Tag: Self-Employment (Page 3 of 3)

A little while ago, I started writing about self-employment and some of the things I’ve experienced. Note, however, that none of the things I’m sharing are aiming to be advice.

I mean, I’m not saying “this is what you should do if you’re working for yourself” or anything like that. Instead, I’m offering my thoughts on things I’ve done, why I’ve done it, and if it’s something that works for you, great; if not, that’s no big deal.

A little over a month ago I talked about how accounting – specifically as it relates to taxes – is one of the best things I’ve done since working for myself. It’s freed up so much time, simplified things so much, and taken a major burden off of my plate so I can focus on the core of what I’m trying to do.

But there’s another side or a sibling or a cousin or whatever family member you want to use to account and that’s budgeting.

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Some of the developers and designers who I admire the most in the wider development community are really good about being open about various aspects of their businesses. Sometimes they talk about their challenges, sometimes they do financial reports, and other times they cover different topics.

I’ve slowly been trying to share some of my own experience as it relates to self-employment. It’s not meant to be prescriptive or meant to be a guide on how you should do anything, but it’s something that I hope proves useful if for no other reason than to show what’s worked for me.

So in this post, I thought I’d share how I’ve gone about managing my books – or how I’ve done self-employment accounting – since working out of Pressware.

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I realize that the majority of what I write here has to do with WordPress development and topics that are tangential to that (like my opinions on certain issues around the software). But one thing that I rarely talk about is how things are going with respect to running a business that’s built on top of said software.

Right now, in technology, it’s hip to be a part of a startup, to aim to be something that’s emulating what’s happening in Silicon Valley, or that’s trying to create the next big thing by bootstrapping your business or by accepting some type of capital.

And all of that is completely fine. For whatever it’s worth, I think it’s really neat reading how others approach building a business and developing their product or service whatever it may be. My story simply isn’t like that – it’s not the kind you’re going to see on Product Hunt, Hacker News, or any of those other types of sites.

All of that’s okay with me. It’s not – nor has it ever been – what I’ve aimed to do with Pressware.

In short, Pressware would be classified as a bootstrapped company (that’s undergone a few name changes since the LLC was formed – a story for another time) and out of which I work in order to help provide solutions for other people using WordPress.

That’s it all there is to it.

Anyway, I thought it might be interesting – if anything – to begin sharing my experience as to what it’s like running a business based around WordPress and how I deal with some of the challenges that it presents outside of development.

I don’t know if any of this will be helpful to those who are working within a larger company, running their own business, or serving as a contractor in any other type of industry, but who knows?

Some of the posts that I’ve written in the past that I thought were boring and almost never published ended up becoming those that resulted in interest and genuine discussion. (This is also why I think other people need to speak up and contribute to the blogosphere. :)

With said that, one of the things that I’ve had to learn how to handle as the years have passed is handling red flags as they come up.

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