Comments on: Starting A Business – 10th Month Review

By: Jean-Philippe

Jean-Philippe — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:51:49 +0000

I also experience too many crashes with Firefox but I cannot live without it – mainly because of the del.icio.us extension.

Maybe you can give Lazarus a try: it’s a form recovery extension.

By: Vunky

Vunky — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:26:21 +0000

If read it and loved it. Since I don’t really communicate with webdesigners in my own country it is great to read back and validate some of the methods that I’ve been using.

The book gave me some handy tips on design reviews and how to adjust the design to a budget.

By: Bay Web Blog » The ‘P’ word is not to be mentioned…

Bay Web Blog » The ‘P’ word is not to be mentioned… — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:05:11 +0000

[...] to John O’Nolan for writing an article on what he’s achieved and so giving me a boost to getting on [...]

By: Michael Savage

Michael Savage — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:36:16 +0000

Keep up the good work John!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:58:48 +0000

Wow, you’ve definitely been busy! Sounds like you definitely have had a few good jobs and have some coming up too, which is always good. I’m freelancing (or trying to) at the moment, while I look for a full time job in design. It’s always hard as a young designer to try and get work or get a full time job at the minute, particularly with the economy but i’m pushing on. I’ve realised all I can do is just work hard to better myself even in the time between applying for jobs and searching for anyone that wants any freelance work doing. Congrats on the first year almost passing though! Seems like you’ve done very well for yourself, quite inspiring. :)

By: Geoffrey Gordon

Geoffrey Gordon — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:44:54 +0000

Well Done, what an inspiration, I am actually in Month 8 of owning my own website design business, from the looks of your achievements i need to try harder, thanks for the inspiration, website looks great.

By: Sid

Sid — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:59:52 +0000

Major congratulations on quitting smoking. All that hard work and $$ earned will amount to nothing if your lungs get all tarred up :)

You might wanna get a ‘quitmeter’ to keep you motivated and going. There’s plenty you can download or try out the Quit-o-meteR app on Facebook.

Maybe you’d like to share your book list? Would love to read them.

By: John

John — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:59:32 +0000

Thanks Luke – I’m already looking forward to doing the “Year in Review” post in a couple of months!

By: John

John — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:58:43 +0000

Thanks Gary, really appreciate all of your kind comments – always nice to know people are reading :)

By: Luke Jones

Luke Jones — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:01:56 +0000

Nice article. It’s nice to see what you’ve achieved this since starting up in February. I’m hoping to do the same.

By: Garry Aylott

Garry Aylott — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:50:38 +0000

Hey John,

What a great read! Good to know that your business is improving and from the looks of things hitting most of your goals.

I have to say, and most will probably agree, it’s very motivational reading this and makes me want to push harder and progress. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and an insight into your business, not all companies/freelancers are as transparent.

Good luck in 2010 mate and I really hope Lyrical grows and produces more great work.

Cheers,

Garry

By: John

John — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:27:54 +0000

Thanks Sharon! And don’t be ashamed, we all have our motivated-moments, but I can procrastinate just as much as the next person! :)

By: John

John — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:27:10 +0000

To be specific – I’ve read about half, and it’s good so far :)

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:18:40 +0000

Well done! Your business seems to be really doing well and I am so pleased for you – and then to quit smoking, that’s amazing :-)

I am now ashamed at how motivated you are compared to myself – off to give myself a good talking to.

By: Brussells

Brussells — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:07:26 +0000

“How To Be a Rockstar Freelancer” – Have you read it and just need to review it? Or not read it yet? I’ve been hearing this book title pop up all over the show and wonder whether anyone has comments? Worth getting?

By: John

John — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:02:36 +0000

haha – thank you (as always) Ash! :)

By: Ashley Baxter

Ashley Baxter — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:40:21 +0000

What impresses me the most here is that you’re quitting smoking :D That’s great news.

By: Elliott Draper

Elliott Draper — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:41:27 +0000

Congratulations, sounds like things are going very well indeed! I really like your site design by the way, it looks fantastic.

I myself have started my own business this year (8 months since I went self-employed full-time) doing web development, and am loving it. After reading your review posts, I think I’m going to follow suit and set myself some concrete goals – it’s easy to focus on simply working hard all the time, but sometimes setting more fine grain, defined goals can lead to better success, especially when it’s important not just to get work done, but also to continually improve how you promote and market your business, as well as broadening horizons with side projects and writing. Those are all things I want to do much more of, and just yesterday I launched a completely updated site (http://ejdraper.com) with those aims in mind.

Incidentally, what has been your experience of setting up the Facebook fan page? Has it been useful and worthwhile?

Oh, and I too switched from Firefox to Safari just this past week, for the exact same reason – I was having to restart it two to three times a day as it got really sluggish, presumably because of one or more memory leaks somewhere. Safari is like a breath of fresh air in comparison!

Good luck and hope your success continues throughout 2010!

By: John

John — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:44:34 +0000

Thanks so much Jonathan – really appreciate the feedback and very glad to hear that you guys do something similar! Just checked out your site and it looks like you’re doing some amazing work too!

By: Jonathan Kochis

Jonathan Kochis — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:28:56 +0000

First, congrats on being smoke-free for two weeks! Seems insignificant in comparison to your business goals but it’ll serve you much better in the long run.

It’s been four years since I (along with my business partner) made the leap to full-time self-employment in the same field as you. I love that you set goals for yourself and your business — we’ve done the same thing with our entire team and have the goals posted in the studio for all to see. I find it really helps centralize and focus our efforts if everything can be rooted in a series of common, visible objectives.

Anyway, keep up the great work and good luck in the next 10 months!