Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

Well, the last workday of 2007 is over (and boy was it a doozy … I got nothing of note accomplished, and wasted approximately two hours of my day on plumbing repairs). I can now say definitively that this has been an amazingly successful year for my business. My gross income this year was approximately 2.1x what it was in 2006. My net income was about 1.6x what it was in 2006.

The increase in expenses this year comes from having begun to spend considerably more on hosting fees and equipment leases and also spending a good deal paying my brother for contract work.

My overall growth has been slow but steady over the year, and I expect it to get slightly better as my brother, who started doing contract work for me mid-year, learns more about programming and transitions to a part-time employee (and hopefully then becomes full-time by the end of the year).

As far as the hosting goes, I now have four leased Dell servers and a full quarter rack leased at Airnet in downtown Chattanooga (the folks at Airnet have been nothing short of wonderful in my dealings with them over the last nine months; if you need colocation services in town, I highly recommend them), and I suspect I may add a fifth and maybe even sixth server in the next three months.

I’ve developed my (open source, BSD-licensed) SwitchYard (formerly IntuiSite) PHP web application framework into something that I’m thoroughly proud of, and if I ever find the time I’m going to wrap up some basic documentation for it. I’ve released a seminal improved set of SOAP classes for REALbasic. I’m on the verge of releasing some additional minor open source PHP libraries as well.

I’ve spent more time than I care to admit at work trying to keep up, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. The decision to launch my own business has been without a doubt the best and most rewarding decision I’ve made career-wise. I have absolutely no intention of ever being a simple employee again.

Now for next year … my goals for 2008 are to finish paying off all the business-related debt I accumulated during my first 1.5 years of being self-employed by mid-year, have my brother be full-time (and a partner in the business) by mid-year, hire another programmer, finish one major service-oriented project I’ve been working on for the better part of two years, and find an office outside of my home.

Oh yeah … and finally retire the four-year-old PowerBook that has been my mainstay for so long in favor of something more modern.