Boston Web Studio Update & The Build Guild
It’s been a little more than two months since I left my job and started working for myself and if the lack of writing here isn’t a sign of my free time gone out the window, I don’t know what is. It’s been great, though, really… really really. I lined up work with a handful of companies; my last employer, Digital Bungalow, kept me busy for the first month; I earned some retainer work from Mass High Tech and recently launched their Women to Watch mini-site; a couple of friends in the industry were kind enough to hire me for some xhtml/css work they couldn’t fit into their schedules; there are a couple of new opportunities that will flush themselves out over the next couple of weeks… I’m a fortunate person, undoubtedly.
With that said, it hasn’t been all rainbows, kittens, and super-models. I learned a new self-employment lesson in the last two weeks of June: Give more time to your non-billable tasks. In an effort to bring in as much work, and please as many people, as possible, I agreed to provide 7.5 hours of billable time, each day, between two different clients for those two weeks. While most people work an eight-hour day without breaking a sweat, I learned that, as a business owner, there’s at least two hours of non-billable work that needs to be done every day. From emails to phone calls to design/development work on non-client sites, it all requires my attention and can quickly start to break down if I ignore it for more than a couple of days. My commitment to provide 7.5 hours per day to these clients wasn’t going to waver, but I did notice that I was slacking on my QuickBooks tasks, my emails were getting a bit too short and none-too-sweet, and the little things that should be a benefit of self-employment were non-existent.
Lesson learned though, and with a smile. I now know to be a bit more delicate when handing out my time and it’ll be a little while before I know just where my perfect balance is. There will be weeks where I’ve little administration work to do and other weeks where I want to do nothing but shut off my email application and redesign my business web site.
By the end of this year I hope to have myself in an office of some sort and I truly look forward to the challenges that will yield, as well as the distance it will put me from my vocal and intrusive cat. Additionally, I’ve begun pondering switching Boston Web Studio from a basic Sole Proprietorship to a Limited Liability Corporation. I know very little about the differences, beyond the basics, but I am certain it’s one of the many next steps I need to take in order to grow. Even further down the road, but still creeping into my thoughts late at night, is the idea of having the help of an intern from one of the many local colleges. I know even less about that, but when I feel that the time is right, I’ll be happy to accept the challenges and roll with the punches.
The Build Guild
Outside of business, one of my long-time goals has finally come to fruition. After a bit of discussion and planning with Angelo Simeoni, a friend in the industry, we created the Build Guild. Here’s a description lifted from the web site Angelo created:
Created by two Salem web geeks, Marc Amos & Angelo Simeoni, the Build Guild is a monthly event (Starting in July 2008, and occurring every 2nd Tuesday of the month) where folks in the web industry—designers, coders, project managers, hobbyists, etc.—can get together to talk web, debate industry topics, share ideas, make professional connections, land gigs, and discuss the real reasons why mustaches need to make a comeback.
The response to the event has been greater than we had ever expected. As of this writing, our first event is tomorrow evening and we’ve already got 40 people who say they’re coming and another 24 who are interested in coming. When Angelo and I first chatted about this, we were hoping we would have at least 15 people show up. To have a total of 64 people coming and/or interested in coming is mind-boggling. Needless to say, we feel a bit of pressure to ensure that the attendees have a great time.
We scored a couple of gifts to be given out during the event, one of which is geeky and fun and the other is entirely jaw-dropping, so we hope most attendees find it memorable and would like to come back for future events. Either way, just getting like-minded folks together to chat, trade business cards, land jobs/gigs, and vent about their boss’/client’s latest request from Mars is all Angelo and I want. When people come out of their homes and offices to get together like this, it’s hard for there to be anything but positive results.
If you’re interested in the Build Guild, we’ve created accounts on some of the social networks most people use:
That’s it for now my friends; I have to get back to work…
Thanks for the interesting and informative post. I’m looking forward to attending the Build Guild tomorrow night!
As a side note, I was pleased to find that, due to your clear writing style and lack of odd abbreviations, symbols, or obscure words, I was able to listen to the text of your blog entry via Apple text-to-speech as I folded the laundry.
Peter R. Wood
7 Jul 08 at 5:23 pm