My partner has always been the income earner around here, and I have worked jobs for mental health and fun. His company closed last week and it feels really weird right now to be in a period of time where he doesn’t have to work all the time.
We started a company a couple years ago, and he could never focus on it, and I didn’t really want to focus on it. I have no inclination to be an entrepreneur. His company was great and the board approved a very generous severance, which means we have time to work together on this dream.
The company is mine, because the product was my idea. He works for me, and I get to make the decisions on how things work. It is really weird for me to be in a position of any power. I have never stayed at a job long enough to gain seniority. Now I am in a position of applying for booths at conventions, setting shipping deadlines, and marketing. I’m having to dive deep into what SEO (search engine optimization) is and how to market a product. I’m having to come up with ideas on my own and not just do what somebody else tells me to do.
OMG… I feel like those exact skills are the things that every interviewer has ever looked for.
Grr… maybe being an entrepreneur will have side bonuses… other than just getting to work with the best partner ever.
Anyways, as I sit here searching for search terms to optimize, I thought I should also update you on what life is like. It is a new world not only because we have the opportunity to work on our company for real, together, full time, but because I am applying to full time positions outside the house as well. If I can get a full time job, then I could actually be the majority income earner, and insurance bringer inner (not a word, I know). I have never had this opportunity, because my salary has always been a drop in the bucket compared to a software developer and therefore felt inconsequential. If I start working, and can bring in even an ok amount of income and insurance, it means that he would only need to do enough work to supplement, or that our company would need to bring in a whole lot less to be able to sustain our life. I don’t know how to express how awesome that would be to be able to make it to where he could primarily do something he wants to do.
I guess we will see. Will I end up being a full time CEO of my own company that brings in enough income to support our family of 4, be a full time employee of somebody else and let somebody else figure out how to make sure the money keeps coming in, or will it be some combination of the two?
The Adventures of a Wild Jess 