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In our industry, it's pretty safe to count the one-person cases as outliers (hit app, etc), however I can attest to a number of people consistently pulling down

In our industry, it's pretty safe to count the one-person cases as outliers (hit app, etc), however I can attest to a number of people consistently pulling down 7-figure NET incomes from privately-owned small businesses without ever involving VC's or other investors. If it's a sustainable pace and you don't become so visible as to be a patent or other legal target you can quietly live very well on that or half that, etc. Bottom line, there are an infinite number of places to end up between being nobody and being a Zuckerberg/Gates/Jobs and really, most of them can provide a good quality of life.

da02 13y ago
Are they mostly B2B? Or do they sell directly to retail consumers?
- hkarthik 13y ago
  Most of the people I know doing this are involved heavily in local commerce. Think real estate, insurance, construction, and skilled labor companies (plumbing, A/C repair, landscaping).
  - joonix 13y ago
    You aren't going to pull down 7 figures on a one-man AC repair business. In that type of business, you are just renting out your time, and nobody is paying $1,000/hr for an AC repairman's time. You can scale it, definitely, and have an army of repairmen working under you and then make tons of money, but then you're no longer talking about a one-man business.
    - larrys 13y ago
      I don't think grandparent comment was meant to imply 1 person business. (You are correct in your math assumptions). I just think they mean "small business funded organically or built from the ground up". Besides "1 person" can also mean "1 person and subcontractors" so where do you draw the line at "1 person" anyway? The only thing I would add though is that many of these businesses were not started by the person running them they were passed to a family member who got something that they could expand upon where the risk had already been taken.
      - hkarthik 13y ago
        Correct, I didn't mean to imply these were 1 person businesses with a single A/C repair person doing all the work. To reach $1 mil or more in revenue, these businesses use 1099 contractors or corp-to-corp sub-contracts to meet their labor demands.
  - ChuckMcM 13y ago
    One of the things I have noticed is that 'managing' things is a skill unto itself. And some very successful people I know operate by helping people with skills connect with people who need those skills, and then creating a structure where a fair price is paid for the access.
- OldSchool 13y ago
  My experience has been around B2B. That's not to say that B2B is better if you're in a consumer market. Usually whatever you're in, the other seems like it would be easier because you haven't hit all the real life details yet. A B2B sale for example is not a trivial dollar amount, so your customer can be more demanding. There will be customers who are perfect, and those that are completely incompetent using exactly the same product.
hkmurakami 13y ago
You can kind of think of it as a small-mid size private contracting/gardening/pool-service shop imo. Some of those companies are well entrenched in their communities and pull down a really healthy amount of revenue reliably every year.

da02 13y ago

Are they mostly B2B? Or do they sell directly to retail consumers?

hkarthik 13y ago
Most of the people I know doing this are involved heavily in local commerce. Think real estate, insurance, construction, and skilled labor companies (plumbing, A/C repair, landscaping).
- joonix 13y ago
  You aren't going to pull down 7 figures on a one-man AC repair business. In that type of business, you are just renting out your time, and nobody is paying $1,000/hr for an AC repairman's time. You can scale it, definitely, and have an army of repairmen working under you and then make tons of money, but then you're no longer talking about a one-man business.
  - larrys 13y ago
    I don't think grandparent comment was meant to imply 1 person business. (You are correct in your math assumptions). I just think they mean "small business funded organically or built from the ground up". Besides "1 person" can also mean "1 person and subcontractors" so where do you draw the line at "1 person" anyway? The only thing I would add though is that many of these businesses were not started by the person running them they were passed to a family member who got something that they could expand upon where the risk had already been taken.
    - hkarthik 13y ago
      Correct, I didn't mean to imply these were 1 person businesses with a single A/C repair person doing all the work. To reach $1 mil or more in revenue, these businesses use 1099 contractors or corp-to-corp sub-contracts to meet their labor demands.
- ChuckMcM 13y ago
  One of the things I have noticed is that 'managing' things is a skill unto itself. And some very successful people I know operate by helping people with skills connect with people who need those skills, and then creating a structure where a fair price is paid for the access.
OldSchool 13y ago
My experience has been around B2B. That's not to say that B2B is better if you're in a consumer market. Usually whatever you're in, the other seems like it would be easier because you haven't hit all the real life details yet. A B2B sale for example is not a trivial dollar amount, so your customer can be more demanding. There will be customers who are perfect, and those that are completely incompetent using exactly the same product.

hkmurakami 13y ago

You can kind of think of it as a small-mid size private contracting/gardening/pool-service shop imo. Some of those companies are well entrenched in their communities and pull down a really healthy amount of revenue reliably every year.