My Entire Company Costs About $10 a Year. Here's Every Line Item.
My company made about as much as it cost to exist, and it had a subscription habit: tools I used once and kept paying for. I almost scrolled past the most boring business video on TikTok: a faceless screen recording from creator techguyver on what a one-person company needs online. "Buy a domain that costs somewhere between $10 a year for your own custom domain," he said, adding: "It's not…
A creator named techguyver shared a fascinating video on TikTok about building a one-person company with a total annual cost of just $10. The video broke down each line item, emphasizing the minimal expenses needed to establish a presence online.
First, the creator recommended purchasing a custom domain for around $12 per year. A domain is a vital part of an online identity, and the creator assured that the cost is minimal and not sponsored by any company.
Next, the video delved into the world of cloud services. Using a combination of Cloudflare and frontier Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, the creator demonstrated how to build a fully functional website, landing page, email list, newsletter, and social media content workflow. These tools were all available through free tiers provided by Cloudflare and Brevo, with no monthly charges.
To handle emails, the creator utilized Cloudflare Email Routing, which forwards domain mail to an existing inbox, incurring no additional cost. For publishing newsletters, Brevo's free tier allowed for up to 300 emails per day, also costing nothing.
Regarding payments, the creator used Gumroad, which takes a 10% fee plus $0.50 per sale. PayPal payouts, although slightly more expensive at 2%, were still included in the minimal cost analysis.
The AI component was also part of the $10 stack, as local transcription and drafting ran without any cloud-based token costs. This meant that the only recurring expense was the annual renewal of the domain.
However, the creator cautioned that free tiers can change, and users should verify the current costs before setting up their own online presence. While the $10 stack simplified the infrastructure costs, the real expenses lay in managing customer expectations and handling per-sale fees, such as those from Gumroad, and the time required to assemble and maintain the website.
In conclusion, the $10 stack may have been the easiest part of the process, but building trust with potential customers by securing their email addresses proved to be the most challenging aspect. The creator's journey with this cost-effective stack led to the creation of PixlGrub, a platform compiling 2,526 podcasts and their sponsor-contact emails from public RSS feeds.
The actual work required more than just the free tools, and the creator encouraged viewers to carefully consider their setup to ensure their business thrived.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
