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Comment by jswinghammer | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if people are being unnecessarily negative on this discussion thread. It seems to me that his best bet is to start something that he can manage in his spare time that solves a problem. That's not easy but it's not horribly difficult either. I was able to bring a product to market in my spare time and recruited sales people to sell it. I have even lined up speaking gigs at conferences in my vertical (no idea if I'm actually going to be any good at this).

I realize that this person is different than me but I did it for a similar reason: I have to make extra money to provide for my family in the long term. Consulting actually seemed harder to me because you need to put in a consistent amount of time and if you have a family that's very hard to do. I still work a job during the day but my evenings are spent largely improving my product and writing marketing copy for the website I'm having designed.

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I thought they seemed negative, until I remembered that the poster said they couldn't do consulting. It takes the discussion from "I am a skilled programmer looking for work" to "what kind of product should I create and market that will sell immediately," which just isn't a realistic discussion to have. As Bob Frances said in that thread (paraphrasing), if it were that easy, a great deal more people would be doing it.

I think people get this idea that striking it rich with a popular app is easy after reading a bunch of rags-to-riches app developer stories.

He didn't actually say "immediately". I understood that he needs $2000/month "as soon as realistically possible," and asks in which kind of software is such a goal easiest to achieve. It's just his question is hard to answer when he seems to not have an idea yet what to build...

Chances are if he really needs an extra 2k / month for health reasons then finding a job with better heath insurance is a much better option than possibly building a product that generates 2k/month in profit.

Or just moving to the UK (or another country with a public health system).

I think "Marie Petit" is a girl's name.

"I have even lined up speaking gigs at conferences in my vertical (no idea if I'm actually going to be any good at this)."

Toastmasters International is your friend. They exist for this reason. Find a local club, visit, and see what you think. Really, whether you are naturally awesome or terrified you owe it to yourself and the audience to polish your speaking skills.

I'd say I'm in between. I'm not nervous about it but I realize the limitations of my social skills. I will check it out.

I posted to the thread and I thought I was being positive but realistic. The majority of programmers are not capable of creating a $2000/month cashflow business for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to skills, marketing knowledge and not least of all overcoming laziness.

The BoS forum has a lot of people selling downloadable desktop apps into crowded markets. That's why there is a lot of 'very hard' type comments.

"What do I do when I'm attacked by a man with a banana? It's easy, I just pull the lever and release the tiger"

Sure, making a few inside sales is "very easy", if you happen to have the skills, the contacts, the understanding of particular markets, the initiative, the ability/willingness not to panic when no money is coming in, etc. Opening a locked door is easy too, if you have the key, etc.

If, on the other hand, you aren't leveraging skills and experience but you just want/need money, you can't pull opportunity out of your hit based on your desire.

The worst possible reason to become an entrepreneur is needing money.

I'm sure there are worse reasons to become an entrepreneur. Needing money is a perfectly valid reason to try something new.

OK, I'd agree there are worse reasons but needing money is back because entrepreneurhood needs mindset and a skillset. Happening to need money doesn't get either of those.

Yes, they are overwhelmingly negative because they have all struggled and mostly failed.

Taking years to get to $2,000/mo revenue as some of the commenters say? That is truly sad. Somebody seriously needs to teach these guys some business skills.

Hopefully it will be me.

I wrote a positive comment - I've made gobs of money and my SaaS made $1300 its very first month, after the first round of trials ended. And the reason is because I created a truly different product in a category proven to make money, and used my blog/twitter audience to spread the word as I was launching (and before).

It's really, really, really not that hard.

What was your SaaS? (I didn't see a link in your profile)

She recently posted about it here that led to a very interesting (and useful) discussion: http://letsfreckle.com/

HN Post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1366862

Inspire us. Details?

You made $1300 the first month you offered the product. how much time did it take to develop it.

3 months, one or two days a week max. :)

I'd venture outfits of the calibre of your SaaS are much rarer than you may think.

Your UX is stellar, it's very clear what the value proposition is.

You're solving an actual problem, it's a problem most people and not just programmers have, and you're not building an adware, data-collection social networking honey pot where there is no significant revenue until you have thousands upon thousands of users.

Things which can't be said of a number of the ideas I see floated here...

I mean really, AdSense link farms? What a terrible idea. What a way to waste programming effort and pollute the web with crap.

Thanks, heresy, for the UI compliment :)

I agree with you - it's clear what the value proposition is, and it's a tool that generates real value. That's the real reason it makes money, the UI is just the way I chose to differentiate.

Making $2k/mo is NOT hard if you provide actual value.

Anyone can learn to do that!

It just takes time, effort, reading biz books, etc. - or attending my launch course (http://yearofhustle.com), which condenses everything I've learned from reading and practice into really easy-to-absorb lessons.

The thing is, the reason I specifically chose a tool that would have a clear value, chose how to deliver that value in a different way, and made the content explain how it makes people money.

And I have read 100s of business books -- a hobby I started as a 13-year-old. It's not like I've got an MBA, or ever had a business mentor. I taught myself.

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