Comments on: Do you have the right personality for running your own business?

By: miles

miles — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 23:07:33 +0000

Thanks everyone for your comments and feedback.

The intention of this post was to point out some possible pitfalls, I wasn’t suggesting that all businesses face the above. I’ve got a post lined up all about scaling your business through IP and recurring income, so will take everyones points on board.

By: Colin Behr

Colin Behr — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:20:20 +0000

Having gone down this route over the last couple of years I can completely relate to everything which has been said, particularly the staffing part.

By: Dan Grossman

Dan Grossman — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:29:49 +0000

I suppose I’ll never understand most of you. If you have the skill to build beautiful and functional websites for clients, why aren’t you building them for yourself instead? If you can build an ecommerce site for the business down the street, why not build one for yourself and compete with him? Freelancing isn’t life without a boss, you simply switch bosses for each new client you slave for. There are so many more degrees of “free” than that… :)

By: Richard Morton

Richard Morton — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 11:13:54 +0000

If you are billing half your working hours (meaning including all the admin, accounting, sales time, networking, making coffee, chasing debtors, fixing the printer etc.) then you are probably doing well. In other words if you expect to work 40 hours a week then make sure your rates are enough for a max of 20 hours per week.

By: SarahH

SarahH — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:38:36 +0000

I just started my business and it has gone well for the first 6months with almost continuous work, but is now slowing down and like someone said earlier you become “the salesperson” as well, although I expected most of what has been thrown at me so far, I didn’t expect the quantity of work and what Dean C has just said is so so true for me, “Income = Work” and when no-one is looking I am working :) I have to say I do love it but have been “warned” about becoming an addict :?

By: Dean C

Dean C — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:08:32 +0000

This blog post is so true. Particularly this part ;)

“When you realise that billable hours equals income, you tend to work more than you do now, not less.”

By: Mark Harbottle

Mark Harbottle — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:45:33 +0000

What Brothercake is saying is build a scalable business. To me horizontal expansion means diversifying into other areas, which of course is part of it, but scalability is the key. The best way to scale a web design business is to build IP with the help of your clients, maintain ownership of that IP, then find ways to leverage it into a scalable business. For example you might build a mailout application for a client which forms the foundations for an online application that anyone can sign up to and use to send mailouts for a fee. Or it could be a CMS that you charge an annual license fee for etc.

By: Hey jerks!

Hey jerks! — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:32:48 +0000

I turned on pop-up blocking so that I wouldn’t get any pop-ups not so you could figure out a way to circumvent it.

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:24:23 +0000

When you own your own business, you can choose which 14 hours of every day you want to work ;)

By: brothercake

brothercake — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:51:29 +0000

Develop products that bring in licensing revenue – online or offline applications, resource bundles, that kinda of thing. In my case it was a DHTML menu, that brought in very nice income for several years, and then I sold it.

IP is where it’s at :)

And don’t underestimate the value of reputation – write articles, books, speak at conferences – things that are not profitable in themselves, but raise your profile and establish you as a player in your field.