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I came across David via his blog, aptly named David Stiller’s blog. His well written articles prompted me to ask the question, “So, just who IS this David Stiller?”
What I found was pretty impressive.
David has worked with NASA, Adobe and more. Now a partner, at Community MXhe gives expert advice on Flash, ActionScript, JSFL, Dreamweaver, JavaScript, Regular Expressions, Photoshop and Premiere. He’s also a community expert at Adobe. For fun, David’s a photographer, a blogger, a caring husband and father of one, and more.
And now he’s a businessman, running Quip.net full time.
What I found was indeed impressive. And although I’d love to ask about the unicycle habit, I’m sure readers would rather hear David talk about his personal experiences with running a design business.
So, getting to those questions …
What were the main deciding factors in leaving an in-house position to take on the responsibilities of running a business?
Family first. Without a moment’s hesitation, I can say that time with my wife and daughter was the number one reason to give it a shot. Two years prior, we had managed financially to allow my wife to stay at home full time with our newborn. For us, that was a real accomplishment on many levels. In the months that followed, I can remember thinking to myself, in a superficial sense, “Well, we did it for one of us. Can we do it for both?”
There was more to it than that, though, certainly. I had been freelancing for maybe eight years by that point. Nothing substantial, but enough to pay for the occasional home improvement or new furniture. When Dawn quit her job as a full time helpdesk supervisor, the extra income from my side business helped considerably, so I started taking on larger projects, and more of them. I liked the variety of freelance, and those gigs simply tended to be more fun, because I only agreed to projects that interested me.
Things were fine at my “real job,” by the way. I had settled into a comfortable position as a multimedia developer in a tiny division of a small local business. We were the research and development crew and got to build prototype software for clients like NASA and other government agencies It was a good job with good people, but I did worry sometimes about hitting an income ceiling. I didn’t enjoy having to “sell myself” each year — who does? — to managers who already knew my value. I wanted to be responsible for my income in a very direct way, without having to dip into office politics.
Awhile ago you wrote about noticing opportunity everywhere you turned. The opportunities were: becoming a partner with Community MX, co-authoring on a Flash reference book, even running into a former acquaintance with a potential fit. As mentioned in the comments of the post, it tied nicely in with your blog’s tagline, “Luck is the residue of good design.” As none of those opportunities could have come about without first putting in the hours to attain the skills necessary, it could also be taken as, “Luck is the residue of hard work”.
On the subject of hard work, when you made the decision to start out on your own, what other skills did you put into place?
Mainly, I found myself in a position to exercise the skills I already had; only, now it was concurrent rather than sequential. I was suddenly all the more a designer, developer, and problem solver — all day long and into the weekends. It may be that in looking at the world with new eyes, so to speak, I spotted opportunity more often than I might have before, when work was freely handed to me by a manager. One skill I did have to develop — because I certainly don’t have a knack for it — was to purposefully stop worrying. Outside of that, I can only be thankful that my wife is a proficient bookkeeper.
Learning how to run a design company is time-consuming. Not only do you need to keep up with design skills, you need to take on book keeping (to a point), get realistic about scheduling projects, find time for networking and keep up with marketing. A given, to keep the pressure off (especially in the first year of starting up a business), friends and family need to take a back seat.
The question is this, as you’ve settled into running your business, what methods have you (or are you), putting into place to make sure your job doesn’t eat into quality time with friends and family?
This question comes at a pertinent time, because I just finished co-authoring my last chapter of Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers, to be published this summer (2007) by friends of ED. Near the end of December (2006) when writing began, I knew what my New Year’s resolution would be: stop the work day at 5 PM, period. As it turned out, I had to redefine that goal. What I stopped doing at 5, daily, was any work that involved billable hours. I would save my open documents, head to the kitchen to participate in dinner preparation, eat as a family, play with my daughter until her bedtime … then grimly sit in front of the computer again until midnight or 2 AM. For months.
Completing the book was a tacit exception to my resolution, a time investment Dawn and I were prepared to make … we just didn’t realize it would take nearly so long! Given our daughter’s age, I simply make time for her. Unfinished work is always there in the morning, and she shouldn’t have to “pay” for my decision to take my career home.
Now that respite is on the horizon, Dawn and I are making plans to hire the babysitter for evening getaways a lot more often! We’ve also taken to geocaching on the weekends as a family. Not only is it good to get out of the house, but the family cooperation — holding hands over rugged terrain, speculating aloud where the treasure might be — keeps us grounded.
Because working from home can be lonely, I’ve started to actually plan lunches with friends into my schedule. To give myself something to look forward to every few weeks, I’ve also been writing a childhood friend in Canada once a month. We’ve known each other for almost 30 years, and catching up has been an emotional boost.
I’ve had to make conscious decisions to stop talking about myself in conversations with friends. Their goings-on are just as important as mine, and pausing to truly listen has worked wonders.
After a year of working on your own, what advice would you give to others mulling over the decision to start their own design business?
For me, it was all about preparation and hedging my bets. I had a long history of freelance; I certainly wasn’t trying something new, so much as I was gearing up for the already familiar. No bridges were burned. My boss said to me on more than one occasion, “David, seriously, if you need to come back — just pick up the phone.” That meant a lot, and I took him at his word.
My first gig came by way of a placement agency. It was a three month contract. At my new rate — over double my old salary, per hour — that commitment paid for quite a bit of time to look for the next project. That was a good safety net, because I learned very quickly that many hours go un-billed, and that health coverage and taxes take a daunting bite out of incoming checks.
Advice? I would say this: be honest. Be honest with yourself and with your customers. Don’t make yourself into more than you actually are. That said, thanks to the Internet, your services are a nationwide, if not global, commodity. Look beyond your immediate locale to determine what the market will bear for your fees. When you raise your rates, do so with confidence. Set specific, cumulative goals, but don’t kill yourself when (not if!) you occasionally fall short of them.
Brace yourself for disappointment, sometimes severe, from family and friends who miss “the old you.” Assuming you trust these folks going in, take care to listen to their input, accept your lumps with grace, then gently remind them (and yourself) that your endeavors are, after all, finite. You will reach the tunnel’s end.
Get your name out there. For me, that meant writing articles for Adobe.com’s Developer Center, blogging, and continuing to participate in support forums. These encounters often bring in customers.
Don’t forget to breathe.
This last question comes from me personally …
I’m well acquainted with the term ‘multiple streams of income’, but how in the world did you juggle a new business and young family while co-authoring a book, partnering with Community MX as well as continuing to give advice on your blog and at Adobe?
It was, and continues to be, a matter of sheer determination. I have literally stayed awake for 24+ hours in order to mark things off my to-do list. I don’t think that’s a healthy practice, mentally or physically, but I’ve done it. Often. Priorities certainly come into play. I’ve been late on a few Community MX articles; my blogging and forum presence occasionally takes a dive. There are days I decide to not even launch my instant messenger client. When I can’t make more time, I “buy” it by adjusting my rates.
A recurrent theme that keeps me going — it’s practically a mantra — is simply the fact that none of this is permanent. These efforts are all in preparation for a career at home. A year in, I’m still in preparation mode. The book is an important milestone. I have a few speaking engagements lined up in the coming months for marketing purposes. Those will also be milestones. In another six months, I may see the true “beginning” of my work-from-home experience, and my aim is to return to a 40-hour work week.
Geocaching actually makes a pretty good metaphor for this whole business. In the woods, maybe in a park somewhere, you look at the GPS device in your hand. The arrow cursor indicates, as the crow flies, that a Tupperware container rests, hidden, a mere 200 feet ahead of you. This container probably holds a couple finger puppets, some stickers, maybe a coloring book … definitely worth the hike to your bright, almost-three-year-old companion. Unfortunately, no one in your group is a crow, so there won’t be any flying. To cross that brook in your path, you’ll have to actually turn away from the goal to find a bridge, or an area where the water isn’t so deep. Sometimes, you’ll wander quite a distance, and it will feel counter-productive. But if you don’t lose site of your goal — even if it’s only a blinking pixel on an LCD screen — you’ll eventually get there.
Thanks David!
until the next
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