So with much trepidation I decided that it indeed was the time to leave.

With a month’s notice given, I served out the notice period with tense anticipation, mostly worrying about the money. It turned out that the money problem soon solved itself. A friend of the family runs a stealth start-up which now had need of a contract programmer, and it was suggested to him that I would fill the role..

So the plan was to serve out my notice and start the contract after a well deserved full-time month on GridSpy. It soon came to be that my new client had an urgent need for my services - arguably more urgent than our own start-up for at least a couple of weeks. As a founder, it was a real heart wrenching experience. With complete control over my time I have decided that cash in the hand now to build initial stock is worth delaying our product just that little bit longer. I’ve also had a nice little splurge, for instance getting the required noise cancelling headphones.

It has been four weeks now since my last day as a salaried employee and I’ve had a great time. For the first time in ages overtime has been optional, working conditions are in my control, and opportunities are endless. However, the opportunities being endless thing has taken me away a little, well a lot, from GridSpy. These last four weeks have been great for my client but not so great for GridSpy. I have really enjoyed the programming challenges of the contract work, but I really haven’t spent any more time on GridSpy than I would have before. I seem to have exchanged one full-time job for another. Again I appear to be working for ‘the man.’

However, my working conditions now are much better. I’m working from home on my favourite sort of problems with my four screens. After a 5 step commute from the kitchen table to my office in the morning I work solid until lunchtime. The afternoon starts late after lunch and a play with the kids and is occasionally interrupted by one of my gorgeous children demanding a cuddle. Dinner is at 5pm and since that tends to work out as a 6.5 hour day I often work an odd evening too. Even though it seems like a short day I have found my output is huge. I am really able to totally concentrate and complete tasks in a way I enjoy. I’m much happier and I’m spending much more time with my wife and kids - that’s great!

Back when I was a Part time entrepreneur I constantly dreamed of the day that I went full-time. How much easier it would be when I could work on GridSpy and not have to stop. When looking at schedules of when the next feature would be ready I could wistfully say “well, it will take a long time but only because I can’t work on it full-time.” Although it was true, it was also a very convenient excuse.

Now I have exactly the opposite problem. With complete control of my time comes an equal amount of guilt when progress on GridSpy doesn’t suddenly take off. Since late last year I have been eternally thinking that we are only two months away from a product that is worth selling, and today I would make the same claim. What we do have today is a fantastic product and a handful of very happy clients. Today our Minimum Viable Product is pretty refined. It is focusing all my energies into those two months, or what it takes to get GridSpy out there, I am now struggling with. This has been a surprise for me.

Each week I can choose how much to work - somewhere on the slider from “Instant Cash Today” to “Successful business tomorrow.” It doesn’t help that I love my contracting job. I had better set the slider back to “Successful Business” before we run out of time. To do that requires the ability to say “No.” No to fun contracting tasks, No to quick cash, No to partnerships that require a lot of time on our part, and No to distracting marketing. But how do I break away from ‘the man’ when I actually really enjoy the work (and the cash too.)

Reflecting on what I have written I can see that I need to reduce the contracting work to the point where it pays some bills only, and spend as much time as possible putting GridSpy as a finished product into the marketplace. Well, after this particular contracting task is over that is.