A big concern with starting my uISV is still paying the bills. At first I was living of savings and was comfortable doing that. If the uISV failed, I was prepared to go back to a regular job. A few months later my old company approached me to do some consulting work for them. I can't stress how important it is to leave your job on good terms. Not only did they approach me for consulting but I knew that I could go back and get my job back at any time. This and several other standing job offers from former coworkers at new companies took a lot of stress away from starting out on my own.
The consulting has been going well, not enough to pay all the bills, but it stretched my savings out by 4-6 months. My current contract is ending and they have told me that they have more work and are willing to give me as much as I want. As a bonus I also gave myself a raise. Now I think I can work less than 30 hours a week consulting, and that leaves me at least 20 hours a week on my uISV and start rebuilding my savings. Since it is consulting work, it will not last forever, so I want to rebuild my savings to have a cushion to fall back on.
One thing I have learned from journey is that I really love working from home. The lack of commute, savings on gas and insurance, less damage to the enviromnent, hot lunches, and very causual dress code are all nice advantages of working at home. But the single best thing is spending more time with my family. My two kids are 3 and 1 1/2 and I get to see them more than ever. Even if my uISV doesn't take off, this time spent with them has been worth it.
So heres to my continued success at bootstrapping my uISV.
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2 comments:
Chris - good post, but hampered by a lack of paragraphs :(.
Good points re bootstrapping - it's a very fine line to walk between having enough work and too much.
While things are good, I'd recommend
-planning what to do if you one client cancels.
-how to have working waiting for you when done with #1.
-how do you track your progress on your microISV.
I guess I should read your blogging book Bob :) I went back and added some paragraphs. This post was more free form writing and it came out without much effort, which may explain the lack of breaks. I'm still working on my writing style.
Good recommendations. How soon would you start looking for follow on work? It is a 6 month contract and based on insider knowledge of the company, I don't think I have to worry about them canceling the contract. I'm thinking at the 4 month mark I will start looking for the next round with them or else where. Between then and now, continue to network and keep my name out there. Does that sound like a good plan?
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