The current economic climate is so dry at this point that I cannot even accidentally bankrupt myself.
Yesterday I applied for an unsecured loan. I was declined. This, while not unexpected, is not indicative of my credit score. It's also not indicative of my current financial state, available credit, job history, health or any other possible factor that could be used in determining that my application contained some defect.
It is because no one is giving out loans.
Many people who tell you to just jump off the edge of the ship, the water's great, you can make it even in this climate are not taking this into account.
You should never, ever use your own cash as startup capital. If you succeed, great. But if you fail, you will have wasted the nest egg that you needed to survive while you plead for your old job back. Now, if you're a lawyer, or have independent income that's all well and good but most(99%) of us don't have that kind of resource available to us and can't count on anything but our wits. This leaves us to take out loans against our homes, personal loans and small business loans to get started. It's great if you can do it and it gives you the freedom to actually get your foot in the economy, creating an artifical cash flow until you gain momentum to really get started. You need this(you can't do everything on the cheap, just most things.) and mostly because the reason you are starting a business for yourself is that you aren't making enough money doing what you are doing.
Now, The Book says that you should start your own business even if you ARE happy with your current income level because you can free yourself from the actual responsibility of working for some jerk and making him money, instead of the other way around.
This leaves you with a few options. Since you can't walk into a Washington Mutual and ask for a loan anymore(don't walk into a WaMu for any reason anyway) you have to depend on other people who will give you money.
The problem with this is that these people are highly mobile and usually want to have a say in how you do business. Some of these people may be your mom. She always has suggestions.
Venture Capitalists, Grants, Relatives and Friends all will now be very interested in your day-to-day operations because your company is the now(hopefully) tangible representation of Their Money.
This defeats the purpose, really. To be honest, the point of quitting and starting your own company is to escape a boss, but you now have not only a boss who can fire you, but will invariably want reimbursement for every paycheck you have drawn. That's way worse than a regular job.
My advice? Wait. And Get Rich Slowly.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
They are following me
Apparently twitter with it's supreme simplicity has fallen victim to a bit of spam, either that or I have randomly become popular.
Since I have no reason to assume the latter, I will digress on the former.
So I've been getting more and more followers on twitter- based on what I believe is a sophisticated network of random salespeople. Either that or the spike in twitter signups has caused people to create some sort of organic network structure where they trade follows instead of followers. This is weird to me, as I always thought the trick to being successful on twitter is to follow fewer people than are following you. Especially since it's really impossible to keep up with the minutia of 4400 people.
Twitter is interesting, I must admit, in that it is supremely useful in determining the overall health of the intertubes. Everytime something breaks, I can find out about it on twitter. It is also great for reporting on disasters as they happen, as the "scoop" instinct is present in every human, and if people can present information FIRST or offer insight no one else has, it gets retweeted forever and ever and they rack up fair-weather-followers(FWF) like no one's business.
Anyway, here's my twitter. http://twitter.com/icyfenix
Since I have no reason to assume the latter, I will digress on the former.
So I've been getting more and more followers on twitter- based on what I believe is a sophisticated network of random salespeople. Either that or the spike in twitter signups has caused people to create some sort of organic network structure where they trade follows instead of followers. This is weird to me, as I always thought the trick to being successful on twitter is to follow fewer people than are following you. Especially since it's really impossible to keep up with the minutia of 4400 people.
Twitter is interesting, I must admit, in that it is supremely useful in determining the overall health of the intertubes. Everytime something breaks, I can find out about it on twitter. It is also great for reporting on disasters as they happen, as the "scoop" instinct is present in every human, and if people can present information FIRST or offer insight no one else has, it gets retweeted forever and ever and they rack up fair-weather-followers(FWF) like no one's business.
Anyway, here's my twitter. http://twitter.com/icyfenix
Sunday, May 17, 2009
3 sources of inspiration, and why it's ok to be inspired
I have had quite a time trying to reconcile the difference between inspiration, outright plagiarism and just learning the ropes as a newbie in my field.
The problem is the level of guilt about many places you can find inspiration and how to further a design trend without directly copying.
1. The world around you.
This is the source of inspiration that everyone seems to think is actually OK, drawing ideas from nature, people in their myriad forms and architecture. These are out for all to see and are clearly OK to use, as most buildings are considered "public domain", and people in the street would generally be thrilled to be used photographically or sketched. People love attention. And nature, well we own nature right? So sketching a sunset or flower or taking a picture of the way the light strikes the flowering trees in spring is great, regardless of the fact that they've been done completely to death.
The fact is designers are supposed to only take inspiration from sources such as these, according to design culture. The insufferable guilt that we are not as creative as the top design studios, that we can't pull great designs and innovative ideas out of thin air is the lament of every designer, as the design process is mostly internal and takes years to tweak and lots of work to get it to be Fast enough, Good enough, and Creative enough to be commercially viable.
The top design studios are the top for a reason, and generally have over 100 years combined experience under their belts, while you have a few continuing education classes and a fancy new tablet.
2. Print Media
Print media, as widely disseminated and highly public as it is, generally can be considered fair game once you realize that no one cares about the 4-3 ranch style house you live in and how cool your local starbuck's door struts look at a strange angle. After you feel you've exhausted the world around you(you haven't) you may tend to look to newspapers and advertisements, as well as magazines and perhaps even design publications. This leads to the inevitable grunge stage(newspapers) and the high-impact, high-contrast designs that every designer makes once they discover Vector Art and how easy it is to shit out an amazing piece of art that looks like it took more than 45 minuties to create.
3. Innovative Advertisers
Some advertisers are a rare breed of humorous, intellectual, plugged-in giants who understand the pulse of society and effortlessly insert themselves into the memesphere. Some however don't know what the hell they are doing. It is a dangerous game to copy an established niche-advertising campaign that has already taken off, attempting to ride it's success. All too often you will be caught after the swell of the wave has passed and will end up being exposed as the greasy car salesman you are. This does not stop some people though, and with the right niche, trying to bring something that is decidedly underground out into the light can work with unexptected results.
The problem is the level of guilt about many places you can find inspiration and how to further a design trend without directly copying.
1. The world around you.
This is the source of inspiration that everyone seems to think is actually OK, drawing ideas from nature, people in their myriad forms and architecture. These are out for all to see and are clearly OK to use, as most buildings are considered "public domain", and people in the street would generally be thrilled to be used photographically or sketched. People love attention. And nature, well we own nature right? So sketching a sunset or flower or taking a picture of the way the light strikes the flowering trees in spring is great, regardless of the fact that they've been done completely to death.
The fact is designers are supposed to only take inspiration from sources such as these, according to design culture. The insufferable guilt that we are not as creative as the top design studios, that we can't pull great designs and innovative ideas out of thin air is the lament of every designer, as the design process is mostly internal and takes years to tweak and lots of work to get it to be Fast enough, Good enough, and Creative enough to be commercially viable.
The top design studios are the top for a reason, and generally have over 100 years combined experience under their belts, while you have a few continuing education classes and a fancy new tablet.
2. Print Media
Print media, as widely disseminated and highly public as it is, generally can be considered fair game once you realize that no one cares about the 4-3 ranch style house you live in and how cool your local starbuck's door struts look at a strange angle. After you feel you've exhausted the world around you(you haven't) you may tend to look to newspapers and advertisements, as well as magazines and perhaps even design publications. This leads to the inevitable grunge stage(newspapers) and the high-impact, high-contrast designs that every designer makes once they discover Vector Art and how easy it is to shit out an amazing piece of art that looks like it took more than 45 minuties to create.
3. Innovative Advertisers
Some advertisers are a rare breed of humorous, intellectual, plugged-in giants who understand the pulse of society and effortlessly insert themselves into the memesphere. Some however don't know what the hell they are doing. It is a dangerous game to copy an established niche-advertising campaign that has already taken off, attempting to ride it's success. All too often you will be caught after the swell of the wave has passed and will end up being exposed as the greasy car salesman you are. This does not stop some people though, and with the right niche, trying to bring something that is decidedly underground out into the light can work with unexptected results.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Comittment
Well, I finally bought the book- and stopped pirating it.
Apparently, most professionals in the web design community pirate certain software for purposes of learning it, and then purchase it as they start to actually get paid for their work. This is usually out of learning how much work it takes to actually make these programs that are so easy to pirate, and because they do not want to get caught profiting off of pirated software(which, most pirates agree, is the only real issue people have with pirating anything).
This now extends to most forms of transportable media, including books.
I will freely admit to "sampling" books. I won't say which and I won't use anything more than euphemisms in a public blog but the act remains. The fact is, you do it too. You go to the bookstore or the library, you freely open up a book and start reading it, sometimes at the beginning, sometimes in the middle, and some people read the whole thing sitting there in the store without paying for it at all. This is as much stealing as what I am doing, so please hold any rants until the logic sinks in.
So I finally scrounged some cash, bought the book. Still reading it, but I wouldn't have even considered purchasing it(especially a business/self-help book) until I knew it would actually be worth something.
Meanwhile, my current project is to see if I can get some readers for my blog(so I can use you for free market research) and grab some business cards.
Apparently, most professionals in the web design community pirate certain software for purposes of learning it, and then purchase it as they start to actually get paid for their work. This is usually out of learning how much work it takes to actually make these programs that are so easy to pirate, and because they do not want to get caught profiting off of pirated software(which, most pirates agree, is the only real issue people have with pirating anything).
This now extends to most forms of transportable media, including books.
I will freely admit to "sampling" books. I won't say which and I won't use anything more than euphemisms in a public blog but the act remains. The fact is, you do it too. You go to the bookstore or the library, you freely open up a book and start reading it, sometimes at the beginning, sometimes in the middle, and some people read the whole thing sitting there in the store without paying for it at all. This is as much stealing as what I am doing, so please hold any rants until the logic sinks in.
So I finally scrounged some cash, bought the book. Still reading it, but I wouldn't have even considered purchasing it(especially a business/self-help book) until I knew it would actually be worth something.
Meanwhile, my current project is to see if I can get some readers for my blog(so I can use you for free market research) and grab some business cards.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Midigating Circumstances
Sickness is a serious time-waster, and as someone who does not have health insurance it can wipe out your savings. Every time you denied yourself that mocha latte, or that new shirt, or that really cool gadget so that you could increase that rainy-day fund to comfortable levels so that you can have piece of mind or get something you REALLY deserve, or invest in something... you get my point. It's gone just because you get sick or hurt.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)