For the past 8 or so months, I've embarked on a solopreneurship journey [0].
During that time, I was focused on building an online business/SaaS without much success. I've learned what not to do, and improved something with each new product I launched.
However, I'm slowly loosing faith in the ability to build a one-person business that will pay my bills. I can't live with the though that I'll have to work as an employee for the rest of my career. I gave up on the idea of passive income, or working 4 hours a week, and I at least want to spend my 40-50-60-whatever hours/week working on my own business, rather than building it for someone else.
I tried Micro-SaaS, I tried digital products. Some of them generate money, but it's not enough to quit my job, or switch to say 80% employment.
Twitter influencers portray Micro-SaaS as an easy, holy grail of financial freedom, with people claiming to make north of $10k/month from an AI PDF chat. Reddit bros say that B2C is dead, and the big money is in B2B. And even here, on HN, people share occasionally (in the recurring "one man business" and "side projects that make $500+/m" posts) how they make money from their small businesses or side projects.
I understand that starting a business is way harder than "here, I finished the landing page, now pay me money". But I feel stuck, since I don't know how to progress further.
I tried SEO, I tried paid ads, I tried SaaS and I tried digital products. The only thing I didn't try is B2B with the mindset of "hey big business, I have a [product] that solves your pain, pay me money please" while in reality I have no product. I keep hearing suggestions like "just create a fake landing page" etc, and start developing only after I close my first customer, but I can't seem to feel comfortable selling air.
I feel like I miss something, since I know that not everyone online is a liar, and people do make money from side projects. And I'm one step away from claiming that their success is pure luck, as in "being in the right time with the right people", rather than some effort that they've put it which helped them acquire customers, and I'm simply unlucky. Any advice?
[0] https://www.yieldcode.blog/post/6-lessons-6-months-6-projects/
It's definitely a lot of luck - but don't think it's just that. Relentless drive and stellar performance in many different fields (tech, marketing, sales etc) is absolutely necessary and practically no amount of luck would help you without that. You have to keep trying to get lucky and be ready to take and milk the opportunity when it happens.
The luck is not in getting customers, though, especially not in B2C. That's just about product-market fit and marketing. I know people who can consistently do it again and again with any product or service that makes sense - and of course appropriate budget.
It's more about luck in B2B if you're just starting out, but again, I know people who can consistently sell anything that makes sense to the customers. They had to get lucky a lot at the beginning, but they went out, met people, pitched, and did it again and again. Do that for enough years and you build a network wide enough to just send a few messages and get clients immediately.
It's just numbers - there is a likelihood you'll meet a big client ready to buy, a likelihood you'll meet an investor today. It's about putting yourself out continuously, every day, to increase the odds you get lucky.
How many cold calls with prospective customers do you have daily? How often do you talk to people who might be interested on LinkedIn or other professional forums/social networks? How often do you attend in-person professional/networking events, conferences, tech talks? If you're not doing that at least few times a week, your odds are very low.
I've also been burned out trying to follow what I've seen other people on Twitter, or even those in my local meetups.
I've come to accept that there's no single set of steps that will guarantee me success. I have to keep trying and seeing what sticks; I still look at what's worked for others, but I also consider my circumstances and adapt to them.
You have to enjoy the journey as well. Just look back at how you were 8 months ago; I'm sure you'll feel proud of all the things you've learned!