It’s taken me quite some time to write about this because of a crazy busy schedule and I wasn’t really sure how to write about it. In addition to my day job, I’ve also taken on a side consulting job in order to learn about a different industry and to bring in some additional income. The last 20+ months seem like a blur to me with all the changes I’ve had to absorb and process in my life personally and professionally. A few months ago my partner at Babble Soft, Nicole Johnson, who has been running the company for over a year, told me she needed to put the company on hiatus so she could better manage her life.
Nicole also has a day job as well as another side job (baby sleep advice), and as I and a few others on the panel I coordinated called Building A Web Business After Hours at SXSW Interactive (starting here in Austin later this week) a couple of years ago have subsequently realized: it’s very hard to do. We had to pass the baton to someone else who could spend more time on our respective companies. Since I had been in her shoes juggling kids, family, day job, oh and just a handful of personal transitions not too long ago, I told her to do what she felt was best for her and her family.
They say timing is everything and it is so true and especially with businesses. So many things have to go right for an endeavor to be successful. There has to be the right balance of personal situation, market acceptance, technology working, right people, etc. that sometimes it’s a wonder any businesses survive!
So it was a bitter sweet transition that happened a few months ago and maybe someone will be interested in buying our intellectual property, the domain name, or Nicole will be able to reduce hours at one of her other jobs to re-launch fresh in a year or so! A few months ago, we moved everything (including my blog) off of a dedicated Rackspace server to a much lower cost alternative.
So goes life. If things aren’t working out, it’s better to recognize that something is about to break (whether it’s you or your business) to make changes earlier rather than later. Sometimes things don’t work out as planned, and I’m so glad I live in the US where we can learn from every business success or failure and still be respected and get another job. As an example, check out the interview by Fareed Zakaria, CNN news/TIME editor, did of the Foursquare founders.
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: babble soft,
entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
success |
Tags: babble soft,
building a business after hours,
business hiatus,
fareed zakaria,
foursquare,
Rackspace,
sxsw interactive |
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Woo Hoo! I submitted a panel idea for the 2009 SXSW Interactive extravaganza a couple of months ago and I was just informed that it was selected! It will be called Building A Web Business After Hours. Although I have several panelists lined up, we have been asked not to finalize the panel yet — probably to make it oh so hugely compelling for all of you to attend!
One of the cool things about being selected is that I get a free Gold Badge pass to attend SXSW interactive and so do the panelists! I probably won’t have much time to party late into the evening unless my husband doesn’t mind watching the kids for 5 days/nights in a row. 🙂
Thank you to all of you who voted for the panel idea during the open voting period. It wouldn’t have been selected without your support!
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: conferences,
entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship |
Tags: building a business after hours,
building a web business after hours,
sxsw interactive,
sxsw panel selected |
9 Comments »
A friend of mine, Robb Lanum, recently sent me a link to an article on The Onion called Day Job Officially Becomes Job. For those of you who haven’t heard of The Onion, it’s a hilarious publication that makes fun of everything and everyone. Most of the articles I’ve read from them make me laugh or say repeatedly “eww, that’s gross!” Take for instance a recent, funny article called Woman Always Really Excited To Be In Whatever Relationship Status She’s Currently In.
Robb did an impromptu guest post on my blog a while back about the writer’s strike. He blogs at The Robblog and has been trying for years (probably over a decade) to make it big in the California screen writing scene. He’s made progress and slowly but surely moves his writing career forward or at least makes it more visible by blogging about his experiences.
Robb sent me the link to the article on The Onion because he himself took a day job over four years ago, and he knows the plusses and minuses of having a day job and trying to build your business, your brand, your writing career, etc. He knew I could relate. I’ve been at my day job for not yet 3 ½ months (seems longer) and so far overall it has been a good decision for a variety of reasons, one of which being my husband struck it out on his own to consult and someone had to have the stable job with benefits in the family. 🙂
But this day job article by the Onion is not funny. It was written back in February 2004 and begins with “Another human dream was crushed by the uncompromising forces of reality Monday, when the restaurant day job of 29-year-old former aspiring cartoonist Mark Seversen officially became his actual job.”
It then goes on to say “When I was younger, my attitude was ‘Never give in,'” Seversen said. “Nowadays, my attitude is ‘Get real, dumbass.’ If I have any advice for all the young aspiring painters, novelists, and rock musicians out there, it’s probably that they should quit following their dreams before they rack up a lot of credit-card debt. The sooner you accept your real job, the sooner you can start to build up seniority and get on board with the pension plan.”
I expected to be laughing at the end of the article, but found myself frowning instead. Then I thought, “Phew, I’m sure glad being an entrepreneur trying to build a web business after hours is not like trying to be a writer, painter, rock musician, or actor on the side! And working for The University of Texas at Austin isn’t like working in a restaurant.”
Or is it?
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
random stuff |
Tags: building a business after hours,
day job,
robb lanum,
the onion,
waiter in a restaurant |
4 Comments »
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