Small & Simple Inc
jasonleow • 11 Oct 2023 •
Indie hacking is easy.
Find a small problem.
Make a small solution.
Price it small enough.
Find a small bunch of people willing to pay for it.
Profit.
Like neighbourhood grocery store small.
Or like this dude:
It’s that small. And that simple. But we love to overcomplicate things with shiny tech stacks, tooling, MRR charts, growth hacks, conversion funnels, Twitter algo tricks, ad infinitum.
More and more, I’m coming round to a rough frame around what a good lifestyle business would be like for me.
Small.
Simple.
Boring.
Helpful.
Friendly.
If it provides real value, makes a good living for me and my family, I’m good with anything.
Just a small and simple inc.
It doesn’t need to have monthly recurring revenue. Or millions in venture capital. Or a logo. Or a business card. Or a huge following. Or serve a million people. Or a grand exit. Or hire a huge team. Or have colorful offices. Or big name clients.
Just money in the bank, blank days on the calendar, as the ultimate endgame.
Everything else is decoration.
Comments
@drodol Oh you mean “low stakes” like vitamins, vs high stakes like a painkiller? But why? 🤔
Hmmm… Not really.
Maybe a better way to express it would be that I would avoid building or operating my business around critical functionality or infrastructure for my customers. If it is something they absolutely rely on for doing business, then I don’t want to provide it. Why? Well, I don’t want the responsibility that would come with ensuring 99,999% uptime of the service.
I have worked in roles where I was required to be “on duty” 24/7. It would mean that I could be enjoying my weekend and get a call and then have to drop everything to mobilise to provide support or conduct an investigation.
In my boring business ideal life, none of that would exist.
@drodol Oh yes agree!! For a solopreneur, that’s pretty stressful indeed. I prefer not to get into those product categories too.
I like your list of attributes and agree with it all.
To my list, I would add a key additional attribute. The business should not involve any critical element that would affect the customer’s ability to either operate or make money. So, for example, I would avoid anything that would involve my customer’s ability to place orders for their business. Maybe a way to say that in a less verbose manner would be: low stakes? Maybe boring covers it.