Free from 9 to 5

My fiance is a very artsy and crafty person. She recently made a ring bearer pillow, flower girl basket and garter for a close friend of ours who was getting married. I was amazed at the quality of her work (no bias here, really ) and consequently took pictures of the wedding set she made to post in an eBay auction. Lo and behold, someone bought it, so she made another set and we shipped it (after taking more pictures).

Then another friend saw the first set she made and wanted one to give as a gift. My fiance sold yet another set. This led me to whip up a simple e-commerce website for her: www.elegantweddingshoppe.com.

I also put up another eBay auction, but no one bid this time and the auction expired with no winner. I’ve since listed another eBay auction and we are trying again. This happened in a matter of weeks, but the great thing was, aside from the cost of the ebay/paypal fees and domain registration fee, which totaled less than $20, we didn’t have to put any money upfront to start this business.

I still need to learn how to market better and bring more visitors, but even with just 2 sales, this unexpected and unanticipated business venture is quite exhilarating. And I could use any marketing tips that you have!

With my reluctance to work for the Man growing stronger and stronger with each passing day, I better make darn sure my businesses-in-progress will work out for the long term before quitting my job. Because once I do, I don’t think I can go back to working in a corporate purgatory. Even now, my tolerance for corporate stupidity and red tape is dwindling. I mean the hoops I had to jump through this past week just to get a static IP address! I had to go through 6 layers of people and it took a whole week just for a stinking IP address. This was for a piece of lab equipment that I couldn’t do anything further without, so just the lost productivity alone cost at least $2,000. Unfortunately, I don’t think quitting my day job is a viable option for quite a while yet.

But sometimes I think my day job is too much of a safety net. My motivation and drive may kick into a higher gear if I don’t have this day job to fall back on. On bad days, I want to just quit and make a go at it on my own, but any way I look at it, that would be an emotional decision, not a rational or wise decision. And with marriage coming into the picture, I have more than myself to think of. So I have no immediate or even short term plans to quit my job. But I can dream, right?

Since I’ve started this blog, I’ve come across many many people trying to be free from 9 to 5, in one way or another. Some, like me, are developing a software product; others are studying how to better plan and manage their career/finances; and yet others are doing things way outside my realm of expertise who I can learn from. I thought I would just round everyone up in this post and wish everyone luck in their quest to be free from 9 to 5! If I missed you, please feel free to “advertise” here with a comment on how you’re also trying to ditch the day job.

David St. Lawrence - Ripples - Bent Crow Press
Star - astepcloser.com
Darren Rowse - problogger.net
Jeremy Wright - www.ensight.org
Neville Medhora - www.nevblog.com
Cubicle Coder - cubiclecoder.blogspot.com
Phil Wright - componentfactory.blogspot.com
Dave - www.buyeranalytics.com
Ian - www.userscape.com/blog
Michael Sica - www.michaelsica.com/ataraxissoftware
Lachlan Gemmell - lachlan.gemmell.com
Chris Cox - www.leaplogic.com
Jacob - greenplans.blogspot.com
Mr. Phil - www.mrphilgames.com
Craig Cecil - www.craigcecil.com
Jon - www.outerlevel.com
Lisa Verkley - goldwingnetwork.com
Brandon Doyle - www.freewebs.com/doyle

I switched webhosts last night for this site. Please let me know if you see any weirdness occurring.

Neville Medhora has a very insightful post about the down sides of trying to be free from 9 to 5 by owning your own business. Unless you think hard about the type of business and the lifestyle you want, owning your own business may not actually free you from 9 to 5.

The very act of moving forward reveals doors to you not previously revealed.

I forgot where I read that, probably from Steve Pavlina again, but I’m finding it to be true. I’m not at my destination yet, but from where I was 3 months ago, with just a day job and wishful thinking, I now have a blog, some blogosphere relationships, a software idea and a software application (or close to one). It all started with just getting started:

• I started this blog in mid-March 2005.
• I met people (other bloggers) I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t start this blog.
• One of these blogger’s post gave me an idea.
• I coded a software app.
• Developing this app gave me ideas for TWO other related apps.
• I now have a fledgling software shop of my very own!

By no means is this supporting me or anywhere close to freeing me from my 9 to 5 job yet, but things are looking a great deal brighter now. And it all started with the mere act of starting a blog.

3 months ago, I knew starting a blog wouldn’t in any way free me from my 9 to 5 job. But I didn’t know what else to do, so I just did something related, anything, and this blog was it. One thing led to another and I’m working towards my very own software shop now. There’s something very liberating about knowing this that makes my 9 to 5 job a bit more tolerable (just a bit though). And I have to believe that this new direction I’m embarking on is how my newfound attitude towards deadlines and overtime came about.

One of the most successful microISV’s around, Bradbury Software, has been bought by NewsGator. Nick Bradbury is moving to the next level with his popular FeedDemon and TopStyle software!

In an earlier post, I mentioned how, for the first time in my employed life, I chose to no longer scramble to meet a deadline. Here’s another first: I denied their request for overtime this week.

It came as a request, not a demand, so I said no. I used to feel pressure (from myself) to work overtime when asked. I always wanted to be a good little employee. This time, however, I did not want to be a corporate sheep. A colleague later asked me why I’m not working overtime. I told him I took their polite request at face value and made my choice. He said he took it as a mandate and seemed genuinely surprised that I didn’t take it as such. Who’s right? I don’t know, but I do know I value my time far more than what they’ll be paying me for overtime, especially since I’ve started to work on my own software. So I made my decision based on that. I sense that as the deadline approaches, I may no longer have a choice; I still need this job so I’ll assent to overtime at that time. But until then, I choose time for myself and my own projects over more money.

I don’t keep tabs on the web stats for this site. I’m not selling anything or engaged in any popularity contests, so I haven’t checked out the stats since the first few days after I started this blog. But in preparation for launching the website for my software product, I am researching web stats and how to use them. First stop was the stats for this blog. I didn’t expect much since I hardly get any comments on my posts, but I was surprised I was getting so many visitors and hits (relatively speaking, of course):

May’s barely started and if thing’s keep up like this, I’m on par to break 2,000 unique visitors and 32,000 hits this month.

So I’m curious, who are you lurkers??? I’m not usually a comment whore, but just this once, please leave a comment and introduce yourselves, or just leave me your website address if you have one! I’d like to know you!

Update 5/8/05 evening: Or if you don’t want to leave a public trail on the Internet, email me! (eric@freefrom9to5.com) I totally understand and I’d still love to hear from you.

This article entitled “Recipe for Simplicity”, by Linda Breen Pierce, really resonated with me. Simplify your life and you will be closer to being free from 9 to 5.

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Copyright 2000, Linda Breen Pierce. You may reprint this article, provided you include the byline at the end of the article.

“Simplify, Simplify…” More than a century after Henry David Thoreau uttered these words, his plea for simplicity has more significance now than ever before. We work hard and play hard, filling nearly every moment with activity. Most families believe they need two incomes to pay for a standard of living that has doubled in the last 50 years. But do we? Based on my three-year study of over 200 people who have simplified their lives, I found that we can work less, want less, and spend less, and be happier and more fulfilled in the process. Here are ten suggestions to simplify your life. Don’t try to simplify your life in a few weeks or months; most people need an initial period of three to five years to complete this transition. Small, gradual steps are best.

1. Don’t let any material thing come into your home unless you absolutely love it and want to keep it until it is beyond repair. Too much stuff - it’s suffocating us. Purchasing, maintaining, insuring, storing and eventually disposing of our stuff sucks up our precious life energy.

2. Live in a home with only those rooms that you or someone in your family use every day. Create a cozy home environment that fits your family. You will find this is much more satisfying than living in a museum designed to impress your friends. Spending time and money to maintain a home that is larger than you truly need diverts these resources from more fulfilling endeavors.

3. Limit your work (outside of the home) to 30 hours a week, 20 if you are a parent. To live a balanced life, we need “down” time - time to daydream, to relax, to prepare a leisurely meal, to take a walk. If we surround our structured activities with empty spaces, those activities will become more productive and meaningful.

4. Select a home and place of employment no more than 30 minutes away from each other. Commuting time is dead time. It nourishes not the body, the mind, nor the soul. Preserve your energy and money for more rewarding life experiences.

5. Limit your children’s extracurricular activities to one to three a week, depending on age. Otherwise, you will exhaust yourself and your children will grow up addicted to constant stimulation.

6. Take three to four months off every few years and go live in a foreign country. Living in a different culture fascinates, excites, and vitalizes us. It teaches us to live in the present, a core practice of simple living. We gain perspective when we experience a foreign culture. We learn how much we have to be grateful for.

7. Spend at least an hour a week in a natural setting, away from crowds of people, traffic, and buildings. Three to four hours of nature time each week is even better. There is nothing more basic, more simple, than the natural world.

8. Do whatever you need to do to connect with a sense of spirit in your life, whether it be prayer, religious services, journal writing, meditation, or spiritually-related reading. Simplicity leads to spirituality; spirituality leads to simplicity. Cultivate a practice of silence and solitude, even for 15 to 30 minutes a day. Your spirituality will evolve naturally.

9. Seek the support of others who want to simplify their lives. Join or start a simplicity circle if you enjoy group interaction. Living simply in our culture can be a lonely journey. Your friends and family may still be on the work-and-spend treadmill and are unlikely to give you support. Participating in a study group will give you support and validation for your choices.

10. Practice saying no. Say no to those things that don’t bring you inner peace and fulfillment, whether it be more material things, greater career responsibility, or added social activities. Be vigilant with your time and energy; they are limited resources. If you say yes to one thing (like a job promotion), recognize that you are saying no to something else (perhaps more time with family). Live consciously and deliberately.

Linda Breen Pierce is the author of Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World and Simplicity Lessons: A 12-Step Guide to Living Simply. She can be reached via email or at (831) 626-8486 (Pacific time).