It’s almost the end of the year so, as is now traditional for a “web-worker”, here are my goals for 2008.

Personal Goals

Sorting out my money. For some reason money just flows out of my account; I have looked at where it goes and everything seems to be “essential”. So time to stick a cork in it and get my incomings to be greater than my outgoings every month.

Reduce the amount of time I spend in the car each day. Not actually much I can do about this - I have to take the smaller child to the childminder’s and back and she is over on the other side of town. It’s a pain - between two and four hours a day depending upon the traffic (it’s only 7 miles - 28 per day). But in September she starts school and all three of our choices are nearby. In the meantime I have bought a small car to save on petrol.

Get rid of things. I love Freecycle. You may think it’s some sort of altruistic joy at taking something that is useless to me and giving it to someone for whom it is useful. I wish. It’s actually the joy at seeing some empty space in my garage or on my floor or in the cupboard. Yet I still have tons to get rid of.

Cook more. One of the unexpected results of working for myself is finding the time to cook (well mainly stuff I can prepare and then leave it cooking as I get back to work). And it is suprisingly good.

Business Goals

My ultimate business goal is to generate enough money automatically that I can pick and choose when and for whom I work.

To do this I need to increase my revenue; 10% per month would be a good start. Also implying I will be taking in over twice as much by my first year anniversary - which would be nice.

Ideally I would like to do this without (often) working over 40 hours per week. I don’t want my kids or wife missing me. So this revenue increase needs to be automated - either other people doing the work for me, or some sort of product that can generate revenue while I am asleep (or at least doing more interesting things).

Marketing wise I need to build a consistent message. And I’m not sure what that is yet. I guess this one ought to be top of the list.

And I would quite like my technical excellence to be well known amongst the UK Rails community (”you worked with Baz? I’ve heard he’s pretty good“). Everyone’s got an ego.

Getting things done

I have ideas for each of the personal goals - a debt snowball, using a smaller car for everyday and short journeys (although I can’t bring myself to get rid of my big car), put stuff on Freecycle (or eBay if it’s worth something) and get into the kitchen.

On the business side - I will be getting some outside help with the marketing stuff, and will home in on one of the many potential directions I have in mind. Once that is done, I can start building the revenue generators - a couple of product ideas or expanding the work-force to free up my time on business development (yeah, sales, marketing and management). And getting my name known? Well that comes through meeting people.

Overall, these are pretty modest goals. So, I have no excuse for failure. And then, next year, I can think really big.

3hv is a small software company in the north of England. Subscribe to be notified whenever a new article is posted - or just hire one of the best web developers around.

Taken from Shane and Peter.

What’s your personal mission statement?

No Regrets. So far that’s pretty true.  Or maybe “I’m glad I have tasted fantastical places” (which I am and I have).

What’s the biggest mess you’ve dealt with this year?

The application I was working on at my previous employer. Over the years it had fallen in to a really bad state (and I fully take the blame for part of how it got that way). We folded the company, took the time to restructure a lot of the basic code and turned the product around. Then the company restructured and a lot of the good work (and staff good will) was lost.

What current entrepreneurial efforts consume your time?

3hv of course. I am a bit obsessed by it at the minute. I won’t stop until I feel like I know enough about business (whatever that may be). The same happened to me with coding - I devoured information on how to be the best developer until I reached a point where I felt that I couldn’t get much better. The same process has now started about business in general.

Why do you do what you do? What inspires you? When do you get most excited?

Because I’m good at it, because I hate being told what to do, because I hate living a 9-5. And I love writing Ruby code and watching my tests pass (sad I know). Business-wise, 37signals is an inspiration. Life-wise, Nottingham Forest gets me shouting.  And annoying my wife with my, frankly ridiculous, haircut.

Boxers or Briefs? or as Naomi says, Bikini or Thong, duh?!?

Boxers

What do you do when you’re not [designing | programming | managing | writing | toiling for the wo/man]?

Spending time with the wife, kids, dog, cat and rabbit. Watching the spectacular shambles that is Nottingham Forest.

What one thing made the biggest difference when getting started?

My wife.

What’s your exit strategy?

Product Development.

What is the last thing that made you belly laugh?

Kath and Kim. It’s not really my kind of thing (I’m much more into stuff like the Mighty Boosh) but there was a line about “Koala Lumpar” that made me laugh out loud.

Have you ever been in business before?

Yes - when I was a kid, my friend and I ran “JORB Enterprises”. We wrote a magazine and came up with a subscription plan for it that would double our money. We were 12.

At what point do you consider yourself successful?

When I can afford to pick and choose for whom and when I work. And when my hair is so big I can’t fit through doorways.

What was your first experience with a computer?

ZX Spectrum. The power pack overheated and produced a load of smoke. It was soon replaced by a Vic-20 and I never looked back.

Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates in a jello wrestling match, where’s your money?

Bill Gates. He fights dirty.

Where do you do your best thinking?

In front of the TV on an evening.

What does your average daily work / life balance look like? How much time do you work, play and sleep?

Up between 5:30 and 6:30. Get the kids ready, drop everyone of at their various destinations. Back home by 9-9:30 to start work proper (sometimes cooking as I go). Off to get Lizzie at around 4 and back for dinner by 6. Lizzie in bed by 8, so either an hour or two of work in front of the TV or switch the computer off and chat to the wife.

If I could introduce you to anyone, who would it be?

Business-wise - Steve Jobs (boring I know). Otherwise Ian Brown, Terry Hall or Bez.

What stops you from giving up when you are frustrated?

I don’t like losing.

If Chuck Norris and Steven Hawking had a baby (hey it’s my damn interview), would you vote for her for president?

No

And my own special question: what did you dream of doing when you were younger?

Record producer.  Collect a load of prima-donnas, hear their ideas, pick of the best ones and then push them into a situation where they can transform those into a classic.  Hmm, sounds familiar.

Update: added the bit about my hair. You always forget the important stuff.

Updated again: added my own question to the end.

It’s now three months since I quit my full-time job and became a free-lancer and/or mercenary contractor (depending upon for whom and why I am working).

It’s odd.

Where I was before, I had been there for nine years. Everyone knew me. I could string together long sequences of swear words without anyone batting an eyelid. I could insist that I work in Ruby on Rails when everyone else was in .Net. I could dress how I wanted. I could put offensive slogans on my screen-saver. No-one batted an eyelid cos they knew I was good at what I did.

Now, I’m starting over every time. No swearing. Dressing smart. Doing as I’m told (yeuch). All in the name of being “professional”. Wife left you? Keep it quiet and get on with it. Cat run over? Put on your best suit and smile at the client.

What does “professional” mean?

At its simplest it is doing something because you are paid for it. If you ask me that does not mean leaving your emotions, your personality, who you are at home. If who you are does not help you do your job then you should probably try a different job. It does not mean that you become an automaton, leaving yourself at home as your trudge to the office.

So if you hire me this is what you will get:

* My emotions will not be held in check. If I care about something I care about it. If I’m having a bad day and I ignore what is going on in my head, I will do shit work and have to redo it tomorrow.
* I will swear. Tough shit. I like it. I’m good at it. Twatbag.
* I will dress badly. Obviously I think I look fantastic. No-one else agrees. I like my three suits. My wife thinks I look good in them. I don’t wear them.
* I will be between 5 and 10 minutes late for every meeting. I always try to leave five or ten minutes earlier. I don’t manage it. I have no idea why.
* I will write beautiful code. It matters to me. It makes me feel good. It is important (see emotions, above).
* I know what I know - I also know what I don’t know. I have no illusions as to my areas of expertise. But what I know, I really, really know.
* I will be polite. “Please” and “Thank You” are important. More important than swearing? I can’t answer that.
* I work hard. Always. I was once told by my aunt “you realise that because you are brown you will have to work twice as hard to achieve the same … think that’s unfair? I’m a brown woman - I have to work four times as hard“.
* My family comes first. My girl has a hospital appointment? Your stuff will have to wait. I will make up the time (see above).
* I can talk to you about technical stuff. You will understand what I am saying. No jargon, no gobbledygook. It is, in fact, absolutely vital that we communicate clearly and so I will make sure that I put in the effort. But I am an introverted geek - so I’m pretty crap at small talk (as opposed to Smalltalk). Sorry.
* I will deliver something that does what is needed, in a reasonably stylish way. It may even make you smile. But you won’t be disappointed.

I guess that makes me “not professional” to many people. I don’t care. I’m not a zombie and you don’t want to hire one.

Business Card by xlucas

I’ve switched this blog over to the new Google Blogger Beta. Hence the template change. It’s really, really ugly at the moment - but I will be working on it over the next few weeks.