Archive for August, 2007
Yesterday I talked a little bit about software development, and internet marketing and how they relate to my goals. I want to elaborate on that a bit in this post.
Dreams vs the Need to Pay the Bills
I’ve always known I wanted to be a programmer and I’ve always loved games so putting those two together gives me game programmer. When I went to university, I decided to focus my studies towards game development but along the way I began to realise that the reality of the games industry did not fit in with what I wanted. The pay is very low, the hours are very long, there is a lot of maths involved, and the majority of development jobs are based on consoles, and my passion is PC games, MMO’s in particular.
It wasn’t for me. However for my final year project I developed an RPG creator (don’t worry if you don’t know what an RPG is, it’s not important!) and it didn’t need any maths! I really enjoyed the project and it gave me a taste of what I could do. Making money as a games programmer in the industry is hard enough, doing it on your own is virtually impossible. So, for me to really be able to spend my time writing games I’m going to have to develop an income stream first and then put that on auto-pilot to free up my time. Easier said than done!
Trying to do it all at Once
My overarching goal is to write software but that does not pay the bills in the short term so right now I have to focus on something that can generate an income for me now. The problem with that approach is that I am quitting my job to follow my dream, but I’m still not following my dream! There has to be some kind of balance, I do not want to lose sight of the big picture and my ultimate goals.
The obvious answer seems to be to just split my time between software and internet marketing but it’s not quite as simple as that. With every kind of business venture that I undertake, I like to read around the subject, find the best books, websites and blogs about that subject and consume them. I don’t have all the answers so learning is a huge part of the process and this takes time, lots of it.
Both internet marketing and software are big topics and can easily break down into a dozen or so sub topics each. If I try and do both right from the start I will be spreading myself too thinly and I’ll end up getting nothing concrete done.
So Much to Learn, So Little Time
It’s a cliche but it’s true. Right now I’m new at all these new aspects of internet marketing (the web has changed a lot since 2003 when I was last involved in the industry). If I keep learning then that will not always be the case. For example, take blogging. I am new to blogging and there is a lot to learn. I found an enormous number of resources related to blogging in areas such as content creation techniques, copywriting, engaging your readers, getting RSS subscribers, technical aspects, social marketing etc etc. The list goes on and on.
I have a lot to learn but if I spend an hour a day reading this information, and then a couple of hours a day putting it into practice then my learning backlog will drop right down and I won’t need to spend so much time on it. Once I have learned the basics it becomes just a matter of keeping up with new developments.
Once that happens, I can spend my time on something else. There are two specific areas that I will focus on in the early weeks / months and they are 1) blogging and 2) niche marketing which I will talk more about in my next post.
Once I have absorbed all of that information and I’m getting good at implementing it I will have more time on my hands. That’s when I can branch out. So the idea is that I focus on only one or two new things at one time before taking on more stuff. So I don’t expect to be starting with software for the first few months for this reason. I’d like to gradually reduce the time I spend on IM and increase the time I spend on software. I’ll always need to keep abreast of new developments in IM though simply so that I can market any software that I write.
My overall goal is to make a living by developing software. In my absolutely ideal dream world, I would make that living by developing a cool MMORPG with millions of players and I’d be rich and famous! Ok back down to earth… !
The Problem with Software
My goals are somewhat hierarchical. I know what my ultimate goals are but there are steps that I need to achieve along the way. I cannot undertake a huge software project without having first built and completed some smaller ones. However, one of the big problems with software is that it requires a large investment of time & effort up front before there is even the slightest possibility of earning any money from it.
In fact, my intention is to develop free tools which are later expanded upon with bonus features available for a cost. So before I can even hope to charge any money I have to develop the free version, polish it, get an audience, prove it’s viability in the market and so on. In actual fact web development is something I have not done before so before I even write my first tool I’m going to have to work on those skills. My point is, there is an awful lot of work to be done before there is a possibility of income from software.
I Need a “Get Rich Quick” Scheme!
Just kidding! But I do need to try and get some money coming in as soon as possible just to try and offset the monthly outgoings I have for my mortgage, bills, childcare and so on. One of the great things about the internet is that anybody can publish themselves in a multitude of formats (written, image, audio, video etc) in an instant. Blogging platforms (like Blogger, Wordpress), image hosts (like Flickr), video hosts (like YouTube) have given anybody with a voice a means to have their say very quickly and with no financial commitment.
What this means is that it is possible to publish content and earn revenue from internet based properties very quickly. In another post I’m going to talk about something called the Thirty Day Challenge which has totally opened my eyes as to just how fast this can be done.
Also, the software I wish to develop is going to be largely distributed via in the internet. I’m not intending to market to businesses or create off-the-shelf software so all my marketing efforts will be concentrated online. Therefore it means that anything I can learn about internet marketing in general is going to be very useful to me further down the line when I have a software product that I want to market.
This post is basically a continuation from my last one where I talk about my background and how I have arrived at the point I find myself now.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit Stirs
The first six months of my job were great. I devoured programming books to get myself caught up with all I had missed in the years between 1998 and 2006. I also started exercising and eating cleanly and I lost a lot of the weight that I had piled in the previous few years. I began to make improvements in every aspect of my life. After about 6 months, things had settled down. I had fixed my career, I had fixed my weight issues, and I started to ask myself the questions “what’s next?”, “what else is there?”
I started to get bored with work. I began to get irritated by the inconvenience of having to be in the office between 9 and 5.30 every day. I started to dream up ideas of the kind of software that I would really like to write. I looked at where my life might be in 5 or 10 years time and as long as I stayed in a day job, I couldn’t see my life being any different in the future to how it was at that point. I wanted more. More than any J.O.B. could give me.
The Difference Between the End and the Means
Ever since I threw my career away in 1998, I have lived in regret. I wanted it back and when I went to University my sole driving purpose throughout those three years was to refresh my programming skills, make a clean start and get myself back into the software development job market, and that’s exactly what I did. But when I started to get those feelings after six months I was puzzled. I couldn’t understand why I was no longer happy in my job when I seemingly had exactly what I wanted. Then it hit me – software development is not the END, it’s just a MEANS. It’s a skill, a talent, a hobby. It’s what I can DO with that talent that really matters.
My employer can replace me with another programmer who will do my job and nothing will change. The world will not be a worse place because I left my job. But once I branch out on my own and I can start using my programming talents to create unique products then I can make a difference. It may not be much of one but that doesn’t matter. I am one of those people who has to have a goal, I need to be always moving forward. While I was at Uni I had a crystal clear goal in my head but when I reached it I didn’t set myself another one so I inevitably wondered what was next and had no answer.
Transitioning from Employment to Self Employment
My first thought was to set up a business part time and once I was earning enough to pay the bills I would quit my job. Sounds easy right? But of course that was naive thinking and I should have known better as I have been in business for myself full time for many years and I know that it does not come with just a few hours a week.
So my second plan was instead to save up an emergency fund that would cover 6 months living expenses. I figured I could make a business work in 6 months. That was probably naive too but that doesn’t matter as shortly after this decision I received a financial blow which meant that with the money I now had at the end of the month to save, it would take me 41 years before I would have enough money in my emergency fund!
I could see only two possibilities… The first was that I just carry on in my job and work really, really hard on my side business. Maybe in a year or two it would be earning enough to at least soften the blow when I quit. But by this point I had been thinking about my future so much that the idea of wasting two years of my life in a job I did not enjoy seemed like something I just could not endure.
My only other option was to simply quit! Yes, I would go into masses of debt while I got myself setup but hopefully I can pay it back eventually. I have a very different outlook on life now than I did a few years ago. I believe that if you have a burning desire for something and you persist with it and never give up, you cannot possibly fail.
I hope I’m right or I’m in for a world of pain!
I hope you don’t mind if I take some time to explain a little bit about myself and my background. That way if I mention something in a future post about something I’ve done in the past you will know what I’m talking about. I want to try to explain how I’ve reached this point where I am quitting my job to step out on my own.
Geek Kid
I’ve been a computer geek since I got my first computer, a Commodore 64 in 1983. A few years later I told my parents that I wanted to be a games programmer. I didn’t really know what a games programmer did exactly, but I knew I wanted to be one! The trouble was, back in 1986, jobs for girls in computers weren’t exactly plentiful.So I went out and got a job in a bank.
That sucked. Got fired.
College and my First Business
I had some other jobs which all sucked and eventually I decided to go to college and study Computer Science. I finished the course in 1991 and in the UK we were in a recession and jobs were scarce but shortly before leaving college I had come up with a business idea for a mail order company. It was a public domain library (called New Age PDL if anybody remembers them!) for Atari ST software. Well much to my parents’ dismay, I didn’t go out and get a job, and I started this business instead. It did ok and kept me in business for four years.
From Proprietor to Employee
By 1995, personal 16 bit computers were replaced by PC’s and the internet took away the need for public domain libraries altogether so that business folded and I joined the work force as a regular employee. That was ok for a while and I managed to get into programming and ended up working at quite a good salary for a while. But in 1998 something went a bit pear shaped, I did some silly things I’m not proud of and got myself fired again. Doh.
Discovering Internet Marketing
I was too ashamed to go out and get a job so I gravitated towards the internet and managed to stumble upon affiliate marketing. For the next three years I just about managed to scrape together a living online but I didn’t do it very well. I was very jaded and bitter, I was always looking for the quick fix, for the get-rich-quick scheme. I didn’t get rich. I got fat. I neglected my health, my friends, everything really. My life became quite a mess.
The Book that Turned my Life Around
I was trying (and failing) at Multi Level Marketing and one day I was reading a newsletter that had interviews with several successful MLM people and one of the questions they were asked was to name an influential book. A large number of them said “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. I had never heard of it, but the title intrigued me as it sounded like a fantastic way to get rich with no effort! I bought it but needless to say the first reading was quite lost on me but something stirred…
From A Book to a Degree
I knew there was a message in the book but I didn’t quite get it. I went to Amazon and looked at the related books and bought a few including a tiny little book called “A Better Way to Live” by Og Mandino. This was a much easier read than Hill’s book and slowly I started to get the message. I was the only one to blame for the mess I was in. I am responsible for my life, for my attitude, for my successes and failures. You reap what you sow. I did not like what I was reaping so I had to change what I was sowing.
I began to change as a person and before long I decided that I was going to get out of this dodgy internet business and get my career back. There were no jobs around and I had no references so I realised I’d need to start at the bottom. I went to University at the age of 32 and had an absolute blast of a time.
Three years later I graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Computer Science and the award for Best Student. One of my lecturers hooked me up with a job doing exactly what I wanted to do starting 3 days after graduation. My life had changed. I had put the past behind me, got my career back and all was well. For a while…
My name is Caroline Middlebrook . I’m a 35 year old (as of August 2007) software developer living in the UK. But not for long, well not exactly. Let me explain… I currently work as a software developer in an ordinary 9-5 office job. Although I love writing software, I realise now that I do not want to do it on the context of a regular job. I want to explore my own ideas in software, create something new and useful - make my tiny little mark on the world.
So I have quit my job. I still have a few weeks notice to work, I think my official leaving date is 21st September and after that I’m on my own. I’ve taken a bit of a deep plunge because I don’t have any secondary income and I have no savings to back me up either. I don’t even have a killer idea up my sleeve! What I do have is a deep desire to break out of the norm, do something different, follow my dreams. I know there is a better life out there for me and I just have to find it.
In the next few posts I’ll talk a bit about my background (I do have some business experience so I’m not *completely* crazy by quitting), the triggers that have prompted me to quit now, and my plans for the future, both long term and now. Before putting up this blog I racked my brains trying to come up with some clever name for it and in the end I realised that was just silly. I’m me, and I just want to have an outlet to talk about my journey. The focus of the blog will be my business life but by making this a personal blog it gives me leeway to talk about something slightly off topic if I really want to.
