The story of how I switched to my bread (sharing experiences for beginners and asking for the advice of experienced ones)

Article writing motive

Reading Habr, I learned a lot of useful things for myself: some articles made me think a lot, some inspired me to take certain actions, some might prevent my further mistakes. And although I have been working for myself for only a year, during this time a number of significant changes have taken place in my life. I received for myself the answer to the question “to be or not to be”, which I asked while working “for my uncle” and now I want to inspire those who are thinking of breaking free from the slavery of your superiors and establishing their own business, but at the same time , I have not reached special heights, and I need the advice of those who, in fact, have succeeded.

How it all began

I was born and lived in a small provincial town. My family was neither poor nor rich, and somehow it happened that I grew up without a desire to find a gold mine and thoughts about how to make money were never swum in my carefree mind. I never thought about who I want to be when I grow up, and my parents didn’t particularly strive to find some obvious talents in me and develop them. It is not clear how I got into the physical-mat class of the physical-mat class of the school and studied there, not having the slightest sympathy for physics or mathematics. Since my parents had some connections at PED University, they decided (for me) that I would enter exactly there, and I would study English there, as this would help me in the future. By the way, they gave me in advance to be torn to pieces by an English tutor, and with English I had everything pretty good. It was just not clear to me why I killed 10 years of my life in physics with mathematics, in order to enter a humanitarian specialty? Well, okay, life is a strange thing.

It is also worth mentioning that I entered not into pure English, but into the historical and English faculty, since there was no separate specialty at that time. An interesting fact was that the ratio of teaching history and English in my specialty was 90 to 10 percent, in favor of history. It was there that I realized how much I hate history.

And since I was young and hot, plus, in addition to that, I found in myself a talent for playing all kinds of musical instruments (guitar, keys, harmonica, accordion) I began to regret very much about my state of affairs, began to score for studies, and decided for myself, that I will leave everything and go to the music school. To the horror of my parents, I was successfully dismissed from the free faculty of my specialty for non-attendance. With my decision to go to a music school, they did not agree, and we came to a compromise: I was restored at the Faculty of Philology, where there was pure English, without admixture of history. But there were two big BUT. I recovered on the paid, and even less on the course, since this specialty opened a year later than my entry.
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I will not torment you with the dull details of my life, I can only say that I did not achieve academic success in this specialty, although I knew English quite well, but now I didn’t like our education system as a whole. Thanks to my passion for music, I acquired very useful skills in working with sound and computer processing, which played a key role in my further destiny. The dean himself proclaimed that I perfectly translate analog recordings of English laboratories from old Babin and MK-Shek into digital ones, and deleting all the rales and noises, offered me a job at the university. So I became a senior laboratory assistant of a computer class recording technology, where there was no recording technology. There were only 12 computers, which I became adminit. In the first half of the day there was a physical mat there, in the second philology, from which I worked. From boredom, I went through the labs that asked the students of a physical mat, learned the basics of html, the blind ten-finger set (English and Russian) and some other useful things. Probably there, I plunged headlong into the sphere of IT, read and studied everything related to computers.

Moving to the capital

Then I got married. My wife was not connected with my studies, not with my work. She was a professional vocalist and entered the Kiev Conservatory, so I, having finished my studies in grief, moved to Kiev.

There, I became a sysadmin in an average by size, but an international company. Most likely for the knowledge of English, and not for my IT skills. Anyway, I learned a lot there, having worked for almost 2 years.

It was at this job that I first encountered web development, at the behest of our superiors, together with my partner, we made a website for the company. It was a simple corporate site on Joomla!

The crisis came, salaries fell heavily, I understood from internal correspondence that the staff would be cut, and I quit on my own, in a good way.

Change of occupation

While I was looking for a new job, I undertook to donate a site to one of my friends. A friend was a rock musician and, moreover, he was a good owner of Photoshop. He drew the layout of the site himself. Turning back, I understand that the layout was outrageously simple. But then it took me more than a week to make him a business card site.

The basis was taken all the same, already familiar to me CMS Joomla!, And the site was developed locally, using Denwer, as a web server.

To my deepest regret, an acquaintance reacted without much enthusiasm to his future site: I remember he did not even see him. Referring to financial problems, he refused to buy a domain name, and then, during the next reinstallation of Windows, the site was erased from the face of the hard drive.

But, I can not say that these works were in vain. I realized that website development is what really appeals to me. I clearly realized that I no longer wish to climb, stretching the twisted pair, but I want to fly in a creative and creative way.

That day I changed my resume. I no longer searched for the position of sysadmin, but searched for the position of web developer. It is a pity, I overestimated my strength too much. After all, with superficial knowledge of Joomla! and html will not go far.
But maybe it is for the better that it has developed.

About how I started thinking. Thinking a lot

I got a call and was invited to work. They said that they read my resume and I come up to them. They had to adminit and modify sites on Joomla, and monitor the operation of the equipment and software. Not that this was what I was looking for, but since I was out of work for a couple of months, I really wanted to be taken. It remained only to have an interview.

And here something happened that made me think. The boss turned out to be a young guy of 27 years. Instead of asking me about what I can do, he asked me a logical puzzle. I was not alone for an interview, there were three more applicants for this place. And this is where 10 years of physical mat have helped me. I may not like to learn formulas and theorems, but I always managed to solve problems of logical thinking with glory. Cutting the story, I will say that they took me to this position.

As it turned out, this company did not need a knowledgeable person. They needed a person who knows how to find out.

So it was. I was given a task. I had no idea how to do this. Sit down and google wool. Often, thickly, I went home without having done what was required. But at home I was in no hurry to relax. I did not go to bed until I found a solution. Every day I learned something new. Here I first learned what SEO is, what a semantic core is, how to compose it, how to set up contextual advertising. How to transfer a site and database from hosting to hosting. Then I took the first steps in the development of css.

Salary was scanty, and squeezed out of me in full. But I studied a lot. Albeit on their own, but to make my boss think.

It was then that I first visited the idea that switching from one job to another and changing the type of activity is getting out of stagnation and gaining a huge pile of experience , and not just the “negative impressions of a fickle person who skips work” - my parents said.

Looking at how my 27-year-old boss conducts business, I realized that I also need to open my own business.
His whole business was a big bubble, which boiled down to the fact that his site was promoted better than all potential competitors. He did not provide services, he used the services of his competitors, making a huge mark-up for his clients. Brilliant and simple.
What else surprised me was that he did not have a narrow focus. He had a lot of sites and he was doing everything he could at the same time.
I don’t know, maybe this isn’t good and right, but then I wondered why not to throw a lot of fishing rods, suddenly a really big fish would bite on one of them? And even if not, then how bad is a lot of small fish?

About a year later, I felt that my work had become a routine. That I stopped learning. I no longer had the fear of changing jobs and I quit. At this time I wanted to do specifically web design.

First steps or first abandoned fishing rods

I updated my resume again, again I was out of work for a couple of months. But now the desire to start his own business was much stronger. In addition, I already knew what to do. Need to cast fishing rods! The bigger, the better. And I scored two.

I had a friend, you can say a childhood friend, we grew up in the same city. And now he lived in Kharkov, but really wanted to move to Kiev, because his furniture business completely died down. He wanted to come to me and look at the capital. And then it dawned on me. Yes, this is the first fishing rod! I suggested he make a website. I am engaged in a site, promotion, search for clients, and he is directly involved in production. For each order from the site, he pledged to pay me 10%.
I decided to arrange it as an online furniture store, where you could buy ready-made furniture, looking at the pictures, description, plus you could buy furniture to order by filling out the necessary forms.
This was my first online store, again, it brought a new experience.
I was looking for different ways to attract customers: I came up with free services such as a free calculation of the wardrobe, kitchen, a free call to the measurer and a free consultation. People slowly stretched. Mail began to receive orders. But this friend of mine was not very active. He was losing customers one by one. I called him and happily informed that we had ordered a computer desk. A week later, I called back, wondering wonder why he did not transfer money to me for the order. It turned out that he did not even call the client, since the table was not profitable, he would receive a minimum wage, and he just had a good, large order.
So he went through one order after another, until I had a very big quarrel with him on this basis. You see, he rethought something and things got off the ground, I even started contextual advertising, but I can’t say that this site brings a lot of revenue. Most likely, all for the same reasons.

Then I threw the next bait. My wife is a great vocal teacher. I am an English teacher in my specialty. Plus I play the guitar and the keys. The wife also plays the keys. I can teach the development of sites.
So matured a new project. I launched the site, which is positioned as a private school. I didn’t do much promotion (I didn’t have time), because they called me and invited me to work. I will tell about it below, and I will only say about this project that it still exists, from time to time bringing new students to us. Again, he didn’t bring me much profit, but absolutely no loss.

Last straw

Then I got to work web studio. After looking at my meager portfolio, they took me all the same. I will not voice the name of this death spot, I will just say that it was the work there that dried the last drop of my far from unlimited patience.

The campaign seemed very cool to me. Huge spacious office. Everywhere there are 24 inch Apple monitors. Cool leather chairs. A lot of people scurry around. All open graphic editors. All CREATE! Just like in my wicked dreams.
The only thing that upset me was that they did not take me to a permanent job. They took me to make one single site. I already had a small portfolio from previous works, they looked at it and they kind of liked it.
They gave me a mockup, it turned out to be quite complicated, but I realized this only when I got to work, and at first thoughtlessly voiced a period of three days (ha ha ha, how presumptuous).
I was offered the first day to work in the office, so that I could get to know everyone, and then I was allowed to do the site at home.
It was then that everything started spinning. As it turned out, the webmaster did not go to work that day. Namely, on this day they had to launch a new site and make a newsletter. I forgot to mention that the company was engaged not only in the development of sites, but also in the construction of real estate and its sale.

And so, by chance, I saved everyone, laid out the site on my hosting, because apart from the webmaster, no one had access to corporate hosting, and even in small details: I made a couple of banners, launched an advertisement.

The chief said that he changed his mind, and that he takes me to a permanent job, promising even a decent salary.
And so I had to vpahiv every day in the office and in parallel to make the site (the one that I was going to do in three days)
Omit the details. The site I made a month. Along the way, mastering all new and new true web design. The webmaster then did not go to work, he quit and everything fell on my shoulders. I made the site by site, building up my portfolio.
And I liked everything at this job. I was respected, my opinion was listened to, I created an image of a very competent and understanding person, although, again, I studied along the way, but there was one huge BUT. With payroll. This man absolutely could not part with the money earned. I had to literally beg for every salary. They did not give the whole salary, they gave only a part, but I had to pay for a rented apartment.

Kidalovo

Without hesitation, I again began to look for work and very quickly found it. I was offered very good conditions. A good salary and a full social package.
I quickly quit. I was offered to increase my salary, but, I don’t buy it, for it was a bluff. The money that I owed, I knocked out of them, and the rest of the money they gave me just the other day, fooling my head for a whole year.

The fact that I left that place was a clear plus, but the fact that they threw me at a new place of work was a clear disadvantage. It turned out that the company was only planning to open, but never opened. And the place that I never got.
Then I was very offended by this man, who promised me a job, but now we communicate with him, and he even sometimes throws off his orders to me.

Final decision

I'm out of work again. Again the call and the invitation to work in a web studio. Solid place. Good young team. And they agree to take me. But here another circumstance played a role. My wife has a very bad illness. It was not possible to make a diagnosis in the capital. Fortunately, there was a good specialist in my city, where I drove my wife, taking a test task from the web studio.

The diagnosis was made. The disease was chronic, incurable and not the most pleasant. What has the fixed costs of medicines.
Since I constantly went to hospitals with my wife, there was no time to do the task. I called and refused.

They started calling me from various web studios and inviting me to work. Everywhere offering the same, not particularly large salary, everywhere putting forward approximately the same requirements.

Judging by the number of calls, I realized that the work on web design, sort of like, is enough. Even despite the competition. Mentally figuring that the salary they offer can easily pay off for one more or less decent website, which I will do on my own. While working as an “uncle” I needed to make about four such sites.

At one point I made a decision. I myself will become a web studio. I myself will make sites and will not depend on anyone.

I had absolutely no start-up capital. The only money I had was the money given out by my wife's parents for her treatment. Understandably, I could not use them. Thinking about three days, looking for unoccupied domains, I decided on the name. Registered domain. And bought a reseller. Ressler bought the minimum, bought it from Besthosting. The choice fell on him, because I used their reseller with one of my employers, and the impressions were very good. What is it worth their round-the-clock support, which is ready at any time, even at night, to solve my problems as soon as possible.

My starting web studio cost me $ 10 for a domain name (per year) and $ 50 for a reseller (for half a year, I didn’t draw), for a total of $ 60.

I developed a solid design, and filed myself as a full-fledged web studio. Why not? Indeed, in the future it will be so. Beautifully designed on the website portfolio. Recently, work in the field of web design, I have accumulated about 15 more or less decent work.

The very first advertisement was a story to all my friends on social networks, ICQ, Skype that I created a web design studio. And, perhaps, the luck factor played again, but I didn’t have time to start the advertisement, as I received the first order.

First damn lump

The first order was followed by the recommendation of my former employee, a sysadmin from the first Kiev job. And here my inexperience and uncertainty played a great joke on me.

It was about a year ago, exactly under the new year. I was described the task, described in detail what they want. I voiced the price. They agreed. But, so I was worried that suddenly something would go wrong, I did not take a prepayment. There were no treaties either. I coped with the work pretty quickly, developed a design, structure. The whole thing is rolling out. Lacked only texts. I waited for texts for more than three months, and then I realized that they were just pulling. And he offered them the following conditions: since the snag is not in me, they pay me half the amount, and then let them chew snot as much as they like. They kind of agreed, but did not give any money. It all dragged more than half a year. I called, and wrote, and scandal, there was no sense. The date of payment was constantly postponed, sometimes they did not answer calls at all. Honestly, I thought that I could not see the money. But, after half a year, I still paid half. What is interesting is that they wrote the texts after another half a year, and they wanted me to finish the site. But they did not know that they gave me something more than money. Invaluable experience. I refused to work without advance payment, for which they cursed with me terribly, demanded to give money, and a lot more. In general, the second part of the amount they save up to this day.

Let me return to the origins of my order history. While I was doing the above described order, the second and then the third arrived. I did not make similar punctures any more. If the project was small, I took 100% payment. If big - 50%.

For a while I relaxed altogether and thought it would always be like this. But then the orders stopped abruptly. I passed the last site and realized that there was no more work.
Then I did the following: every day, when my wife and I were walking through our area, I photographed on the phone all private ads that were missing a web site. For one such walk I could click 20 to 40 ads. Then I sat down and started calling around everything in order, telling that there was a super-mega discount in our web studio. The offer was actually good. And cheap. Very, very, very rarely came across people who immediately ordered the site. Single cases for all my practice. I divided people from ads into two categories: those who stated that they already have a website, or they are not at all interested in them, I apologized, trying to be as polite as possible, said goodbye to them and permanently deleted their ad from the phone. The second category is people giving hope. They said either: skip the commercial offer to the post office, or, while not interested, but call back in a month, or yes, we want, but now there are orders, and when there is no season, we will call you. To such people, I usually threw sms on the phone address of the site, and neatly saved their numbers in the phone as a client jalousie, or Client Gruzopervozki. An interesting fact is that some people call and order the site after a year. It turns out that the technique justified itself.

I also did two sections on my site: the site is free and the site is on credit. In the first case, I offered to make the site for free, for a period of time, so that the person would be convinced that he would work, and if not, he could refuse and not pay. If a person understood that the site is working - he had to pay the cost of the work, previously agreed.

Site loan - everything is clear. The client was asked to pay for the site in parts.

In general, all these chips from time to time brought me a job and, accordingly, income.

As a conclusion and advice

Remember I told you about rods? So I threw a few more. My wife and I write songs to order. Any subjects. Moreover, I can write poetry right away, it is music. I can also translate the same song into English. Without hesitation, I threw another fishing rod - writing songs to order. I must say that sometimes the songs bring a much better income than the creation of sites, and this work is much more pleasant.

I threw another bait all in the same Kharkov. Made a small resource for cargo shipments. Launched contextual advertising. The same person with whom we are engaged in furniture works. Orders are stable every day.

What, actually, advice? If you are a web developer, do not be afraid to “throw fishing rods”. After all, it does not cost you anything. Perhaps a little time. But think about how much time we have been losing dullly. And so, this small project, perhaps, will begin to generate income, and, perhaps, not small.

Do you have any interesting ideas? hurry to embody them in life!

Pros. What I do not regret

I do not regret that I decided. Although there is still no confidence in the future, there is no stability. But I certainly earn no less than before, though not as much as I would like. But so far.
Nobody tells me what to do or what to do. I can make my own decisions. I have a lot of free time, I myself plan my schedule. I can spend a lot of time with families. I can engage in a hobby. Spend a lot of time in the gym. Travel. I do not need to ask for leave from work. I began to develop as a person. My worldview has expanded and priorities have changed. And the most beautiful thing is that this is just the beginning.

What I regret

Yes, nothing! Just did not do this before!

Conclusion

I understand that what I have today is for some of you nonsense. But this article is not written for you, but for those who, like me at one time, cannot make a decision for a long time about what is afraid of something, I'm not sure about something. Therefore, do not rush to minus, but if there is good advice on sabzh - well in the comments.

Plans

I plan in the near future to expand production, so to speak. I would very much like to hear some advice from experienced ones: where is it better to rent an office for a web studio, how to better position yourself for a beginner: cheap and good, or expensive and specific? How to go to work abroad?

Everyone is not indifferent anymore human thanks.