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jasonswett | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

I'm marketing it by writing blog posts, usually long, definitive blog posts that spell out the details of solving problems as opposed to "Top 10 Ways to Wipe Your Ass" or whatever. From there, I get people to subscribe to my email list by offering a free guide as a lead magnet. Most of the sales I've made have been via my email list.

jasonswett | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

Thanks. Yes, it's not enough for there to be a need. You also have to think about how you'll reach prospects. Stylists and salon owners aren't on the computer all day every day and they don't like to take phone calls from salespeople. They're very expensive and/or time-consuming to reach. A solo bootstrapper almost by definition has very little time or money, so salons are a very bad match for the capabilities of solo boostrappers.

jasonswett | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

I'll add something I wish I had realized several years ago: build a SaaS is not the only path to a product business, and for a solo founder, it's (in my opinion) probably not a very good path.

I spent 5 years trying to get a micro ISV off the ground which made scheduling software for hair salons. It was a terrible idea for a large number of reasons (described in detail here: https://www.jasonswett.net/im-shutting-down-snip-heres-why/) and I never made more than about $430/mo.

My opinion now is that info products are a better way for a solo founder to get started with a product business. The reason is that a SaaS product can take a huge amount of effort (perhaps pre-traction effort, which is risky) to get off the ground whereas an info product business can be started with a tiny "guide" and then expanded outwardly from there, keeping effort in proportion with traction the whole time.

My current business is AngularOnRails.com, an info product business. In its third month of making money, it made $1580, over 3 times what the SaaS made at its peak. Here's a detailed income report: https://www.jasonswett.net/november-2016-angular-on-rails-in...

jasonswett | 10 years ago | on: The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market [pdf]

I definitely have some advice. My social skills still aren't very good but they used to be terrible. I was able to at least improve them.

* Read How to Win Friends and Influence People

* Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

* Join Toastmasters (and, importantly, participate!)

* Make it a part of your life to continually study psychology and human nature

My life has also improved personally/professionally/socially since I got fired from my last job in 2013 and went freelance. Having to run my own business has forced me to develop social skills and freelancing has given me the opportunity to regularly change the group of people with whom I'm surrounded, which has allowed me to "collect" people I like along the way, which can happen at a regular job but much more slowly.

jasonswett | 11 years ago | on: Ask HN: Ok to ask retainer fee for being avail during office hours?

It sounds to me more like the OP doesn't want to be peppered with 30-second bits of communication all day while he's trying to work on something else. You can't keep billing Client A while you're responding to an email from Client B, but if it's a 5-minute thing, what are you going to do, clock out and clock back in again all day?

So the communication from one client could be disruptive to other work, i.e. it could make a person lose money. If making a certain agreement with a client would cause me to lose money, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that I would either charge for it or not agree to do it at all. In my experience, reasonable clients respect this.

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