4 ms·

Ask HN: I have $1000 per month and 12 hours a week free. Looking for ideas.

5 points by atroyn 12y ago

I've created a budget and am successfully saving around $1,000 per month. My cost of living is low and I have no debt. I've worked out that I have about 12 hours per week (mostly on weekends) to commit to a side project. I'm looking for ideas. I'd like to develop my sales and product sense, so I'd rather create a business selling physical products rather than SaaS or consumer software/apps. Candy Japan is a big inspiration. I could get a return on the cash with the standard personal finance approach, but I want to generate a return on my own. Do you have a successful small-capital business, or an idea that might work?

Metatron 12y ago
If I had that time and that money to spare I'd try my hand at selling mainstream electronics on Amazon, using their Fulfilment program. Buy items like Beats headphones wholesale, have them delivered to an Amazon depot, Amazon stock them and sell them for you essentially. Couldn't be simpler. There are overheads for having them do so much, but I'd think profit was possible, and because of the simplicity it'd be incredibly easy to scale should it work.
- slosh 12y ago
  you could try wholesaling with alibaba and ebay
- slosh 12y ago
  also... i have a company that i'm looking to build along the lines of candy japan if you'd be interested in a partnership. email me for details
  - jtchang 12y ago
    what's your e-mail? I might have time to work on some stuff.
fataliss 12y ago
Do you have room? Build yourself a workshop! Transform your dark ugly useless garage into a super cool man-cave! You will need various skills from cutting wood, to making wiring to get light and maybe have a bathroom in here or a sink? You will get a lot of experience in being awesome, and get a new place to hang/work depending on what you build! On the way you will buy tools and stuff that might give you ideas for other projects once you done with this one!
- atroyn 12y ago
  Unfortunately I live in an apartment in an urban center, and can't make big changes to my living space. Ideally what I'd like to do is also make a return on the money I invest. Great idea though!
kocsmy 12y ago
To be honest the idea itself doesn't really matter. Find some niche you love and you can talk about by heart. Then put marketing and promoting behind it and it will work out.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  So if the OP's idea was a Twitter clone and they put "marketing and promotion behind it" it will "work out?" In my view the idea is the most important part. It doesn't have to be a "great" idea, but you have to have some kind of basic concept and have to look at the market to see if there is any kind of need. That's particularly important if you're spending $1K/month behind this concept and need it to give a return.
  - kocsmy 12y ago
    "niche" - to answer your question: no it won't. I can find you a couple of blogposts about the importance of ideas. It's just overrated.
dpeck 12y ago
Spend a few months experimenting with anything that interests you. 1k goes a long way to setting up a lot of hobby businesses.
- ark15 12y ago
  Can you elaborate with a few examples? I am curious.
markcrazyhorse 12y ago
Volunteer your services to help the less fortunate?
thenomad 12y ago
What does success look like here? Are you purely looking for additional income? If so, how much risk are you prepared to take on, are there any industries you don't want to work in, and what's your income goal? Or are you looking to make income AND do something else? (That's the case for most people - very few people are just looking for money at the end of the day.) If so, in addition to the questions above, what's the "something else"? Do you want to use skills you enjoy? Learn new skills? Help people? Help less fortunate people? Build something? You've already mentioned you want to develop your sales skills. Why do you want to sell physical products specifically? Do you want to build something, or just do sales?
- atroyn 12y ago
  Great points. The income isn't the main goal - my day job keeps me comfortable, and to be rational I'd at least like to make a return above what I could get on a term deposit, but with interest rates being as low as they are that's not an especially lofty goal. Definitely not trying to build a replacement income. With respect to risk, I'm ok with losing about 50-60% of that amount over 12 months, so long as by the end I've learned what I set out to. No specific industry in mind, but I'd like to deal with people whose needs I understand. The main goal is to learn those sales and marketing skills in a hands on way. I'd like to be building something as well, but that's secondary. And I'd like to do that by selling something useful and/or enjoyable for people. Physical products seem like a nice counterpoint to my day job which is a bunch of coding and abstract thinking, math and so on.
jamilv 12y ago
If your looking to make a return, make a simple landing page offering low cost MVP builds (low cost because you will work on it in your free time) and I'm sure you will be able to take on clients quite easily. Especially if you take equity for a discount. You can promote it on Reddit or here somewhere I'm sure.

5 points by atroyn 12y ago

Metatron 12y ago

If I had that time and that money to spare I'd try my hand at selling mainstream electronics on Amazon, using their Fulfilment program. Buy items like Beats headphones wholesale, have them delivered to an Amazon depot, Amazon stock them and sell them for you essentially. Couldn't be simpler. There are overheads for having them do so much, but I'd think profit was possible, and because of the simplicity it'd be incredibly easy to scale should it work.

slosh 12y ago
you could try wholesaling with alibaba and ebay
slosh 12y ago
also... i have a company that i'm looking to build along the lines of candy japan if you'd be interested in a partnership. email me for details
- jtchang 12y ago
  what's your e-mail? I might have time to work on some stuff.

fataliss 12y ago

Do you have room? Build yourself a workshop! Transform your dark ugly useless garage into a super cool man-cave! You will need various skills from cutting wood, to making wiring to get light and maybe have a bathroom in here or a sink? You will get a lot of experience in being awesome, and get a new place to hang/work depending on what you build! On the way you will buy tools and stuff that might give you ideas for other projects once you done with this one!

atroyn 12y ago
Unfortunately I live in an apartment in an urban center, and can't make big changes to my living space. Ideally what I'd like to do is also make a return on the money I invest. Great idea though!

kocsmy 12y ago

To be honest the idea itself doesn't really matter. Find some niche you love and you can talk about by heart. Then put marketing and promoting behind it and it will work out.

Someone1234 12y ago
So if the OP's idea was a Twitter clone and they put "marketing and promotion behind it" it will "work out?" In my view the idea is the most important part. It doesn't have to be a "great" idea, but you have to have some kind of basic concept and have to look at the market to see if there is any kind of need. That's particularly important if you're spending $1K/month behind this concept and need it to give a return.
- kocsmy 12y ago
  "niche" - to answer your question: no it won't. I can find you a couple of blogposts about the importance of ideas. It's just overrated.

dpeck 12y ago

Spend a few months experimenting with anything that interests you. 1k goes a long way to setting up a lot of hobby businesses.

ark15 12y ago
Can you elaborate with a few examples? I am curious.

markcrazyhorse 12y ago

Volunteer your services to help the less fortunate?

thenomad 12y ago

What does success look like here? Are you purely looking for additional income? If so, how much risk are you prepared to take on, are there any industries you don't want to work in, and what's your income goal? Or are you looking to make income AND do something else? (That's the case for most people - very few people are just looking for money at the end of the day.) If so, in addition to the questions above, what's the "something else"? Do you want to use skills you enjoy? Learn new skills? Help people? Help less fortunate people? Build something? You've already mentioned you want to develop your sales skills. Why do you want to sell physical products specifically? Do you want to build something, or just do sales?

atroyn 12y ago
Great points. The income isn't the main goal - my day job keeps me comfortable, and to be rational I'd at least like to make a return above what I could get on a term deposit, but with interest rates being as low as they are that's not an especially lofty goal. Definitely not trying to build a replacement income. With respect to risk, I'm ok with losing about 50-60% of that amount over 12 months, so long as by the end I've learned what I set out to. No specific industry in mind, but I'd like to deal with people whose needs I understand. The main goal is to learn those sales and marketing skills in a hands on way. I'd like to be building something as well, but that's secondary. And I'd like to do that by selling something useful and/or enjoyable for people. Physical products seem like a nice counterpoint to my day job which is a bunch of coding and abstract thinking, math and so on.

jamilv 12y ago

If your looking to make a return, make a simple landing page offering low cost MVP builds (low cost because you will work on it in your free time) and I'm sure you will be able to take on clients quite easily. Especially if you take equity for a discount. You can promote it on Reddit or here somewhere I'm sure.