On December 23, 2009, Normal Modes officially celebrated our 6 month anniversary. We want to mark this important milestone by sharing a few lessons we’ve learned over the course of the past 6 months, as well as share a few wonderful resources that helped us out along the way. Today’s post, the first in the series, naturally focuses on how Normal Modes came to be and the personal side of escaping from Corporate America’s “stability” to embrace the path of entrepreneurship.
How’d I End Up Here?
Upon graduating with my master’s degree from Rice in May 2008, I found myself restless in my career. I loved my time at a major airline working on compelling, and at times really complex projects like booking engine UIs, usability studies (which I adore), and alternative forms of customer interaction (gate displays, handheld devices, etc.). As an international studies undergrad with a master’s thesis in China, I also enjoyed the freedom to travel that my time at Continental Airlines afforded me. Nevertheless, there were drawbacks, in particular the poor salaries brought about by the bad economics of the airline industry and little opportunity for meaningful career advancement.
If I wanted to change and to capitalize on my recent master’s degree, it was time. In August 2009, after a final trip abroad to see friends in England, I left Continental.
I joined a hedge fund as a project manager with a significant boost in salary and daily responsibility/accountability in September 2008, one week before the stock market collapsed. You know where this is going. In the Spring 2009 – the same week we closed on a house – I had a sense that my time with the hedge fund might soon be ending.
I knew the job market was particularly tight, so I started laying the groundwork for starting my own company by working after hours on portfolio building projects. Once my 50+ hour work week at the hedge fund was done, I went home, had dinner, and started working on usability and UX reviews of other websites. I’d only recently finished graduate school while working full-time, so extra the hours and workload weren’t anything new. We unpacked enough boxes at the new house so that we could find the essentials. Everything else had to wait.
On Monday, June 22 I left the hedge fund.
On Tuesday, June 23 I started Normal Modes.
Adjustment Period. Heavily Punctuated with Loneliness.
The first three months were an adjustment period. At my old job, I’d had lunch with my team at the same time each day, but now I was often home alone without other human interaction all day long. I was terribly lonely. At one point I applied for an entry level job I thought I might be able to get simply because I’d have some people to talk to each day. I considered working part time for Smith & Hawken while they wound down operations, just so I’d have human interaction. During a particularly bad week, I walked to the grocery store each day with a fictional list of “must have” dinner fix’ins, mostly just to talk to the check out clerk.
The loneliness wasn’t all bad. While I am historically a homebody, now I was happy to attend social events in the evening. My husband was thrilled. Suddenly his wife was an extrovert.
There were other changes too. After a couple of weeks, I found I was happier – genuinely happier. No doubt this was partially a result of resolving my sleep-deprived state, as well as doing work I genuinely enjoyed. Once again, I had time for relaxing projects like knitting and photography. And with time at home to plan and cook, I made us healthy, nutritious meals. After many iterations, I even perfected my ratatouille recipe.
I looked upon this time as the opportunity I’d always hoped for: the chance to stop using “work” and “school” as my excuse to not exercise. With my schedule under my own control, I had no reason not to exercise. After meeting a personal trainer at a friend’s house, I joined the gym and hired him to help me get in shape. It was the last possible gym I thought I’d join – a meat-head gym with huge body builders – but the people there are wonderful and I look forward to seeing them each day. This, too, helped ameliorate my loneliness and contributed to my well-being.
Then Came the Anxiety…And My Benevolent Guide
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to moments of overwhelming anxiety and fears that no one would ever hire me. Who did I think I was – at 35-years-old, never having been an entrepreneur – opening up my own company?
My constant companion during the initial days was a just published book – Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur
| Hardcover |
Paperback (available April 2010) |
Winning the first deal also helps with the anxiety. Once I had confidence Normal Modes could land a contract and make a respectable sum of money, optimism about outstanding proposals and the next contract grew. Just as anxiety feeds itself, so does measured optimism.
“Work Attire”
I’m not going to lie – most days I work from home I look like a hot mess. Invariably I go to the gym at 7am, come home, start working and before I know it, time’s flown by, it’s 6pm, and I’m making dinner still dressed in my gym clothes from that morning. There are few days I actually need to shower, apply make-up, do my hair, and put on nice, grown-up clothes. On the days I do get dressed*, I always return home and promptly change out of my “good clothes” and into my “play clothes” like I did when I was a kid. Except these days, after so many years in the workforce, the budget for “good clothes” completely displaced that for “play clothes” and I’m left wearing 10-year-old purple monkey pajamas. The good news there is that after 6 months of steady use, all my “play clothes” are looking a bit worse for the wear. In the next 6 months they’ll have to be replaced and I’m sure I’ll be in a real pickle then: everything will be “good clothes.”
*Getting dressed is now something of an inconvenience. I could be working! I never thought I’d say that, but it’s true. When my husband was a grad student, I gave him undying grief because he wore in the same green robe all day long, busily writing his dissertation. And now I’m no better.
A Few Other Perks
- Work from anywhere. Since I’ve started Normal Modes, I’ve worked from Dallas, Florida, Central Texas, Austin, San Antonio, the beautiful Texas Hill Country, Chicago, Wisconsin, and Iowa. I work from coffee shops, restaurants, libraries, hotel rooms, and in my dedicated home office with a fat white cat sleeping in my lap.
- Flexibility. While I basically work core business hours, there’s a tremendous amount of flexibility built in there. Friend needs a ride to the airport at Christmas? I can handle that. Ideas aren’t percolating like they should? I can go for a jog in the beautiful sunshine. Cats have a vet appointment? I can take them in for an hour in the morning and be done with it, rather than spending time before and after work with pick up/drop off and have them freak out when they get home from a day of boarding. I know other telecommuters who will happily share they’re on the way to their kid’s school play, that meetings are scheduled around pick up, or that they’re eating dinner out with the family and will call when they get home.
- Convenience. The heat’s broken, but I don’t have to worry about taking time off work to meet the repair man. I can continue working in my office while he does his job in the attic. If I need to run an errand, I can do it when traffic is light instead of during rush hour. Grocery shopping at 8am Tuesday morning is so much better than doing it on Saturday afternoon.
- Savings. Because my daily commute is the walk from my bed to my office, my husband and I are able to share a car, cutting our transportation expenses. The more expensive clothes in my wardrobe are my work clothes, but since I don’t wear them as often they don’t need to be replaced or dry cleaned as frequently which also saves money. I usually only eat lunch out if it’s business (and like dating, a business lunch is preceded by a business coffee), so I save money by eating at home more often. These things all add up to a fairly substantial savings each month.
And Finally, The Biggest Bonus of All
I love my boss – she’s my favorite person in the world.
Key Take Aways
Starting my own company has forced me to grow in new and exciting ways. I’m so happy I got off the corporate track (even if there are things about corporate life I still appreciate and admire), and embraced the path of entrepreneurship. I should’ve done this a long time ago.
- Loneliness is normal. Everyone I’ve talked to who starts working from home says the exact same thing. More than a few of them have also walked to the grocery store to talk to the check out clerk.
- Wage war on anxiety with equal measures of preparation and reality. Find a good guide to help – I recommend Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur
- There’s business casual, and there’s work from home casual. Pajamas are the new suit.
- “Work” is what you do, not where you do it.
- You’ll love your boss.
But all was not personal time & discovery. There was a lot of work to be done. The next lesson from our first six months: Drinking from the Firehose.
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