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I really respect your choice to optimize for balance and enjoyment. My journey as a solopreneur is similar, but I still struggle with giving myself permission

I really respect your choice to optimize for balance and enjoyment. My journey as a solopreneur is similar, but I still struggle with giving myself permission to rest. "If I take a break, the company is at a stand-still!" Despite the self-imposed pressure and anxiety though, it is still a dream come true. I actually had a shocking realization recently that mornings are now my favorite time of day! When I was a corporate engineer, I would get the sunday scaries every week and find any excuse to push back bedtime another hour. But now, I wake up excited and energized to work on a project I love... and maybe someday I'll give myself permission to do that less than 7 days a week. Anyway, I digress. I'm so happy to hear your SaaS is going strong after 9 years. Cheers! And here's to 9 more!

nicbou 2y ago
That's a skill you can work on. You can also progressively structure your business so that you never need to be working at a given time. It took a me few years of observing what brings my attention back you work and what controls my schedule the most, and many little practices to deal with that. Now the thing runs itself, and I can take much longer vacations. It was worth the effort.
rvnx 2y ago
He found the right niche, a passive product-led no-stress B2B low-maintenance & non-critical tool (because it is monitoring). It is so difficult to find such niches, so congrats for the success!
- ensocode 2y ago
  Isn't it somehow critical as it is monitoring? Thinking of monitoring critical prod interfaces
  - rvnx 2y ago
    Useful and important certainly I agree, but it is not blocking you in your work if the SaaS provider goes down (unlike a payment provider, a hosting company, a CRM, etc…)
  - therealdrag0 2y ago
    Ya I was a little surprised at the low availability guarantees. I wonder who uses this service and why.
jmnicolas 2y ago
> 7 days a week IMHO you're risking a burnout and working on your company 0 day a week. It would be better to be reasonable now than to kill your company in a few years because you can't stand it anymore. Take this next week-end off and go do something totally "useless" like walking in nature ;) It will recharge you.
- BigJ1211 2y ago
  I'm absolutely convinced that burnout is a function of spending time on things you loathe to do. Not how much time you spend on something you love doing. Most people I know that actually work all-the-time, not self-proclaimed "I work X hour weeks people that say it to sound 'cool'" people. Never have a burnout. Most of those people also go on extended vacations of say 5-7 weeks. But still work 2-3 hours every day. Burnout seems much more common in the average worker that only works a 9-5.
  - KronisLV 2y ago
    Can confirm, I work a 9-5 and have absolutely had projects where writing code felt like pulling teeth and I very much experienced burnout as a consequence of that. Even now I have a project where I have to fix a bunch of hastily written code and while I’m making progress and it’ll eventually be fine, it’s quite unsatisfying.
  - BigJ1211 2y ago
    Just checked my preconceived notions. The commonality of burnout in some form to full burnout seems to be roughly 75% for employees[1] and roughly 70% for executives[2] and 25% ~ 75% for entrepreneurs[3]. My experience is based mostly on the latter. [1]: https://www.gallup.com/topic/burnout.aspx https://www.gallup.com/topic/burnout.aspx / https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-mha-mental-health-workplace-pandemic/ https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-mha-mental-healt... [2]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2023/01/23/executive-burnout-is-real-heres-what-you-can-do-about-it/#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20a%20Deloitte%20survey,supports%20their%20well%2Dbeing.%E2%80%9D https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2023/01/23... [3]: https://wifitalents.com/statistic/entrepreneur-burnout/ https://wifitalents.com/statistic/entrepreneur-burnout/ The statistics on this vary wildly, so I'd take all these statistics with a giant grain of salt.
SergeAx 2y ago
> If I take a break, the company is at a stand-still! A company, by definition, is a group of people. Of course it is possible to register company and never hire employees, but it is not relevant now. The point is when you say "the company stand still" it effectively meaning "I am standing still". Either normalize it for yourself, or hire someone)

nicbou 2y ago

That's a skill you can work on. You can also progressively structure your business so that you never need to be working at a given time. It took a me few years of observing what brings my attention back you work and what controls my schedule the most, and many little practices to deal with that. Now the thing runs itself, and I can take much longer vacations. It was worth the effort.

rvnx 2y ago

He found the right niche, a passive product-led no-stress B2B low-maintenance & non-critical tool (because it is monitoring). It is so difficult to find such niches, so congrats for the success!

ensocode 2y ago
Isn't it somehow critical as it is monitoring? Thinking of monitoring critical prod interfaces
- rvnx 2y ago
  Useful and important certainly I agree, but it is not blocking you in your work if the SaaS provider goes down (unlike a payment provider, a hosting company, a CRM, etc…)
- therealdrag0 2y ago
  Ya I was a little surprised at the low availability guarantees. I wonder who uses this service and why.

jmnicolas 2y ago

> 7 days a week IMHO you're risking a burnout and working on your company 0 day a week. It would be better to be reasonable now than to kill your company in a few years because you can't stand it anymore. Take this next week-end off and go do something totally "useless" like walking in nature ;) It will recharge you.

BigJ1211 2y ago
I'm absolutely convinced that burnout is a function of spending time on things you loathe to do. Not how much time you spend on something you love doing. Most people I know that actually work all-the-time, not self-proclaimed "I work X hour weeks people that say it to sound 'cool'" people. Never have a burnout. Most of those people also go on extended vacations of say 5-7 weeks. But still work 2-3 hours every day. Burnout seems much more common in the average worker that only works a 9-5.
- KronisLV 2y ago
  Can confirm, I work a 9-5 and have absolutely had projects where writing code felt like pulling teeth and I very much experienced burnout as a consequence of that. Even now I have a project where I have to fix a bunch of hastily written code and while I’m making progress and it’ll eventually be fine, it’s quite unsatisfying.
- BigJ1211 2y ago
  Just checked my preconceived notions. The commonality of burnout in some form to full burnout seems to be roughly 75% for employees[1] and roughly 70% for executives[2] and 25% ~ 75% for entrepreneurs[3]. My experience is based mostly on the latter. [1]: https://www.gallup.com/topic/burnout.aspx https://www.gallup.com/topic/burnout.aspx / https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-mha-mental-health-workplace-pandemic/ https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-mha-mental-healt... [2]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2023/01/23/executive-burnout-is-real-heres-what-you-can-do-about-it/#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20a%20Deloitte%20survey,supports%20their%20well%2Dbeing.%E2%80%9D https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2023/01/23... [3]: https://wifitalents.com/statistic/entrepreneur-burnout/ https://wifitalents.com/statistic/entrepreneur-burnout/ The statistics on this vary wildly, so I'd take all these statistics with a giant grain of salt.

SergeAx 2y ago

> If I take a break, the company is at a stand-still! A company, by definition, is a group of people. Of course it is possible to register company and never hire employees, but it is not relevant now. The point is when you say "the company stand still" it effectively meaning "I am standing still". Either normalize it for yourself, or hire someone)