I’ve mentioned before that it’s getting to be time for me to get a job. More precisely stated, it’s that an income would be a very nice thing to have. Unfortunately, I recently ran face-first into a psychological brick wall.

I seem to have developed an aversion to working for other people. Or maybe I’m just fighting the inertia of having been unemployed for two years…

While I’m sure I would eventually get past it, it just so happens that – for the first time that I can remember – I randomly came up with a business idea that feels like it could actually work. And that… gave me a very good excuse not to start the job hunt just yet.

The Plan

This all came about at the beginning of the month, and I decided to give myself ninety days to take a decent stab at it. This means getting a prototype together – and enough of one that I can see that all the pieces are going to work realistically.

Basically, I need to explore this thing for gotchas.

I also need to do the research and put together a plan for starting the actual business. I haven’t done this before, but I know enough to know that there’s a huge amount to consider. And that’s before we get to the actual logistics of running it!

If it were a SaaS sort of business, this would probably be simpler – but it isn’t. Instead, it involves an actual hardware product. That introduces all sorts of fun issues.

So yeah. Business organization. Sales and Marketing. Manufacturing. Legally required certifications. Sales tax handling. Domestic vs international issues. The list goes on and on and on… and on.

Thankfully I have enough run room financially to give it a shot, and it’s one of those things that, if it doesn’t work out, it still won’t be a total waste of time (if nothing else, it’ll be great fodder for my project portfolio!). I also don’t expect to break the bank getting it started either, so that’s a bonus.

Worst case, it turns out to be a low-revenue side business that I can chuckle over in the future.

I never said my product ideas were “normal”, whatever that is…

If you want to follow my progress, I’m not blogging about it here; this site is for my personal stuff. Instead, I’m keeping a journal of sorts over at Insomniverse, which I threw together just for this. It’s just a placeholder; I’ve not come anywhere close to settling on a name for the business, or even the product yet.

The journal is a bit hand-wavy and vague since I don’t want to give anything away just yet, but it might amuse you. Or maybe it will bore you to tears, hard to say! Feel free to take a look, though.

As for my future, I’m basically putting in full-time workdays, and then some, albeit on my characteristically odd schedule. That’s why I went a little quieter; I have a lot to do, and it’s already the end of day 22! If I don’t have something promising by day 90, I’ll have to give up and rejoin the rat race.

I’ve said it before: that would make me sad.

The Garden

In the mean time, I’m still working on my garden. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was planting oregano and chives. The results have been… not as impressive as I would like.

The chives are doing okay (and the basil continues to grow nicely), but the oregano has been a bit lackluster. I’m not sure what the situation is there. I’ve never grown the stuff before, so I don’t know how big it’s really supposed to get – but it’s gotta be much bigger than this!

Eighteen days, and it still doesn’t look like much!

That said, it’s suppose to be 5-12 weeks to harvest, so I guess I’ll just have to be patient. I really want to try the fresh stuff; the basil was a hit, and I’m hoping the oregano will be just as good!

I’m also going to order some more basil pods; these won’t last forever, and I want to be ready to go to re-plant when they finally hit the end of the line.

Puzzling Things

One of my hobbies that I haven’t talked about here is puzzles. I love jigsaw puzzles! My cats adore them, too.

I have a particular predilection for cat puzzles, and I have innumerable photos of my cats in front of various ones. It amuses me. I really can’t figure out why I haven’t posted about that here before, however.

I’ve decided that I’m going to post more about puzzles here going forward, when I have time. Lately I’ve been using them as a stress relief measure, and a way to refocus myself when I get too deep into the self-imposed job. It forces me to think about something else for a while, and it’s almost meditative.

You should try it!

In any event, the one I put on the header of this post is the one I just finished – a monster 1500 piece Buffalo Games puzzle. It was one of the easier ones of its size, and a lot of fun. I’m currently working on a 750-piece train puzzle as I have the time, though it probably won’t get finished until some time near the end of the week.

I’ll post a picture when I get there.

Back To Work!

Anyway, that’s where I’ve been. I know I’ve been quiet, but I haven’t forgotten. And I have a few ideas for posts that are arising from my work on the prototype for my business. Next one? Probably a review of JLCPCB’s PCB assembly service.

Stay tuned!