Lately I’ve felt inspired, yet again, to create my own websites and work on my own personal projects. This time, the inspiration came in the form of several articles related to eCommerce. I’d like to share them with you and comment on a few reasons they inspired me.
1. The Photojojo store
I came across this cool store via a link on Twitter that mentioned it as one of the tweeters favorite eCommerce stores. I like the store’s quirkyness and simplicity. But of key interest to me are a few products that I not only want for myself, but I’d also like to sell on my own website: panoramaLOVE. Its a site for all things panoramic, and I’ve been wanting to find some products to sell alongside the images and content available there. I’ve been wanting to spend more time on this site, as well as others, but my extra time has been dedicated to freelancing.
2. Running a Software Business on Five Hours a Week by Patrick McKenzie
This guy used to work full time for a software company, built a software product on the side, and started making enough annually that he was able to quit his full-time job. He is making around $50,000 – $60,000 each year from it (he kindly shared a sales chart here), and he typically spends 5 hours per week running his business. How cool is that. When I read things like this, I think once again that I ought to be doing the same. I ought to spend more time building my own stuff instead of building other people’s stuff. Its so tempting to take on a project that I know I will be making $65+ an hour, but I need to keep the vision that having recurring revenue at and above what Patrick McKenzie is bringing in is waaaaay more than $65+ an hour. Plus, he also has an asset whereas my freelancing projects are not.
3. An Article Listing “The Best” eCommerce Platforms to use in 2014
I came across this article on a search for some information for a potential client for the company I’m currently working for. I had met a lady at a recent expo, and she was looking for advice on which eCommerce platform their business should use, so I did a little research for her. The article is pretty good all around, but I was particularly interested that it listed WooCommerce as one of the best. Coincidentally, WooCommerce is the platform that I personally know how to use and use for all of my client projects (if they are a better fit for another platform, I pass the project on to someone else). So not only do I have side projects and products in mind to create and launch, but in many cases, I have the skill set to allow me to do so.
I’ll finish my full time job soon, and within 4 weeks of that I’ll finish my remaining freelance projects. Then for the next 3-4 months, I plan on moving 100% to my personal projects. This will be during the time I’m traveling in Europe, so it won’t be full time, but it will at least be a few hours per week. I know, thats not much, but once I return to the US, I plan to ramp up the time I spend on personal projects while I spend only enough time freelancing to keep some money flowing in to live on.
I definitely plan on focusing more on my own projects and was glad to have the recent reminder.