Comments on: ProBlogging – Multi Occupational Disorder

By: Tony Lawrence

Tony Lawrence — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 16:51:13 +0000

Hiring people has its own share of headaches.

I started my business as a one man shop in 1983. By 1987, I had five employees. It just about killed me, financially and emotionally. I am simply NOT a good manager of other people, and I’m far too optimistic about other people’s work ethics. I did eventually fire everyone and was back to “just me” by 1989, but the damage had been done and it was hard, hard times from then on. I was in debt, very discouraged, felt like a complete failure, and found it very hard to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

After a rocky recovery, which included having to work for other people myself for a few years, I started over in 1997 and have remained without employees since then. That’s not always easy, of course. There are times I could use some help, and times that I’m very stressed by the volume of work that needs to be done. But for me, staying just like this is the best way.

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 13:48:31 +0000

Quite true Darren, quite true. =)

Blogging is definitely a do it yourself, do or die proposition since it really is dependent on the person only to do the work.

By: John (SYNTAGMA)

John (SYNTAGMA) — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 10:08:05 +0000

You could always try a large bet on England to win the Ashes, then you’ll be able to pay the bookeeper, at least :-)

By: Stuart

Stuart — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 00:52:45 +0000

Damn – posting – eating a snack and talking with your partner all at the same time just doesn’t mix :)

By: Stuart

Stuart — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 00:51:21 +0000

You certainly do reach the stage where you can start to employ others to do some parts of the work that needs to be done.

It’s at that point you take on the role of supervisor and worrier – will they get the work done on time? Will it be up to the standard that you want? Will they let you down at the worst possible time?

Still I look back to when we started working online full time and I would never want to go back. Life since then has been way too interesting since then :)

By: Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 23:23:11 +0000

You’re right Markus – and increasingly I’m finding people to take on some of the different aspects of what I do – but its been a long time coming and a couple of years of hard work. Hang in there with it – it starts with buying a coke and slowly grows to something bigger.

By: Markus

Markus — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 23:17:05 +0000

With an income over 10k a month, one should be able to pay another person to do some parts of the job.

With my income I’m not able to pay my coke ;)