3 Month Update: Working for myself is complicated!

Hello Indie Hackers👋

Back in August, I quit my full-time job to go solo.

To have more freedom even if it means making less money.

Back then, I wrote a post on IH, thanking the Indie Hackers community. I think this community has played a huge role in me being able to do this.

The mindset shift, the support, the connections, this is an amazing place!

Happy to report - I have survived 3 months on this journey, and enjoying every bit of it😅

In this time I've mostly done consulting and freelance writing work. And written a newsletter for the IH community, which people have enjoyed, yay!

I wrote a little reflective post on this 90-day journey. If you're contemplating such a move yourself, it might help you.

Here's the gist of it -

Stuff that I'm struggling with -

• Managing my energy on a day-to-day basis is hard, especially for my own work. I get client work done just fine but meeting my own goals takes effort.
• Some days I'm super energetic and get a ton of work done, other days it's difficult to do anything, and my productivity is super low. Feel very guilty on those days.
• I'm still selling my time for money as a consultant/freelancer. Want to eventually build assets that make money when I sleep. Work on that front has been sluggish.
• There are 2 kinds of assets I'm working to build -

1. Content Writing Agency, basically scaling my freelance writing work, hiring a team of writers, and going after clients aggressively. Afraid this might turn into a "job disguised as a business".
2. Listen Up IH newsletter - It's past 1600 subs now, I need to find a way to monetize it. Either through sponsorships or by charging a subscription. Not sure which is ideal, I've promised myself to answer this by Jan 2022, let's see😅

Stuff that's good -

• I'm making great connections on Twitter, meeting new and interesting people, which are leading to interesting opportunities.
• And my personal finance is going fine as well. My runway is up to 28 months now, back then it was 24 months. Partly because my expenses are low, and partly because my mutual fund portfolio is doing well.
• And I have plenty of time to spend on my mental and physical health, time with my family, and time exploring my curiosities.

All this to say, that nothing is black or white, nothing is easy to difficult, it's very grey, very complicated.

But one thing I'm sure of is that this was the right thing to do for me

And thank you IH again🙏

I wrote a longer reflection in this Twitter thread -