How many of you have your own "Free Time Company"?
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I mean, I work full time at a software company, but I also have my own small company where I, in my spare time, develop shareware that I sell through the internet. I was wondering about how many that have that, and how many that just code at their work... A question for you that have your own. Have you ever had problems with your boss because you have your own small company? - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
same situation here - full time job, part time business (and a wife). my side business would make it very hard for me to find a new full time job if i had to - not many employers are willing to take on someone who won't be (in their eyes) 100% devoted to their business. i spend 9 hours at work programming and another 1 or 2 at home, plus weekends. busy life... but it pays well. -c ------------------------------ Smaller Animals Software, Inc. http://www.smalleranimals.com
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I mean, I work full time at a software company, but I also have my own small company where I, in my spare time, develop shareware that I sell through the internet. I was wondering about how many that have that, and how many that just code at their work... A question for you that have your own. Have you ever had problems with your boss because you have your own small company? - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
I have a LLC (Limited Liability Company) that I jointly own with a previous boss that I used to work for a long time ago. I use that company as my "play area" to test new ideas on the market hoping to hit the jackpot. So far none of the products have made a tremendous splash, but it's fun to work at a place where one day I can be code boy, the next day do some marketing/networking, then sales/support, building partnerships with other companys, and so on. When I get bored doing one thing I can "cast" myself into another role and work on something else that needs to get done. No more boring repetitive work. At the real company that I work for, they don't have a problem with me owning another company as long as none of my products competed with their products/services, and I didn't use their company time to work on my own company. When picking a company to do some consulting work for, make sure that your interests don't conflict with theirs.
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same situation here - full time job, part time business (and a wife). my side business would make it very hard for me to find a new full time job if i had to - not many employers are willing to take on someone who won't be (in their eyes) 100% devoted to their business. i spend 9 hours at work programming and another 1 or 2 at home, plus weekends. busy life... but it pays well. -c ------------------------------ Smaller Animals Software, Inc. http://www.smalleranimals.com
my side business would make it very hard for me to find a new full time job if i had to Hmmm, I don't always understand employers that don't like that. I mean, I'm spending my spare time getting better at programming, and if I didn't spend my time programming, I would probably be doing something else like, err, WindSurfing or whatever, and spend the same time doing that... On the other hand I can understand employers want people to be 100% devoted to the job, and for some people it might be a problem if they also are programming nights and weekends for them self... (It's a tough one...) - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
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I mean, I work full time at a software company, but I also have my own small company where I, in my spare time, develop shareware that I sell through the internet. I was wondering about how many that have that, and how many that just code at their work... A question for you that have your own. Have you ever had problems with your boss because you have your own small company? - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
I have the same situation - splitting myself between different projects. I had work that kept me 100% busy, and some extras (I had a clause in my contract that allowed it). I am only part-time employed now, 'cause it works better this way, but I have full understanding of employers that don't accept part time employment. I see several reasons why combining full time job with extra work becomes a problem: 1. Good developers almost never work from 8 to 4. Even when they do, they keep their heads busy with their work even when they talk to their wifes :rose: It's not unusual when developer wakes up in the morning with a solution that came to him in a mysterious way during the night. So there is a lot of free work that employer gets from an experienced developer. If you work after job for your own projects, this extra work is lost for employer. 2. Very often development requires full concentration on one project. Time sharing leads to ineffeciency. Developer will have to recall what he was actually doing last time he worked on this task. 3. People get tired after intensive overtime work. Most of employers don't have problems with their employees burning themself on company projects, but they find it difficult to accept that employees get tired on external projects. 4. Not everybody is honest when splitting his time between company and external projects. Some people will user time at work to work on their private solutions, and it is not easy to check. However, in case you manage to make everybody happy, and have understanding in the family, then it's real fun to have a little bit that is _yours_! :) Vagif Win32/ATL/MFC Developer Oslo, Norway
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my side business would make it very hard for me to find a new full time job if i had to Hmmm, I don't always understand employers that don't like that. I mean, I'm spending my spare time getting better at programming, and if I didn't spend my time programming, I would probably be doing something else like, err, WindSurfing or whatever, and spend the same time doing that... On the other hand I can understand employers want people to be 100% devoted to the job, and for some people it might be a problem if they also are programming nights and weekends for them self... (It's a tough one...) - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
i find that a lot of employers require new hires to sign a non-compete/intellectual property agreement that effectively gives them the rights to anything the employee thinks of - even if it's not directly related to the employees job. this automatically prohibits from even applying to 75% of the jobs around. my current employer didn't require this when i was hired, but has since started asking existing employees to sign it in exchange for stock options. i turned down a lot of options when i refused to sign their non-compete. and now, in addition to not getting stock options, it's known throughout management that i have outside interests. another person i work with has a consulting business, too. but he signed his non-compete and worked out a deal with management that anything he "invents" is hi - as long as he clears it with his managers first. i don't like that idea either. -c ------------------------------ Smaller Animals Software, Inc. http://www.smalleranimals.com
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i find that a lot of employers require new hires to sign a non-compete/intellectual property agreement that effectively gives them the rights to anything the employee thinks of - even if it's not directly related to the employees job. this automatically prohibits from even applying to 75% of the jobs around. my current employer didn't require this when i was hired, but has since started asking existing employees to sign it in exchange for stock options. i turned down a lot of options when i refused to sign their non-compete. and now, in addition to not getting stock options, it's known throughout management that i have outside interests. another person i work with has a consulting business, too. but he signed his non-compete and worked out a deal with management that anything he "invents" is hi - as long as he clears it with his managers first. i don't like that idea either. -c ------------------------------ Smaller Animals Software, Inc. http://www.smalleranimals.com
Personally I feel it this way: I will always be programming in my spare time. And when I do that, I also want to be able to sell my software so I can affort to get a new computer and some new software when needed. - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
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i find that a lot of employers require new hires to sign a non-compete/intellectual property agreement that effectively gives them the rights to anything the employee thinks of - even if it's not directly related to the employees job. this automatically prohibits from even applying to 75% of the jobs around. my current employer didn't require this when i was hired, but has since started asking existing employees to sign it in exchange for stock options. i turned down a lot of options when i refused to sign their non-compete. and now, in addition to not getting stock options, it's known throughout management that i have outside interests. another person i work with has a consulting business, too. but he signed his non-compete and worked out a deal with management that anything he "invents" is hi - as long as he clears it with his managers first. i don't like that idea either. -c ------------------------------ Smaller Animals Software, Inc. http://www.smalleranimals.com
I have to ask this... Do employers, that you know of, also have problems with people developing Open Source stuff in there spare time? I mean, those people don't need their own company, because they don't sell anything, but they still spend a lot of time developing free stuff (like Linux). - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
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I mean, I work full time at a software company, but I also have my own small company where I, in my spare time, develop shareware that I sell through the internet. I was wondering about how many that have that, and how many that just code at their work... A question for you that have your own. Have you ever had problems with your boss because you have your own small company? - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
What's Free Time? And where can I get some? Well since I've started work, I don't do much programming at home, because mostly I'm to tired. I've got a lot of things I would like to do, though. maXallion
"Don't drink and derive!" - The Code Devil
www.maxallion.de - coded evil & more -
I mean, I work full time at a software company, but I also have my own small company where I, in my spare time, develop shareware that I sell through the internet. I was wondering about how many that have that, and how many that just code at their work... A question for you that have your own. Have you ever had problems with your boss because you have your own small company? - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
Yes, I've got my own shareware company, Liquid Mirror Software, plus SharewareJunction.com. I find that when it comes up in interviews, potential employers are actually impressed because I've gained so much notoriety because of my program AnyWhere 5. I've actually been featured in quite a few magazines, won many awards and sold software in nearly every modern country on the globe (I actually have more customers than my current employer!). I always get asked if it would interfere with my position and the answer is always "no". I never hide it... my license plate even says "LQDMIRR" with a little advertisement on the license plate frame ;-) I also think that is shows quite a bit of maturity, initiative and commitment that many of the "kids" in the software market lack these days. -Mike Stevenson CoderX@liquidmirror.com Owner, Liquid Mirror Software (http://www.liquidmirror.com) Owner, Shareware Junction (http://www.sharewarejunction.com) Owner, Internet Shopping Spree (http://www.internetshoppingspree.com/)
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I mean, I work full time at a software company, but I also have my own small company where I, in my spare time, develop shareware that I sell through the internet. I was wondering about how many that have that, and how many that just code at their work... A question for you that have your own. Have you ever had problems with your boss because you have your own small company? - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
I haven't had a problem, but a few years ago when I wrote a technical book I chatted with an attorney who pointed out that my risk wasn't with the publisher, but with my current employer. At that point, I checked with my employer who had no problem with what I was doing. I know a fellow who started a successful, small software business a few years ago and ended up losing it all. His problem was that he used a local SW engineer as a contractor who was working for another local hardware company. When this company found out about their employees connection with this software business, they successfully sued and took the business from my friend. My friends attorney told him that he had a high probability of winning the case, but it would cost him at least a $200K and would take a couple of years. That was too much money for him to fork out and his business would have been in limbo for a long time (with little income coming in because of an injunction). The bottom line is you have to worry about your employer and the employer of anyone that works with you. BTW- I suspect my employer is fairly unusual about letting employees work on non-competing business at home. My employer has a rich history of having employees start their own companies. My company has also create dozens of local companies on it's own, usually with a small stake in the new company. The positive of this is that we have a thriving local high tech economy at least partly because of the 50+ companies that have spun off either directly or indirectly of the company I work for.