

Balsamiq - A look back at 2008 - kapitti
http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=531

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maximilian
He had over a $100,000 in revenue, which is pretty cool for 6 months. He says
he's started paying himself a bit, but all that money is his, so its all
income as I see it. Other than a bit of server space, what are the costs?
Obviously he's going to use some of it to pay for server space for his future
prospects, but thats a pretty penny nonetheless.

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balsamiq
Hi Maximilian, here's a breakdown of my top expenses: \- Salary: 13,500 (46%)
\- Equipment: 5,400 (18%) I bought an iPhone and a 23'' Cinema Display this
year \- Contractors: 3,500 (12%) I hired 2 devs for 2 different small projects
\- Lawyers: 2,780 (9%) I hired a lawyer to help me incorporate and with the
EULA

The rest is small stuff.

Yes all the money is technically mine, but I have started paying myself
because I want to keep the rest for taxes and to re-invest in the company.

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tdavis
Next step: get an awesome accountant and start using that money to purchase
anything and everything you could possibly write off. All that excess revenue
will get raped by taxes.

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jotto
No accountant can be awesome enough to write off much more than what is truly
a business expense. The ultimate rule is that everything written off must have
business purpose.

Now, you'll only get in trouble if you get audited, but writing off things
that shouldn't be written off will stand out.

The best way to shelter yourself from taxes is to invest the money and then
pay taxes on a long term capital gain (which have historically been lower than
ordinary tax rates).

~~~
fallentimes
Retained earnings (if that's what you mean by invest) are taxed as well.

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Jem
I had an excuse - sorry, opportunity - to use the online mockups app this year
to generate some basic example page layouts for my boss. I was impressed by
the speed at which I was able to just throw things together (normally I spend
about 3 hours trying to remember how to use MS PowerPoint.. ick!)

All I have to do now is convince the boss I need the desktop version!

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lionhearted
Peldi, I've really enjoyed hearing about your journey and congratulations on
your successes. I've learned a lot reading your entries.

In your 2009 outlook, you wrote some goals, one being: "I will have to go from
'mr. Do-it-all' to be Balsamiq’s CEO, which will mean having employees,
delegating..." - one thing from personal experience. When you make your first
hire, you're going be tempted to get a friend you know is good. My advice:
Don't. Your first hires will always see you in the light they had before you
were their boss, and since you're growing so rapidly in business and life,
it's 95% likely to end poorly.

It won't be the end of the world, but I disregarded this advice myself a
couple times. Staff will learn and grow with you to some extent, friends to a
much less extent. And since you seem like a really nice guy with a soft spot
for people, then being in the super difficult position of it not making sense
to keep working with someone - but you're their livelihood - will suck more
for you than it will for a more heartless person.

Your call of course, just have a think over it, and best wishes and much
prosperity in 2009.

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balsamiq
Thanks so much for the advice lionhearted, I'll remember it!

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zhyder
Congrats Peldi! I'm surprised how dominant the desktop version is over the
other web-platform versions. I think I read in one of your blog posts that you
were too.

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old-gregg
I am not surprised. In fact the availability of offline version is the main
reason my clients are considering balsamiq. Anything online is inevitably slow
on corporate Internet and unavailable in some meeting rooms, airports or
anywhere on the go. Online apps are fine for time wasting, but when you have
work to do and a paycheck to earn, most people prefer to have their tools
available 24/7.

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Jasber
This is such a cool story to watch unfold.

One concern I have is there might be ___too many_ * SKU's:
<http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/pricesheet>

While offering a variety of prices is great, I'm curious if some users don't
become overwhelmed.

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balsamiq
Hi Jasber, the link on my post was actually the first time I shared the
pricesheet page with the public. I never show it to potential customers, but
had to make it for partners and resellers (they really like to make sure they
buy the right SKU for their clients). In other words, people get to the
version they need via the site, which is hopefully clear enough to navigate
(I'm not super-happy with it, but it works ok).

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bootload
_"... was wondering how long you plan to stay a one-man company for. If you
are in an accident, who will support us?“ .."_

Peldi did you overcome this problem?

 _"... I am still confident that the plugin versions will grow over time
relative to the desktop version, as more and more people “see the light” and
start working in the cloud. ..."_ ~ <http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=424>

I think the biggest insight this game me was that desktop version had a bigger
demand than the web version & that you could ship both using the same code
base.

Is shipping the desktop version & web version difficult?

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balsamiq
Hi bootload. Re: the "hit by a bus" scenario, I'm working on it on two fronts:
one is hiring a second person, which I will need to do soon. The second is to
entrust the company to my family in case I die, so that they can sell it if
something happens to me.

Re: desktop vs. web, yes it's a surprise, but as I say above, a desktop app
which syncs to the web is a pretty good proposition...we'll see more as I
build my "web connectors" this year.

