I'm taking the next few days off and plan to spend minimal time on my laptop. I figured it would be fun to write a quick review and reflection of 2020 before and after my break to see if my thoughts and plans change after a few days of doing almost nothing.
As wild and horrible as 2020 has been, it's been a pretty decent year for me. I miss seeing my friends and family, but I'm super grateful that things have been mostly ok for them. In what's been a nightmare of a year for many, I can't be anything other than extremely grateful for that.
In terms of my career, things have been going well. Here are some of the highlights:
- I did a "6 products in 6 months" challenge
- My main product, Page Flows, continued to grow at a slow and steady pace
- I decided to shut down Letterfuel
- Screenjar, which was part of the 6 products in 6 months challenge has a couple of happy customers. I struggled to find more customers and a friend is now helping with that.
- I reflected on my experience with SaaS and content products and decided to focus on content products
- I was interviewed for the Indie Bites podcast
- I've made more internet friends than ever before, which has been awesome. I now have regular calls with a few people who I've never met in real life.
Generally, I'm super happy with my progress as an indie hacker and a founder. I've reached my long-term goal of getting a business to the point where it can comfortably support my lifestyle, I've learned a lot about what I like and what I dislike doing, and I've had plenty of awesome conversations with other indie hackers.
Plans for next year
Right now, Page Flows earns the bulk of the revenue for the business.
My aim for a while has been to get another product to that level. I want to diversify my revenue sources, but I also know that most businesses don't last for many years, so I want to know if I'm even able to build another Page Flows sized revenue stream. So far, I haven't managed to make that happen, but it's still my goal for 2021.
I want to continue to grow Page Flows slowly and steadily and want at least one of my other products to get to a similar level of revenue as Page Flows was at after year one. I'll be mostly attempting this with "research-as-a-service" type products.
I also want to try selling the products that I decide to stop working on. The market for buying small side projects seems quite hot these days, so it's worth trying.
Writing on this blog has been super fun so I also want to continue this in 2021.
Dec. 24, 2020