Ask HN: Solo owner here, how important is automation?
I have a side project that I would like to see turn into a full time job. Right now it is only me and I have no interest in hiring anyone else, but I am running the entire show which can be a bit overwhelming at times.I sell a physical product but it is deeply facilitated by a strong web presence.
How important is automating the business?
I've set up scripts thus far that will email me when the mysql server is down, my node server is down, the site is unreachable, etc. Emails to customers are automated etc. But I know there is much more I can do.
I am capable of building just about whatever in terms of automation but there is a real upfront cost in terms of my time so my question is really Would it be wise for me to spend time in automating business tasks or should I defer that until more sales come in?
11 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 42.2 ms ] threadI think automation is really important at the business process level but at this stage you should probably give yourself a budget to buy vs build in most all but your really core areas. Lay the foundation but defer where you can.
Things I would do right away is:
- Have a credit card just for the business
- Automate your accounting (push orders to accounting system)
- Automate your inventory management (at least have a system)
- Figure out shipping well and automate that.
I leverage Shopify and Xero for these and it works OK for now.
Feel free to email me if you want to compare notes in detail.
You're totally right, I have a bad habit of wanting to build everything from scratch and in house, I am aware of this and I will need to get over this and enlist other services if I want to run this company by myself.
I really should have used a service like shopify, instead I built my whole site from scratch and integrated the site with Paypal's api via node.js. The site looks and performs excellent but it was and will continue to be a lot of work.
Those are good suggestions and I will review those.
But ... that is not necessarily a bad thing. It is possible that you are more passionate and motivated by the technical aspects. If your product and the niche that it serves doesn't stir the same intensity of passion then maybe you should consider amping up your skills in the infrastructure side and finding lucrative gigs in that area. If you decide to change track in the future, your current business might be a viable sale proposition. The new owner might need you to maintain the infrastructure on contract.
Money is good, but once your basic needs are met it doesn't buy more happiness. In the long term you are more successful if you do what you are good at and enjoy doing.
These things are probably in chronological order. First focus on little things that will improve the user experience (like sending automated shipping confirmation) so they like the site even more. Then focus on eliminating manual and time-consuming tasks, and reducing the risk.
Most of the things you mentioned are related to monitoring and reducing the risk. While appropriate, monitoring mysql is pointless unless you have have people going to the site in the first place.
(and if your MySQL is going down frequently, you have other problems)
Don't over-engineer your project. Spend more time on creating the MVP, finding core users, understanding what they want and how to better service them. You'll know when automation is needed (e.g., when you spend several hours non-stop doing this dull manual task, when you could invest a day or two and have it fully automated).
I recommend reading "The e-Myth" - work on your business not in your business.
before you launch your product, think about the processes you can avoid automating
you’ll have plenty of time before you need to scale, and you may never need to scale if the idea doesn’t work. Every hour spent writing code is wasted time if that code could be replaced by a human being doing the same task until your product proves itself