6 ms·

I realize that might not be what you want to hear, but my advice would be to target a different (larger) MRR. $500/month is not a sustainable or even reasonable

by jwr 8y ago

I realize that might not be what you want to hear, but my advice would be to target a different (larger) MRR. $500/month is not a sustainable or even reasonable business. It's fine to start something "on the side", but I believe you should immediately set your goals to something that in the long term will be sustainable, unless it's really supposed to be only a hobby/toy. If you've never ran a business before, one important bit of advice is that you should assume revenue targets of 2-3x of what you'd like to actually earn in post-tax personal income. Most people underestimate the costs of running a business and forget that they will need to pay for a computer, software, accounting services, and lots of other things. Depending on where you live, I'd say target $3k-$10k in MRR.

gwbas1c 8y ago
Downvoted for what should be a very obvious observation. Start with one $500 / month business. Next month do another $500 / month business. Rinse, lather, repeat. After 10 months, it's $5000 / month. After 36 months it's over $15,000 / month.
- takinola 8y ago
  While I agree with the spirit of this comment, I would suggest that it does not really work like that. There are some aspects of running a business (eg support, maintenance, etc) that do not scale linearly like you propose. Running 3 $500/month businesses is much harder than running a single $1,500/month business. In all likelihood, your $500/month business will open a door to a $1,000/month business which will lead you to a $2,000/month business. You have to think of each part as a step on a path. You will never get to the last step if you never take the first small steps. To be clear, I am totally in agreement that the important thing is to start wherever you can.
- spraak 8y ago
  That seems oversimplified
- inscionent 8y ago
  Step 1: Start Business Step 2: ??? Step 3: GoTo 1
  - SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
    Step 2 is make $500 / month, duh.
- briandear 8y ago
  Now you are running n businesses — tuning just one is tough enough. “Hey Bob, we have a customer support ticket for business 65” “What does 65 do again?”
  - acct1771 8y ago
    Name your businesses better.
- icedchai 8y ago
  Very few of these micro-saas businesses will even hit $500/month. You wind up with a lot of crap you have to maintain. It's death by 1000 cuts.
  - jamescampbell 8y ago
    That depends on how you design it. OP said “super simple” so assuming a very basic feature set and maintainable code.
andersonvom 8y ago
$500/month will go a long way in many countries out there or for many life styles. Since we don't know who this person is or how/where they live, I wouldn't automatically assume they need to target a higher MRR.
- imjustsaying 8y ago
  I agree with this to this extent: if you have no dependents, no plans to save money for retirement, you own your house or have a free living arrangement, you don't need to travel between cities, you don't maintain a car, then this is absolutely possible in many countries. I just wanted to point this out for any potential digital nomads out there - yes it's possible, but probably not in most people's cases, although I'd like to hear stories of people who've made it work. Personally I could never make it work with less than $1k/month - but much of that was due to housing costs. Keep in mind though the costs of even bare bones laptop & internet connection business models start becoming significant as a percentage when you operate at revenues this low. Replacing one broken laptop is going to eat more than half your monthly revenue, for example - and laptops/desktops are generally even more expensive when you're not in the US or China.
  - sixothree 8y ago
    Additionally, $500 suggests a certain amount of work required and level of skill.
- justaguyhere 8y ago
  500$ (lets say after tax) is HUGE in many non-western countries. Depending on the city, it is possible to live very comfortably at this amount for a single person. And decently, for a family. And that includes medical insurance. We aren't talking NY or SF here, but there are lots of nice places in the world that aren't Silicon Valley :P
  - fierro 8y ago
    lol yep. my friends in Medellin make about 500$ a month and live great. They get to eat out occasionally, party, go on trips. Nothing lavish, but sustainable.
jwr 8y ago
Ok, reading the responses to my comment, it seems I should have been more explicit. 1. I do understand that cost of living varies. Still, I will insist that $500/month is too low. Even a single $2000 computer amortized over 24 months is going to eat nearly 1/5 of your revenue. Remember, your housing probably isn't free, you do have to plan for retirement, you do have to go to the dentist from time to time. Many people make unrealistic assumptions here. 2. If you start with $500 as your goal, you will end up reaching $500. You will have something that you have to support and maintain. If you designed it as a $500 dollar business, there is no good way forward, and you are stuck.
- Retric 8y ago
  Getting a 2000 computer every 2 years is vast overkill. A 1000$ computer every 4+ years is fine for the vast majority of users and under that if you don’t need a laptop. As to 500$ a month, many people live fairly comfortably on that in very low cost of living areas. Also, setting that money aside can add up quickly.
  - systematical 8y ago
    Can confirm, my $1,200 i7, 16 GB Ram, SSD is four years old now. I can easily get through the year with it as well.
  - stevenwliao 8y ago
    Saving like that on computers is a difference of about $60/month. I think most developers reading Hacker News can add more value than that with the faster hardware.
    - Retric 8y ago
      Not if your only income is a ~500$ a month side business. The effort of upgrading hardware take quite a bit of development time. Even if hardware was free I don’t think a 2 year upgrade cycle is worth it based on how slowly hardware is improving. As to buying 1k vs 2k computers without a gaming graphics card or the need for massive storage you hit real diminishing returns at around 1k. 500gb SSD (90$) case (30$) PSU (40$) CPU (200$) MB (100$) RAM (200$) -= 660 for the guts, buy two 22 inch 1080P monitors for 100$ and you got 140$ for an OS keyboard and mouse. Sure you could spend 4x that but it’s not going to make that much difference.

by jwr 8y ago

gwbas1c 8y ago

Downvoted for what should be a very obvious observation. Start with one $500 / month business. Next month do another $500 / month business. Rinse, lather, repeat. After 10 months, it's $5000 / month. After 36 months it's over $15,000 / month.

takinola 8y ago
While I agree with the spirit of this comment, I would suggest that it does not really work like that. There are some aspects of running a business (eg support, maintenance, etc) that do not scale linearly like you propose. Running 3 $500/month businesses is much harder than running a single $1,500/month business. In all likelihood, your $500/month business will open a door to a $1,000/month business which will lead you to a $2,000/month business. You have to think of each part as a step on a path. You will never get to the last step if you never take the first small steps. To be clear, I am totally in agreement that the important thing is to start wherever you can.
spraak 8y ago
That seems oversimplified
inscionent 8y ago
Step 1: Start Business Step 2: ??? Step 3: GoTo 1
- SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
  Step 2 is make $500 / month, duh.
briandear 8y ago
Now you are running n businesses — tuning just one is tough enough. “Hey Bob, we have a customer support ticket for business 65” “What does 65 do again?”
- acct1771 8y ago
  Name your businesses better.
icedchai 8y ago
Very few of these micro-saas businesses will even hit $500/month. You wind up with a lot of crap you have to maintain. It's death by 1000 cuts.
- jamescampbell 8y ago
  That depends on how you design it. OP said “super simple” so assuming a very basic feature set and maintainable code.

andersonvom 8y ago

$500/month will go a long way in many countries out there or for many life styles. Since we don't know who this person is or how/where they live, I wouldn't automatically assume they need to target a higher MRR.

imjustsaying 8y ago
I agree with this to this extent: if you have no dependents, no plans to save money for retirement, you own your house or have a free living arrangement, you don't need to travel between cities, you don't maintain a car, then this is absolutely possible in many countries. I just wanted to point this out for any potential digital nomads out there - yes it's possible, but probably not in most people's cases, although I'd like to hear stories of people who've made it work. Personally I could never make it work with less than $1k/month - but much of that was due to housing costs. Keep in mind though the costs of even bare bones laptop & internet connection business models start becoming significant as a percentage when you operate at revenues this low. Replacing one broken laptop is going to eat more than half your monthly revenue, for example - and laptops/desktops are generally even more expensive when you're not in the US or China.
- sixothree 8y ago
  Additionally, $500 suggests a certain amount of work required and level of skill.
justaguyhere 8y ago
500$ (lets say after tax) is HUGE in many non-western countries. Depending on the city, it is possible to live very comfortably at this amount for a single person. And decently, for a family. And that includes medical insurance. We aren't talking NY or SF here, but there are lots of nice places in the world that aren't Silicon Valley :P
- fierro 8y ago
  lol yep. my friends in Medellin make about 500$ a month and live great. They get to eat out occasionally, party, go on trips. Nothing lavish, but sustainable.

jwr 8y ago

Ok, reading the responses to my comment, it seems I should have been more explicit. 1. I do understand that cost of living varies. Still, I will insist that $500/month is too low. Even a single $2000 computer amortized over 24 months is going to eat nearly 1/5 of your revenue. Remember, your housing probably isn't free, you do have to plan for retirement, you do have to go to the dentist from time to time. Many people make unrealistic assumptions here. 2. If you start with $500 as your goal, you will end up reaching $500. You will have something that you have to support and maintain. If you designed it as a $500 dollar business, there is no good way forward, and you are stuck.

Retric 8y ago
Getting a 2000 computer every 2 years is vast overkill. A 1000$ computer every 4+ years is fine for the vast majority of users and under that if you don’t need a laptop. As to 500$ a month, many people live fairly comfortably on that in very low cost of living areas. Also, setting that money aside can add up quickly.
- systematical 8y ago
  Can confirm, my $1,200 i7, 16 GB Ram, SSD is four years old now. I can easily get through the year with it as well.
- stevenwliao 8y ago
  Saving like that on computers is a difference of about $60/month. I think most developers reading Hacker News can add more value than that with the faster hardware.
  - Retric 8y ago
    Not if your only income is a ~500$ a month side business. The effort of upgrading hardware take quite a bit of development time. Even if hardware was free I don’t think a 2 year upgrade cycle is worth it based on how slowly hardware is improving. As to buying 1k vs 2k computers without a gaming graphics card or the need for massive storage you hit real diminishing returns at around 1k. 500gb SSD (90$) case (30$) PSU (40$) CPU (200$) MB (100$) RAM (200$) -= 660 for the guts, buy two 22 inch 1080P monitors for 100$ and you got 140$ for an OS keyboard and mouse. Sure you could spend 4x that but it’s not going to make that much difference.