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After 10 long years, Im taking the plunge

Posted by Russ Johnson in Business on May 26, 2008 | 16 responses

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 »

  1. Jason Dean Jason Dean Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 12:47 AM 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 Akbar Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 1:17 AM Great and congratulations
  3. Sana Sana Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 5:22 AM Russ, Congratulations. and Don't forget coding...LOL
  4. Brian Swartzfager Brian Swartzfager Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 7:33 AM Congratulations and good luck.
  5. Adam Fortuna Adam Fortuna Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 8:07 AM Congratulations man, that's a giant leap forward. Good luck!
  6. Ben Nadel Ben Nadel Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 8:47 AM Good luck man, and cool logo on Mad Piranha :)
  7. Trond Ulseth Trond Ulseth Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 9:14 AM 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 Peter Bell Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 9:40 AM 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 Ian Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 10:09 AM Contratulations! But why do you have to be angry all the time?
  10. Seth Bienek Seth Bienek Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 11:24 AM Go, go, go!

    Congratulations on your new journey. I wish you the best fortune!
  11. nick tong nick tong Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 1:13 PM 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 Russ Johnson Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 3:56 PM 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 Ian Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 4:00 PM I was kidding, I just figured that between Angry Fly and Mad Pirahna, you had a theme going.
  14. Ray Ray Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 5:01 PM You got balls man! Awesome!
  15. Mike Kear Mike Kear Says:
    May 27, 2008 at 11:50 PM 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 Kay Smoljak Says:
    May 31, 2008 at 5:50 AM 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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