1,000 True Fans? 250 Are Enough
I don’t know about you, but my money goals are humble.
I don’t have feelings towards money. I don’t desire anything. I don’t want a fancy car. I don’t need a big house or the newest phone. I have my Xiaomi something —how many Xiaomi are? That’s super confusing— and I am ok.
Having expensive things makes me nervous. If I buy something that I can’t repurchase the next day, I can’t afford it, so I don’t buy it.
Not wanting something is as good as having it —I read this somewhere, but I don’t remember where, so let’s imagine that I’m very wise.
The 1,000 True Fans
You all know about it. A famous essay from Kevin Kelly talks that you, as a creator, only need around 1,000 fans who pay you or buy from you everything.
So, let’s play with that number —blah-blah-blah—: $100,000 a year.
$100,000!!!!!
One of the problems with thinkers like Kevin Kelly, or other people like him, is that there are far ahead of 99% of us. From his perspective, $100K is an ok number. But I am sure that he makes much more.
You probably can make $100K from a well-paid job. Some people make even $200k or $300 —The max I made were around $60K, I’m a loser—, so he is telling you something like: you don’t need a lot of fans to leave your job and do your thing full-time.
Well…
I don’t need 1,000 True Fans.
I spend around $2500 per month right now. I said: me, but it’s we. Me and my beautiful Polish girlfriend —she reads my articles, so I have to be nice—, between rent, expenses, food, etc.… that’s around what we spend.
I need 250. $10/month x 250 people = freedom.
Would I like to have a little bit more? Yes. We don’t do many things because we don’t have more money or are afraid of not having money in the future.
But with 250 Fans, I can pay the cost of living that we have and have more time to continue producing, write books, write more articles, etc.… so from there, the limits are unknown.
The real value from the 250 True Fans is that it buys my freedom. That’s the ultimate goal of an Indie Hacker. With freedom, you have mental space, and you can produce more while enjoying your life.
Buy me a coffee, or two, to support my journey as a writer here.
But I know that’s not realistic. You can’t expect people to give you money just because. So you need to start thinking about what you can create so people are willing to pay you.
It’s hard, I know.
How? Well, I don’t know. But I will figure it out, and I hope you do too, so we all can be free and drink coffee in Bali next year.
I hope you all have a beautiful Sunday!
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There's also a shift towards 100 True Fans, which still models it on 100k per year, but I think just change the numbers to whatever works for you.
As you said, at the end of the day is about doing your own calculations and see how you can make it work for you in your own situation.
Thanks, Rosie, for sharing that link!
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I agree with the mental support part but how will you reach $100k unless this fan is a multi-millionaire.
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At the end, it's the not really about the number of fans, it more on how much you want(need) to have the freedom. It all boils down to the calculation.
If 10 fans can get you where you want, good 20, 100 or a 10k so be it.
Exactly!
Have you thought about that? Do you have an estimation for you to achieve it?
I get the "you only need N users per month to make X dollars a year" idea, but what I don't like about it is it trivializes the effort to get those users.
$10 a month to pay for a product/service is still a lot of money. That's around the cost of a monthly video streaming service. If you're targeting consumers, you have to convince them that your product's value is equivalent to, say, a Disney+ or Hulu subscription.
No matter how you slice and dice it, it's still a tremendous effort to create something of value that someone wants to pay a regular fee for (let alone once). Try not to be too lured by the "I only need 100/250/1000 users" idea.
I don't think people compare paying for Netflix or Spotify with paying to a person.
I pay for some private communities and newsletters and I never thought: this is the same price of Spotify.
I rather pay $20 to a small entrepreneur than $5 to Amazon.
I know it's not easy, never said the opposite. But it's easier if you think that you can do it with fewer people and you don't need to start big.
Yeah, I'm happy to spend more money on something if it is a sustainable alternative to stuff I'd normally buy on amazon, and has no major issues.
Totally agree with this. For me, if I can get to $2k a month with Cloakist, that's my dream. Then the pressure's off. I live in Rwanda and can live a good life at that income level. Currently at $463. Pushing every day to make it happen!
Rwanda! How cool is that?
I am happy to see that you know what´s your ideal monthly income from your project.
Almost $500 is pretty good! Well done!
Have you considered the bills you need to pay to keep the business going? assuming you are running a sass subscription.
It's just the start, not the finish line.
jose!
i've told my team that if we can get 250 customers next year, we'll break-even! it's not that many, tbh.
our goal, though, is 1000.
:)
Nice! How far are you from 250 customers? :)
It's a beautiful number, 250.
1K is, of course, also a great number. The sky is the limit. But as I said in the article: we need some seed to grow. 250 seems a fair amount to keep pushing!
we have two-dozen or so folks who have committed since earlier this year (and some are still paying)!
:)
... not close, by a long-shot. but, we'll start this process next year.
Next year you are going to get to those 250!
Which project is the one you are referring to?
http://yensquad.com
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What if I have a month when I make 3x more?
This is the good and the bad of entrepreneurship. And I love it.
Baby steps.
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Sure, but 250 is a great number to keep going, not the final goal.
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Well, I don't know. I guess it depends on the time that you have to work.
If to get to a 1K, I have to work 16h a day, but to stay on 500. I only need to work 2h a day. I pick the last one. It depends on your goals.
Have a nice evening, Mike!
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