So for the last 4 months I had no contract at all, only vague promises, maybes and “come back in half a years”.

It was awful, and I have been on the brink of bankruptcy.
However, at the same time I am grateful for this.
I’ve gone independent only a year ago, forming my business, and having this crisis so early is a good thing. Drives home a few points, and I have had some necessary lessons very early, which is better than having the same lessons says five years into the business.

What were the most important lessons?

1. Minimize your dependency from your bank. They won’t help you when you need it, and when you hit hard times, an outstanding loan makes it even harder.
   Yes, that means cutting up credit cards too. That will force you not to count on them as a “last resort” financing option.
   N.B.: Here the annual interest rate of credit cards is 40-45%. If yours have a better interest rate, then maybe you shouldn’t get rid of them. Your choice.
2. Don’t depend on one client. If you can, have more than one, even if individually all are smaller clients.That’s something difficult to achieve in my field, I usually work on a project 40 hours a week as a business analyst. Then again, it can be that I have a small sample yet.
3. Even when you are in a really tight spot, don’t roll over for your client. They won’t acknowledge that it was just out of necessity that you worked for so little, or with such bad conditions, and they will expect it.
4. Don’t accept favours from your client. They will bring it up over and over again, trying to use it to bargain for lower prices.
5. When you say no, people are prone to get offended. Tough. Actually, if someone gets offended because you said no, it’s just as well, you wouldn’t want to work with them anyway.
6. People will try to take advantage of you. And sometimes they will go snarky and nasty with you when you don’t let them, sometimes going to such a length as to call you an ungrateful sod. Deal with it. And if you can, stop doing business with them.

Now looking over these lessons I can tell you that they are geared toward a certain, “can’t trust anyone” kind of market, not the?Seth Godin kind. I really like him, but to reach the permission and trust based market, now that is a difficult thing around here.

So far, I came out alive. I can see the end of the tunnel, not quite there but close.
And looking forward to what the rest of the year brings.

It’s been a long time since I have last written here – I don’t really count the last two posts, and even if I did, 2 posts in 3 months is not that much.

Anyway, kind of back, but still not completely – and it’s not lack of time, more like lack of subject. I could not think of anything I could write about. None, nada, zip, nil. Ideas for posts has been swimming in my head when I was relaxing, but then I stood up, and started to work, or think, or plan, and the ideas whoosh – flew away.

Now I try to get the ideas together, and sew a beautiful tapestry of words – I mean, try to type in some meaningful sentences forming a coherent post.

So, as I have written a few times in the summer, for various reasons I have started my own small company, business, which seemed like a good idea – and actually the only way to get some paying job.

Of course, I have always wanted to do it sometimes in the future, so I was content with the way things went, at least until I started to meet the traps, tricks, roadblocks and all the funny things that come with running a business.

Nothing, nothing in my previous experience as an employee has prepared me for this. School? Forget it. Sure, I have had some “Entrepreneurship Course” and we have studied some basic Marketing, and Market Research, and Business Finances, and such, but what I had to realize is that the things I have learned at college has nothing to do with reality. No connection at all. For some weird reasons, the real world works in a totally different way. Plus, all my life I was expected to behave the opposite way I have to behave now. Different mindset, different way of looking at things. But I am learning – and I hope fast enough.

The most important thing I’ve learnt this past 6 months is that I have to say No. No matter that you don’t have another contract, that you probably won’t have any income for the next month if you don’t get this one, you have to say No until the offer is good for you too, not just the other guy. Because next time he will expect you to do it with the same bad conditions, and in the long run you lose more than one month worth of income. And that’s difficult, especially when the other guy is an old co-worker, former boss, or another acquaintance of yours.

Another thing is what you really need is a LOT of discipline. Being your own boss sounds cool. “Hey, I can wake up whenever I want, I can work however I want”, but lets face it, that doesn’t work. On the one hand you still have to do a job on someone else’s terms – deadlines, meetings, deliverables -, on the other hand time has a habit of flying fast, and it is awful to start to work at 4PM with the knowledge that you have to finish something by next morning.

And last, but not the least: financial planning. Bills and taxes have to be paid on time, and there is a good chance that even if you issue the invoice right on time, you won’t get paid by the due date. So you have to plan forward at least two months. Somehow companies have the idea that paying a salary on time is important, but paying an invoice on time is optional, and they are confident that you won’t complain because “you want us to hire you in the future again, right?” – hint: this is the part where saying No can be necessary, but tough.

So that’s my last 6 months in a nutshell – I am on a learning curve, learning things I have never had the chance or the need to learn on the run, and that takes time away from everything. But I am learning – and it worth it.

So, the list so far:

1. Discipline
2. Plan ahead
3. Learn to say No

Now I wonder what other lessons will I learn.

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Long time no see. Yes it has been a quite time, I more or less went “underground” for the last two months, but I was working on that little thing you see on the left.

Right, click on it. So that’s it. Company up and running, and I had to put the website together too.

I want to say a big thank you to Alex Mitchell aka. Zen Elements for the website design, for Karen Swim (Words for Hire) for the text you can find on the site, and to Peeter Paasmae who created the logo.

They were a tremendous help both with the work they have done, and with their encouragement.

Also I want to say a big thank you to all my friends both on- and offline, from every corner of the world, for the kind and encouraging words you gave me.

Now the question is what next? Here, I have drawn you a brief map of the future.

I know. Extremely silly. And this is a business so it should be serious and all. But why start your own thing if you can’t have fun with it?

So, that’s the plan, more or less. Of course, my accountant is not working from this one. Yet.

So after stating that I pick up blogging and this time it will be more regular,if not daily, I ended up spending my day at government bureaus, reading even more about small businesses, meeting with the accountant, and so on, instead of blogging.

But it was worth it, and I hope I will say the same a year from now. By the way, whatever people say, don’t believe them, finding an even remotely non-idiotic name – that is not taken yet and no one is sitting on the domain either – for your company is the most difficult and frustrating step in the whole “start your business” procedure. The rest is made up of well defined steps and the lawyer and the accountant will help with that. You have guidelines, rules and laws and all you have to do is to follow those.

So here is a new zig in life, hopefully there won’t be more for a couple of months, and I hope there won’t be any more for a couple months, I just want to go in this lane for a bit longer. In case I want to plan and such.

And I want to say thank you for everyone who helped me in one way or the other, including suffering my “let’s find a company name” harassment the whole week.

Now that gave me a lot more responsibility and work, which I don’t mind, because I am positively excited about the project. Yes, this is me all excited.
You may have noticed I did not go all Amway on you about the project. Should I? Just joking.

But I am excited. I think the result of the project can be something useful and popular, something that helps people with their job, and that’s a good thing in my opinion. But this blog is not about Yazix, for that check the Yazix Blog.

What I wanted to write about is this whole crisis thing. Of course, people way smarter than me write about how it is bad or good for the markets, we are constantly bombarded by how tough times are, and that we are going to die, and all, but I wanted to write about it from a diferent perspective.

We have all read that there are touh times, people are getting laid off, employment is hard to find, money is tight, even I wrote about it how difficult it is to land a good job. But I want to bring up the other half of the crisis. Opportunity. There are half-joking ideas like Naomi at Ittybiz who, upon hearing that people – suit wearing, iPod owning people – live in tents has concluded that it’s high time to start a Yahoo Tent store – and I say half joking, because only the style is funny, it actually can be a good business idea, no? Go over there and read her post. I will wait. Note: NSFW.

Then there are initiatives for “charity projects”, where you work for no pay, but to hone and maintain your skills, and network with people – which is a good idea -, and not on some hidden corner of the web, there is a new group on LinkedIn called Code Angels.

But what about starting something that you was thinking about but did not do because it is risky? I wonder, if being in the middle of a crisis, being unemployed will make people more risk averse or more risk embracing.

I know that I choose the latter path. For me, Yazix is a “venture” project – I work with the hope of having a gain in the far future. If the project flops, I will be left with a fuzzy warm feeling that I have learned, and worked, and gathered experience, and n0 money to show up for my efforts. If it works out it will be “happy days again”. Would I have done it in non-critical times with a full time job? Probably not. I would not have had the time, I would have needed my free time for myself, I would have had no need for it, you name the excuse. No pressure to take the risk, we are all comfy, we are all good.

But as I have ended up unemployed I have two options:

1. Look for a job, which is a bit hopeless right now, and between offers and interviews sit at home and watch TV.
2. Join a risky project and work, build my experience, learn, and hope for the best – and look for a job (which still is sort of hopeless, btw).

I take the risk. What can I lose? My TV time? Not that I watch too much TV, so lets make it game time. Not a big loss if I put it up against the “what can I win?”.

So, question is: what prevents you from taking a risk if you don’t have a job and don’t get paid anyway? Is a certain zero income better than a “possible X” income where X is bigger than zero? I think that in this situation you should take a risk, instead – or beside :) – of complaining about the economy, how the local currency crashed, how inept the politicians are, how there are no possibilities, how… You get the point.

Not to mention that when the economy recovers, and you will be able to find a job at last, your CV will have a brand new entry and not a 6 months long gap. Just saying.

When you have nothing to lose, it’s high time to take a risk.