005 - Jumping Out of the Airplane Before the Parachute is Ready

Its Friday march the 13th.

I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has a fair bit on my mind right, as the US braces for the Coronavirus its difficult to focus on other things that suddenly feel a lot less important.

I did want to record this episode today though because even though we’re in a bit of a strange time (yes that’s an understatement), life does continue to move forward. Even if it does feel like a parallel universe at times.

• I’ve not gotten a lot done on NodleStudios projects over the past few weeks.
  • Last week I was involved with a conference as the “tech guy” which pretty much took care of any extra time I had. I’m glad I’ve been able to help that event happen this year and last year, but things like this do come up and they do take more time and energy than I originally thought.
  • This week I’ve been doing catch up things that I didn’t get done last Friday/Saturday and now that its Friday again the main task for today is getting my taxes ready to submit to the IRS.

That’s about it on the “what am I getting done” these days front, but I did want to also briefly talk about a fairly big change that was put into action a couple of weeks ago…

About two weeks ago I quit my full time job. I gave my boss a 3 month notice. Why so long?

• He’s traveling for the next 7 or 8 weeks and I wanted to tell him face to face
• I want to give him plenty of time to find my replacement or shuffle things between now and the end of May
• I wanted to give myself some runway to make some changes and get some things ready before being completely on my own.

Why Are You Quitting Now?

• For the past almost year I’ve been working 4 days a week.
  • At this point I’ve got too many irons in the fire to cram into one day each week (plus nights and weekends).
  • A lot of folks talk about building something “on the side” of a day job, and that sounds really great until you find yourself sitting in front of a computer for 14-16 hours a day.
  • So I’ve decided to take the leap and see what happens if I go “out on my own.”

Are You Ready for This?

• A couple of things that make me somewhat less nervous about this move.
  • My boss and I are in talks of some kind of retainer where I could continue to do some contract work for him.
  • I’ve got a number of leads from some friends and acquaintances for projects.
  • I am single and I do currently have a cost effective housing opportunity so I should be able to cut my expenses down considerably (and indeed am already doing that).
  • I am both excited and a bit terrified.

What Are You Going to Do?

• So, what am I hoping to do?
  • Web Design & Development
    • For clients
    • Also for several side projects - maybe I won’t have 1 big thing, but instead have 6-8 small things.
  • Photography & Video
    • I want to travel more and as part of that I plan to immerse myself back into the photo & video world.

A Few Concluding Things

• I’m super appreciative of my boss. At this point he is more than a boss, he’s my friend. Although he’d like to see me stay with the company he’s also (at least somewhat 😜 ) supportive of my desire to see if I can make it on my own.
• You can head over to becomingasolofounder.com to find out more about the podcast and to easily subscribe or listen to other episodes.

Let’s all stay as safe as we can in the coming weeks.

Thanks for listening and we’ll talk soon!