# How I Work: $40K/Month Solo App Builder

Channel: Starter Story
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-aEdS28AH0
Duration: 10 min
Language: English
Words: 2229
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/k-aEdS28AH0

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[0:00] Some weeks I will work an hour or two a day, and then other weeks I'll work for [music] like eight or 10 hours a day. Every week that I work is really completely different, and that's kind of the whole reason why I got into being a founder is so I could choose to do that

[0:13] whenever I want. Hey, I'm Jack Butcher. I make $40,000 a month as a solopreneur. Some weeks I work 4 [music] hours a week, sometimes 40. And people always ask me if they need to work 60 to make it. So today, I'm excited to tell you about how I work. I don't have a strict time that I wake up, usually around like 7:00, 8:00, [music] um depending on what the last day looked like. First thing I do when I wake up, brush my teeth, usually do a workout, and then shower, make coffee,

[0:44] and hop right into customer support. That's like the staple. And then I'm jumping right in onto my desk into work after [music] those like three things. The reason I do customer support in the morning first thing is mostly because it's like the my least favorite thing to do. It's hard for me to like ignore an email once I see it. I'm like It's also the thing that I think matters [music] the most because if I'm replying to my customers who are paying, they're going to be a lot happier and the faster I reply to them and [music] faster I fix the problems. That's how I was able to grow my products. That's how

[1:13] I was [music] able to make them better, and then in turn eventually get more users that stuck around because it was actually useful. I can't really do the cafe. I can't really do the moving around. So it's always the same place to get a routine and to get like a nice environment set up. Like I think everyone has a best way they work, and I found that the best way I work is sitting at like a nice chair, a nice desk, kind of having everything how I like it, clean, clutter-free, and then I'm just able to kind of sit down and do what I want to do rather than

[1:44] worrying like about all the little things in my environment I'm not used to. Every week that I work is really completely [music] different. I work rather than in days, I kind of work in sprints. Some weeks I will work maybe an hour or two a day, and then other weeks I'll work for like eight or 10 hours a day. This week that I'm in right now just launched a new product, so I've been working like [music] 10 hours each day. I'm leading up to the launch. I'm waking up and I'm working and I'm half the time forgetting to eat lunch, cuz I'm kind of really having fun and I'm

[2:11] really inspired on these weeks where I'm working a lot. But like this week we launched something new. It's very exciting and there's lots of feedback, so there's like infinite work to do. And then maybe in a month or two when things kind of settle and I'm just focusing on like more basic [music] things, it will

[2:25] be like maybe one or two hours a day. And also if it's really nice outside, that also revolves in why I only work two hours some days, cuz maybe I want to go outside and like play [music] sports with my fiance or just go on a walk. And I want to be able to do that and that's kind of the whole reason why I got into being a founder is so I could choose to

[2:40] do that whenever I want.

[2:46] So, after customer support, I pretty much just work on whatever feels the most important to me that day. So, what I feel inspired to work on, um whether there's a big bug in something, whether [music] you know, a project sounds exciting to me and I can see a kind of it coming to life through doing something and working on it, um then I'll decide to work on that. Generally my rule is that I still only focus on one thing per day. I've talked to other people too and focusing on more than one thing is very hard, so that's kind of where I draw the line in multitasking is

[3:16] like one project a day besides the main customer support for my livelihood. But ultimately what's worth my time is whatever I'm excited about, whatever I'm curious about, I think. I'm kind of my own boss. I get to decide what to do next, so I might as well have fun with it and enjoy [music] it. Otherwise, like what am I doing? At least that's what I

[3:31] think.

[3:38] I definitely think the more money I made and the more secure I felt, the less I felt I needed to prove anything, so the less I in turn felt like I needed to work a lot. And I think a big turning point for me was seeing like my monthly recurring revenue actually be above like a few thousand a month. So, I knew I could live off this and then when my savings built up after a year after that working, it kind of snowballed into me being able to calm down a bit. Cuz I used to have headaches and anxiety for like 2 years and it wouldn't stop and I

[4:07] wouldn't stop thinking about how am I going to make it? How am I going to do this? Only 2 and 1/2 years ago, I like broke down one summer. I was crying with my fiance on a walk and I just didn't think I'd be able to do it. I I really thought that like I was peaked at 3,000 with my mobile app and like I didn't know what to do and then 2 months later, things completely turned around. I kept working on it and it hit like its peak month at 15,000 a month. Ever since then, it's kind of snowballed in the direction where things are going up

[4:33] rather than sideways or down and I think that's when I slowed down on work a bit when things started [music] really working.

[4:44] So, basically every idea that I make is for myself firstly. I kind of selfishly, but I made my first app cuz I wanted to see it in the world. Um turned out 100 other thousand people also wanted it. So, that was curiosity quenched. I made that. Um and then I needed a way to kind of keep the growth going. So, I made another app for myself to grow the mobile app, which actually turned to be like 10 times 100 times bigger um as a social scheduling tool, Post Ridge. Then that grew like so fast that I kind of ditched the mobile app and one thing led

[5:12] to the next. I was trying to grow the tool again. So, I wanted to be my own case study and I made another mobile app and that was for my own need. So, everything kind of stems from my own need. Each product that I made, everything is a [music] new addition to something that I want to see in the world and something that I

[5:27] would use myself.

[5:33] What I found for people getting wrong or getting right is they're trying to do what someone else is doing. Maybe they're making a similar product in a similar niche because this person hit it big, this person got a bunch of money, but it's not really related to their curiosity, what they're interested in. So, even if it is a great idea with a lot of money in it, they're not going to have fun and that is going to translate into everything they do. So, I think having fun and putting yourself into what you're choosing to work on is going to be like the deciding factor if you

[6:01] keep working on [music] it and then that's going to be the deciding factor if you actually get users, if you actually get revenue. So, I think it's really important that people are putting themself in mind and not just [music] what is working best for someone else. A good idea, um usually I don't have to like decide myself um because if I put [music] a landing page, if I put a TikTok, if I put some type of thing out there, people are going to tell me either in the comment section or by landing on my landing page and then not clicking buy. If they don't click buy

[6:27] and a thousand people come, clearly the idea is probably not that good or at least the way it's framed. So, your idea could be like top-notch, but the way you're showcasing the idea, if it's no good, then you're probably not going to get sales. I tend not to ask myself like is this a good idea? I tend to ask myself more, how can I frame this where

[6:45] it's valuable? Is it actually valuable? Like would I use this? Could I see someone using this? Would this help someone save time, save money or some [music] other basic desire? And if it doesn't, then well the idea is probably bad. Basically, around dinner time I'll kind of stop working. I'll put my computer into sleep most of the time unless it's one of those weeks where I'm working like a lot. Um but most of the time I'm going to close the computer at around like 5:00 p.m. and start making dinner, um prepping dinner. I just chill with my fiance, go to the store, get a treat, go

[7:18] on a walk, go on a bike, play sports, watch Netflix. And that's like from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 pretty much every day. Even though I say I don't work after 5:00 most of the time, I'll admit that like that was not always the case. For the first two years of my relationship with my now fiance, I had to kind of figure that out that I had to set a stop time, which now is dinner time um cuz before that I would like be on my computer trying to prep dinner. We'd be watching a show, we'd be on my computer. So, it wasn't really like quality time and that

[7:49] seeped into the quality of our relationship, um, which is pretty personal, but I think that applies to a lot of people. [music] So, that was something that took me like 2 years to really get a deadline for and even now, I still do struggle with it at times. I don't really have a set bedtime, but

[8:02] most of the times it's around 11:00 p.m. I'll go to bed and wake up around 7:00. I think sleep is like one of the most I know it's number one, but I don't really treat it that way. I know I should. It's hard, obviously, to tell yourself to go to bed early when you want to stay up,

[8:17] but to me sleep is definitely important. I'm always going to get 8 hours of sleep, um, especially if I know I'm going to be working a lot the next day. So, I definitely think that no matter how many hours you're working that like getting [music] 7-8 hours of sleep is probably one of the most important

[8:31] things to like keep your brain going.

[8:38] The advice I would give to anyone who kind of even wants to be on a similar path to me is to find your own path. To stay curious in life and optimistic about the future, um, cuz I tried, you know, tried crazy things. They didn't work for me. So, I started collecting images on my computer that were just like inspirational to me in the note of like, "Hey, like you should you got to keep going. You're going to make it anywhere." Like then every time I found an image that I thought would like be worth looking at again to give me some hope, I would put it in that folder. So,

[9:04] I kind [music] of slowly found my own path. I'm still trying to find out new things every day. Um, there's so many ways that you could make it in the way you probably want to, whatever that's monetarily or in other parts of your life. And the best one path for you is really completely unknown. Um, you won't know like what works for you best until you test around and experiment. I know that it's not easy to wake up some days and get out of bed and like do the

[9:27] things you probably don't want to do. And I think that's fine, but I think the main thing is like there's always going to be something worth looking forward to if you look for it. Um, but yeah, keep trying new things. You're staying curious about things and you want to keep learning, um, then you're going to you're going to be okay and things will

[9:42] work out.

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