Introduction
Ever since I discovered Joel on Software, I've been playing with the idea of running my own company. I suspect that I'm not alone in that.
This was several years ago. Now, I'm finally at a point in my life where I have both the means and ability to do such a thing. It's time to focus and make it happen.
One might argue that writing a blog isn't particularly focused, that I could be spending my time doing actual business development. I disagree. I find that blogging about things that I've already done is useful to give some closure. It helps to solidify my learning and generate new ideas at the same time. I can ask questions and get comments. It's not a time-consuming activity, and it's one that I can do even when I'm too tired to do useful work.
And yes, despite other people's assertions to the contrary, I believe that it's a useful marketing tool and even provides a tiny bit of income. The income is not worth pursuing for itself, but every little bit helps.
At the moment, I'm working full-time. Yes, it's possible that my employer reads this. I also have the occasional contract job on the side, and it's possible that those employers read this, too. I'm hoping to reduce my day job hours to four days per week. I'm finding that mornings and weekends aren't enough time to make consistent progress on this sort of endeavour. The contract work is mostly so that I have more cash in the bank should I decide to go full-time. That's not likely to happen for a while, and I don't pursue contracts aggressively. They're just a quick way to add to my savings pool - currently sitting at about six months of comfortable living expenses.
I'm still feeling my way around the whole 'business world'. I studied Software Engineering at uni, but have been dabbling in hardware since I was about five years old. All of the things that engineers usually consider 'business' - marketing, sales, logistics, management, manufacturing - they're all pretty new to me. I'm learning slowly and cautiously, but have been getting good results. What this all means is that my first proper business endeavour isn't going to be tremendously ambitious. I'm going to go for a project that won't take too long to produce and try to reduce my risk wherever possible. It probably won't be enough to support me on its own, but that's OK. It's a bit of extra cash coming in, and it'll teach me a lot. I'll be more confident next time when I do try something ambitious.