Hey this is the daily overpass, my name is Eric and I make apps. Now today I want
to talk about how there's nothing wrong with going back to the corporate life.
Okay so last week I did video 297, where I talked about whether or not I would
take a corporate job if it paid more than Overpass did. If I could be paid a
lot more for a corporate job, would I take that or would I continue to work on
Overpass. And my response was: I could get a job that pays more now - that's always
there and I'm working on Overpass because I'm trying to make that work.
So there were some really good comments that came out of
that, and I responded to a bunch of them because some people said some really
nice things and I wanted to put things in perspective. First of all, there's a
lot I need to work on so if I sounded cocky or oversure
of myself or anything, I apologize because for me, my head still just above
water and I'm still working on things and there's a lot I need to improve.
If it seems like I'm in control of everything,
a lot of the times I'm not. It's kind of funny when you think
about how out of control things are sometimes, but you know I'm still trying.
But there was a really good comment here from Eric Vaughn and Eric, I hope you
don't mind me reading this on the channel here, he said "I'm at the point
where I'm looking for the corporate job money benefits etc. because
entrepreneurship didn't work out for me. But I'll continue to work on my stuff on
the side". And I responded to this because I know exactly what that's like.
So if you've worked with me in the past, like in a
contract I've worked on, you know that I worked these corporate jobs, I
would go back, and then I would leave to work on Overpass full-time. And I might
work for a year and then end up going back to the corporate jobs. So I
started Overpass in 2004 and it's embarrassing when I say how long has
been. It's kind of cool when I say we've been around since 2004, but it hasn't
been we for the longest time, it's been me working in a contract or working
contract job. So I started overpass in 2004 and I had to set up a company
a company for my contracting, so I set up a company and I thought I could give it my
initials or just call it 'Eric Wroolie Consulting' or something like
that, but I thought no, I want this to be a real
company one day. So I spent a long time looking for a name and I came
up with Overpass. It was available in the UK - I couldn't believe
the name was available and it turns out because they don't say
overpass in England, they call it a flyover. But anyway, I got the name so
I set it up and everything at but I was still contracting, but I thought one day
I want to go out and build my own software company with my own clients and
set up my own agency and be my own boss, all that kind of stuff. So
in 2006, I had a lot of money saved up from working on some of these contracts,
where I thought "now's the time, now is the time to set off on my own. I'm
gonna go out and get clients and and I'm gonna start my own software company and
it's gonna be fantastic and everything." So I left the really well-paying job
and worked on Overpass full-time. And I did like a lot of people do -
I set up the website, got my business cards, I did a little bit of cold calling,
but I was really bad at it so I I kind of stopped. A lot of it was just fear,
and I kind of worked on a few projects here and there - not for anyone else. I just
thought, yeah I'll work a little you know project management software or something.
like that, build my own software. But I never actually finished anything, and for
a year, I wish I could say I wasn't working at all but I was working a lot. I
was working a lot on Overpass but it was a lot of just running in place.
Nothing ever happened - I never got any clients, I was too afraid to call
anybody, I was too afraid to to videos, I was too afraid to do anything.
I was writing a few blog posts here and there but nothing really major, and
eventually the money started to run low so I went back into
into another contract. So I worked a few other contracts and the money was really
good, but I kind of felt like I really wanted to do my own thing. I
failed at Overpass .Maybe I'm just not
cut out for this. The jury's still out to
be honest with you. so maybe I'm just not cut out with this,
for this kind of stuff. So, I went back to the corporate life and I was
working different contracts, and when I'm working a contract, nobody knew
about Overpass because I never talked about it. "I'm
running my own software company" because I felt silly saying that, which is just
so stupid if you can't even market your own company. Right so I left again
in 2009 where I had a bit of money saved up and I thought this is it. I know my mistakes from last time I just wasn't assertive enough, I wasn't
calling enough companies, I wasn't really putting myself out there. So in
2009, I thought that's it, I'm working on overpass full-time. So I sat in my
loft, which I converted into an office, and I just worked on Overpass. And once
again, I called a few companies. I tried a few things, I had a few meetings, but
never really did anything. Definitely didn't make enough money to make it
work, and time just sort of went by. I mean, I did a lot of busy work, I went
to networking events, it was just
the insecurities and the fear, and it was about
a year and a half - I mean it was a year and a half of just busy work and it's
kind of embarrassing that I didn't finish anything, right. I'm embarrassed to
tell you this, especially when people say you are a true entrepreneur, which I'm
not. There's so much I need to work on. So I went back
to another contract, went back to corporate life, except I went back to a
place that I had already worked at before and they kind of all knew that
the reason I had left was to work on that. Well you know that so it doesn't
work out, you tried blah, good for you blah blah blah. But part of me was just,
I was eating myself up inside because I'm thinking, you know what, I tried and I
failed. I really wanted this to work, I feel a bit silly that none
of this stuff worked out and everything like that. But then part of me was thinking,
it was like dying in a video game. Like, you thought, if I just
had one more chance, I would do it differently. But I
didn't want to put everybody through that again, like and my family and stuff,
so I thought I'll just keep working the contracts, keep doing that and then in
2012, that's when I did my first app and I saved a bit of money. I was coding
the app myself and then I realized I was never going to finish this thing, I was
too busy. So I hired some developers in India, they did the code. Not
well, but I had something working. So I got the code back and so I put that on
the App Store and...nothing. So you have a bunch of people, and I didn't
really tell them about the app but eventually I mentioned it to a
few people and they thought it was cute that I had this app out there on the App
Store. Eventually I started putting more putting more money
into it, tweaking some of the settings, reading things here and there, putting a
few different other apps out there, and it started to get a little bit of
momentum and we started to get a little bit of revenue. Eventually
I started getting to a point where I I got used to you know doing keywords and
tweaks and stuff like that. I got a little bit more brave, a little bit
more confident. I actually had a product. I had a product out there and
then I could start marketing myself to companies in emailing and
eventually I started getting clients. It was hard.
I'm sorry if this story is boring right, so for those of you who are still with
me, so I I was at the point where I was working full-time at a contract five
days a week, and I had clients coming in which I wasn't gonna turn away.
So I started trying to arrange meetings for the evenings and weekends and I
was taking long lunch breaks to call them back and stuff like that, because I
didn't want to cheat the company I was with because they were paying me.
That just would have been dishonest so I'm trying to
make all this stuff work and eventually, eventually, I got to the point
where I spoke to the people who were hiring me,
the contract company, and we moved it back to three days a week and eventually
at 2014, no days a week. So from 2014 I've been working for
myself full-time. But, maybe I might go back and
take a corporate job if things don't work out in the next six months, you know.
One of the things that scares me is I'm one google play suspension away
from nothing - like, a lot of the revenue disappearing, so I may have
to go back to corporate life, I don't see anything wrong with that.
I've always said I will do anything for my family. I'm not
the kind of person who won't work - there's no work that's beneath me.
I will do whatever I have to do for my family. I will sweep
elephant cages if that was the only work I could get. So there's nothing
wrong with going and taking on a corporate job and still working on the
stuff on the side. I've done that over and over again - I may do it again in the
future. But other people look at you and they think
that you are where you're where you meant to end up, but you know where
you're going and you know what the end goal is and you know what you're working
towards. So I don't know, some of you guys out there have similar
experience. Please let us know in the comments,those of you who are working
for yourselves - have you had this kind of thing where occasionally you have to go
back and take a job and and work on those kind of stuff? Because I sure have!
And there's nothing wrong with that.
You have to do what you have to do, so we can't delude ourselves.
Money is money and we have bills to pay. So anyway, hope that makes sense.
If I seem like I know what I'm doing, dude, I don't. Right so anyway,
that's it for today, I'll talk to you tomorrow.