163: When Should You Go from Side-Project to Full-Time?
The Bootstrapped Founder
11/11/22
•13m
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Earlier this week, I talked to Michele Hansen of Geocodio on The Bootstrapped Founder Podcast. Michele co-founded the business with her husband and ran it as a side project for several years. Now, that's a long time to wait before you commit full-time to a project. We also learned during our conversation that there are many ways of determining when the right time is to make that leap: for me, it was reaching a specific revenue figure, and for Michele, it was something else entirely.
So let's explore this critical step today. When should you go from side-project to full-time? What are the significant catalysts that speed up this process?
- When Should You Go from Side-Project to Full-Time?
- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash course
- Zero to Sold & The Embedded Entrepreneur, my books on entrepreneurship
This episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire.
Previous Episode
162: Michele Hansen — Moving from Side Project to Full Time
November 9, 2022
•66m
I am talking to Michele Hansen, the co-founder of Geocodio, an indie SaaS business in the world of mapping and geolocation. I've been a fan of her work, both as a founder and as an active member of the Indie Hacker community for years now.
I followed her journey with the business just as much as her foray into writing her first book, Deploy Empathy. Michelle really gets the founder community, and she's a respected teacher of all things customer development.
In this episode, we chat about finding the right time to commit to a business, learning when to say no, finding your niche, and learning languages. Enjoy!
You can find Michele on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mjwhansen/. Also, check out her book Deploy Empathy.
Here is a short summary of the topics discussed in this episode:
How do you set boundaries with a podcast? 3:08
How do you judge what you say against what someone else would perceive as useful for themselves? 9:23
How do you make sure you serve the right customers? 13:06
Focus on what you already have instead of where you can go. 19:47
Work in progress vs. goals. 23:13
The journey is the interesting part, not the destination. 28:54
The challenge of self-actualization after a big transition. 31:58
What was the sign that it was time to go full-time? 39:14
The financial hurdle of being an entrepreneur in the US. 42:35
Where the fear of losing everything comes from. 48:09
The mean voice in your head speaking. 51:43
Being able to recognize your own growth is a big part of entrepreneurship. 57:38
Low expectations allow you to surprise yourself, which leads to a better result. 1:00:47
This episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire.
Here's the blog post for this episode.
You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
Next Episode
164: Damon Chen — Building a $400k/year SaaS
November 16, 2022
•60m
Today, I am talking to Damon Chen, the founder behind Testimonial.to, a social proof tool that has recently reached $400.000 in annual recurring revenue. Now that’s extremely impressive, particularly considering that Damon got it there all by himself.
So, let’s just ask him how this family man accomplished such growth while living in one of the most expensive places you could build a business in. Here’s Damon Chen.
LonelyDev is a community that I built to solve my own problem. 1:01
Lonely Dev turned into IndieLog. 4:09
How to get out of a full-time job to start a business. 12:55
Why you need to be healthy and whole to be able to build a good business. 19:33
Why you need to add video reviews to your landing page. 26:31
Video and authenticity 31:30
There is a point where you reach saturation and you need help. 36:20
What is your exit plan for your business? 42:27
The importance of having a good exit strategy. 47:18
The importance of having a community to support bootstrappers. 51:16
This episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire.
Here's the blog post for this episode.
You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
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