| I build and sell an enterprise software product. First 12 months--sales were low. Eventually, I saw sales in the $10-50K/mo range. I'm now seeing $50K-100K/mo. I work alone, I have no investors, and my overhead is minimal. My main luxury is eating out. I don't sweat ordering what I want. I get that appetizer when I want it. I don't wince when a waiter reminds me that refills cost. I live in a modest city apartment. Last year, I took a few short vacations. Nothing extravagant. They were the same types of vacations I might take if I were employed as a developer. I travel a lot to promote my business. When I travel on business, I make sure I'm in a nice hotel, eat nice meals, and I travel comfortably. When I'm home, I wake up around 10am. I go through email and whatever other distractions I come up with . I go eat lunch and then I head to my office. I usually work until dinner time. Some days I work after dinner until I go to bed. Other days I don’t. I slow down, here and there, to avoid burn out. My personal financial goal is to build a retirement account capable of supporting a modest life style. I don't know what the rest of this ride looks like, so I'm trying to capitalize on it and build some personal security. I don’t have much of a social life right now. When I’m in a mental state to produce, I get quite stressed when I have to attend a party or otherwise disrupt my productive work to “hang out”. I have friends though and I get to spend some time with them. Usually it’s when we cross paths on our work travel or volunteer activities. I'm pretty happy with my situation and have a lot of satisfaction from my work. Some of the things that I like the most: 1. I don't have to ask anyone for permission for anything. If I want to do something, I go and do it. 2. I don't have constant reminders about my low place in the organization's hierarchy. My customers and I enter into a business transaction as peers. This mutual respect is very important to me. 3. I have absolute control over my work. I like the freedom to pursue my product's vision without having to stop and justify it to others. 4. I like succeeding at business development. I’ve met a lot of “pure business” people who would like me to believe there’s something special to what they do. There isn’t. As a programmer, I find this very empowering. 5. I also like succeeding without investors. I started my entrepreneurial journey on HN and for a time believed I needed someone else's blessing to succeed. While I have friends who have done well with investors, I like knowing that my two hands made something from nothing and got me here. |
If I might ask, what kind of enterprise software can generate that much profit from a one-man shop?
Thanks