Michaël | HouseStationLive.com<p>THE HIDDEN COSTS OF RUNNING A MICROBUSINESS ON WELFARE<br>May 18, 2025</p><p>Creating content online is not free. In 2024, I spent over €4,300 just to stay visible — while living on welfare and earning nothing. Domains, hosting, tools... Every cent went into surviving the algorithm. And even in 2025, after cutting everything, I’m still paying over €2,600 a year — with no revenue. This isn’t growth. This is the price of existing as an independent creator.<br>¯</p><p>_<br>WHY €0 REVENUE STILL COMES WITH A €4,300 BILL</p><p>People say creating content online is free. All you need is a computer, a phone, and a spark of inspiration. In reality, when you’re running a microbusiness with zero revenue while living on welfare, every tool, every hosting plan, every service becomes a loss-making investment — but one that’s necessary just to exist in the digital ecosystem. This isn’t about comfort or startup luxuries. It’s about the bare minimum required to appear professional: a website, a storefront, basic tools to publish content, and a presence convincing enough to answer the inevitable question from a potential sponsor: “Where can we find you?”<br>¯</p><p>_<br>THE RECURRING BASELINE</p><p>Here’s a realistic breakdown of my annual fixed costs:<br>– 7 domain names: €400/year<br>– WordPress hosting: €100/year<br>– Online store: €600/year<br>– Booking system: €250/year<br>¯</p><p>_<br>“SECONDARY” SERVICES (THAT ARE ANYTHING BUT)</p><p>What people often call “extras” are, in truth, just as essential for building a professional brand, creating content, and distributing it effectively:<br>– Brave VPN: €10/month<br>– Shutterstock (stock images): €50/year<br>– RadioBoss Cloud (self-hosted radio): €6/month (lifetime discounted rate)<br>– Internet: €35/month (€400/year — nearly a full month of welfare)<br>– ChatGPT (paid plan): €25/month<br>– Colorcinch (thumbnail design effects): €8/month<br>That doesn’t even include electricity (~€300/month) or rent — because they’re considered “vital” and don’t appear in business accounting, even if they’re non-negotiable.<br>¯</p><p>_<br>WHAT WE HAD TO CUT</p><p>Even with an already minimal setup, survival meant sacrificing tools:<br>– YouTube Premium: €25/month<br>– Weebly: €20/month (replaced with WordPress)<br>– Mobile app project: scrapped (licenses + updates + devs = unsustainable)<br>– Two domains dropped: hsl.show and housestation.live (saving €70/year)<br>– Fathom Analytics: €20/month → lost all stats from 2022 to 2024<br>– Captivate podcast hosting: €20/month<br>¯</p><p>_<br>WHAT WE REPLACED</p><p>YouTube was replaced by Infomaniak VOD, a Swiss-based platform costing €20/month. It wasn’t some anti-corporate stance. It was survival logic. We paid YouTube to boost our content — and then got buried by the algorithm just after. If paying doesn’t buy long-term visibility, what’s the point?<br>¯</p><p>_<br>FINAL THOUGHT</p><p>Even with no revenue and a completely stripped-down toolset, my business expenses still exceed €2,600 a year. Before cuts, that figure was over €4,300. And I’m living on welfare. This isn’t growth. This isn’t scaling. This is the cost of simply staying visible.<br>¯</p><p>_<br>||<a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/HSLdiary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HSLdiary</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/HSLmichael" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HSLmichael</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/IndieCreator" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>IndieCreator</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/Welfare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Welfare</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/PlatformBias" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PlatformBias</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/YouTube" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>YouTube</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/DigitalWork" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DigitalWork</span></a></p>