4 ms·

How I got from working 3 jobs to $12,000/mo in revenue

51 points by alexlash 10y ago

sova 10y ago
> It is psychologically easier to start off while having another job and income stream. So true. Really weird, but really true.
- kctess5 10y ago
  Seems to make sense that while attempting to start a venture knowing there's a significant risk of failure, one might want to have a separate stable income stream.
  - sova 10y ago
    Also, the regularity of a current gig can be motivating... instead of having "infinite time" one must use their days more efficiently to get a fresh endeavor off the ground, and in my experience this cultivates a healthy industriousness, if you're into that word.
- dba7dba 10y ago
  Agree. I highly recommend keeping your current job before starting any new venture.
  - alexlash 10y ago
    I do so as well, this may affect your growth opportunities, but you could look in the future without everyday fear running out of money and not being able to pay rent or kindergarten.
tinbad 10y ago
"First of all, I negotiated an opportunity to work from home at my full-time job so I wouldn't have to be in the office all day long." I feel like this is key. I've been an entrepreneur for the first 10 or so years of my professional career and have had multiple businesses that I started out of the first one because I had so much flexibility managing my own time. Due to a number of circumstances I've been working away at a corp office for the last 3 years and only now I realized how hard it is to do anything "on the side" after spending most of the productive hours of the day in your boss' office. I know, I know, I could bring my personal laptop and take long breaks throughout the day to work on side projects but aside from any moral considerations it's practically really hard to schedule calls, trying to not get noticed, being kicked out of meeting rooms, etc. In my mind, being able to work from home and set your own schedule is such a huge plus to kickstart a side business/project.
- FT_intern 10y ago
  Some people wake up early (5-6 AM) to get 4-5 productive hours before going to work
  - cylinder 10y ago
    That might work if you're building a product but most businesses require active selling, talking to clients, building relationships, etc which are generally done during conventional hours.
- alexlash 10y ago
  This was one of the key factors for sure, however on the very first stage I've worked from office and still had three jobs or so. But this was total nightmare
  - fuqted 10y ago
    "Over time I realized that everything I was doing at my job (e.g. writing copy and managing social media acounts) I could also do independently. My co-founder Dmitry agreed " I believe this was the main factor to be honest; a partner.
    - alexlash 10y ago
      Partner played huge role - he was free of working somewhere else and could for eg. schedule meetings with potential clients if I was unavailable. In future we realized that Skype and messengers work pretty good for our customer communication, but without this I doubt our business would survive
inestyne 10y ago
Be very careful to properly disclose your outside interests when working with startups. One simple email up front can save you a lot of pain and heartache on pay day.
- iamcreasy 10y ago
  I am curious. Could you please tell more what you mean by "Be very careful to properly disclose your outside interests"?
jnordwick 10y ago
... with this one weird trick. Why do we keep voting up indiehackers.com advertisements?
- csallen 10y ago
  Why do you see it as an ad rather than as an educational read? I'm not paying these companies anything to appear on Indie Hackers, nor are they paying me. And nearly every post on the front page of HN represents some company or other. The stories on IH are generally developers talking about how they came up with their idea, what they do for sales/marketing, how much revenue they're making, what their work schedules are, etc. Makes sense that they appeal to the YC audience!

51 points by alexlash 10y ago

sova 10y ago

> It is psychologically easier to start off while having another job and income stream. So true. Really weird, but really true.

kctess5 10y ago
Seems to make sense that while attempting to start a venture knowing there's a significant risk of failure, one might want to have a separate stable income stream.
- sova 10y ago
  Also, the regularity of a current gig can be motivating... instead of having "infinite time" one must use their days more efficiently to get a fresh endeavor off the ground, and in my experience this cultivates a healthy industriousness, if you're into that word.
dba7dba 10y ago
Agree. I highly recommend keeping your current job before starting any new venture.
- alexlash 10y ago
  I do so as well, this may affect your growth opportunities, but you could look in the future without everyday fear running out of money and not being able to pay rent or kindergarten.

tinbad 10y ago

"First of all, I negotiated an opportunity to work from home at my full-time job so I wouldn't have to be in the office all day long." I feel like this is key. I've been an entrepreneur for the first 10 or so years of my professional career and have had multiple businesses that I started out of the first one because I had so much flexibility managing my own time. Due to a number of circumstances I've been working away at a corp office for the last 3 years and only now I realized how hard it is to do anything "on the side" after spending most of the productive hours of the day in your boss' office. I know, I know, I could bring my personal laptop and take long breaks throughout the day to work on side projects but aside from any moral considerations it's practically really hard to schedule calls, trying to not get noticed, being kicked out of meeting rooms, etc. In my mind, being able to work from home and set your own schedule is such a huge plus to kickstart a side business/project.

FT_intern 10y ago
Some people wake up early (5-6 AM) to get 4-5 productive hours before going to work
- cylinder 10y ago
  That might work if you're building a product but most businesses require active selling, talking to clients, building relationships, etc which are generally done during conventional hours.
alexlash 10y ago
This was one of the key factors for sure, however on the very first stage I've worked from office and still had three jobs or so. But this was total nightmare
- fuqted 10y ago
  "Over time I realized that everything I was doing at my job (e.g. writing copy and managing social media acounts) I could also do independently. My co-founder Dmitry agreed " I believe this was the main factor to be honest; a partner.
  - alexlash 10y ago
    Partner played huge role - he was free of working somewhere else and could for eg. schedule meetings with potential clients if I was unavailable. In future we realized that Skype and messengers work pretty good for our customer communication, but without this I doubt our business would survive

inestyne 10y ago

Be very careful to properly disclose your outside interests when working with startups. One simple email up front can save you a lot of pain and heartache on pay day.

iamcreasy 10y ago
I am curious. Could you please tell more what you mean by "Be very careful to properly disclose your outside interests"?

jnordwick 10y ago

... with this one weird trick. Why do we keep voting up indiehackers.com advertisements?

csallen 10y ago
Why do you see it as an ad rather than as an educational read? I'm not paying these companies anything to appear on Indie Hackers, nor are they paying me. And nearly every post on the front page of HN represents some company or other. The stories on IH are generally developers talking about how they came up with their idea, what they do for sales/marketing, how much revenue they're making, what their work schedules are, etc. Makes sense that they appeal to the YC audience!