I have just come back from a very relaxing holiday down at the beach. My previous job now seems like a distant memory. Even though my family see me typing away on the computer and they know I make some money from it, I don’t think anyone can understand how it could be a full-time job or business. It as though not having a regular place to go off and work at, is kind of being lazy.
The other image they have of running a business is actually having a physical hotel, warehouse, shop or office. People keep asking me when am I going to start looking for a job. Even though tonight it is getting late and feeling a little weary, I am here checking my emails and doing some updates to my sites. I think it kind of shows how much I love what I am doing right now and in no way does writing my blog or working on my sites ever feel like “work” in the traditional sense. Like anything there are a few things that feel a little like a chore, but they are few and far between.
One goal I have for 2007 is to establish a better accounting system and to report my monthly earnings on this blog.
Happy new year to everyone! I hope everyone achieves their goals for the year. If you have anything you would really like to achieve write it down here in the comments.
Update: Just after writing this, I read an excellent post on a similar theme by Darren Rowse.
Twitter Updates
I hear you. I always get the same flack from family. Friends usually understand though, being around the same age and understanding the whole concept of the internet better. It’s hard to convince people that without any 9-5 job, and without any office of your own that you are indeed sitting in front of your PC everyday and doing businesses, making money. I’ve run my own business making web sites/doing graphic design for the past five years and have made a decent living doing so. I take a few months off every year and travel, always visiting Japan of course. Yet I still have people asking when I’m gonna get a job. Bah.
It is good to hear other people having the same experience. The other point is unless people are really interested, I don’t bother telling them about my sites as I worry if they will click on my Adsense ads.
I have made a point of creating websites that don’t require customer support, so I am never get “busy” in the sense a traditional business is. I work as much or little as I like.
One option to get credibility I thought of would be to get published, but I can only see that as being a lot of work for little monetary return.
I think I will just forget about what other people think of me, as long as I am successful in my own mind.
I am fairly confident I will hit it big with at least a couple of my sites sometime in the future.
Well this should be an entry in my blog. Sometimes Mike reading your blog is like reading my own thoughts.
It’s hard to explain to someone who grew up in times of no Internet or no PC (i.e. parents) how can one sit in front of the comp screen typing away and earn money from it. I havent quite work out yet how to prove them that it is actualy a worth while cause and not just a useless bumming around.
If you think about it it’s actualy not much different from any office job these days anyways. But most people’s thinking goes on the line that if you are staying at home all day you simply can’t be working!
Well some of us did grow before PC’s and internet and mobile phones but are getting ready to do exactly what Mike is doing! Its not impossible to teach the old new tricks – and I dont think 40mumble is old anyway!
Oh I did not mean to be offensive if it sounded that way. I did not say its impossible to explain, I said its hard. I know lots of people much older than 40 who who will kick me butt in computing any time. Just not my folks;) And the suggestion about such people being old I never made.
Off to check lis’s blog now:)