Who creates income reports?
After @momoko's income report post, being originally inspired originally by Pat Flynn (👋 me too!), I thought it would nice 'n' helpful to create a group on Indie Hackers to collate them.
So we now have a Income Reports group. 👈 Do join!
Here are some people who have been doing income reports:
- Monica Lent's January 2021 report
- Allison Seboldt, Maker of Fantasy Congress (@allison)
- Michael Lynch, Maker of TinyPilot (@deliberatecoder)
- Cory Zue, Maker of SaaS Pegasus (@czue)
- Andrea Bizzotto, Maker of Code with Andrea (@bizz84)
I will post links to these reports or move relevant posts over into this new group.
Who else regularly puts out income reports and where can we find them?
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Thanks for sharing this, Rosie! I love following other Indie Hackers who post monthly reports.
Would you consider the name "Retrospectives" instead? When I write my reports, I try to focus on what problems I'm struggling with and how my thinking has evolved. I often have goals that are not strictly about income (e.g., managing stress, reaching a project milestone), so my monthly retrospectives keep me focused and accountable.
I can't speak for @allison or @czue, but it's worth noting that they publish their monthly updates under the name "Retrospectives" rather than "Income Reports."
When I see people post "income reports" that fit in a tweet or a short /r/Entrepreneur post, I often find it disappointing that they focus so much on the numbers and so little on introspection. What I love about Indie Hackers is the passion and the openness, so when I read pure numbers posts, I feel like we're all working in some kind of factory where we're just trading time for pageviews and MRR.
Enthusiastic +1!
I actually heard the term "income report" for the very first time when I saw @momoko 's post the other day. Agree the "retrospective" part is the part I find the most enjoyable to see, and the "income" part is more for context around what's happening and how it went.
Yeah the term is kinda old school, bloggers have been writing them for like 10 years by now :)
https://www.google.com/search?q=income+reports
I think the only real difference is in terminology though.
Bloggers and creators tend to use "income report". Developers tend to use "retrospective". Both contain financial details and plenty of context.
But I get why it sounds like just numbers based on the name. Maybe Retrospective makes more sense because Indie Hackers is more developers.
The only thing I think is not clear from the name "Retrospective" that it's going to include the financial details.
I don't mind changing the name, technically I'll need to create a new group and have you all rejoin, and delete this one. I can't change the group names once they've been created. 🙈
I can easily move posts from this group into the other one.
Is that a yes to a "Retrospectives" group then? I can put 'Financial retrospections' in the description of it.
@mtlynch @czue
Sounds like a bit of a pain. Can't you just make @csallen change it in the database? ;)
(No strong feelings on my side whether it's worth the effort, and @momoko has a good point re: financials - though also wonder if financials are required?).
Anyway, debating names is a sure way to lose hours of your life so will leave it in others' capable hands!
Retrospectives sounds good to me! Thanks!
And also, does anyone want to help moderate it?
Mostly to help:
I can help, Rosie. Just tell me how it works!
Ah yes, Michael is also on Indie Hackers but as @mtlynch.
When I made this list it was just Twitter handles ^_^
Joined Income Reports! How fun and retro, I love it 😍
Thanks for the mention Rosie! You can find Michael's reports here: https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/ (saw the link was missing above)
Thanks @rosiesherry for making this group!
I do monthly income reports as a freelance developer.
I do sporadically when I remember to do them.