Lifestyle business, micropreneur, microisv, indie. None of them are great terms. I am still waiting for someone to come up with a better term for what I do.
I've always been fond of the label "living the dream."
Sounds completely unobtainable. Lifestyle at least sounds like a choice that a person could make, and have control over.
It's very subjective, but I find that what is described in the article is pretty much my dream. Of course, I'm not living it, so by that that standard it has so far remained "unobtainable".
Most of the people I know who use that phrase are being somewhat sarcastic. Most notably the helicopter pilot from Germany I knew who was getting paid absolute shit because until you make a certain number of flight hours, your options are extremely limited and you have to take a second job to make ends meet. Every time I said, "What's up?", he said "Living the dream, man!" then proceed to complain about all the shit he has to put up with. He loves flying, but the "dream" is anything but.
Poe's law strikes again!
You're a hacker, challenging the norms of what it means to start and grow a business. If software is eating the world, it's surely eating the capital requirements to starting software companies.
I quite like 'business hacker'. But 'hacker' comes with lots of other baggage (including the inevitable confusion with 'cracker').
I don't think there is a perfect term, but indieveloper sounds neat.
I like micro-isv. Still have a few of the t-shirts you used to sell.
They were a one-off Xmas charity special. I only sold about 100, so they are very exclusive! ;0)
"Self-employed" is the traditional term in the UK.