Today is my last day as Internet Development Manager at Coldwater Creek. After three years, I am both relieved and anxious (a psychological tug-of-war if there ever was one!) about venturing forth to new opportunities.
The relief comes from knowing that I won't be receiving frantic calls from the support desk at 2:00 AM. The anxiety comes from giving up that regular paycheck for the variable income inherent in being self employed. As someone once said, there's a fine line between self employment and unemployment.
The title of this entry is a Sheryl Crow song title, in case you don't recognize it as such. The line that follows it in the song is: I get a little bit closer to feeling fine. I chose that title because that is what the last couple of weeks have felt like. I've still been working too hard for a short timer, but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel makes it all worthwhile.
My new venture is really an old venture. I'm returning to Logical Expressions, Inc. which is a company I started with my wife about 11 years ago now. As a software development and technical content company, we did really well in the late 90's and early 00's, but starved for work when the Internet market tanked.
Well, the market is back. My wife Susie has more work than she can do, and we are getting inquiries for development work again. We are going to work together again, which is something I greatly look forward to. My skills and business knowledge have expanded substantially over the past three years, and I'd like to put it to work making money for my own company.
Fortunately, Coldwater has been very supportive of my decision. They made me a very generous offer as a Senior Enterprise Architect to entice me to stay (I had expressed dissatisfaction with the management track). But when the time is right to go out on your own, you can't get distracted by shiny objects. They lose their luster over time and a market of opportunity doesn't last for long.
Instead, I'll contract back to them as a consultant a couple of days a week. That gives me a little extra cash to ease the transition into more independent work, while helping them out until my replacement can be hired.
So, here I go. I figure that no job is particularly secure these days anyway, and it's time I created cool stuff for my own company instead of someone else's!
