<story><title>Ask HN: Tips for Solopreneur?</title><text>Yo HN! I have been working on some design tools in my spare time to solve problems I&amp;#x27;ve faced over and over, and I&amp;#x27;m thinking about monetizing them.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been to some conferences recently and talked to a lot of people who have these problems as well, and they&amp;#x27;re keen to try it out. I have collected some emails, been communicating with them a bit and even got beers with one of them recently!&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s my list of concerns:&lt;p&gt;1. It is just me - is that a red flag? Some people have asked me about my team and I told them it was just me. I got the feeling that it may have turned them off because the conversation kind of ended right there. To be fair, after that I did say that it is just me right now BUTTTTTTTT why that is okay due to my experience and work history. However, yes it is my first time doing a business.&lt;p&gt;2. How do I set appropriate milestones for me to reach? Do I think about reaching 100 customers before reaching 5 recurring customers for example?&lt;p&gt;3. I&amp;#x27;m in a small town in PNW. Does that matter if this will be an online thing anyway? Why or when do people move to big cities like Seattle&amp;#x2F;SF&amp;#x2F;NYC&amp;#x2F;Austin etc.&lt;p&gt;4. What are some ways to do marketing? Should I even think about that before I have a few customers who are using my product consistently?&lt;p&gt;5. I&amp;#x27;ve been inspired by the Startup School videos. Honestly though I&amp;#x27;m not sure about fundraising and all these things, it seems very intimidating to me. What&amp;#x27;s the difference between those things and starting a company and slowly building it up?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>DoreenMichele</author><text>Something that seems to be not well known by the general public:&lt;p&gt;Landing a big contract with a big company early on can be very problematic. They have a history of screwing small companies.&lt;p&gt;Small companies often seem to imagine this will solve all their problems. It seems to be the business equivalent of the fantasy of &lt;i&gt;winning the lottery&lt;/i&gt; and then having it &lt;i&gt;made in the shade.&lt;/i&gt; In reality, winning the lottery frequently doesn&amp;#x27;t end well and landing a big contract early on often doesn&amp;#x27;t either.&lt;p&gt;I used to imagine I would keep a file of such stories but never did. It&amp;#x27;s been challenging to find examples when I want them. But it also seems to be &lt;i&gt;common knowledge&lt;/i&gt; in some circles.&lt;p&gt;Feel free to bite off more than you can chew and view it as &lt;i&gt;a growth opportunity&lt;/i&gt;, but be aware that getting too much of your revenue from one client makes you their bitch. It&amp;#x27;s like all the downside of being an employee plus all the downside of running a business.&lt;p&gt;Best of luck.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>GabeIsko</author><text>Landing big contracts as a small company - it&amp;#x27;s not all bad. They can bring in a lot of revenue, for not that much sales effort. And if you have good processes down, they can also be much easier to deliver on. At least in the US, contract law can be very fair, financing options to facilitate large contracts are plentiful, and most large businesses act in good faith.&lt;p&gt;So it isn&amp;#x27;t so much landing a big contract is bad, but landing a big contract that you can&amp;#x27;t deliver on is very bad. Determining what you can and can&amp;#x27;t do, how much you need to invest into your internal processes and capabilities - that is the challenge of running a business.&lt;p&gt;Usually, in successful businesses I have worked at (or business units), I see a split. Ideally it would be 50-50 large contracts to small accounts, but usually realistically is is more like 60-40. Probably depends on the industry too.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Tips for Solopreneur?</title><text>Yo HN! I have been working on some design tools in my spare time to solve problems I&amp;#x27;ve faced over and over, and I&amp;#x27;m thinking about monetizing them.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been to some conferences recently and talked to a lot of people who have these problems as well, and they&amp;#x27;re keen to try it out. I have collected some emails, been communicating with them a bit and even got beers with one of them recently!&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s my list of concerns:&lt;p&gt;1. It is just me - is that a red flag? Some people have asked me about my team and I told them it was just me. I got the feeling that it may have turned them off because the conversation kind of ended right there. To be fair, after that I did say that it is just me right now BUTTTTTTTT why that is okay due to my experience and work history. However, yes it is my first time doing a business.&lt;p&gt;2. How do I set appropriate milestones for me to reach? Do I think about reaching 100 customers before reaching 5 recurring customers for example?&lt;p&gt;3. I&amp;#x27;m in a small town in PNW. Does that matter if this will be an online thing anyway? Why or when do people move to big cities like Seattle&amp;#x2F;SF&amp;#x2F;NYC&amp;#x2F;Austin etc.&lt;p&gt;4. What are some ways to do marketing? Should I even think about that before I have a few customers who are using my product consistently?&lt;p&gt;5. I&amp;#x27;ve been inspired by the Startup School videos. Honestly though I&amp;#x27;m not sure about fundraising and all these things, it seems very intimidating to me. What&amp;#x27;s the difference between those things and starting a company and slowly building it up?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>DoreenMichele</author><text>Something that seems to be not well known by the general public:&lt;p&gt;Landing a big contract with a big company early on can be very problematic. They have a history of screwing small companies.&lt;p&gt;Small companies often seem to imagine this will solve all their problems. It seems to be the business equivalent of the fantasy of &lt;i&gt;winning the lottery&lt;/i&gt; and then having it &lt;i&gt;made in the shade.&lt;/i&gt; In reality, winning the lottery frequently doesn&amp;#x27;t end well and landing a big contract early on often doesn&amp;#x27;t either.&lt;p&gt;I used to imagine I would keep a file of such stories but never did. It&amp;#x27;s been challenging to find examples when I want them. But it also seems to be &lt;i&gt;common knowledge&lt;/i&gt; in some circles.&lt;p&gt;Feel free to bite off more than you can chew and view it as &lt;i&gt;a growth opportunity&lt;/i&gt;, but be aware that getting too much of your revenue from one client makes you their bitch. It&amp;#x27;s like all the downside of being an employee plus all the downside of running a business.&lt;p&gt;Best of luck.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Klonoar</author><text>I ran into this early on and it’s a very tight rope to walk. You’re early and trying to keep the big fish so you over-extend and then you’re stuck with that level until you figure out how to reset the expectations - which can be tricky to do.&lt;p&gt;It blocks you from doing other more critical things that, while they might not make you revenue today, will potentially make you revenue later.&lt;p&gt;I’ve never been a fan of VC money but if you’ve gone through this kind of bootstrapping you can certainly appreciate some of what it solves - tho the grass is always greener and all that.</text></comment>