Great question. I've been outlining an essay on "The boring way to success." Ha!
If I'd be more thrifty, I could stop working more than a few days a month. But I'm easily bored, I enjoy growing my business(es), and I really enjoy spending my money. Ex: my husband and I are about to get a second apartment, in another country.
My (first) bootstrapped SaaS is pulling in ~$140k/yr now based on monthlies, with 4x growth year over year, and I expect to do that again in the next 12 mos -- or possibly better, as network effects start to pick up. (http://letsfreckle.com -- you can't get less glorious than time tracking, on the face of it.)
Right now, my husband and a freelancer are in the other room, massaging the codebase to get our second SaaS up and running in dogfood mode. (http://charmde.sk)
I've combined a couple programming learning products (ebook, scripted workshops) and that adds another $130k or so a year of gross. I've also grossed about $65k in 2010 from teaching my fellow geeks how to create their own boring, but successful, products. (http://unicornfree.com/30x500 - now sold out)
Next year, I think I'll try to double the learning product numbers.
In short: I'm 26 now. I figure I can keep on building & have a small product portfolio that grosses $2m/yr by the time I'm 30… and I'll be able to call all the shots.
You might like my blog post on my income breakdown for 2010 so far:
The thing to realize about "the startup media" is that they are, essentially, tabloids. They cater to what people want to read, and what people want to read are fairy tales.
If I'd be more thrifty, I could stop working more than a few days a month. But I'm easily bored, I enjoy growing my business(es), and I really enjoy spending my money. Ex: my husband and I are about to get a second apartment, in another country.
My (first) bootstrapped SaaS is pulling in ~$140k/yr now based on monthlies, with 4x growth year over year, and I expect to do that again in the next 12 mos -- or possibly better, as network effects start to pick up. (http://letsfreckle.com -- you can't get less glorious than time tracking, on the face of it.)
Right now, my husband and a freelancer are in the other room, massaging the codebase to get our second SaaS up and running in dogfood mode. (http://charmde.sk)
I've combined a couple programming learning products (ebook, scripted workshops) and that adds another $130k or so a year of gross. I've also grossed about $65k in 2010 from teaching my fellow geeks how to create their own boring, but successful, products. (http://unicornfree.com/30x500 - now sold out)
Next year, I think I'll try to double the learning product numbers.
In short: I'm 26 now. I figure I can keep on building & have a small product portfolio that grosses $2m/yr by the time I'm 30… and I'll be able to call all the shots.
You might like my blog post on my income breakdown for 2010 so far:
http://unicornfree.com/2010/i-made-216668-from-products/
The thing to realize about "the startup media" is that they are, essentially, tabloids. They cater to what people want to read, and what people want to read are fairy tales.