When Does Your Day Job Become Your Job?
Sep 16 2008

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?

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Opportunity Knocked. I Opened The Door.
Jun 15 2008

You’ve probably seen those Nationwide insurance commercials that go something like “Life comes at you fast. That’s why there’s Nationwide.” And they show people whose car gets hit by a garage door, a leaf blower or some other random, humorous, or shocking thing.  Check out some of their video ads on their site.

Photo by Sandy Blanchard
Well in every entrepreneurial journey things can happen fast and often there appears a fork in the road.  I decided to pick one of the paths that will have quite an impact on my ability to spend time on Babble Soft.  The opportunity presented itself when I wasn’t looking and I had to take a cold, hard look at it.  The difference between success and failure can often come down to being open to opportunities that seem to randomly present themselves.

The decision on which path to take was not an easy one.  It was not made without much thought, stress, doubt, questions, frustration, etc., but I believe it is the right decision for me, my family, and yes even for Babble Soft.

I  worked part-time on Babble Soft for a while and started full time in late 2007.  As some of you know, I went out to raise funds in early February 2008.  By end of March and early April (because I’ve raised funds before and could see the writing on the wall) it became clear to me this was not going to happen right now for a variety of reasons including: 

  1. We are too early.  In other words, we don’t yet have enough users or market traction to make investors comfortable enough to take the bet given they have started losing money on many of their Web 2.0 companies that they invested in at the concept or early beta stage.  It’s become clearer to me that we are trying to “create a market” which is often quite painful and takes a long time.  Therefore, I cannot yet prove that the market is HUGE for what we were trying to do.  By the way, what you see on the site is just a fraction of what I envision as a site for new parents.  It also did not help that we continue to struggle to find a good SEO rhythm due to a variety of reasons including the fact we are, as I mentioned, for all intents and purposes making a market.
     
  2. I need a business partner.  It’s tough going it alone without someone to bounce ideas off of on a daily basis.  What I need is a strong technical co-founder and/or an expert consumer marketing partner.  I remember meeting with another Austin entrepreneur, Chris Justice of Sparksight, a while back and he shared with me a sound bite from one of his mentors: “People fund teams, not individuals.”  My husband helps me a lot, but he has a full time job and isn’t really into the business concept the same way I am.
     
  3. The economy is in flux.  Investors and consumers alike are concerned about the economy, high gas prices, home foreclosures, job losses, the presidential election, impending tax increases, etc. and their behavior and outlooks have changed.  I won’t freak you out with links to all the articles about the demise of Web 2.0/social networks and people losing their money and their jobs but suffice it to say there are many.  There’s also a lot of good stuff happening but uncertainty is definitely in the air.
     
  4. Other personal stuff I can’t blog about yet but which is probably the biggest driving force for choosing this path right now.

So, not being one to continue banging bang her head against a brick wall, I took a J-O-B (another form of insurance that I don’t think Nationwide or any other insurance company offers) to support my entrepreneurial addiction!

I wasn’t looking, but the opportunity arose for an interesting, most likely fun, hopefully low stress job working with people I like.   My boss (who has been a long time subscriber to my blog) is a very cool guy who I’m sure I’ll enjoy working with.  He knows I will continue working on Babble Soft and is very supportive of my doing so.  He also knows I’m a mom to two great kids and wife to a pretty good guy. 😉

I’m excited about the potential of this job combined with what’s going on in the rest of my life.  Of course, I will have to become a guru in time management to make it all work.

The entrepreneurial lifestyle is not made up of beautifully paved, straight roads.  There are often detours and roundabouts.  Right now I’m crossing my fingers that this path I’ve chosen will lead to bigger and better things for me, my family, and my company.  A friend of mine, who is a screen writer trying to make it big in Los Angeles, CA (probably similar odds to building a successful company), wrote an excellent post about his decision four years ago to do the same thing I’m doing now when he took a job.  He reflects on how its been both a good and bad decision for his goal to become a recognized, well-paid screen writer.

I’ll continue to blog and will eventually tell you more about my new ‘day job’ so Sign up for free email updates so you can see a) how I make it work or b) a train wreck in action.  If you see a train wreck about to happen, please leave comments and maybe if I read enough of them, I can find a way to build another track or jump off the train beforehand!

Aruni

Author: | Filed under: babble soft, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, fundraising | Tags: , , , , , | 24 Comments »