all you want to do is build something that generates immediate cash.
What I really want to do in life is build a product or service that I genuinely believe in and that really does solve a problem. If that can be accomplished then, like you say, the money is simply a by-product.
Agreed. Build a product that generates cash flow as fast as possible.
But don't keep the money as target. Problem is once you achieve that money target, you feel it's an end.
I have done this mistake.
You don't feel like achieving more. Very happy mind is very dangerous mind.
Instead , keep a intention/ purpose of the product very height. When you solve a small portion of the product, you would start making money.
Since original intent was not satisfied, it drives you for years together.
If I were you I would push that freelancer hourly wages up first (250+ USD/hour is not impossible to reach if you are good). Then if you can start creating a "productized service" from part of your offering. Then maybe later a SaaS but it might not go that fair in your situation to reach financial security. (It is not uncommon that in the first few years of your SaaS journey you will be worst off then you are now, if you take it seriously)
Good point and I definitely will consider this. I can level up - and charge more - and that would still be a worthwhile investment in my time for the next few years. Thanks!
I'm pretty sure you can earn more by learning new skills and charging more.
Starting a business requires a lot of extra skills and failure rate is high.
I wouldn't start something unless I was knowledgeable in the space or had a co-founder who was.
That's a fair point, and definitely worth consideration - I could expand my skillset into fullstack / data viz / machine learning / AI ...
But have found that while I do have a solid skill set and a few years of experience, I'm by far not the best dev out there - but when it comes to higher paying jobs, it's more about finding clients willing to pay more rather than how good you are. So perhaps I need to focus more on SEO, marketing myself and learning to attract higher paying clients.
Doesn't have to be coding, you could learn to design better, or UX.
Yes building a bigger network will lead to high paying jobs and less fear of rejecting bad clients.
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Fair point - it's just that a lot of the most successful products / services / ideas are ones that truly solve a problem, usually in an elegant way. Knowing that the product owner / developer has the end customers' best interests at heart because they care about solving the problem generally is more attractive (and matters more) ... But yeah, that is the dilemma ... I don't yet have "the" idea... 🤔