Dave
We Are About To Live In Interesting Times
The last few months have been a little tumultuous. Perhaps the biggest thing to happen was that my lovely wife Lindsay and I are now expecting our first baby, due early next year. This is exciting.
It’s also helped bring some clarity to my work. I’ve been with the same web development agency in Brighton for a few years, and although the people there are lovely, there’s no opportunity for advancement. I’ve been stagnating for a little while, though it wasn’t easy to see at the time.
So, I made the decision to go it alone. I handed in my notice in August, and today marks my first day working for my very own company.
It’s not a decision I’ve taken lightly, and it’s not without risks. But if it goes well, it will offer a level of financial security and professional opportunity that I suspect no agency work can match. My successes will be mine to own, and so will my failures. I can’t wait.
I’d also like to take a moment to thank Lindsay for her support. It would have been very easy for her to resist or reject this change, especially with a baby on the way, but she supported the decision from the start and has been incredibly helpful.
What’s The Plan?
For the last four years I’ve been wrangling code deep in the bowels of the likes of Magento, MODX, Drupal and OpenCart, and I don’t expect that part of my work to change much. However, I will be taking this opportunity to get involved with the rest of the stack – hosting, marketing, integrations, extensions and more. I’m also looking forward to spending more time with Python, node.js, redis, elasticsearch, SQLite and other technologies that, so far, I’ve really just dipped a toe into.
Even more exciting, this move offers the potential for me to spend more time working on my own projects. Cheatography and Readability-Score.com have been running for a while but lacking the attention they deserve. Newer projects, on which I’ll write more shortly, have also suffered from a lack of available time.
This decision should allow me to turn more of the ideas floating around my head into actual working websites, with a view to then becoming profitable ventures. I suspect one of my biggest challenges is going to be avoiding taking on too much, and balancing client work and personal projects.
Here We Go!
To begin with, though, my focus is on making sure I have an income that can comfortably provide for myself and my growing family. So I’ll be taking on freelance projects and focussing on the things I know best and that I’ve spent the last few years with.
I’m enthusiastic, capable and, as of about an hour ago, available for your project!
[Edit: In 2016, I stopped taking on freelance clients and Added Bytes became a product company. Looking back on this decision now … it feels like it was a huge risk and one of the best decisions I ever made.]
