Part-Time Self-Employed - With Good Ideas for Almost Completely Passive Income
 |
| Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash |
Hanifmr.com - Make money online without putting in many hours of work every day. Is that possible?
My interview partner today went exactly this way, even if it is not about becoming successful overnight.
But he has built 2 online pillars that he runs alongside his actual job. In the following, he gives very interesting insights.
Hello Simon. Please introduce yourself to my readers.
Hello peer. My name is Simon Richartz, I was born in the Rhineland and work full-time as a product owner for the topic of mobile at Trusted Shops in Cologne.
I also run two online projects, Taxi-Rechner.de and UrbanMapDesign.com, and try to generate as passive income as possible.
How Did You Get Into an Online Business?
 |
| Part-Time Self-Employed - With Good Ideas for Almost Completely Passive Income |
It all started in the early 2000s when I was still at school. When my father installed the first broadband connection at home, I started designing my first websites.
The first steps, a first private homepage for my circle of friends and a page for our hobby football club, was made with Frontpage Express and Dreamweaver. Gradually, I also started designing and maintaining websites for pubs or befriended entrepreneurs. As a sole proprietorship, unfortunately, no scalable business model, so I cut that back during my studies.
During my studies, I had the idea for Taxi-Rechner.de and saw the opportunity to generate passive income and thus have enough time for my studies. ;-)
Did you teach yourself website development? If yes how?
I got the basics in HTML and CSS relatively quickly from the first few pages with Frontpage Express and Dreamweaver. When designing Taxi-Rechner.de, however, I quickly saw the need to use dynamic elements. Bohemian villages were for me both for the connection of the map service (at that time still Map24) and the creation of a server-side database.
As an inquisitive student, I then acquired the first basic books for Javascript and PHP / MySQL, and together with online tutorials (express thanks to SelfHTML and the associated forum) and sample code, I started to build the necessary functionalities piece by piece. Much in the trial & error principle, but target-oriented.
How did the idea for Taxi-Rechner.de come about?
Here in the Rhineland, there is the ski hall Neuss with what was then a very interesting après ski offer. Unfortunately, this hall is not well connected in terms of traffic, so that it was difficult to leave there at night.
Here I wanted to find out how expensive the taxi home was, but couldn't find anything. There were no concrete figures on the internet, the statements from taxi companies differed considerably. Since the research showed that the taxi price is made up of clearly defined components, the only thing missing was an online calculator.
You rely on apps. Why?
This is simply thought of by the user. The natural usage scenarios for taxi price calculations are 1) for travel preparation (then often on the desktop) or 2) in a specific case when I want to get from A to B.
In the latter case, I am not at home on the computer, but access the service on the go.
Responsive web design wasn't as big a topic at the time as it is today, so I was looking at native apps here.
Although the website was also designed responsively with the last redesign two years ago, around 20% of the price calculations still take place via the apps.
How did you implement your apps?
Through my professional network, I knew an experienced Java developer who wanted to develop in the direction of apps and was able to negotiate a good, long-term deal with him, which also includes the ongoing development and support of the apps.
In addition to a monetary reward, he benefits from the apps as job-relevant references and I know the topic is in good hands.
How do you do marketing for it? Finding the first app users is the hardest part.
Marketing for the apps is primarily carried out via the website. The links to Google Play and Apple's App Store are prominently integrated there so that interested users were immediately made aware of them.
Before the website was responsive, the apps were also referred to via Javascript for mobile access. This works quite well, as the user comes to the site with an intention that can also be satisfied by the apps. A (for us surprising) TV report on Pro7 also gave the apps an extreme boost.
In gross terms, it was only a few seconds in a “tough” post the evening before, but net it brought more than 14,000 app installations in one day. Otherwise, the number is usually between 100-150 installations per day. Of course, that also ensured a good push in the app stores.
What problems and challenges did you face?
Technically, the biggest challenge was probably the relatively abrupt change of the map provider from Map24 to Google Maps. Map24 discontinued the interface used up until then at short notice so that a quick change was necessary. As an unskilled developer, the timely integration of a completely new API was a real feat. Thanks to the good documentation of the Google Maps Javascript API, this was done within 3 days.
From a commercial point of view, it was certainly a challenge from the moment the blessings of small business no longer took hold. Specifically, the moment when advance VAT returns were due. I studied business administration, but that is a very dry matter, always connected with the latent feeling of doing something wrong. When I founded the GmbH last year, I then took the opportunity to outsource the entire bookkeeping including taxes. It costs one or two euros, but it makes me sleep very well.
How Do You Make Money with It?
With advertising. Taxi companies have the opportunity to secure exclusive advertising space for certain cities and thus address their target group without major wastage. This is particularly valuable for taxi companies insofar as they not only reach the right users but also at exactly the right time: when the decision is made for or against a taxi ride.
And if this decision is positive, the next question is where to order the taxi. A taxi company is the next logical step. This also justifies a slightly higher CPM.
For the locations for which there are no exclusive partnerships, Google AdSense will be activated as residual space utilization.
How did you come up with the idea for urbanmapdesign.com and what exactly is it about?
Part of every student apartment is a city map hanging on the wall for orientation, whether it is an illustrated tourist map or an informative one from the transport companies. But if you move into the first “real” apartment, you won't find anything like that anymore. I don't think that suddenly nobody needs the information of a city map anymore, but rather that there are simply no beautiful city maps that do not look framed or unsuitable as a canvas.
Specifically, I was looking for an informative, yet decorative map for the city of Cologne. While you could still find what you were looking for in London, Paris, and New York, things looked bleak for other cities (including Cologne).
So I sat down at Google Maps and Photoshop for two weekends and copied a large image file and had it printed. That was time-consuming and the result didn't look really good either. It had to be better and faster. The idea for UrbanMapDesign.com was born: Freely configurable city maps in different styles for everyone.
How do you use third-party APIs and what do you have to pay attention to?
I get the maps from service in the USA. This is based on OpenStreetMap and has a great advantage over Google Maps in that the map styles can be designed completely individually. In addition to this flexibility, scalable service packages are also important, so that increasing user numbers will not pose a problem in the future.
On the other hand, I work with a printing service provider who, after placing the order, sends the necessary data (image file, delivery address) semi-automatically via our backend and who then sends the products white-label directly to the end customer. In addition to the price, the consistent quality, both in terms of printing, packaging and delivery, was decisive. If the products go directly to the customer in my name, it is particularly important to me that returns due to a poor product or packaging quality are minimal.
Is It Possible to Generate Passive Income with It?
It's not 100% passive. The tasks to be done in the backend after an order do not take more than 5 minutes. Printing and delivery are handled by service provide on-demand, so that no effort is required here.
What is charming about the individual design of the city maps is the possibility of excluding the statutory 14-day right of withdrawal, as these are individually made products. This means that most of the returns handling is no longer necessary. I would say 98% of the income is passive.
What is your working day normally like? How much maintenance do your projects take?
Most of my working day consists of my main job as Product Owner Mobile at Trusted Shops. The taxi computer now runs almost completely passively. Tariff updates alone take around 30 minutes per month.
The order processing at UrbanMapDesign takes approx. 5 minutes per order.
What are you planning for the future?
At the moment I am fully focused on the growth of UrbanMapDesign.com. I try different channels to make the site and thus the brand better known so that steady growth can be achieved.
Exciting tasks are waiting again, whether it's online SEO, classic public relations, or - for me new territory - art and flea markets.
Finally, I would be happy to hear your most important tips for founders.
At the beginning of an idea, there is one thing in abundance and that is doubters. There will always be someone who will dismiss your idea as useless or unrealistic.
Check seriously for yourself whether an implementation is feasible and worthwhile and then let's go.
Thanks for the interesting interview.
Post a Comment