With all of my elation yesterday, I completely forgot to acknowledge that on August 3, 2005, I signed the paperwork that established my LLC.
I was 7 months into my first full-time job at Digitas, and struggling to make ends meet. Since friends and family were already asking me to “just help them” with their websites, I decided to make it official and start freelancing.
For my very first project, I charged the client $1,000, and laughed myself to sleep believing I had gotten away with bloody murder. Then I ended up having to pay $1,500 to my Flash designer for unexpected revisions. So yes, I paid $500 for my first gig. Rock on, Whitney.
Over the next three years, I had my fair share of lessons on client management, resource management, budget management, and time management — all while maintaining a full-time job. Over time, my “real job” started to feel like my “side job.” The next step became obvious.
With three months of expenses in the bank, I bit the bullet and decided to go solo. It’ll be two years ago in just a few weeks. I’ll save my thoughts on that for another blog post.
Sometimes life moves so fast you can hardly keep up. Five years! Ha, I thought it was just to get me out of debt. I just didn’t realize at the time that that was way beyond financial. It saved me.
Related Posts:
- Today is my 1 year anniversary of going solo August 22, 2009 | 26 comments
- My 2nd Indie Anniversary August 23, 2010 | 12 comments
- War Stories: Stories of War March 19, 2013 | 3 comments
- Strategy Starts with Honesty July 20, 2009 | 12 comments
- I’m going solo August 22, 2008 | 27 comments
About Whitney Hess
Whitney Hess is a coach and writer helping product teams and senior leaders make better decisions through the principles of user experience. She believes empathy builds empires.