Today marks the 3 year anniversary of me leaving my full-time job and becoming self-employed. Yet it feels like today is the first day of something completely new. Something big.
Things have been… different… since the start of 2011.
I think it began with a dip in my self-motivation. For someone like me, to lack self-motivation is kind of a scary thing. For most of my life, I excelled at things I’m passionate about, because passion drives my motivation to learn and produce. For years, I leveraged my passion for music and songwriting and took the initiative to lead several working bands and even a short stint as a solo-artist. It was my passion for technology and the web that led me to teach myself and pursue a career in web design (despite having a degree in a totally unrelated field). And for the past three years, I’ve relied solely on my self-motivation to sustain my freelance web design business.
So during the holidays at the end of 2010, I decided to tone down my workload and give myself a much-needed breather. My thinking was, my finances are healthy, and most of my clients wait until the new year to start new projects anyway, so I’ll pick things back up in 2011. Well, here we in 2011 and for the first time in my 3 years of being self-employed, I’m finding it difficult to muster the energy to drum up new client work. Let me clarify that- I am going through the motions and I’ve got paying projects coming in, but I’m lacking the same drive and passion for this game that I’ve had in years past.
Usually, what I do to stay balanced is start a personal project, as I did with ThemeJam. I’m doing the same now, as I’m partnering with Dave Yankowiak to launch a new web show (details coming soon!). But this year, my issue lies with my core business, my client work. It’s figuring out what that issue is exactly that is the challenge.
Yesterday I received an email from someone asking if I’d be willing to answer a few questions about my experience working with new clients— specifically their new project briefs. Apparently they’re seeking this info as part of their research for a new app they’re creating called Briefix. Sounds interesting.
I’m always happy to share my thoughts about stuff like this. With their permission, I’ve copied their questions and my answers below:
I’ve been working on a new mobile version of casjam.com (expected launch later this week) and I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into mobile web development.
I’m very excited about the possibilities for the mobile web. I’m particularly interested in browser-based websites and web-apps designed specifically for mobile. I believe the mobile browser—not downloaded apps—is where we’re seeing the most potential for innovation and widespread adoption. Utilizing today’s web technologies like HTML5 and CSS3, we can produce amazing hand-held experiences, expose them to more devices simultaneously, and skip the hassle, wait, development challenges, and costs of releasing an app in the respective app stores of Apple, Android, Blackberry, and others.
Choosing The Right Platform For Your Mobile Website – Useful table listing the most popular mobile devices with the relevant tech specs for each like browser technology, resolution, supported features, etc.
Responsive Web Design – I’m sure most of you have seen this gem from A List Apart by now… This single article has become one of the most widely adopted authority on the theory and process of designing for the mobile web.
Lisa Kanerek and I just had a great video chat. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see it because the video didn’t record! I had tested it and everything (it worked during the test), but for some reason, we weren’t recording video during the live take. Of course, I realized this after the fact.
But all is not lost.
We do have the audio, so you can listen to it here or download the mp3 below.
About the Interview
It’s always a pleasure to talk with fellow freelance business owners. In Lisa’s case, she specializes in just that— she’s a home office/business consultant. We talked about her work as a published author, how this economy has impacted her business and clients, making the transition to a work-at-home career, and more.
Despite the overall economic downturn, there seems to be yet another boom in web startups. In the ’90s, we saw the explosion of the Internet’s first big names, like eBay, Yahoo, Amazon, and others. In the 2000′s, social networking and the beginnings of web apps took off, planting MySpace, Facebook, and Flickr firmly on the map–the so-called Web 2.0.
But times have changed yet again, and we’re now in a new kind of web startup boom; one that is on a smaller scale, yet more prevalent due to more accessible development tools and cheaper infrastructures (powered by affordable cloud-based services such as Amazon S3). This is the app boom. The focus is on utility, cost-effectiveness, and highly targeted solutions to common problems. This can range from niche web apps to mobile device apps for iOS (iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch) and Android.
Today’s web startups are leveraging the technological and social advancements we’ve made over the past two decades, packaging them into useful tools meant to fit right into a person’s daily life.
Why Web Developers Become Startup Founders
The bulk of today’s apps and services are web-based and internet-enabled in one form or another. So it’s no surprise that web developers so often become startup entrepreneurs. Having the capability in-house to quickly design and produce a high-quality app certainly makes things easier for today’s startup entrepreneurs.
