Author Topic: Not sure what my next step is...  (Read 5425 times)

mr_man

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Not sure what my next step is...
« on: February 22, 2013, 10:41:35 AM »
Hi,

For the last decade I had a successful online business, which while it made a great income I was also extremely in the consumer mindset and spent everything I earnt. My business went downhill about about a year ago, luckily just before it did I chanced upon minimalism and stoicism and realised there was another way to live. Gave up my expensive far too large flat and stopped flushing money down the drain.

I've taken things to the next level thanks to this blog and ERE, acquired a bike and only use my car once a week max. The car itself will be going once the road tax runs out. I think I've finally got the expenditure side sorted out now, and spend about £400 - £500 monthly.

It's the income side I need to figure out now. My business barely makes a living wage now, £400 - £800 a month. I don't earn enough to really save anything. How I see it I have three choices:

1. Get a relatively low paid full time + part time job (im pretty unskilled, no degree, last time I was in the labour force I earned £20k p.a). Do this for 5-10 years, save 75%, retire.
2. Continue along with my business covering my expenses and build stuff. I've rekindled my interest in programming, I could work full time on building web services/mobile apps and hopefully hit on something to provide an income.
3. Get a degree in IT, either full time/part time. Get a job. Save. Retire (i'm not sure I like the time scale in this one or the debt involved).

Would love peoples opinions

sherr

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1541
  • Age: 38
  • Location: North Carolina, USA
Re: Not sure what my next step is...
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2013, 10:51:36 AM »
I don't know how it is in the UK specifically, but here in the US it's pretty easy to get a programming job as long as you have experience, regardless of whether you have a degree or not. If you have a good amount of free time now and your interest in programming holds up, then I think pursuing that could be an excellent choice for you.

I'd recommend starting with contributing to an Open Source project or two that interest you. Once you've been around for a while, contributed to the project(s) materially, and have generally made a name for yourself, then you should be able to find someone willing to hire you to do programming. Interesting work and it pays well. :)

mr_man

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Re: Not sure what my next step is...
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2013, 12:39:24 PM »
Thanks, alot of the programming jobs in the UK ask for degrees. I've spoken about it with two programmer friends who both have degrees. However they did mention it's not impossible and they know of people who have managed it, although this generally seems to be exception rather than the rule.

I like your idea about the open source projects, I will definitely give that a go. Maybe a idea is to go full out programming mode for a year, build my own and open source projects. If nothing comes from my own projects (arn't profitable) then could atleast go after some coding jobs and show them a decent portfolio?

sherr

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1541
  • Age: 38
  • Location: North Carolina, USA
Re: Not sure what my next step is...
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2013, 10:07:14 AM »
Yeah that sounds like a good plan to me.

Most programmers in the US have degrees too, but that's mostly because that the default way to get into the industry. In my experience the problem with getting hired without a degree is just in getting past the HR people who are filtering applicants by a checklist of keywords. If you can actually talk to the hiring manager they are usually more than willing to hire someone with no degree but excellent skills, regardless of what they put on the job description. The key is to be able to talk to those people. Make and use contacts in the industry and that will help enormously.

Arbor33

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 117
  • Age: 36
  • Location: Upstate New York
Re: Not sure what my next step is...
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2013, 11:49:06 AM »
1. Get a relatively low paid full time + part time job (im pretty unskilled, no degree, last time I was in the labour force I earned £20k p.a). Do this for 5-10 years, save 75%, retire.
2. Continue along with my business covering my expenses and build stuff. I've rekindled my interest in programming, I could work full time on building web services/mobile apps and hopefully hit on something to provide an income.
3. Get a degree in IT, either full time/part time. Get a job. Save. Retire (i'm not sure I like the time scale in this one or the debt involved).

It looks like your essentially asking if you should:

1. Get a low paying full time job.
2. Build and tinker and hopefully strike pay dirt.
3. Get an IT degree, acquire job, retire down the line.

...whilst keeping your current sustaining work on the side.

To which I advise:

1. Do so if you either get compensated enough to make it seem worth it or if you thoroughly enjoy the work.
 - This seems to have the least risk. You try it, you don't like it, you leave and don't look back. It doesn't need to go on your resume if it goes sour

2. Do so if you recognize that while you might hit a home run, an equal chance of making very little money still exists.
 - This I'd rank similarly on risk. There's nothing stopping you from combining option 1 and 2 so long as you have time to do so. If you don't like building things, you can just stop.

3. Do so if you are truly passionate about the field and if you can tolerate the time/money setback associated with entering university.
 - College scares me if you need to go into debt to attend. There's no guarantee it'll set you any further ahead and in the IT world, it's not always 100% crucial as Sherr explained.

If I were you, I'd combine the first two options and see how they go. If you're unsatisfied, consider all aspects of getting into college. Weigh out the pros and cons.

mr_man

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Re: Not sure what my next step is...
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2013, 03:03:09 AM »
Thanks for the advice. Think i'm going to go with 1 & 2, keep my expenses minimal, get a part time job and spend the rest of the time building and creating value. If nothing works out least I'll still have the things I created, a decent portfolio and hopefully become a much better programmer than if I went and got a degree.

MountainMan

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 165
  • Location: Minneapolis
Re: Not sure what my next step is...
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2013, 03:09:08 AM »
Why not just build another successful online business?

If the first one did so well, you must have a lot of experience to leverage and build second one.

A whole decade of online success is nothing to sneeze at.  Just because the economy went sour and, for some reason, that affected your first online business, doesn't mean that you can't find another niche that'll do fine in this economy.

I'm not sure why you'd want to go the other routes, unless you're tired of running a business?

unpolloloco

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 187
Re: Not sure what my next step is...
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2013, 12:44:37 PM »
What went wrong in your business (other than the economy)?  Can it be fixed/revived?

mr_man

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Re: Not sure what my next step is...
« Reply #8 on: February 28, 2013, 12:30:33 PM »
The niche I was in has completely been saturated. I was the first into the local market. Saw the gap and did very well out of it. I was the middle man with a well ranking website on google.

Anyway the market has changed a lot in the last decade. Alot of people go direct now as anyone can set up a website in 5 mins. Also prices have gone down, taking inflation into account it's now 30%-50% cheaper than when I first started. Vast oversupply and under demand. The whole industry is in a massive race to the bottom.

I would love to set up another online business but I'd rather go up the value chain by creating web applications, where not just anyone and their dog can create one unlike wordpress sites. But then there's nothing guaranteed is there.

I'm not tired at all of running a business, doesn't even seem like work to me even though I put in long hours when I need to. If anything the only thing which scares me a bit is considering going back into the workforce. Getting away from the long commutes, office politics, psycho bosses and boredom was the best thing I ever did.

MountainMan

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 165
  • Location: Minneapolis
Re: Not sure what my next step is...
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2013, 11:30:18 AM »
Sounds like you had/have a really cool thing going.

Sounds like you know how to exploit the next unfulfilled niche you find...  :)