I’ve been at this for four months, and while I haven’t set the world on fire yet I have received a great deal of encouragement from all of the professional colleagues who I have had the privilege of working with over the past years. Its an interesting business, probably not terribly not unlike other consulting businesses–you have the big projects, where a single consultant is part of a larger project team primed by one of the big firms, then you have the smaller projects that keep the cash coming in at a reasonable pace. In the meantime, I am contacting everyone who I have ever met over the past 20 years in the business to let them know I am available and eager to work with them. So far, so good. But no work yet. Thank God for supportive parents (not in the financial sense, thanfully, or I would have bailed out for their sake).
I have worked independently (but for companies) for probably the last ten years, and there was always a line between work time and vacation/holiday time. And even weekends. Since I travel with a wireless laptop and carry a blackberry, I am essentially 100% available and working, all of the time (except that wonderful period when the flight attendent forces us to turn off all electronic devices–I find that to be quite freeing).
So now I’m in Florida. Am I working? Am I on vacation? My son is certainly on vacation. Guess I’m doing a little of both. But since work is fun and still exciting, I guess its okay to slip a glance at the blackberry once in awhile. Since noone appears to be reading my blog anyway, maybe I’ll ease up and write a bit more about the vacation than the work. Though I did bring 6 business books so I can start recommending reading resources. Like you all have time to read.
So happy Independence Day (I told my son that the name of the holiday was really Independence Day; he insisted that was the movie with Will Smith and the name of the holiday was the 4th of July; try to win an argument with a 9 year old, its pointless).
Tags: self-employed, vacation
