One year ago I started as self-employed consultant at my own company PHL Consult after having worked for IBM for 16 years – and what a great year! Starting on my own has proved to be one my of my best decisions ever.
It has been a year of classic Lotus Notes application development work, XPages development work, teaching courses and much more. I started with one customer and have since then been doing work for 10 other paying customers and been involved in proposals for a handful more. Furthermore, I reviewed David Leedys XPages cheat sheet, and reviewed the IBM course “Modernizing Lotus Domino 8.5.2 Applications”.
This year I also became member of the boards at NotesNet, DanNotes and OpenNTF.
The following are public sites that I have implemented for customers during my 1st year:
- startdithjerte.dk: a portal (in Danish) on heart failures and defibilator products with a related web shop where you can buy automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and accessories. I implemented the solution using XPages.
- mediaplus.dk: a company web site with a backend CMS. I implemented the web site using XPages and brought the proposed web design to life by extending the OneUI CSS.
Lessons learned (and assumptions confirmed):
- Networking is important: several of my customers have chosen me for their work because we were connected in some way.
- Advertising helps: I advertise my business services on the Google advertising network and know for a fact that some customers came to me via that channel.
- Being social: I am a strong believer in blogging and social networks and the impact that it can have on you and others.
I look forward to the next year and what it will bring me of interesting work and projects.
One final advice: pursue your dream!
Congratulations once more, Per. Looking forward to hear your achievements for the upcomming year.
PS. This comments field is cleared if you don’t write the right captcha word below :o/
Thanks John!
– with regards to reCaptcha clearing the comments field: ouch! will look into that 🙂
Fantastic! 🙂 see ya in notesnet.dk !
Per, congratulations. It has been almost 20 years since I worked in the corporate environment. It has its ups and downs, but I do not regret starting my own companies.
Hi Per – even though we miss you at IBM, I am really pleased to hear that your business came off to a good start during the first year.
Great to hear that you started of well. Keep up the momentum