Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by lmcnish14 on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @11:16AM
(#16483940)
Sidekiq is a one person business. The creator, Mike Perham, gave an interview about what it was like building his business: https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/sidekiq-6e71309457
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by mperham on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @11:49AM
(#16484295)
AMA!
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by rbucks on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @06:03PM
(#16488072)
That Sidekiq is a one-man business which allows me to exist as a one-man business (by simplifying a critical processing function and being free) is beautifully meta.
Thank you kind sir for sharing your wizardry with us mortals.
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by mindhash on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @11:57AM
(#16484403)
Most of my worry with one person business is what happens when you are not well or need to take personal vacation. How to arrange an ongoing support ?
Re:Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
by mperham on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @12:16PM
(#16484621)
My business is based on OSS; people are used to no support. I've tried to guide my customers to open issues and stackoverflow questions to get a response from the community. This makes for a nice historical archive that others can search and find similar questions and answers.
I explicitly state in my support policy that emailed questions can take 48 business hours to answer. I take my laptop with me on vacation to answer support questions every morning. The rest of the day is free.
You could also contract out support for a week if you really want to avoid the laptop. Pay a contractor friend $$$ to answer your support emails for a week.
My main issue is that collecting money takes as much time/email as support. ~30% of my customers have some need for a manual touch during their annual renewal: forgot password, change email, billing question, etc. My first hire is likely to be an AR person who can handle that administration.