Free from 9 to 5

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.

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.