Simon Willison’s Weblog

Should I pull the plug?

24th November 2013

My answer to Should I pull the plug? on Quora

Is there any way if turning this in to a recurring revenue product? It’s enormously easier to get money from an existing customer (since they already know that your product works for them and is worth the cash) than to sign up a brand new customer.

Building a business takes a long time. If you need 24 sales a week and you’ve only just made your first sale, it will take you months to get to your break-even point.

That gives you three options:

1. Give up
2. Raise money from investors
3. Find an alternative income source to support yourself

Based on what little information you’ve provided, it sounds like you should be looking at number 3. Plenty of successful businesses have been built by people as a side-project to their regular income.