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I ran a small company like this quite successfully earlier in my career. If you think this is awesome what goes unmentioned is how lonely it can get. Also, any

by jcroll 7y ago

I ran a small company like this quite successfully earlier in my career. If you think this is awesome what goes unmentioned is how lonely it can get. Also, any issues you have (business or technology) you bear the brunt of alone. A coworking space doesn't really help either imo, if you like working with others you will miss having coworkers. Just something I think worth mentioning if you think this is something you might want to pursue.

grepfru_it 7y ago
are there any groups out there for the small technology business owner? i'm extremely hesitant of asking about this because it's a fine line between brainstorming technology problems with like-minds and getting owners who want you to problem-solve for them.
- randiantech 7y ago
  Indiehacker is a good starting point
- reneherse 7y ago
  Paul Jarvis, author of "Company of One" has a private academy/community group.[1] I'm not a member, but plan to consider it after I finish the book. [1] https://ofone.co/learn/ https://ofone.co/learn/
cattlefarmer 7y ago
Yes, the worst thing is the huge amount of decision making even over very minor details that has to be done all the time. Coding and maintaining the servers isn't even that difficult. It's all the little stuff like scheduling with clients/vendors suppliers, wondering when is a good time to chase that invoice, which words to change in your proposal for this client, and so all. If you have employees, how to manage them, how to review their work, how to mentor them. It really is death by a thousand paper cuts.
- gridspy 7y ago
  What can help with this is to start building little systems and solve these problems in general. Dedicate a given day of the month or week for all your meetings so scheduling is simpler. Chase invoices on the same date every month, chase all invoices that are overdue by some threshold you have set. Just follow the rule, and chase using a template. Perhaps even code the first few chases into an automated system. Try to avoid customized proposals, use templates for many things. I agree this one is hard. Managing employees, you have to consider each employee is a force multiplier. The idea here is to invest a day to get a week or similar. Overall, you need to just invest a limited time into each decision. After that time, go with what feels best even if it isn't perfect and move on. I find the same thing hard myself.
mrlala 7y ago
Agreed. Part of a two person team, but the other is mainly on the business development front and I'm the main designer/coder. It's so hard sometimes. No one to really bounce ideas off of, every little thing you have to do yourself. Staying inspired to work is sometimes difficult, because you are literally doing everything yourself it just gets so overwhelming.
laurex 7y ago
I know a few people who have entrepreneur Marco Polo support groups- asynchronous but still seeing actual faces and human expressions.
W-Stool 7y ago
Years ago Joel Spolsky on his site "Joel on Software" had a "Business of Software" forum where a lot of very small ISVs hung out and discussed items of mutual interest. Anyone know where those kinds of folks hang out now to discuss things?
- sellingwebsite 7y ago
  https://discuss.bootstrapped.fm https://discuss.bootstrapped.fm
  - LeonB 7y ago
    I second this. It’s a small group of people but with very focused interests and experience. Really good group.
- yakshaving_jgt 7y ago
  There’s https://barnacl.es/ https://barnacl.es/
  - sooheon 7y ago
    Looks like lobste.rs. Any relation?
    - sellingwebsite 7y ago
      I'd presume that they use the same codebase: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
    - pushcx 7y ago
      Yep. I've run Barnacles for a few years and became the Lobsters admin almost two years ago. They use the same codebase. https://github.com/pushcx/barnacl.es https://github.com/pushcx/barnacl.es https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
- kaeland 7y ago
wenbin 7y ago
(author of this blog post here) The hardest part of building this business is to keep motivated for a relatively long period of time. I'm still early in this startup journey. This is only the 2nd year of me working full-time on Listen Notes. I think it would be helpful to surround yourself with like-minded people (online or offline) -- we are social animals. Indie Hackers is pretty good: https://www.indiehackers.com/ https://www.indiehackers.com/ I live in San Francisco and I used to work for companies, so at least I can often hang out with some friends/former coworkers who are doing startups or working in tiny startups. In my coworker space, people from different companies rarely talk to each other...
- nefitty 7y ago
  Hey, thanks for building LN. I was actually admiring the site design just yesterday while I scrolled through some episodes. "Dang, I hope I can build something like this one day." You managed to pull me away from my previous preference, player.fm. Good job!
- mongol 7y ago
  Was it hard to come up with the idea and believe in it enough to pursuit it to where you are today? I think self doubt must be a challenge, especially when you are alone and still far from a proven concept and nothing so show to customers. Was this idea the only one you evaluated before you chose it or did you also have other ideas, of which this one you liked best?
- ravedave5 7y ago
  Why did you choose to have ec2s with postgres rather than using RDS? I've found it saves me a ton of time dealing with upgrades worrying about backups etc to have RDS handle it.
  - icebraining 7y ago
    Not OP, but I set up a SaaS platform, and I also ran on straight Postgres (RDS wasn't an option, we weren't on AWS). In my experience, after setting up WAL-E to continuously backup to S3 and giving it plenty of extra disk space (for stalled WAL segments), it worked pretty well with no intervention. Restores occasionally took a bit, but they never failed (we managed a couple dozen databases over five years).
spiderfarmer 7y ago
This feels like bragging but I also run a one man company and the loneliness is what I enjoy most. Granted, I only work from 08:45 to 14:30 and some hours in the evening, because I bring my kids to school and I pick them up in the afternoon, but the hours when I’m alone, I am 100% productive. When the kids are at home I mostly do some kind of manual labor to get some sort of exercise. Right now I’m building a shed. Last year I built my home office/guest house. To make up for the missing social interaction I play football with friends, do some consultancy jobs on the side and I help where I can with my son’s football club. This really is my dream job and I enjoy it thoroughly. I have no problems staying motivated and every day I have loads of inspiration. The moment I lose motivation will be a sign for me to sell everything and start something new. I ran an online marketing company before this and that was really exhausting for an introvert like me. Selling that company was the best decision I ever made, apart from marrying my wife.
- andretti1977 7y ago
  You have described exactly the kind if work/life balance i desire! I do enjoy a lot working alone since i've got family with little children too. I won't add any value with my comment, i just wanted to thank you since it feels just a little bit easier to know somebody else is having what i want: one day i may have it too.
  - spiderfarmer 7y ago
    You can do it. A good life/work balance is something I hope everyone will find. It took me 15 years to get to where I am today.
- lacampbell 7y ago
  You're living my dream. I've been working on a side project all year but struggle to find the energy and build momentum while working a full time job. Did you quit work to start this, or did you manage to work around your day job?
  - spiderfarmer 7y ago
brailsafe 7y ago
I'm kind of experencing this right now, a remote worker whose working on a thing solo. Feel like I need to dip back into a team for a while
jspdown 7y ago
Some people enjoy being alone, others don't. You don't know in which group you are until you experience it. Unlike you, I wasn't running my own business, I was just working remotely for a company where the HQ was on a +12h timezone. I felt the exact same way, even if I was working from a coworking space.
jith 7y ago
The lonely aspect is incredibly difficult, especially if you're an extroverted person that draws their energy from collaborating with others. I also find the lack of accountability to others as hard. I know there are services that cater to this type of founder/freelancer.
- gridspy 7y ago
  I have found that running a twitter account is helping for this. I have <20 people following and their encouragement that my stuff is not total rubbish really helps.
drusepth 7y ago
My company's Slack is just me and ~12 Slack bots all doing various things (reporting subscription changes, feedback, bug reports, error alerting, CI status, etc). It's amazing to look at and functions immaculately, but occasionally does have the grim reminder of just how alone it is being on your own. Especially when you think "this all works great, but would still work equally great with another human or two here."
- the_resistence 7y ago
  Dude, I would love more insights on this. I have trouble finding assistants for the most rudimentary stuff and am constantly looking for IT solutions. Please, please, please. Maybe an HN post?
  - drusepth 7y ago
    I started a Medium draft a while back just detailing what all bots I use and how I organize all the channels, but it honestly felt pretty boring/droning. I'll see if I can clean it up and finish it though; if you have any particular questions you'd like to see included (selfish: so I can feel like it's less braggy and more interesting), I'd love to hear them. Contact info is on profile if you don't want to derail this thread. :)
- blueside 7y ago
  This type of life sounds like only a few steps away from a Black Mirror episode
jv22222 7y ago
The part that I find the loneliest is making all the core technical and business decisions by myself. I really miss being able to bounce ideas of a partner. Sure, you can do it with friends etc. But at some point you just become menace asking them to think about your stuff so much.
- is_true 7y ago
  I used to do this with a friend, for me thinking about his problems was refreshing. We worked in different domains, so it felt like a challenge not work related.
bythckr 7y ago
"I ran a small company", what happened? Why did you stop or did it get stopped? What was the reason? One man show / sole proprietorship is great, but its bad for family life. It's 24x7. Atleast thats how I saw my dad, dining room was the company meeting room and we all are unpaid company "helps",assisting our Dad support the family. This is the main thing that holds me back from being an entrepreneur (sole proprietorship 2.0).
- em-bee 7y ago
  you don't have to do it that way. i run a company, and i don't get my family to help me. as long as i earn enough money to cover the family expenses, i don't need to work crazy hours. i get to take time off whenever i want, or whenever the family needs it, and not when my boss allows it.
cik 7y ago
Mind expanding on the coworking bit? I always think about hitting up a coworking just to have some human contact when I'm working on a project. I've yet to actually do it however.
- em-bee 7y ago
  it depends on the co-working space. at a wework place i found everyone stuck in their little offices, and hardly any opportunity for interaction. at another space i find people are more social. they organize events, coding workshops, even cooking classes, occasionally they cook meals. there is a fully stocked kitchen that everyone can use whenever they like. just pay for materials used. people often go out for meals together. etc... when you are working, people will leave you alone, but if you know who else is there and what they do, you can talk to them and help each other. it helps that many are freelancers and not secretive startups hustling for investment money.
buboard 7y ago
artists and farmers have lived like that for centuries. i dont think it s so uncommon that we have to start warning people about it

by jcroll 7y ago

grepfru_it 7y ago

are there any groups out there for the small technology business owner? i'm extremely hesitant of asking about this because it's a fine line between brainstorming technology problems with like-minds and getting owners who want you to problem-solve for them.

randiantech 7y ago
Indiehacker is a good starting point
reneherse 7y ago
Paul Jarvis, author of "Company of One" has a private academy/community group.[1] I'm not a member, but plan to consider it after I finish the book. [1] https://ofone.co/learn/ https://ofone.co/learn/

cattlefarmer 7y ago

Yes, the worst thing is the huge amount of decision making even over very minor details that has to be done all the time. Coding and maintaining the servers isn't even that difficult. It's all the little stuff like scheduling with clients/vendors suppliers, wondering when is a good time to chase that invoice, which words to change in your proposal for this client, and so all. If you have employees, how to manage them, how to review their work, how to mentor them. It really is death by a thousand paper cuts.

gridspy 7y ago
What can help with this is to start building little systems and solve these problems in general. Dedicate a given day of the month or week for all your meetings so scheduling is simpler. Chase invoices on the same date every month, chase all invoices that are overdue by some threshold you have set. Just follow the rule, and chase using a template. Perhaps even code the first few chases into an automated system. Try to avoid customized proposals, use templates for many things. I agree this one is hard. Managing employees, you have to consider each employee is a force multiplier. The idea here is to invest a day to get a week or similar. Overall, you need to just invest a limited time into each decision. After that time, go with what feels best even if it isn't perfect and move on. I find the same thing hard myself.

mrlala 7y ago

Agreed. Part of a two person team, but the other is mainly on the business development front and I'm the main designer/coder. It's so hard sometimes. No one to really bounce ideas off of, every little thing you have to do yourself. Staying inspired to work is sometimes difficult, because you are literally doing everything yourself it just gets so overwhelming.

laurex 7y ago

I know a few people who have entrepreneur Marco Polo support groups- asynchronous but still seeing actual faces and human expressions.

W-Stool 7y ago

Years ago Joel Spolsky on his site "Joel on Software" had a "Business of Software" forum where a lot of very small ISVs hung out and discussed items of mutual interest. Anyone know where those kinds of folks hang out now to discuss things?

sellingwebsite 7y ago
https://discuss.bootstrapped.fm https://discuss.bootstrapped.fm
- LeonB 7y ago
  I second this. It’s a small group of people but with very focused interests and experience. Really good group.
yakshaving_jgt 7y ago
There’s https://barnacl.es/ https://barnacl.es/
- sooheon 7y ago
  Looks like lobste.rs. Any relation?
  - sellingwebsite 7y ago
    I'd presume that they use the same codebase: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
  - pushcx 7y ago
    Yep. I've run Barnacles for a few years and became the Lobsters admin almost two years ago. They use the same codebase. https://github.com/pushcx/barnacl.es https://github.com/pushcx/barnacl.es https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
kaeland 7y ago

wenbin 7y ago

(author of this blog post here) The hardest part of building this business is to keep motivated for a relatively long period of time. I'm still early in this startup journey. This is only the 2nd year of me working full-time on Listen Notes. I think it would be helpful to surround yourself with like-minded people (online or offline) -- we are social animals. Indie Hackers is pretty good: https://www.indiehackers.com/ https://www.indiehackers.com/ I live in San Francisco and I used to work for companies, so at least I can often hang out with some friends/former coworkers who are doing startups or working in tiny startups. In my coworker space, people from different companies rarely talk to each other...

nefitty 7y ago
Hey, thanks for building LN. I was actually admiring the site design just yesterday while I scrolled through some episodes. "Dang, I hope I can build something like this one day." You managed to pull me away from my previous preference, player.fm. Good job!
mongol 7y ago
Was it hard to come up with the idea and believe in it enough to pursuit it to where you are today? I think self doubt must be a challenge, especially when you are alone and still far from a proven concept and nothing so show to customers. Was this idea the only one you evaluated before you chose it or did you also have other ideas, of which this one you liked best?
ravedave5 7y ago
Why did you choose to have ec2s with postgres rather than using RDS? I've found it saves me a ton of time dealing with upgrades worrying about backups etc to have RDS handle it.
- icebraining 7y ago
  Not OP, but I set up a SaaS platform, and I also ran on straight Postgres (RDS wasn't an option, we weren't on AWS). In my experience, after setting up WAL-E to continuously backup to S3 and giving it plenty of extra disk space (for stalled WAL segments), it worked pretty well with no intervention. Restores occasionally took a bit, but they never failed (we managed a couple dozen databases over five years).

spiderfarmer 7y ago

This feels like bragging but I also run a one man company and the loneliness is what I enjoy most. Granted, I only work from 08:45 to 14:30 and some hours in the evening, because I bring my kids to school and I pick them up in the afternoon, but the hours when I’m alone, I am 100% productive. When the kids are at home I mostly do some kind of manual labor to get some sort of exercise. Right now I’m building a shed. Last year I built my home office/guest house. To make up for the missing social interaction I play football with friends, do some consultancy jobs on the side and I help where I can with my son’s football club. This really is my dream job and I enjoy it thoroughly. I have no problems staying motivated and every day I have loads of inspiration. The moment I lose motivation will be a sign for me to sell everything and start something new. I ran an online marketing company before this and that was really exhausting for an introvert like me. Selling that company was the best decision I ever made, apart from marrying my wife.

andretti1977 7y ago
You have described exactly the kind if work/life balance i desire! I do enjoy a lot working alone since i've got family with little children too. I won't add any value with my comment, i just wanted to thank you since it feels just a little bit easier to know somebody else is having what i want: one day i may have it too.
- spiderfarmer 7y ago
  You can do it. A good life/work balance is something I hope everyone will find. It took me 15 years to get to where I am today.
lacampbell 7y ago
You're living my dream. I've been working on a side project all year but struggle to find the energy and build momentum while working a full time job. Did you quit work to start this, or did you manage to work around your day job?
- spiderfarmer 7y ago

brailsafe 7y ago

I'm kind of experencing this right now, a remote worker whose working on a thing solo. Feel like I need to dip back into a team for a while

jspdown 7y ago

Some people enjoy being alone, others don't. You don't know in which group you are until you experience it. Unlike you, I wasn't running my own business, I was just working remotely for a company where the HQ was on a +12h timezone. I felt the exact same way, even if I was working from a coworking space.

jith 7y ago

The lonely aspect is incredibly difficult, especially if you're an extroverted person that draws their energy from collaborating with others. I also find the lack of accountability to others as hard. I know there are services that cater to this type of founder/freelancer.

gridspy 7y ago
I have found that running a twitter account is helping for this. I have <20 people following and their encouragement that my stuff is not total rubbish really helps.

drusepth 7y ago

My company's Slack is just me and ~12 Slack bots all doing various things (reporting subscription changes, feedback, bug reports, error alerting, CI status, etc). It's amazing to look at and functions immaculately, but occasionally does have the grim reminder of just how alone it is being on your own. Especially when you think "this all works great, but would still work equally great with another human or two here."

the_resistence 7y ago
Dude, I would love more insights on this. I have trouble finding assistants for the most rudimentary stuff and am constantly looking for IT solutions. Please, please, please. Maybe an HN post?
- drusepth 7y ago
  I started a Medium draft a while back just detailing what all bots I use and how I organize all the channels, but it honestly felt pretty boring/droning. I'll see if I can clean it up and finish it though; if you have any particular questions you'd like to see included (selfish: so I can feel like it's less braggy and more interesting), I'd love to hear them. Contact info is on profile if you don't want to derail this thread. :)
blueside 7y ago
This type of life sounds like only a few steps away from a Black Mirror episode

jv22222 7y ago

The part that I find the loneliest is making all the core technical and business decisions by myself. I really miss being able to bounce ideas of a partner. Sure, you can do it with friends etc. But at some point you just become menace asking them to think about your stuff so much.

is_true 7y ago
I used to do this with a friend, for me thinking about his problems was refreshing. We worked in different domains, so it felt like a challenge not work related.

bythckr 7y ago

"I ran a small company", what happened? Why did you stop or did it get stopped? What was the reason? One man show / sole proprietorship is great, but its bad for family life. It's 24x7. Atleast thats how I saw my dad, dining room was the company meeting room and we all are unpaid company "helps",assisting our Dad support the family. This is the main thing that holds me back from being an entrepreneur (sole proprietorship 2.0).

em-bee 7y ago
you don't have to do it that way. i run a company, and i don't get my family to help me. as long as i earn enough money to cover the family expenses, i don't need to work crazy hours. i get to take time off whenever i want, or whenever the family needs it, and not when my boss allows it.

cik 7y ago

Mind expanding on the coworking bit? I always think about hitting up a coworking just to have some human contact when I'm working on a project. I've yet to actually do it however.

em-bee 7y ago
it depends on the co-working space. at a wework place i found everyone stuck in their little offices, and hardly any opportunity for interaction. at another space i find people are more social. they organize events, coding workshops, even cooking classes, occasionally they cook meals. there is a fully stocked kitchen that everyone can use whenever they like. just pay for materials used. people often go out for meals together. etc... when you are working, people will leave you alone, but if you know who else is there and what they do, you can talk to them and help each other. it helps that many are freelancers and not secretive startups hustling for investment money.

buboard 7y ago

artists and farmers have lived like that for centuries. i dont think it s so uncommon that we have to start warning people about it