3 - The Creative Person Podcast - How to start your online business

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Paul Solt from The Creative Person Podcast

Learn how I made $3,690.48 in January 2015 from my online course on UseFedora.com (PS use this special link to help me out).

You'll also get Paul's background on starting his own business and how much money he made after he stopped working for Apple and Microsoft in 2009.

Listen to discover how you can earn side income to kickstart your ideas.

Have more questions? Email me at PaulSolt@iPhoneDev.tv

1. Tyler's question on starting a business

Tyler is at the beginning stage of starting his company. He doesn’t know programming and he is curious to learn, but his focus is on a real product.

I am making ties and will start selling them online this summer. What inspired you to take the leap to start your own business? -Tyler

Paul's response - starting a business and taking the plunge

What's Paul's background and motivation?

  1. My dad had his own company

  2. Grandfather was successful businessmen, networker, and story teller in NJ

  3. I have always wanted to make things (games + programs) 

  4. I don’t like working for someone else (or lacking input in strategy/direction/product)

  5. I want to be creative

Recommendations

  1. Use squarespace.com to setup a commerce site (accept CC/payments and track orders) -clean design for $24/m: http://blog.squarespace.com/blog/squarespace-commerce-is-here (or etsy.com)

  2. Friends and family might help – don’t count on it. When I started I had two friends who supported my ideas (everyone else said get a real job including my mom).

  3. I mitigate risk by working hard and changing directions (more quickly than I used to)

  4. I stayed a “professional student” and worked the benefits to get off the ground (won $2,000 at business competitions)

  5. I hate business plans – use 1-2 pages to describe what you want to do – it’s going to change a ton.

2. Oliver’s question on running an app focused business

Oliver found my post on reddit about how much I made from some of my apps and how much I spent on Bomb Dodge (over $7k). He's interesting in quitting his job (has quit) and wants to take up blogging, apps, ebooks, and online courses.

Can you shed light on the success you had? Have you ever thought of posting income reports like smartpassiveincome.com? -Oliver

Paul's response - passion, perseverance, and lack of money

I made around $20-30k my first few years – hard to live on without my girlfriend’s support (another topic I plan on diving into).

Trying a lot of things and seeing what sticks is what you have to do to succeed. I've been doing this for 4-5 years (I didn't graduate so I could work on apps). I've had success on Kickstarter and I've lived off credit cards to get by.

It's really passion, perseverance, and realizing that I have no money that pushed me to where I am. I'm still not out of the woods yet, but things are looking good.

UseFedora.com made me $3,690.48 in January 2015

UseFedora.com (*) is where you should start (Udemy.com but no guarantees on income or customer emails: i.e.: Udemy owns your customer and communication channel). I made $3,690.48 from my iPhone app courses in January 2015. I highly recommend them, it's free to start (I pay for a lower transaction fee because it makes so much money!).

(*) Please use this link to signup for a free account for your first course. You can make easy money by teaching something you already know (PS I made $47k on Kickstarter by using an iPhone 5 camera ... PPS They do a 10% deal which is 5% lower than my starting "beta" level at the same price!)

Writing habits

If you want to write, you need to start today. Make it a habit.  Write first thing for 10 minutes every day – even if your first day is planning what you want to be writing about the next day.

I've been doing push-ups every day. Today I did 42 – I started at 10 and I've been adding one more each day.

Email list and customer emails

Build an email list starting today with MailChimp. Without an audience no one is going to buy what you have to sell.

Be honest and open (that's what I'm doing and trying to do more of)

Don't quit without a plan (or money in the bank)

I don't recommend quitting your job and doing what I do without trying it first. However, I do recommend quitting a job that you don't love (find a new one). 

It's hard, there's ups and downs. There's a lot of negative Nancy's but you just keep going. Haters gonna hate.

Paul's Income in 2013 and 2014

I have thought about posting income (I just don't have time to format it yet and figure it all out) last year I made ~$81k and this year I think I broke $100k. It's a lot of hustling and 100% constant learning (reading books is a requirement – book list coming soon – reply if you want to know). 

Pre-sell your creative projects on Kickstarter.com

Click to learn How to run a Kickstarter project

Let's connect

Like the podcast?

Do you want to start your own business or creative project with Kickstarter.com, UseFedora.com or Squarespace.com?

I need your help and feedback.

  1. Email me at PaulSolt@iPhoneDev.tv or find me on Twitter: @PaulSolt
  2. Share this podcast with a friend via email (make it personal)
  3. Start making your first iPhone app in 1 hour using Swift.