macrobug

I resigned from Symbian about 5 weeks ago.

I’ve finally caught up with the backlog of blog posts I wrote shortly thereafter, too. So from here on, hopefully the blog should keep more up-to-date with what I’m doing right now.

It seems like a good time to reflect. What’s making me happy and sad at the moment?

First the bad bits. I have no income right now, and no prospect of any soon. I had 2 weeks without working. When I’ve worked another week on my contract I’ll be able to submit an invoice to the company I’m contracting to. They’ve got 30 days to pay in the contract. Then I have to do a payroll round and pay myself from the company - which I reckon could take another 30 days. I can probably get cash a little more quickly by repaying my Director’s Loan, but basically I’m going to have to go about 80 days with no income - and lots of outgoings setting up the company.

Talking of which, my accountant’s first bill has arrived - a little more than I expected. I’ve also decided I should do the right thing and talk to an Independent Financial Advisor regarding life insurance, health insurance etc., and also an intellectual property lawyer. Both of these are going to charge an astronomical amount which is a bit scary.

So generally, I am feeling money pressure right now. Anyone got a fiver? (It’s OK, SWMBO has let me pinch some from the joint account to tide me over).

I’m also not at all sure it will be possible to market the tools I’m developing - but I knew that was an issue when I set off down this road, so that doesn’t come as a surprise!

It’s also a surprise how much time is spent on pure business admin (expenses etc.) I have now got my record keeping etc. into a reasonable shape, but it’s still taking yonks.

Apart from that, everything is good! I am immensely glad I’ve made this decision. I really have been learning loads, which is one of the reasons I did it - I wasn’t sure how much I’d really learn. I’m also reasonably convinced my tools are technically possible, and it’s not as horrifying to be trying to do Symbian stuff outside of Symbian as I’d expected. I’m even enjoying my contract (although I’ll deny that if/when I try to renew it, of course).

And everyone has been very, very supportive. Particular credits go to Andrew and Vero at Pepsmedia, my wife Claire, somebody at a phone manufacturer who was kind enough to spend hours talking to me, and last but not least dozens of people at Symbian. Literally - dozens, all of whom have been very helpful. I have a vast array of potential tools ideas that I could develop, and very in-depth knowledge about the market I’ll be selling to.

In fact I’ve spent so much time talking to helpful people and doing business admin that I’ve had very little time for actual tools development! But they’re still coming along OK. (Still, with marketability now my biggest risk, I need to keep talking to people).

Anyway - I’m still aiming to do it part-time for 3-6 months (ideally 6) and then make some tough decisions about whether to go full-time. I’m now fairly confident by then I’ll have something worth demonstrating… and we’ll see what happens then!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.