Rockbeatspaper

Surfing the wave of business ownership

Aug 8, 10:42 AM | written by John Peele

Everyone is jumping ship these days into the rough, but exhilarating seas of self-employment and business ownership. The lure and appeal is almost too much to stand, trust us, we remember how that first felt. And we all (small web developers) are on the same page as we tell you, “There is no better time to do it!”

Overhead is low, talent is becoming more widespread and available, hardware is cheap, and Django and Rails are helping even designers like me build some nifty things. But all the excitement and hub-bub is not without its headaches and sleepless nights. And so this post was born. Our main headache as of late has been the up-and-down of the new business cycle.

You see, when you are a small two (full-time) person firm such as RBP is, new business and the time that it takes to land new business is very important. Not that it isn’t as important in larger firms, but even a small lapse in judgement or timing can have a huge impact on cash-flow and your bottom line. And two months ago, we were so busy that we didn’t have the 30-hour days needed to “do” the work and simultaneously keep the pipeline crammed with new work waiting for us when we were done with previously said project(s). No whining here though, it was our own fault and a lesson we intend on never forgetting.

On my part, a tiny bit of fear had previously kept me from wanting to take on all the work that was coming at us. I didn’t want our quality to suffer, nor did I want to disappoint anyone with missed deadlines, since both of these are what we have built our reputation on. But after this last wave of new business and no business, we have made it a point to be more aware of our capacity to take on new projects and keep quality and deadlines at the forefront at the same time. Time-tracking is very important to us now, as well as taking time to zoom out and keep the bigger picture focused. And the bigger picture for us is taking small, but purposeful, steps towards creating applications for ourself that we feel others can benefit from using.

Faith is a large part of our daily operating procedure, believing that we are not our ultimate source of provision nor are we alone in our business development efforts. God has a never-ending supply of grace to achieve the impossible and creativity to accomplish things that we couldn’t solely on our own. Not that we are a couple of fanatical “Christian” business owners or anything like that, but that we are simply maturing in our realization that it was God who called us to the endeavour and it will be Him that sees it through, with our help of course. He never asked us to do it on our own, and now, we are going to focus on running our business knowing that.

Man, this blogging stuff can be fun and scary at the same time. Transparency is the newest buzzword now, but it is easier to talk about doing it than to actually put yourself on the line and do it. Remember, both friends AND clients read what we post here in our Journal, so a certain amount of risk is envolved when you write like this. But the risk is definitlely worth it if even one person mulling over the idea of going solo is encouraged by my words and experiences.

So, it is an up-and-down life being a business owner, not without its challenges and rewards. But be encouraged if you are considering a dip in these waters of uncertainty, our Father is an awesome lifeguard and a very strong swimmer!