[temp_throw]

I have a UK based e-business, I've turned over between £750,000 and now £950,000 over the past four years (ex VAT). (~76% net profit margin)

Its just me, I'm a developer, which meant I could bootstrap the whole thing for zero cost (time not included) but I've always felt I knew I had what it takes to make a small business successful. Its an online service, we have a web site and apps in the app stores. I'd rather not say exactly what we do as this way I can be transparent on numbers. (Also, I am slightly paranoid of copy-cats) We have a paid for service, costs less than £50, its not a subscription, just a one off purchase. As has been said previously, luck plays a big part in success and I'm not going to pretend this is not true for me too.

-The competition are £MM businesses, and this is probably why I am able to be so successful as I can move faster, adapt, and resolve issues. Over time, people notice this. They tend to buy the customer via adwords.

-Word of mouth is a huge part of how the product has grown, people like the product and tell their friends/family, I spend less than £1500 p/m on advertising through the traditional online mediums.

- I always try new ideas out, and find out if people like them. Its low risk, low cost, high reward. Big fan of XP, agile, etc

- I'd recommend - Getting real (Basecamp) - https://basecamp.com/books/getting-real, its got some solid advice

- A mentality of always wanting to make the product better, without bloating it, is key.

- People always worry about support. It's really not a big deal, I've had hundreds of thousands of customers over the years, support contact is low.

Happy to answer any questions if people find it useful.

[kohanz]

As someone running a business with some similar characteristics (solo, not a subscription, B2C branching into B2B), but at a much earlier stage, I would love to learn more from you, if you're willing. Feel free to reach out to me (e-mail in profile).

[temp_throw]

Hi, is the app you are building in your bio? Vidhug?

[kohanz]

Thanks for responding. Yes and sorry, I didn't realize my e-mail wasn't visible. You can reach me at hello at that company domain.

[fukuro]

How did you find the product? And how long did it take you to generate your first revenue? (From the initial idea to the first user/euros)

Basically how do you get started with such a venture as yours?

[temp_throw]

I found the product by chance really, I had a need for the product and I noticed that the websites of the competition were poor, in terms of usability, clarity, and functionality. It was clear that they were taking their users for granted, no innovation, no need to do anything different. i.e. perfect for me to disrupt.

I worked on building the website (the apps came about a year later using Cordova so I could utilise my HTML/JS skills) in evenings and weekends for about 4 months. Not all of that was development, some of it was speaking with third parties I needed to get the product working.

The first paying customer got a full refund, because, of course, it didnt work properly, but the most valuable lesson I learnt was just to deploy something and fix it ad-hoc, NOT wait for it to be perfect/feature complete.

I had low expectations, and I didn't quit my day job, so it was low pressure "lets see what happens"

Spending time making the website SEO friendly meant I didn't have to spend a penny in advertising for the first year as all of our traffic was organic. It wasn't until the annual revenues were around £400,000 that I started to spend ANY money on advertising.

[ymal]

That is really impressive.

Are you operating internationally or is this UK specific?

[temp_throw]

Yes, just UK at the moment.

[crispyporkbites]

Is this B2C or B2B?

Why is it a one off purchase instead of a subscription?

[temp_throw]

It's actually both. When I started it was just B2C but as it grew new opportunities opened up.

>Why is it a one off purchase instead of a subscription?

I, personally, hate having to subscribe to something if I don't feel I benefit from it all of the time. Netflix fine, something I use occasionally, not so much. The product is low cost enough, and changes enough over time that customers come back and buy the product again (I appreciate this is a little unusual). I was always trying to build a pricing model that I would use, no tie in, people respect that and are MUCH more likely to pay for it (in this case).