Why I’m Doing Zero to $1000/month in 12 Months Challenge
Back in 2015, wishing to know how to build web apps, but always giving up as things got more difficult, I came up with a challenge to force myself to study consistently — build 6 apps in 6 weeks to learn how to code.
I completed the challenge and ended up taking one hardcore year to launch my own sites, during which I started freelancing with little I knew to actually get paid to learn to code, slept on my friend’s couch for 3 months, and coded at the oddest places.
As more than 5+ million people used the sites I’ve built, one site sold for 5 figures and I landed a remote job working 4 days a week, I believe that the determination and persistence during this hardcore year have paid off.
Things are very different now
Being an employee for the last 4 years and starting to work on 5 different projects of which I launched none, it’s embarrassing to admit I failed my initial ambition…
I don’t want to be a programmer, making useful stuff is my passion.
How to battle this? I’ve always maintained the belief that if you’re consistent and determined, eventually you reach the goal you’ve set out to achieve. It might take longer, as my roommate Peter struggled to make living with his Youtube channel for years. Yet by posting videos every month, he’s been able to recently celebrate 500,000+ subscribers.
As more aligned inspiration with web development and time period, I liked the idea of levels.io’s 12 Startups in 12 Months challenge which produced highly successful sites - Nomadlist and RemoteOK and couple others that failed.
The easiest way to figure out what to do is by exposing yourself to the world.
Because goals matter, for the next 12 months, I’ve set myself a goal to build and grow MVPs going from zero to $1,000+/month (recurring revenue) doing it. However, instead of launching 12 random projects, the focus will be on fewer projects in areas with already an existing market and try to carve out a niche segment.
Wtf, $1000/month??! You’ll make more at any job
I see $1k/month as this magic line from where things start to snowball. To get there, you need to find a market fit with at least one of the projects. If you charge $30/month ($1/day) on average, at least 35 people have to find enough value in your software to break $1000 in revenue. Doable??!
Make your luck by being always prepared
To increase the odds of making this year a success, I considered
Monthly Expenses
Relocating to central Europe, sharing an apartment, and having some savings allows me to live on $1000 per month for some time to focus on growth.
Tech
I intend to build subscription-based sites with a similar core: landing page, user accounts, database, payments, docs, live demo, emails… To save time with the setup I use boilerplate reactGo adjusted to my needs, which allows me to spin off different projects by just changing the landing page content and the product inside.
The best idea is to use the tech stack you’re the most comfortable with. For me, that’s React as frontend and Node.js + MongoDB on the backend.
Ideas
As most of us actively try to note all the potential business ideas we think of, I found the Ideas sheet to be very useful to filter them. With such a short time, you need to focus on areas in which there is already a market and focus on creating a better version of the product for a small niche. For example, instead of building just Helpdesk software, you would set out to build Helpdesk software for e-shops using Shopify with 1–10 employees.
Work
Currently working 4 days/week, this challenge will take up most of my free time. I already switched from being an employee to a freelancer and intend to cut down the working time to 3 days, if possible.
Back to work
So now that I’ve announced this challenge, I need you to hold me accountable to this goal during the next 365 days.
I’ll be open with my results and maintain the list here with links to posts about progress. Follow me on Twitter for more frequent updates.
MVP 1 — DatabaseLog
A MongoDB analytics to track your site performance
Read more on Product Hunt or Hacker News.
MVP 2— Icereach
A #1 LinkedIn automation tool to scale your LinkedIn outreach
After using multiple tools to automate LinkedIn outreach and coming across a lots of bugs and overall poor UI experience, my co-founder and I decided to offer a better alternative.
After lots of initial trial and error we managed to create a platform that helped us sell itself and made the whole process of outreach way easier.
Now it helps sales reps, lead generation agencies and startups to drive more business from LinkedIn. We love seeing them book more demos every month and skyrocket their growth.
Read more on our LinkedIn outreach blog.
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Thanks
Kamila for proof-reading and editing
