32 ms·

A better guide would be how to launch a business on a budget of 45 minutes a day. I'm sure that's the bigger challenge for most of us

1337biz 9y ago
This! Time is so much more valueable than $1k.
- zeep 9y ago
  Or maybe it's "the someone" that would tell you how to spend your free time and money that would be more valuable...
Jugurtha 9y ago
Great idea. "The first 100 hours: systemd-analyze critical-chain" or something to that effect.
ianai 9y ago
Time really is a hard constraint. If I could dial back my full time commitment to 30 hours per week I probably would have finished that iOS app side project.
csallen 9y ago
I like this idea. Added it here to my list of ideas for useful and interesting articles: https://www.indiehackers.com/@csallen/ideas-for-articles?nocache=3 https://www.indiehackers.com/@csallen/ideas-for-articles?noc... Would love to hear more of your suggestions!
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  I think csallen is marketing with us, you guys.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
toomanyrichies 9y ago
Agreed. With so many different "growth hacking" strategies out there already, the "45 Min/Day" idea would really help to clarify which priorities should come first.
imarg 9y ago
Outsourcing. I 've been a wantrepreneur almost a decade now (although the last couple of years I have almost accepted defeat) and what I have realized is that if you can't find the time then probably outsourcing is the best solution. That or start small. Really small.
- 1337biz 9y ago
  Depending on the job but finding the right people to outsource to seems sometimes more work than actually doing the project myself.
  - imarg 9y ago
    You are probably right. I must admit that I have actually never outsourced anything. But it seems to me this is the way to go. Maybe the problem of finding the right people to outsource to, is actually a business idea? Not like the existing sites like odesk (they are called upwork now?) are providing but something like a curated list of people of various disciplines to outsource to?
    - devrandomguy 9y ago
      Might be worth checking out the various issue-bounty setups, like Bountysource. Focus on documenting the design of your MVP in a public Git repo, then file issues with a bounty on them to get tasks done. As soon as you have something working, you can "Show HN" for a blast of dev publicity. If you are looking for small scale funding, without getting into a VC situation, then you could encourage supporters / users to contribute on issues that they personally care about. This sort of requires you to open-source your project, but maybe you can isolate the secret sauce in one tiny little backend service? Or, maybe the true value of your startup isn't in the source code, but rather in relationships with / between users, in which case you don't really need to worry about someone scooping your work with a simple `git clone`.
isalmon 9y ago
Assuming it's because you have a full-time job that takes the majority of your time: 1. Cut your expenses 2. Go to your boss, negotiate working part time 3. Use this time to start your side project 4. Make sure you don't use you company's equipment, make sure you don't work on your project during the time you're supposed to do your regular work.
- rabidrat 9y ago
  Have you successfully followed this plan? It seems to have a couple of holes in it. I tried #2 at 3 separate jobs over 10 years, to no avail. Best I got was "does it have to be on the books?" i.e. I could call in sick or take random afternoons off and my manager would look the other way. If you are in demand, companies want you to work more, not less. I was, however, able to negotiate 80% time at my last job, because I made it a condition of my employment before I started working. But that was a hard sell too. In particular they wanted to make sure I was not going to be moonlighting with my extra time. I don't agree with that attitude (my personal projects certainly take a lot of time and energy, even though I'm not making any money with them), but that's how the market works, even for a software engineer.
  - isalmon 9y ago
    I have. Built a multi-million dollar company this way.
    - bostonvaulter2 9y ago
      Can you explain more? I'm interested in the full story.
      - isalmon 9y ago
        I will definitely write something about it one day, I just think it's a little bit prematurely.
  - crgt 9y ago
    I also have done this. When companies reach out via recruiters, it never hurts to ask for what you want. Worst case, it's an easy screen; best case, you get what you want..
a-saleh 9y ago
Unfortunately I realised that my brain just doesn't work that way. It seems that for any meaningful, productive work I need at least hour and half. On smaller budget I can only do chores, i.e. pay an invoice or answer a trivial email. As if there was some weird rule stating "if you can't complete a thing in 15 mins, it will take you at least an hour" For harder work, I need 3 hours and quiet. 4 hours seem to be the most efficient time chunk anyway, and after that it starts sharply falling (usually there is little difference if I work for 6 or 10 hours straight)
- jacobevelyn 9y ago
  I am exactly the same.
- mikekchar 9y ago
  I think it's a matter of practice. I experimented with trying to do a long kata (the old Core Wars game) one pomodoro a day [0]. I didn't finish it, but I managed 66 pomodoros. I kept a detailed TODO list and I was really surprised that I could maintain a fairly decent pace. The link has Asciinema videos of every Pomodoro I did. It's painfully slow watching me type, but if you use the ">" key, you can speed up the video (3-4 times seems about right). At the beginning I had difficulty getting much done, but by the end it only took me about a minute to get into the zone. I think the other main problem I had (which culminated in me not continuing) is maintaining a regular schedule. 1 pomodoro a day doesn't seem that hard to do, but sustaining the pace over the long term was pretty difficult. I ended up skipping lots of days (sometimes going a week between pomodoros) and finally gave up. One of these days I'll learn how to overcome that problem :-) [0] - http://mikekchar.github.io/core-wars-kata/ http://mikekchar.github.io/core-wars-kata/
  - travisjungroth 9y ago
    You spent 30 hours on a coding problem? How big was this thing?
    - mikekchar 9y ago

1337biz 9y ago

This! Time is so much more valueable than $1k.

zeep 9y ago
Or maybe it's "the someone" that would tell you how to spend your free time and money that would be more valuable...

Jugurtha 9y ago

Great idea. "The first 100 hours: systemd-analyze critical-chain" or something to that effect.

ianai 9y ago

Time really is a hard constraint. If I could dial back my full time commitment to 30 hours per week I probably would have finished that iOS app side project.

csallen 9y ago

I like this idea. Added it here to my list of ideas for useful and interesting articles: https://www.indiehackers.com/@csallen/ideas-for-articles?nocache=3 https://www.indiehackers.com/@csallen/ideas-for-articles?noc... Would love to hear more of your suggestions!

pavel_lishin 9y ago
I think csallen is marketing with us, you guys.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

toomanyrichies 9y ago

Agreed. With so many different "growth hacking" strategies out there already, the "45 Min/Day" idea would really help to clarify which priorities should come first.

imarg 9y ago

Outsourcing. I 've been a wantrepreneur almost a decade now (although the last couple of years I have almost accepted defeat) and what I have realized is that if you can't find the time then probably outsourcing is the best solution. That or start small. Really small.

1337biz 9y ago
Depending on the job but finding the right people to outsource to seems sometimes more work than actually doing the project myself.
- imarg 9y ago
  You are probably right. I must admit that I have actually never outsourced anything. But it seems to me this is the way to go. Maybe the problem of finding the right people to outsource to, is actually a business idea? Not like the existing sites like odesk (they are called upwork now?) are providing but something like a curated list of people of various disciplines to outsource to?
  - devrandomguy 9y ago
    Might be worth checking out the various issue-bounty setups, like Bountysource. Focus on documenting the design of your MVP in a public Git repo, then file issues with a bounty on them to get tasks done. As soon as you have something working, you can "Show HN" for a blast of dev publicity. If you are looking for small scale funding, without getting into a VC situation, then you could encourage supporters / users to contribute on issues that they personally care about. This sort of requires you to open-source your project, but maybe you can isolate the secret sauce in one tiny little backend service? Or, maybe the true value of your startup isn't in the source code, but rather in relationships with / between users, in which case you don't really need to worry about someone scooping your work with a simple `git clone`.

isalmon 9y ago

Assuming it's because you have a full-time job that takes the majority of your time: 1. Cut your expenses 2. Go to your boss, negotiate working part time 3. Use this time to start your side project 4. Make sure you don't use you company's equipment, make sure you don't work on your project during the time you're supposed to do your regular work.

rabidrat 9y ago
Have you successfully followed this plan? It seems to have a couple of holes in it. I tried #2 at 3 separate jobs over 10 years, to no avail. Best I got was "does it have to be on the books?" i.e. I could call in sick or take random afternoons off and my manager would look the other way. If you are in demand, companies want you to work more, not less. I was, however, able to negotiate 80% time at my last job, because I made it a condition of my employment before I started working. But that was a hard sell too. In particular they wanted to make sure I was not going to be moonlighting with my extra time. I don't agree with that attitude (my personal projects certainly take a lot of time and energy, even though I'm not making any money with them), but that's how the market works, even for a software engineer.
- isalmon 9y ago
  I have. Built a multi-million dollar company this way.
  - bostonvaulter2 9y ago
    Can you explain more? I'm interested in the full story.
    - isalmon 9y ago
      I will definitely write something about it one day, I just think it's a little bit prematurely.
- crgt 9y ago
  I also have done this. When companies reach out via recruiters, it never hurts to ask for what you want. Worst case, it's an easy screen; best case, you get what you want..

a-saleh 9y ago

Unfortunately I realised that my brain just doesn't work that way. It seems that for any meaningful, productive work I need at least hour and half. On smaller budget I can only do chores, i.e. pay an invoice or answer a trivial email. As if there was some weird rule stating "if you can't complete a thing in 15 mins, it will take you at least an hour" For harder work, I need 3 hours and quiet. 4 hours seem to be the most efficient time chunk anyway, and after that it starts sharply falling (usually there is little difference if I work for 6 or 10 hours straight)

jacobevelyn 9y ago
I am exactly the same.
mikekchar 9y ago
I think it's a matter of practice. I experimented with trying to do a long kata (the old Core Wars game) one pomodoro a day [0]. I didn't finish it, but I managed 66 pomodoros. I kept a detailed TODO list and I was really surprised that I could maintain a fairly decent pace. The link has Asciinema videos of every Pomodoro I did. It's painfully slow watching me type, but if you use the ">" key, you can speed up the video (3-4 times seems about right). At the beginning I had difficulty getting much done, but by the end it only took me about a minute to get into the zone. I think the other main problem I had (which culminated in me not continuing) is maintaining a regular schedule. 1 pomodoro a day doesn't seem that hard to do, but sustaining the pace over the long term was pretty difficult. I ended up skipping lots of days (sometimes going a week between pomodoros) and finally gave up. One of these days I'll learn how to overcome that problem :-) [0] - http://mikekchar.github.io/core-wars-kata/ http://mikekchar.github.io/core-wars-kata/
- travisjungroth 9y ago
  You spent 30 hours on a coding problem? How big was this thing?
  - mikekchar 9y ago