My New Day Job
Your day job definitely affects your entrepreneurial endeavors. It is all part of the journey. How much time I spend elsewhere affects how much time I can spend on my business.
About 15 months ago I went part time (20 hours a week) on my day job. I was an android developer working mostly for the US military. Working only 20 hours a week allowed me to put a lot more time into building CoffeePass.
Then in February of 2019, I went full time CoffeePass. Things were looking up and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to make “something great”. We were definitely able to figure out a lot more with the business putting 50 hours in a week. We also figured out some things that weren’t working. We weren’t able to grow revenue as fast as we hoped.
I’m skipping a little bit of the story for now but anyways; with things not going as well, we decided to get full time jobs again. The last couple of months I have been preparing for technical interviews and applying to jobs.
I currently live in Ohio but wanted to move to Seattle, Washington because my wife’s family lives there. I’m also really excited about the tech space and all the startups there. I hope to get involved in the entrepreneur community there and learn more from others.
So, I got hired on at Vizio as an iOS developer! If you don’t know, Vizio is a big tv company in the US. I’m excited to learn more about being on a software team and bolster my technical skills in iOS.
We will be moving to Seattle next week! I am definitely excited about all the new change.
I am a little bit nervous about what this will do to my entrepreneurial endeavors however. I know I want to build a company and I think it will definitely feel slower having to do it on the side.
On the bright side, this is probably where most of you reading are. You most likely have some kind of day job and have to work for someone else before you can work on what you really care about.
I think it is still possible to make something great with this setup! In some ways it may even be ideal for the bootstrapper. Not having to worry about your expenses and how you are going to live. On the side you can test the waters with your product and see if you have something that floats.
This is what I plan to do. If you want to follow me along on this journey you can listen to my podcast (https://productjourney.fm) where @benmann and I talk through what we are building and learning week to week.
You can also check out my blog here: https://noahbragg.com/blog/my-new-day-job
Hi Noah,
Thanks for sharing your story!
It’s an interesting conversation whether financial (or other) pressure motivates people to push past bigger obstacles. It makes sense, right? But following that logic, everyone in a difficult situation should be well on their way to becoming the next Steve Jobs. Yet, so many people live in poverty.
I guess the closer on the pyramid of needs you get to plain survival, the more you focus on that rather than anything else. Having a job costs you time but it gives you the mental space to explore the things beyond ‘what are we eating for dinner?’
There’s probably a sweet spot between the two.
I agree. There has to be some balance. Ideally we can all get to the point where we can focus on our business full time and it taking care of all of our needs as well.
Welldone sir, and goodluck with the startup.
The contact form on your blog doesn't work, so here we go.
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Hey Noah, here's a startup dude with some suggestions.
I am of the opinion that you should have comments enabled on your blog posts, nothing drives people away more than the feeling of being locked out, and that's the feeling this website currently gives.
T's like you want to be the only one talking and you don't want to ever listen kind of thing, I got hold of you from indie hackers and I'm pretty sure I'd not have if they had this kind of set up, get it?
I would not be willing to subscribe to a platform where I can't express my opinions, ever in any form whatsoever.
I think you should add a link to your startup in your navbar, let it share some of the traffic your blog gets, first hand.
And that's it, if you ever want some poetry, come say hi to us at forum.boompoetry.com - Have a nice day.(GMT+1)
Errors:
https://imgur.com/ArLsh1P
https://imgur.com/gg9xvEK
Thanks for letting me know about these!
You are welcome.
Interesting take on the comments. I definitely don't want people to feel like they can't join the conversation.
My thought was that most blogs that I see having comments don't have a lot of replies. I figure that Indie hackers or twitter, where people are finding the blog is a better place for people to reply and give their feedback. It also has more of a social reach.
Some bloggers I follow in the space don't seem to have comments either: https://www.derrickreimer.com and https://justinjackson.ca
I wonder what their reasons are.
Definitely agree on the startup in the navbar!
Thanks!
Keywords: you wonder.
Well, I also know of a couple of top bloggers towing that part too, but I feel the number one reason why they do that is to safeguard the metrics which in a bid to not sound harsh only goes to show some insecurities.
Let me explain. Some of them would have the number of shares the post has showing, but never will they enable the comment section for those sharing to chip in, why?
Here goes two possible reasons:
Because those shares are probably hyped, maybe the count has been set to 1 share should reflect as 150, so when you see 1500 shares you might be thrilled, saying to yourself: good Lord, this fella is reaching heights! But no, he's not, and I know that's possible because I know how to get it done, just a few lines of codes or a plugin.
Can't afford to appear less. There's this sense of respect you give to someone when they make an astounding post, but it decreases a tad little bit when over time you realize that their posts just never seem to get any engagement.
Well, some people won't want that tad little bit of demotion and as such won't risk losing face in a bid to make engagement open.
It's easier to get people to react to your posts than it is to get them to share it, it's easier to get them share it than it is to get them to drop a comment (sometimes, the last two are equally hard). I learned those practically.
But that's never a good reason to shut people out, especially when doing the kind of blogging you are indulging, it's like telling me to tag along with you on a journey that promises to be fun, but no matter what happens, I better make sure to keep shut else you'd throw me off a rock!
Good Lord knows I'd rather stay at home and wither away in my basement.
Yes people are most likely to rarely comment, but let it be available to all. Add CTAs nudging towards that at the end of all your posts; e.g: you ever created anything similar to this or got an idea to give? Let me know in the comment section I'd reward all accordingly with kisses 😘.
Let us have share buttons glaring at us, and consider making reaction buttons available. I have LOL - like - love - WTF - and some others enabled on forum.boompoetry.com - bottom line of this essay is, ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE.
I see what you are saying. Those reasons make sense.