Starter Story - From idea to $1.5K MRR in 7 weeks

Dear starters,

Pat Walls here, creator of Starter Story.

As you know, every Thursday I send you an email highlighting the best case studies that we've published on our platform. This is a bite-sized summary of the most interesting experiences that starters have shared with us.

I hope you enjoy it!

And remember that as a newsletter subscriber, you are eligible for a very special deal to enjoy unlimited access to our Ideas database. Join us now and get Starter Story Premium for $79/year, a 45% discount from our regular price. That’s just $1.71 per week, an absolute no brainer investment in your business.

No-code $1.5K MRR in 7 weeks

This is a project born to solve a pain this starter was suffering himself. Maybe one of the greatest ways to find a business idea.

When given $50K quotes to develop the tool he imagined to better manage leads’ information, he decided to use no-code tools to create the first version by himself.

Being a smart indie maker, once he had an MVP ready, he found some interesting free ways of promoting his product. That was the spark the project needed to gain some initial traction.

It’s been said a million times, but you can put together a product and generate income using just no-code tools. Check the case studies below and see for yourself how all kinds of businesses are benefiting from these tools:

• A $100K/month community of guys growing their hair
• A $7M/year dog treats business
• A $2.5M/year personal care brand

Passive income movement

Are you seeing this as well? People all over the world are quitting their jobs at record rates. Why? they want to be their own boss. They want to make passive income.

Hasan left his job in search of freedom and independence because he wanted to create content. But to better position that content he developed a keyword research tool that people started to ask about soon.

That’s when the light bulb came on. What if he made it available for everyone? The web app he created is what allowed him to create a passive income stream of $2K/month.

I love the fact that he leveraged a sort of overlooked website with huge traffic that is Quora. He started to both write answers and publish ads there.

How to write viral answers on Quora is one of the top strategies included in our Growth Database, a collection of 200+ growth & marketing ideas.

Generating passive income is one of the starters’ dreams. To make money on autopilot sounds too good to not try. The good thing is that there are many ways you can achieve it, these people below did it!

• Jake makes $60K/year renting game servers
• Katie runs a 6-figures net profit blog
• Paul started selling wooden bow ties at 16
• Jill created a protective vest for chickens
• Tony developed a diamond search engine

Interested in starting a passive income business? We put together 60 of the best passive income businesses you can start in today. All of them are real-world examples to help you see what it really takes.

$100K business ideas

If you're just in the getting started phase, and want some inspiration - we put together a list of the most inspirational stories that are making at least $100k/year.

These businesses have grown because of their unique ideas and approach to launching and marketing - each story is worth a read to inspire you for your own business as they all talk about:

• How they came up with their idea
• Finding/sourcing/building the product
• Their approach to launching
• How they've grown the business

💎 Start your own business today 

Learn from real people sharing real stories. The struggles, the wins, the good and the bad. 

How do people get inspired and find great business opportunities? How do they get their 10 first clients? What challenges do they face at every stage and how to overcome them?

For just $79/year (just $1.51/week you'll get unlimited access to:

✅ 2,000+ case studies

✅ 3,000+ business ideas 

✅ 200+ proven growth strategies 

​Or, get even more with our Premium Plus membership for $199/year and you will additionally gain access to the Lean SEO course (sold separately for $249) where I share how I've grown Starter Story to over 900K monthly visitors.

(all of our plans are billed yearly)

The secret to ecommerce success

This is a very interesting tweet from Steve and honestly, he knows what he’s talking about. A while ago we spoke to him and he shared everything on how he started a 7-figure ecommerce business selling handkerchiefs. Mind-blowing.

Ecommerce is for sure a space where you can make lots of money if you can push the right buttons. If you want to get started with an ecommerce business, take a look at these case studies to know all the details from those who had succeeded in the past and learn how they did it:

• Sell gardening tools ($3M/month)
• Start a bedding company ($24M/year)
• Create a  skin care product line ($12M/year)

How to 2x your business during a pandemic

James has always had a special interest in environmental preservation. Thanks to getting in touch with the ecommerce world he found an opportunity to start a company that also had a positive impact on the environment. That’s how he started his 100% carbon neutral shipping service.

In the past two years the business has almost doubled and they’ve raised $50M in two funding rounds. (Disclaimer: Sendle is one of our sponsors).

This week we also spoke to Dave, who started a $360k/year carbon offsetting company that works with airlines.

And these are just two examples showing that you can start a successful business and take care of our planet at the same time. Other options would be starting a water purifying business, solar energy business ($600K/month) or a waste disposal business. The opportunities are endless!

Trending articles this week

1. Running a $6m/year paper roll company [China’s #3]

2. This escort service business survived 9 months of lockdown 

3. I started a health & safety training business that makes 1.8m/year

4. I built a $3.6m/year email marketing platform [based in Thailand]

5. How I grew my fitness studio to $480k/year despite the pandemic

6. We started a $360k/year carbon offsetting company [from New Zealand]

7. How I turned my teenage hobby into a $2k/month  business

8. On creating an IT consulting company [with 60+ specialists]

9. How we grew revenue 10% over last year

10. We created a student information system used by 2k+ schools

Looking for a job, or some work on the side?

Get your feet wet before you take the plunge into founder life.

Many of the companies we interview are hiring in operations, design, marketing, engineering, and more...

Check out our jobs portal for all new opportunities - new jobs are added every day!

Thanks for reading!

Pat

🙏  If you enjoyed this newsletter, you could really help me doing one of these things:

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I really appreciate you sharing and spreading the word. It really means a lot!

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