Two weeks recap of "self employment"

posted by Jeff | Saturday, May 2, 2009, 1:12 AM | comments: 0

It was a lousy week for job searching, with a grand total of four relevant job postings on Monster, one of which wanted VB6 experience from 1999, a sure sign you don't want that gig. I talked with one of the better recruiters who said things were just brutal, and he himself was not happy in his job because of it.

But I also had a good lunch and might eventually find some limited contract work at ICOM, so I'm upbeat about that. There isn't a damn thing I can do about the economy or the job market, so my attention is best turned to things I can control.

That's probably why I'm going forward on writing this book. The risk is that I may not make any money at all on it since I intend to self-publish, but it's a risk I'm willing to take.

I'm trying to concurrently think about finishing up or starting all of these other projects that I've let go for many moons. I remember how good it felt to do that sprint to rebuild CoasterBuzz last fall, and I really want to engage in that kind of feeling again. It's good for my self-esteem!

Financially, I'm not concerned as much as I miss the relatively easy access to regular cash. April was a surprisingly upbeat month for ad revenue, defying all logic. If that keeps up, I'll be in "maintain" income range, but not getting ahead or paying off the honeymoon, which originally I expected would come easy after six weeks or so. Now I'm just holding on to as much cash as possible since the future is such a question mark. Right now I feel good about getting to mid-August even without negative cash flow.

I'm at that crossroads once again where I feel like I can throw one or two things at the wall over the course of the next few months and see if anything sticks. I'm not fond of business plans because they're contracts with yourself that you'll never honor. I'm not interested in trying anything capital intensive because you don't truly own what you do.

The next week will be very telling in terms of what kind of actions I'm able to take with the book and the other ideas I have. I don't fear failure right now, but I'd sure like to succeed.


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