What are some dark sides of indie hacking?
Sometimes indie hacking is the dream. It's a starry-eyed move from the Midwest to Los Angeles and actually making it in Hollywood!
Other times it's filing TPS reports at 2pm on a Friday moments before realizing that shit it's only Thursday. Or maybe ending your shift at McDonalds in order to clock into your night shift at Taco Bell.
Makes you want to smash a printer sometimes, no?
What's the darkest or most annoying part of your indie hacking journey? Have you figured out any way to make those things less painful, or... dare I say... enjoyable?
PS. With enough gripes someone might even find a business idea from our shared frustrations.
Marketing and getting out of the shadow. I would prefer to sit at my computer silently but I realize that transparency may help much better than "that new cool feature"... so it's hard for introverts.
What’s your product?
I have a hard time marketing unless I feel like I have something worthwhile to market. When I know I have something then it’s not as hard for me.
My product doesn't exist yet. I tried to create and market many other products in the past. I believe every maker, including me, always feels some value their products have. But even with this knowledge it was hard.
I'll start with mine:
VAT/Tax stuff and accounting. I killed a side-project after two years when I realized I had to become a tax expert. Ugh. Hate it! Accounting-wise I outsource if I can and that makes it slightly less painful.
The guilt and anxiety when I can't muster the energy to work on my project. This is a serious vicious circle. I try to be nice to myself and make sure to recognize even when I make only a tiny bit of progress. Smooth jazz music also helps to calm my mind before, during and after a work session.
bUiLd an AuDieNce hUstLe culTUrE. I try to mute this as much as possible. "Build an audience first" isn't my game, and sometimes IH can become a bit too much of an echo chamber for the flock of people that believe this. Obviously IH and similar overflows with people who write a lot as one of their core tools... but it feels good to know there are more people like me out there that don't echo this sentiment. (I do appreciate the people who put out genuine, great content that isn't always an upsell)
The last one is it for me. I can’t see another info product ‚build in public‘ anymore. I want to see more businesses serving people other than indie hackers itself ....
Right? I get that it’s a good place to start for many people since it’s low barrier to entry... but it’s like every single product is “X for beginners” or “grow your newsletter about growing newsletters”.
Reminds me of everyone in the digital nomad community trying to make a living writing about how to make a living as a digital nomad.
Tax bullshit.. I can't believe how much time I spend on economic admin that adds nothing of value.. 😑 And I'm not even talking about all the god damned fees and taxes I pay, just the time I have to put in is enough to make me want to drink.
It should be fairly easy to learn the major parts but I don’t understand why I haven’t seen a service in Sweden that aims to support indies until they know “just enough” to do 99% of the reporting on their own.
I don’t mind doing the bookkeeping and tax stuff but it’s the time searching for the answers.
I solve mine by having a bookkeeping freelancer. It’s nice to have someone to ask but I feel like I can’t “dig into the data”. How do you solve it?
I think it's because that knowledge is basically the moat for all these services. And it changes every year.
This comment was deleted 5 years ago
Hahahahaha if only.... :)