Windows Live OneCare – Pain or Blessing?

Technorati Tags: Live OneCare,VPN,Firewall,Windows Security

I got a new laptop and in the process of setting it up there was this offer that popped up to use Live OneCare for 60 days. I signed up!

Things were all right as long as I tried connecting to the VPN’s that I need to connect to. One was connecting through a CheckPoint client software and the other was a Windows VON connection. Both of them did not connect.

So I checked the usual culprit, which is Windows Firewall and found that to be Off. Then only did I realize that my Firewall was OneCare. And it was playing havoc! Rather than tinkering with its settings I uninstalled it and fell back on Windows Firewall and AVG (One care was telling me that AVG was redundant and that I need to uninstall it!)

Everything is back to normal now. What I don’t realize is why does MS create two Firewall programs. I understand OneCare needing a firewall to provide the level of security that it requires. But why does it install another firewall program? After all Windows Firewall is its own product and it should have used that as part of OneCare? Oh wait? Does it mean that the Windows Firewall is a product with a lot of holes and that MS does not trust it’s own Firewall? So they are shipping a new Firewall with OneCare which is essentially a paid service?

But so far, Windows Firewall and AVG have served me pretty well and I don’t see the reason for me to switch to a new paid service from MS? After what is MS’s credentials on security? Not so great I’d say!

Review of the first month

I have successfully concluded my first month as a freelancer, the keyword being successfully. I have been lucky to capture two opportunities at the start itself.

Both opportunities were things I started to work on, (negotiations and interviews) about a month before I was to start. One opportunity was confirmed on a couple of weeks before my official step out and the second one also got confirmed during my first week as a full time freelancer. Work wise also they are the right combination that I was seeking. One is a project with a fixed and the other is a more long term hourly paid collaboration.

The good news is I have been getting work that was keeping me pretty busy. In fact I was crawling to get things done. And the bad news is, I am still trying to get into a proper cycle. I still kind of feel as if I am at home on leave from work. And as a result I am not in my optimum work mode when I am doing work.

I get easily distracted when my kids are playing down stairs and too many a times I have stopped what I have been doing and gone to play with them. There were more times when I ignored their calls for me and continued what I was doing. But what I am saying the distractions are far too many.

And I think my family also doesn’t see a clear separation between my work hours and family time. Since I have to do some work in the night as well to accommodate my US clients, my work seems to be spread out through out the day. This also gives them the feeling that I am working all the time.

So this month I am planning on concentrating on building and internalizing a few rituals in to my work practices. These include me trying to work out practical work hours and also carving out some quality family time. And these are going to be some pretty good learning experiences where I can draw upon the lessons from other veterans in this field. But finally what will work for me would be my unique set of practices. And I will be sharing them through these pages.

Technorati Tags: Freelancing,Entrepreneurship,Starting up,ISC,oDesk,Outsourcing,Contracting,Balance

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Socializing for freelancers

Becoming a freelancer can become quite a monotonous life specially if you happen to be loaded with work. And this monotony is quite hard at the transition period. And especially hard if your time also happen to be fully booked.

I am lucky that my transition to freelancing has been quite successful that I managed to find work which fully booked my time. But it also meant that I was glued to the computer all by myself most of the time without much social / professional interactions. As all my clients are overseas and my interaction with them has been limited to emails/IM’s and at best, VOIP over Skype.

Sometimes I feel as if I’m on an extended vacation. Since I am living on the out skirts of Colombo and most of my friends are working in the city, it is very impractical for me to go out to meet them as that will require me sacrificing a good part of my afternoon in travelling for the occasion. Such meet-ups are also restricted by one of my assignments as I am required to be online in the evenings for a couple of hours for meetings.

So what is it that I can do to keep my social aspect in vogue while I build my freelance career?

Luckily in Sri Lanka we keep in touch with our extended families and they are quite involved in our lives. Therefore we interact with our parents, brothers and sisters and cousins very often. And our families have some function or other that brings the families together quite often. This certainly helps.

But this is hardly any professional networking as most of my extended family are in fields other than IT. Therefore, I feel the need to get involved in industry associations. One of the easiest and the best options for me are the .NET User Group in Sri Lanka. These guys arrange a meet-up once a month with a discussion on a up and coming technology topic. This participation will help me update my knowledge as well as to network. This network will also directly help me in identifying potential technical resources that I can collaborate on future projects while I build my network of collaborators.

Other than that I am not aware of many industry associations that I would like to participate in. Most of them are business chambers which at this point of time seem like an overkill for my time investment. If anyone knows of any associations or industry groups that I can be a part of, I would certainly like to hear.

Also, social life should not be limited to professional networking. Therefore I am going to make a concentrated effort to keep in touch with my friends and past colleagues, whose company I enjoyed. Also, I am thinking about investing time in an activity that I would enjoy, or a hobby. Preferably some sports/fitness activity or a social activity such as dancing. I am keen on a sport activity as being a freelancer gives me very little physical exercise while working from home and I badly need to shed some extra pounds.

Technorati Tags: Freelancing,Social Life,Networking

Full time freelancing off to a great start

I was planning on updating this blog on a more regular basis now that I am a full time entrepreneur/freelancer. But due to a heavy workload, a little bit beyond what I can cope up with at the moment, that had to be put on back burner for a week.

Getting back to the topic, as I mentioned in my last post, I was converting to a full time freelancer/entrepreneur from the beginning of this month. I hung up my boots as a paid employee on the 31st of March, handed over all the company equipment that were in my possession, gave up all the corporate benefits that I enjoyed (really? Were there any?) and stepped out to the uncertain world of freelancing.

Luckily I had a project lined up, which was a short term one month project for a client/friend in UK. They were already pushing me to start it ASAP, so I knew that there were not going to be any work less days for me. I was going from one project for my employer to another project for my own boss! Then there was another prospect that was hanging by a rope because the client and I could not seem to find a convenient time to discuss the project. I only had half a hope pinned on that.

So I started on the project A and at the same time started to chase the project hanging on a rope. For my luck that too worked out. I had attempted to secure that project as it had mentioned that was a part time project which required only 20 hours a week. So I started it at that. But just three days into it, the client informed me that he may have 40 hours a week worth of work for me. This put me in a little dilemma as I wanted to work on a freelance gig for only half my time and wanted to dedicate the rest of the time towards building my business.

But I opted to take up the offer as this client is also looking for a off shore team to carry on his work. He has no intention of building a team in the USA but wants to work exclusively with outsourced developers. If I play all my cards right, this should open up an opportunity for me to convert this client from being a personal client of mine to a client of my company, where the company can set up an offshore team for him. With this idea in mind, I agreed to take up the additional workload.

So in a nutshell, my freelance career has had a very good start as far as the assignments are considered. Now I am concentrating on completing my project A and the tasks for my second client and am not even looking at any other opportunities out there. When I was in the planning stages I was hoping to spend about 10% of my time in actively marketing/bidding on projects and was considering expanding my search beyond oDesk to my professional network, other freelancing/job sites like eLance.com etc. But so far, I have not had the need to explore these other avenues.

To be honest I think I will need to focus more on being productive at home and learn to manage the distractions. Being with the kids the whole day has its share of distractions and it is very easy to drop the work and do something else. I feel as if I am on leave from work and this naturally brings in a lethargy. But I am slowly trying to develop a rhythm and working pattern to overcome this I am on leave mood. And I will keep those strategies I adopt to become productive as a freelancer recorded on this blog.

Cutting off the safety net and followig my dream

Apparently, a lot of great companies were started at times of economic slowdown or recession. And the current economic recession is bound to give birth for numerous companies and a few great ones.

It is during these recession times, when job cuts are at all time highs and unemployment rates soar to record numbers, people tend to finally unleash the burning desire that they had for striking it on their own, finally get to put their dreams to work. It is during these times that the so called job security keeps getting pulled under the employees feet that they realize the myth of the job security and the risk of living pay check to pay check. Trust me, I am talking through experience.

When the so called job security kept becoming a distant dream and every day at work started to become another day to keep your job and the division from becoming a statistic in a lay-offs number I decided it was time to re-kindle the entrepreneur in me. Actually it was more of a necessity of the situation, but rather than becoming a hunter for a job, I decided it was time that I finally tried to make my ideas work, and create a company that I would like to get up and work for every day, gives the freedom for the employees creativity and talents to be unleashed, gives the kind of flexibility that I yearned for to work where I want and when I want.

Taking a serious look at the kind of questions that were raised in my previous post, this time I rallied in two business partners that complements my skills as well as gives me the required support. First I got my significant other also involved, initially in the capacity of a director. The fact that she agreed to become a part of my venture signifies that she is also serious about the success of the venture and would give me the required support and the understanding in the face of all the time and leisure sacrifices that I may have to do in building this business up.

As I am more of a techie and an introvert I needed someone that was more of an extrovert and an experienced seller. For this I enlisted a professional marketeer and a seller and my longest standing friend; my brother. This should be a nice compliment in the areas that I am not strong in. He has a MBA and has a better understanding of running and building businesses.

I will continue to look for freelancing work until the business comes to a better standing where I can rely completely on the business. I know oDesk can also be a good platform to look for new business opportunities, but for the time being I am going to keep oDesk as an avenue to look for freelancing work and to rely on more traditional avenues to build the client portfolio of my new company. I have already landed a project through a networking contact even before the company registrations came through.

I am looking at freelancing as a way of bankrolling my new company. This way I am easing the pressure on the company to build its product portfolio and become profitable, as freelancing supplements my income. On the other hand the company will provide an entity for my clients to deal with when they want to deal with a business entity rather than an individual. Ironically the same sentiment is also explored at the FreelanceSwitch and they have termed it as "Netsetting".

The negative side of this is as the company is essentially going to be a one man development team in the near future it is going to eat into the time that I will be left to develop the companies product line. But in the near future I am planning to expand the company into an eco system of freelance experts so the product development will not be limited to my efforts alone.

So, it is the last week where I will be working for another for a salary. Some April I am joining the wonderful world of freelancers and entrepreneurs!

Have you got what it takes?

So, You want to Ben an Entrepreneur is a great article from Wall Street Journal that stems from a lot of observations. And the good thing about it there is a 10 question questionnaire that would help anyone asses whether they got the traits that would eventually determine you would do well or not. It was an eye opener for me as well. Just as many others, I also HAVE lofty dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur without giving much thought to what sacrifices it would take or how I could cope with the ups and downs.

Here's my take to the 5 questions from where I stand now. These answers may change over time, but for now, this is it.

1. Are you willing and able to bear great financial risk?
This is the biggest thing that is holding me back and making me moonlight. I have financial obligations like a mortgage and a lease that puts a fixed strain on my financials month by month. Though the lease is only another three years my mortgage runs another 13 years. SO unless I find a way to settle that first or build a recurring additional income that can pay the mortgage, this is my biggest drawback.

2. Are you willing to sacrifice your lifestyle for potentially many years?
This is something that I don't have a problem in doing. I can sacrifice my lifestyle for many (few) years. I have less risk here as my wife is on a pretty stable and well paying job and there is a fall back when it comes to supporting our lifestyle.

3. Is your significant other on board?
I think so! I did send her the link to the original article and asked for her response. My wife basically supports my goals as long as it doesn't put a lot of strain on our family time. But any new undertaking will take up quite a bit of time to be invested on it. I think the answer would lie in finding ways to improve the quality of the time spent with family, so even if you spend little time, you make that time count.

4. Do you like all aspects of running a business?
Yes and no. So far, from what I have experienced, I am good at certain things but not on somethings. I think the answer to this will also lie on the question 10, by finding a partner who likes to do the things that I don't necessarily enjoy doing.

I have recently joined a consortium of people to re-start an online venture that we planned sometime back but never got around to actually launching it. I think the arrangement that we have there is a good way for me to move forward. Stick to my knitting, and do what I am good at and enjoy doing and specialize in, and get other partners on board to handle the other areas.

5. Are you comfortable making decisions on the fly with no playbook?
This is something that I enjoy doing. I like making decisions and to keep things moving. I hate it when decisions are not made and are waiting for others to analyze and revert back. Like in most things in life, it is the decisions that you make that will make your business go forward or backward. You basically start with a clean sheet of paper and then write your story.

6. What's your track record of executing your ideas?
This is definitely one area that I would have to put a lot of effort in. With my recent dabbling with productivity improvement and what not I have improved myself slightly. But I was one of those people who had a lot of things that were put off. Procrastination was second nature to me. But thank god I am moving away from that self of mine.

7. How persuasive and well-spoken are you?
I do consider my self to be well spoken and this is something a lot of people agree with me on. And I am comfortable in selling, but just not so much on cold calling. I am a good presenter and can convince people. Again, what I need to do is to find a partner who is good at the pure selling part and I can sell the concept once the initial ice is broken. I am good at taking but not in breaking the ice!

8. Do you have a concept you're passionate about?
YES! I do have a broader concept that I am passionate about. I am passionate about the way the mobility and connectivity is changing our life styles and any business that I so must revolve around these concepts. Though I think real estate is a good line of business I will not get into business in that line.

9. Are you a self-starter?
I tread the middle path on this one. I would consider myself a self starter. When an idea energizes me I tend to be impatient until I try it. But I also do tend to get somewhat discouraged from the failures. This is another area that I am constantly working on, in not getting too down. But I generally have the ability to pick up from my lows pretty fast.

10. Do you have a business partner?
From the analysis above, it is critical that I have a business partner who would complement my strengths and weaknesses. I think I have a few people in mind, some of them that I have worked on a few projects with, and who are willing to join in with me in a new venture.

One test will be the new partnership that I am working on with a few others. If things go on well in that, I can draw the partners in that into the new ventures that I am passionate about. I just need to get them passionate about them as well. That is where my selling skills will be put to test.

Getting free consultancy from freelancers

Recently I spent quite a bit of time with a potential client, after I was invited to an interview on oDesk, discussing his project. I discussed a lot of technicalities of the project, even before he prepared the spec, giving my input and expertise in preparing the technical specifications of the project.

This was a Windows Mobile project and involved printing from the device using a Bluetooth printer. The client, though he was a techie, did not have a clue on how to accomplish the printing task, as I had already done this before on another project.

That was one of such incidents, there were quite a few other issues. In terms of how the applications was going to communicate with the server application, how to store the settings, how to store the application data in the device, how to handle situations when the connectivity is lost, etc.

After all of that, I was informed by the client that they had decided to go for another provider who quoted a lesser rate. I had spent hours of my time and shared my expertise free of charge. I basically feel robbed.

How do you handle situations like this in free lancing bidding phase? You need to share your expertise in order to convince the client that you are the best man for the job. And then the client gathers this expertise and goes elsewhere.

I assume this scenario also applies more to the web designing jobs as well. The clients may ask us to submit a proposal, which would include a concept for their web site. And then they run with our concept. What are the safe guards, us freelancers have to protect ourselves from such scenarios? Any ideas?