Russ Johnson May 26, 2008
11:30 PM 16 Comments

After 10 long years, Im taking the plunge

I have been working with ColdFusion now for just over 10 years. In that time, I have worked with some really great people and on some really great projects. However, I have always worked for someone else. I was never completely happy working as a contractor through an agency, and working a steady gig as a full-time employee had its ups and downs.

My wife has been pushing me for years to go 100% independent and after some lengthy discussions with her, I have finally decided to make the leap. Well, its not so much of a leap as I already have some incredible clients that I have been working with. But nonetheless, its a pretty exciting step for me.

So, I have formed Mad Piranha, Inc as my consultancy and am making a run at it. Actually it was formed quite some time ago, Im just getting around to posting it.

Many thanks to my incredible wife for believing in me so much and supporting this endeavor!

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16 Comments (Comment Moderation is enabled. Your comment will not appear until approved.) so far

  1. Jason Dean 5/27/08 12:47 AM
    Jason Dean's Gravatar Russ, Congratulations. That is a huge step. One that many of us, I'm sure, hope to make someday. I wish you luck.
  2. Akbar 5/27/08 1:17 AM
    Akbar's Gravatar Great and congratulations
  3. Sana 5/27/08 5:22 AM
    Sana's Gravatar Russ, Congratulations. and Don't forget coding...LOL
  4. Brian Swartzfager 5/27/08 7:33 AM
    Brian Swartzfager's Gravatar Congratulations and good luck.
  5. Adam Fortuna 5/27/08 8:07 AM
    Adam Fortuna's Gravatar Congratulations man, that's a giant leap forward. Good luck!
  6. Ben Nadel 5/27/08 8:47 AM
    Ben Nadel's Gravatar Good luck man, and cool logo on Mad Piranha :)
  7. Trond Ulseth 5/27/08 9:14 AM
    Trond Ulseth's Gravatar Congrats on the leap. It takes some guts to do that. And I totally agree with Ben, the Mad Piranha logo is wicked cool.
  8. Peter Bell 5/27/08 9:40 AM
    Peter Bell's Gravatar Congratulations! All the best with the consulting gig, and feel free to drop me a line if you're ever looking for an opinion on the business side of stuff (been running my own business for almost 20 years now!).

    Love the name, BTW!
  9. Ian 5/27/08 10:09 AM
    Ian's Gravatar Contratulations! But why do you have to be angry all the time?
  10. Seth Bienek 5/27/08 11:24 AM
    Seth Bienek's Gravatar Go, go, go!

    Congratulations on your new journey. I wish you the best fortune!
  11. nick tong 5/27/08 1:13 PM
    nick tong's Gravatar Congrats - i did this seriously about a year ago (http://talkwebsolutions.co.uk) and now have a small team of people - I wish you the same luck. The best tip of all is NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK!
  12. Russ Johnson 5/27/08 3:56 PM
    Russ Johnson's Gravatar Thanks for all of the positive comments! Im really excited about the months/years to come!

    @ Ian - Not angry at all. Im actually one of the most fun loving positive guys you will ever meet. Both names have a significance to them. Mad Piranha especially. My boys actually helped come up with that. So I gotta go with the family!

    @Ben and Trond - Thanks! Designed that from some sketches I had done. I really wanted something that would look cool on a shirt. Probably not the best idea but what do I know? Ha ha!

    Thanks again to all of you!
  13. Ian 5/27/08 4:00 PM
    Ian's Gravatar I was kidding, I just figured that between Angry Fly and Mad Pirahna, you had a theme going.
  14. Ray 5/27/08 5:01 PM
    Ray's Gravatar You got balls man! Awesome!
  15. Mike Kear 5/27/08 11:50 PM
    Mike Kear's Gravatar I went freelance about 13 years ago. In that time there have been moments when i nearly gave it all up and went back to employment for someone else. But thankfully I didn't. All freelancers in all fields have a problem of balancing the work - if they're not diligent in covering all the bases, they lurch from feast to famine and back again. The trick (which I admit i'm yet to master) is how to get the paid coding work done, and still spend time looking for new clients, managing my own web site, etc etc.

    A friend of mine said the good thing about working for yourself is you get to decide which 20 hours a day you're going to work.

    But since i stopped being a commuting bunny in the rat-race, I've been part of my family, talked to my kids as they come home after school, I work with my dog curled up beside me and i have my radio tuned to the station **I** want to listen to!

    Good on ya for going it on your own. Balance the feast-to-famine problem and you'll have a great life as a result.
  16. Kay Smoljak 5/31/08 5:50 AM
    Kay Smoljak's Gravatar Good on ya. My partner and I went out on our own nearly 2 years ago and we haven't looked back - there's a lot to say about being your own boss! You will make decisions and take on jobs that you regret, but it's way easier and less stressful to be mad at yourself than mad at your employer.

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