[jim_h]

There's no shame in needing money. It may be to your benefit to use your real hn account and make a posting to see if anybody is looking to hire. Maybe someone in the HN community is looking for a Rails developer. It's definitely worth trying. (Though, I recommend posting at a time when most people aren't sleeping already or should be.)

Another option would be to take a job working in retail or food industry. There are usually more openings in those fields and it will provide income until you find something more suited for your skills.

Good luck with everything.

[anon_hn]

I don't want to sound like a douche or anything, but I really like to focus on the product side. Bulding something and charging for it. I can easily get a job as a designer or rails dev somewhere, but I'm having trouble building a product which people will pay for enough to give me $2500 a month.

[garply]

You're asking how to build a business. Getting a product to generate 2,500 USD a month is non-trivial. In fact, going from 0 to 2,500 is probably going to be easier than going from 2,500 to 7,500 or 10,000.

Start simpler. Ask yourself how to build a product that can bring you 20 USD a month. Think of something that you can realistically envision yourself selling a couples of copies of a month right away. Then figure out how to go from there.

By the way, running a business isn't going to reduce your stress. And whether or not you'll be able to make money from a certain product / service is really speculative. You'll eventually get something to work if you keep working at it, but it can take time to figure it out. Maybe you should just consult in the short term.

As someone who's been desperate for cash before, I don't think starting a product business in order to obtain fast money is a good idea, unless you have experience selling to your target demographic and are really confident about your idea. Or unless you don't have any opportunities to actively work for the money, but you say you can easily get a rails dev job.

[Sargis]

I honestly think going from 0 to 2500 will be harder than 2500 to 10000. Lots of people don't get to that first 2500 because their products aren't in demand, but if you do, you'll realize there is demand for your product and from then on you start scaling.

[garply]

I'm sorry, my head is on wrong today. I totally agree with you. I meant to say, the first 2500 are the hardest by far. If you can make that much, scaling is pretty easy.

s/probably going to be easier/probably going to be harder

[tnorthcutt]

If you're desperate, perhaps you should do enough of the work that you can easily do (rails dev, designer) to make the money you want to, and use your spare time, as suggested above, to build a product/business that will eventually replace your job. If you're still at the stage of turning down jobs (or not seeking them), then you're probably not desperate.

[chanri]

I agree. Generally, "desperate" means taking any (reasonable) job offer you can get.

[anon_hn]

Right, I totally agree with you. I have such a drive to build a product...but again, it might not be as good of an idea right now.

[shadowpwner]

Do you know what that product is? If not, it's going to be a difficult slope for you. Wanting to build a product to make money vs building a product to serve the needs of a community are vastly different.