Free from 9 to 5

My project at the Corporation is over. It was completed about a week and a half late but the bigwigs still seemed satisfied that it is done. I move on to a new project next week, and look forward to having new fodder to blog about. I can already tell I will be dealing with a micromanager, albeit an affable one. I have already put out feelers in my network for job openings and have my resume circulating out there.

My network is not as strong or wide as it can be though, because I’m just not a very sociable person. My saving grace is that I am connected to 2 or 3 people who do have strong and wide network of contacts that I can draw upon. That’s how I’ve gotten my past 2 jobs, but I know I should develop a better network of my own. ( Does anyone in my blogging network need some programming work done? ) And simply sending out a resume is one of the most ineffective ways to find a new job.

Besides networking and resume sending, what else is there? You can try to make your own living, which is what I’m trying to do with my microISV and wedding accessories website. One other tactic I can see is becoming a known expert on a subject matter through blogging. People like Robert Scoble, Dan Gillmor and Jeremy Zawodny seem to have solidified their expertise on a subject matter through blogging, and would have no trouble finding a job ever. Something to consider.

Update: Coincidently, after publishing this post, I ran across this post over at Slacker Manager describing how he applied for (and got) a job in an industry he didn’t have much experience in. A very creative first. Congratulations!

I haven’t had time to write many new blog entries the past 2 weeks due to 2 reasons:

1. Extra hours at the Corporation
2. Buying a house

I’m getting married at the end of this year and have been looking for a house for the past year. Home prices in Southern California are absolutely ridiculous. I refuse to pay 450K for a 900 sq. ft. home. But I recently came across an 1800 sq. ft. house that seems like a great value given this market. I made an offer, it was accepted, and I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Perhaps the house inspection will turn up why the house is priced so reasonably.

My other concern is that the housing bubble will pop shortly after I close on this house. The bubble is suppose to have popped every year for the past 3 years now, but still hasn’t popped yet. But I want a place of my own and I’m buying for the long term, so even if housing prices take a nosedive, I figure I can wait it out. The house is in a great neighborhood as well, so hopefully the local effects of the bubble popping will be minimal.

The house is not mine yet, but taking on this new huge expense would make my day job less of a safety net. I already feel an extra surge of motivation to get my software released (really close now!), as well as to look into offering more products for sale on my fiance’s wedding accessories side business. I’ve determined that drop shipping suppliers are the way to go for that right now and will be doing research into that area in the near future.

In a previous post, I talked about my refusal to work overtime and how that probably won’t be an option as deadline approaches. The deadline is here and I was right. The lack of posting the past week has been due to working late hours at the Corporation. My group isn’t going to meet its deadline, so the usual finger pointing game is about to begin. Had I agreed to work overtime back then, I probably would have met the deadline for my tasks, but the group as a whole still wouldn’t have. This just means I join the firing line as the manager questions why the deadline slipped.

I can say that this is the first time in my professional career I missed a deadline and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I don’t like missing deadlines. I feel like I let people down (why these people care is another topic). On the other hand, I’m not inclined to work 50-60 hour weeks for weeks on end, even if paid for it. My job isn’t my life, and my choices are starting to reflect that. But I mostly feel numb. It doesn’t bother me a whole lot that I missed the deadline. And other than working a few extra hours, I’m not making any heroic efforts like I would have in my youth. Is this from growing older or from growing more cynical? Is there a difference when you work for Corporate America?

I want to start my own business for more flexibility in my time. I understand I will work even more hours than at my day job, but it will be hours of my choosing and it will hopefully be more enjoyable hours, working for myself instead of someone else.

Mike King has a different take on things. Currently working at a SmallCorp, he is looking to find a job at a BigCorp in order to free his time and his mind to concentrate on his personal life. I can say that he will definitely find his mind freer at a BigCorp; things happen so slowly that you can’t help but have some idle time once in a while. And you can usually leave everything at work at the end of the day, both physically and mentally.

I want to work for OwnCorp for the Very Flexible Time Regimen. It sounds like Mike wants to work for BigCorp for the minimal Daily Hours. This table is very simplified. It doesn’t include commute, mobility (ability to work over Internet vs. fixed physical location) or management attitude, but I think it helps to see what some of the trade-offs are when choosing who to work for.

I’ve been writing software my entire academic and professional career. When writing software in college, software is done when it compiles without errors. (Oh, and when it meets the assignment description.) Out in the business world, software is done when it meets the requirements and the testing person/department rubber stamps it (Not really, but close enough).

What about in a one man micro-ISV? I want to get the first release out as soon as possible, so I’m not packing it with hundreds of features; just the ones that are core to its operation. Extra and whiz-bang features can come in future releases. So I have simple requirements and verified that all of them are met. My experience tells me that it’s ready to go. But something is holding me back from releasing it. Since this is my own personal creation, I want to make sure it is as good as gold. I’ve been testing it to death, making doubly sure it’s solid. Because this is my reputation at stake here. And although probably untrue, I feel that this first release will make or break my dreams of being free from 9 to 5. My feelings and anxieties are probably normal, but for those that have released software successfully, what advice do you have for dealing with this?

(In addition to the software I’m actually selling, I’m also writing software to set up a fully automated sales process integrated with PayPal, and an affiliate program where sales referrals earn you 15% of the sales price, and you get 5% of sales referred by affiliates that you recruit to sign up. There should be more details by the end of this month! But I’m glad to report that I’m in the home stretch now, testing my software and making sure the sales and distribution infrastructure is in place.)

Read Part I of this interview here.

What’s the hardest thing about starting your own business?

Honestly, the hardest thing for me in starting my own business is the fact that I’m such an introverted person. Approaching people is so necessary for my work, and it’s so difficult trying to make connections to get myself out there and known. Another problem is that I’m not comfortable talking about myself (wouldn’t know it to read this interview, but I’m really trying to get over this problem). I always figured my pieces would speak for themselves, but as I recently told someone, I know people respond better to stories, so I intend to start building stories around my designs both on the website and in the catalog I’m developing.

It also doesn’t help that I moved less than a year ago to a state where I knew a grand total of two people when I got here.

As far as telling stories around your designs, were you inspired by Seth Godin’s book, All Marketers are Liars, or this article he wrote for Fortune?
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Rebecca left a comment on one of my earlier posts and included a link to her website. I was very impressed by the elegance and beauty of her jewelry designs. When I found out she was trying to start a business of her own, I knew I had to interview her!

What services/products does your business provide?

Rebecca Thomas Designs provides sterling silver wrapped wire jewelry accented with various semi-precious stones and glass beads. I offer pieces that I’ve made and also do custom and commissioned work. I also am available to teach jewelry classes, and hope to have a series of technique and project sheets available by the end of the summer.

How long have you been in business?

Truth be told, this business started under another name in the summer of 2003. A poor peformance and a series of moves led to the business not operating for about a year. I just started reorganizing and putting my pieces out for the general public again last fall. The new website and business name were launched only in the past couple of months.

Where is your business located?

The international headquarters for Rebecca Thomas Designs is located in Bothell, Washington!

Is it a home-based business? Online-only business? Retail storefront business? Full-time, part-time?

It’s a home-based business that conducts business both online through eBay and an online consignment shop (www.oldegarage.com) and offline through friends and coworkers. Eventually, I expect the website to be the major point of sale.

It’s definitely a part-time business that takes anywhere from eight to twenty hours of my week, depending on other demands on my time that week.

What kind of traditional 9 to 5 job(s) have you had in the past, if any? What are you currently doing as you build up your jewelry design business?
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Email spam, comment spam, phishing schemes… these are some of negative things we must contend with even as we take advantage of the power of the Internet. This week’s I, Cringely column proposes a very simple way to tackle at least one of these problems. When confronted with a phishing email, go to the site and enter false information. If enough people do this, the phisher would have too much false data to sift through, thus foiling his criminal intents. It’s somewhat analogous to returning junk mail to companies in their own prepaid envelopes. Make things unprofitable enough for them and maybe they’ll quit bothering us. Anyway, I just wanted to help spread the word on this.