Starting my own business - First update
Hi everyone! Thanks for reading my post on being crazy and quitting my job, and subscribing to my updates. I hope you’ll find this journey interesting over the next few months, until I either succeed or go broke and have to find another job.
Firstly, thanks for all the emails of encouragement! So many positive people. Sorry if it took me forever to reply to you, i’ve just been swamped.
I’m a poor example
A lot of people have been saying ‘it’s very gutsy leaving your job, I wish I could do that’, to which I’ve like to say: My example may be doing many people a disservice. Let me expand that: I may have made it look like you need to take this giant leap by quitting your job in order to start your own business. But it’s simply not true: my heroes patrick mackenzie and amy hoy have long recommended you start your business on the side while still working a full time job. So please don’t let my example dissuade you from trying to build something on the side, you really should give it a go.
Current plans
Anyway, here’s my status: I’ve resigned a couple days ago, and will be employed for just over a week longer. My plan is to make iphone apps and subscription web apps to replace my full time income. Currently i already have several apps bringing in some money on the app store, which is great, but it’s a long way from paying all the bills. So this is where I really need to get pragmatic, so here are my current priorities:
I’ve decided to sell my motorbike – I washed, photoed, and advertised it yesterday. It should cover the bills for 2 or 3 months. I’ve also started looking for freelance / contracting work, realising that I’ll definitely need that income to fill the gap until apps take off. So if anyone out there needs an app built, or knows someone who does, please get in touch!
An amusing story: I took a friend out for coffee, asking him to send me any freelance work that’s too small for him to bother with. Within half an hour, his phone rings with an ideal gig that he forwarded to me. It really is all coming together amazingly.
Next steps
The next step, once i land a few freelance jobs, is to begin marketing for my first app that i’ll build. I’m a big believer in marketing-before-building. We’ll see how that pans out.
Anyway, thanks everyone who’s gotten in touch with encouragement and advice. I’ll keep you posted with how things turn out!
Thanks for reading! And if you want to get in touch, I'd love to hear from you: chris.hulbert at gmail.
Chris Hulbert
(Comp Sci, Hons - UTS)
Software Developer (Freelancer / Contractor) in Australia.
I have worked at places such as Google, Cochlear, Assembly Payments, News Corp, Fox Sports, NineMSN, FetchTV, Coles, Woolworths, Trust Bank, and Westpac, among others. If you're looking for help developing an iOS app, drop me a line!
Get in touch:
[email protected]
github.com/chrishulbert
linkedin
