A company of One
Because of "new" tax regulations (they're not technically new, they're only newly enforced) here in the Netherlands there is quite some uncertainty on what this will mean for self-employed people. Now I don't think enforcing this particular law is a bad thing (mostly), I'm not planning to bore you with my opinion on this any further.
Going forward
The new regulations did get me thinking about what it is that I want to do in the next couple of years "business-wise". I specialise in big, complex software migrations, moving from old legacy systems to new setups that tend to evolve underway while we learn. These things almost by definition take a lot of time. This means that I tend to work for a single client for a longer period of time, thus the governmont enforcing the new laws could potentially affect me. On the other hand I bring in a lot of expertise and previous headaches on the topic at hand and I'm already employed by a company (my own) so it's probably fine. The more interesting question at hand is how I would see my company grow in the coming years.
The answer I kept coming back to again and again was this: I don't. At least not in the conventional way of getting more people on board. In recent times I've talked to potential business partners and thought about hiring people but after taking a short vacation doing a lot of outdoor activities (okay and playing some Civ, I'm only human) I've come to the conclusion that it's just not what I want. I'd like to keep focus on providing the most value to my clients, instead of managing other people in between. I don't think worrying about hiring and performance reviews is what I'd like to be doing if I can also get better at helping clients with building cool solutions for their problems. Don't get me wrong: It's not that I'm some sort of lone wolf. I love working with smart people. I just don't need them to work for me.
The idea behind a company of one
This insight made me go back to a book that I've read before on this: Company of One by Paul Jarvis. A book that I enjoyed a lot the first time I read it, but it really resonated with me this time. It talks about not working towards quick growth, but consistently putting in work towards growing your company in a sustainable way over years. It's about working towards having enough instead of working towards getting as much as possible.
Another thing that resonates with me is making sure your company is really a different entity from you personally. It’s something that I find quite hard actually. Technically my company is its own entity, but I find it hard to decouple who I am from what I do. I try my best in the work that I do, no matter if it’s coding, consulting, or my writing. This brings along some sense of pride. That makes it quite hard to take if I screw something up. In a way, I think that shows that you care and I hope I never fully lose it, but it’s one of those things I’m working on moving forward. That’s also the reason I decided to move my writing to my company’s blog. Although these pieces can still be quite personal, I feel like I should create some distance between me and the writing moving forward.
Hopefully that will help me get back into the habit again.