Don’t quit your day job
Building web apps is nice. It’s interesting and challenging and imaginative, but it doesn’t pay the bills in the beginning, at least not for most of us. So we have other jobs to do, like running workshops. We’re at a workshop today, Eric Meyer’s ‘Professional CSS XHTML Techniques.’ It’s in London which means that we have to stay over for a least two nights and it also took us around two days before that to prepare for the workshop. So this week we haven’t been able to devote as much time to Amigo as we should.
The point is that this is normal. Unless you are Google and you do have gazillions of dollars and just as many workers then you will have to build your web app ‘on the side’ and while you are doing other stuff. Work this into the timeframe. Don’t assume that you can work on your web app every single day, it’s not realistic. Stuff happens, you need to work (to get money), you get tired, it’s Sunday and your family is visiting. Whatever the distraction is don’t deny that it exists. It’s the only surefire way to get behind with the build.
I’m going through this same thing with some web apps we’re working on. I’m looking so forward to getting out of the consulting business but until we can sustain ourselves on web apps (which aren’t even launched yet) I’ve got to set priorities and put the web apps on hold to make the clients happy.
It’s a little discouraging sometimes because I feel like there is just not enough time to do it all. I feel like if we keep putting off this or that we’ll never get finished.
But the bills have to be paid. Which reminds me, I need to go make some money now.
Comment by Brandon — May 12, 2006 @ 1:06 pm
Don’t forget to mention the most obvious reason…
Your web application may be a flop!
Comment by ian — May 12, 2006 @ 2:19 pm
It is really good to have those kind of insights - some of us are exactly at the point of considering whether it is worth to quit the current day job and start “the one” web app.
But one has to be realistic as well.
Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time for the web app to be able to pay the bills..
Comment by Marius — May 12, 2006 @ 11:36 pm
From what I’ve seen it seem that time is the ultimate equalizer in the realm of the internet. If you launch your web app and it lasts, you’re in good shape. However, to get to that point you have to spend all your time developing it and making sure it’s great and so on and so forth. You have to make money to make money, right?
Comment by Nick — May 13, 2006 @ 12:04 am
You speak the truth young sky walker. I find it amazing how when you focus on a web application or web project, something always comes up and throws a monkey wrench in your whole program (literally). However, I’m starting to learn that you must guard your time and continually manage your time well, meaning waking up at ridiculous times in the mornings! :)
Comment by Khoa — May 13, 2006 @ 4:10 am
“If you launch your web app and it lasts, you’re in good shape.”
It’s certainly a good sign if your web app has longevity. However, it’s very important to keep an eye on that cash flow. It’s very easy to see the money coming in and ignore the fact that you’re actually spending more money than you earn. Or the ‘leaky bucket syndrome’ as Jason Fried put it.
Comment by Gillian Carson — May 15, 2006 @ 8:43 am