Retooling

I'm at a typical inflection point where I usually find myself after what I'll label my "ambitious" phase.  I've flitted back and forth between posting more on LinkedIn (where engagement is likely to be slightly higher) or on the blog (where I'm guaranteed to own my own content, and the audience is likely to be more engaged if smaller) without committing to one strategy or the other.

After much thought, I still haven't developed a straightforward plan, but if the idea was to post more frequently on LinkedIn in order to generate business leads, then that's not really working.  So why not post where the content is my own?  On the other hand, I believe most, if not all, of my blog traffic originated through my LinkedIn connections, which means...I should still post on LinkedIn regularly.  Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Of course, this is a quandary because outside of my current consulting gig, I'm not doing much to develop my business, so there's not necessarily a point to post anything on LinkedIn for business lead generation.

However, my wife is growing increasingly frustrated with her job and would like to explore other opportunities that may result in an income gap or reduced pay for the foreseeable future.  That's spurring me to redouble my efforts at becoming an official solopreneur.

Honestly, after 2 years of wandering in the wilderness (while acknowledging that I'm not looking into the mouth of the gift horse that is my consulting gig that's accompanying on my wanderings),  I wonder what paths are available to me.  I'm not really despondent, because I knew the risks, and I don't tie all of my self-worth to my capital value, but I do have to acknowledge that certain realities may be staring me in the face.

First, there's no guarantee that, even accepting a lower income replacement rate, I can develop a product or market a skill that will provide consistent income.  I do believe that all of us have the ability to create a sustainable small business if we can simply translate the inefficiencies we're familiar with in our daily lives into products or skills and market them accordingly.  But that's like being given the answer "42" and trying to derive the exact question that will unlock the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.  Still, it's worth pursuing, because...

I don't really know what my full-time employment prospects are if I decided to jump back into the job market.  From a tech employment standpoint, I'm old (but incredibly young if I want to be POTUS), and the job market is, to put it euphemistically, in flux.  I acknowledge some of this is mild FUD and that I'm incredibly picky in my prospective, theoretical prospects, but it's another reality I need to acknowledge.  I can't just assume that I'm bored or frustrated and that I'll get a job in a week because my skillset is in great demand.

So, where to now?  Well, the first order of business is to finish my rewrite of Slowpoke.  My first iteration will drop functionality around investment accounts and focus solely on bank accounts (which mirrors the GSheet app I have), so it's something I can use and add to my portfolio.  Given the saturation of the financial app market, I doubt it will be income-generating on its own, but who knows?  It's still a great goal to wrap up a complete project, using a new paradigm (coding via an agent), and within a reasonable deadline.  For that reason, I'm setting a goal of completing the project by the end of June.

After that, I've added some familiar parameters to a Gemini query (looking for $50K-$75K in replacement income after 2 years; have extensive software engineering knowledge; have experience in the travel, EMR, and local art scene industries) to help generate some ideas.  My goal at first is to be able to create POCs in short order (what "short order" is, I don't know, maybe a month, maybe less), so I can pursue ideas fluidly.  Then I'll tackle the marketing aspect.  I'm really interested in testing this "death of SaaS" theory that's floating through 

I hope that, by setting clearer goals, it'll also help formalize my content strategy, so I feel more comfortable determining where to post my content, and, god forbid, help me determine if I need to expand my media footprint.

And what happens if I've got nothing to show after those two years?  Who knows?  The prospect of undertaking the journey seems exciting to me, and, as of this writing, I'm not under pressure to succeed (although that's not necessarily a blessing), but we'll have this conversation again in two years (well, probably long before that) and scrutinize my pilgrimage.  Don't worry, I won't bring photos of my trip!

Until next time, my human and robot friends.