I’ve made my decision. I’m becoming self-employed as a consultant and developer for web-communication. Even if somehow I always knew how I would decide, it took me some time to get my head straight about this step because it will cost me a lot. I’m giving up the chance of a big career with good money and a lot of security for the next years. So I’m preparing myself for some sleepless nights but I think it’s worth it.
There hardly has ever been a time when the circumstances for becoming self-employed have been better. My fix-costs are extremly low (no wife, no kids, no house, no car). There is a lot of interest for my diploma thesis and I got a perfect degree. At the moment it seems like I can chose which projects I want to do and which projects I want to drop. I got my safety-net Kubik with my friends who keep me from getting lost in work.
The only things missing are financial reserves to live my life in the next two months until the first projects are finished and payed. That’s going to be tough but it challenges me to be disciplined in spending my money and getting my work done.
The main reason for becoming self-employed is that I’m not willing to focus on one task. Could I imagine myself working as a concept-developer? Sure, but not as my only job. Could I imagine myself as a web-developer? Sure, but if this is the only thing I’m doing I’m gonna be bored pretty fast. There are so many things which I want to do. If there is something like a major theme in my life it’s my interest for a lot of very different things. One of my main talents is to connect different themes (like web 2.0 and the emerging church).
The next months and years will contain a colorful mixture of consulting companies and organizations about web-communication, developing websites and -applications, keep working with the themes of my diploma thesis (knowledgework and social software), blogging and podcasting, doing workshops, empowering and establishing networks of people, creating concepts and a lot more. My customers will be commercial companies, non-profit-organizations, churches, friends and networks. And more and more the line between doing work and living my dreams and visions will fade away…
I’m easily impressed. But sometimes certain things cross my way which simply change my way of thinking and living. Out of the blue you discover something which feels different then the average. Somehow everything seems to be perfect. It sums up everything you’re thinking about and leaves you behind with the question if you should just drop anything you’re working on or be inspired and challenged to gain some momentum for your own stuff.
Earlier today Mark send me a list with fashion-labels we might consider for our fair-trade-mailorder/shop-thing. The first link on that list was howies. These riders and bikers from the UK design clothing which has to stand their own extreme expectations on quality. I love their philosophy about fair trade because it feels realistic and keeps the process in mind.
We can’t say that our products are fair trade because we are not convinced that there is a trusted set of guidelines to follow. So we make no such claim until we can be sure.
That has meant we have to write our own guidelines. For a tiny company that is some undertaking. How do you measure the air quality in a factory? What chemicals are good? What chemicals are bad? How much overtime is allowed? How much holiday should be given? To these questions and more, we will go find the answers. Then we will make sure our factories follow our common sense guidelines.
This way of thinking is all over everything they are doing.
A higher quality product will invariably last longer. It will keep on performing as it was designed to for longer before it finally needs replacing. And so over its lifespan it will have consumed less valuable resources than an inferior product that will have been replaced many times.
That’s why we make the best quality products that we know how. Because ultimately the best thing we can do for the environment is to make our stuff last a real long time.[…]
Why are we in business? For us it is not as simple to make a profit. Like any company we require a profit to stay in business. But it is not the reason we are in business. The thing that has not changed from day one is the desire to make people think about the world we live in. This is, and always will be, why we are in business. […]
We pledge to give 1% of our turnover or 10% of pre-tax profits (whichever is greater) to grass-root environmental and social projects. […]
We are trying to get the balance right between work and play. Whenever a real nice day comes along, it’d be a shame to waste it. So if you phone up and no-one answers, don’t worry. We are out there doing what we love. So leave a message and we’ll get back to you in a while. […]
We are tiny. Most people haven’t heard of us. In order to spread the word we have to grow. But that costs money. Money we haven’t got. We could have approached the City, but that is not our way. Grow slow to grow strong is what we say. So instead we asked our friends. Friends who care about what we are trying to do. Friends who are not just in it to make money. Friends who were crazy enough to believe in us. We don’t answer to our shareholders. We answer to our friends.
I spend three hours reading through all the statements and thoughts they have published on their website. The fit 100% into the whole stuff that has been keeping my head occupied lately. And they give a good explanation why I decided to become self-employed. I want that freedom to decide what I wanna do and for whom.
Now, back to the second link on Mark’s list.
… I finished my diploma, presented it and got perfect scores. Now I’m a Diplom Media System Designer.