Notes on running a software business alone

• How to run a software business on your own: the whole job, start to finish — Writing the code is one part of a one-person software business. The rest is clients, quotes, invoices, support, servers and knowing whether you made money. Here is a setup that covers all of it without a stack of subscriptions.
• How to run multiple Claude Code agents in parallel without losing track — One agent is a helper. Four agents working at once is a team — if you set it up right. Worktrees, task sizing, notifications and the layout that keeps you sane.
• How to control the volume of each app on a Mac — macOS gives you one volume slider for everything. Here is why, what you can do with the tools already on your Mac, and how to get a real per-app mixer.
• An AI marketing agent for indie developers: what to hand over, and what to keep — Marketing is the job most developers put off. An agent can take most of it: the plan, the drafts, the schedule, the numbers. Here is how to split the work so the agent does the grind and you keep the judgment.
• How to market your app on social media without getting your accounts flagged — Automation is how most small accounts get restricted: the same reply forty times, likes at machine speed, posting at 3 a.m. Here are the rules that keep an account in good standing, whether a person or an agent is doing the work.
• Do solo developers need a CRM? What to track, and what to skip — A CRM sounds like a sales-team tool. For a solo developer, a small one is the difference between remembering every client and losing work to a forgotten follow-up. Here is the minimum worth keeping.
• How to add a Stripe payment link to an invoice (and get paid faster) — Clients pay sooner when paying takes one click. Here are the two ways to put a Stripe link on an invoice, which one to use for client work, and the details that stop payments going astray.
• How to price freelance software work: hourly, fixed price or retainer — Most freelance developers undercharge because they price from what feels polite instead of from what they need. A simple way to find your floor rate, and when to quote by the hour, the project or the month.
• How to chase a late invoice without losing the client (with email templates) — Most late invoices are forgotten, not disputed. A polite, scheduled follow-up gets them paid. Here is the schedule, four email templates, and the habits that mean you rarely need them.
• Time tracking for freelance developers: a setup you will actually keep — Time tracking fails when it is a chore. Track by project, start the timer where you already work, fix the gaps on Friday, and use the numbers to bill accurately and quote better.
• Treat App Store and Google Play reviews as support tickets — A one-star review is often a support request with nowhere else to go. Read reviews like tickets, reply in the store, fix the cause, and close the loop with the reviewer. Here is the routine.
• Error tracking and uptime monitoring for indie developers — You should hear about a crash or an outage before your users do. The small monitoring setup a solo developer needs: error tracking, uptime checks, sensible alerts, and a link from every error to the people it hit.
• HubSpot alternative for solo developers: when a big CRM is more than you need — HubSpot is excellent for sales and marketing teams. A one-person software business needs something different: clients, deals, invoices and support in one place. How to decide, and what to look for instead.
• Zoho One alternative for a one-person software business — Zoho One bundles dozens of business apps under one licence. For a company with many roles it is great value. For a solo developer it can be a lot of software to learn. How to choose, and what an alternative should cover.
• Designing UI with AI coding agents: give them a canvas, not just a prompt — Agents are great at writing code and bad at guessing what you want it to look like. Letting them design on a live canvas first changes the whole loop.
• How to keep Claude Code running after you close the terminal — Close the window and your agent dies mid-task. Here is why, and five ways to keep a coding agent working while you walk away — from tmux to a session daemon.
• Every Mac screenshot shortcut, plus how to annotate and redact them fast — The five shortcuts worth memorising, the hidden settings that change where screenshots go, and how to blur sensitive details properly before you share.
• How to free up disk space on a Mac: 12 places your storage actually went — "System Data" is eating 200 GB and you have no idea why. Here are the twelve places space really disappears on a Mac — and what is safe to delete.
• Why is my Mac so slow? How to find what's actually eating your CPU and memory — Spinning fans, a beach ball, a battery that drains by lunch. Here is how to find the real culprit in a few minutes — and the usual suspects, explained.
• Mac volume keys not working on an external monitor? Here's why — and the fix — Plug in an HDMI or DisplayPort monitor and your volume keys show a crossed-out speaker. It is not a bug. Here is what is happening and four ways to get control back.
• What we gave up by not shipping a web app — Native and local-first are choices with a bill attached. Here is what is actually on it.
• Five agent harnesses, one honest status light — Knowing whether an agent is working, stuck, or waiting on you is harder than it sounds when every harness reports differently.
• Your sessions should not live in the window — Closing a terminal tab kills whatever was running in it. That is a decision, not a law — and NabuOne makes the opposite one.