It has been about a month since my first "diary" entry about starting my own business, so this seemed like a good time to write my second.

I have spent the majority of the month working on my first 'real' contract. I say 'real' not because I want to be disrespectful, but because my first full-time contract was working for Trigger Software who I worked for before moving to Canada to work for Infusion. It was a nice gentle introduction to contracting as it was in familiar surroundings and I was working with many of the old faces that were there when I left. The project was a great opportunity to add WPF to my CV (even if it may or may not be dead) and an opportunity I probably wouldn't have got had they not already known me. Ultimately, Trigger would have liked me to have continued on the project however, by the time they approached me about extending my contract I had already agreed to start a new contract in Bristol. I do feel a little guilty about this as I should maybe have approached Trigger before agreeing to the new contract; on the other hand I couldn't risk missing out on a new contract on the off-chance that Trigger may have offered me an extension. I have continued to help out Trigger when and where I can, so although I could have maybe handled things a little differently, I think we are still on good terms and will continue to be able to work together in the future.

My new contract in Bristol is going OK. I don't really feel as though I have been as productive as I would have liked, but this is due in part to the technical direction of the project not really being 100% clear, to anyone on the project not just me. I think we are now begining to find that direction and we will soon be able to concentrate on solving some of the interesting and complex technical challenges that we have to solve. I have also never really worked in an environment that wasn't solely interested in churning out software. I'm sat in an office with the accounts team and the MD which is situated next to a reasonably sized sales team, so I'm getting to see a completely different business/industry in action which is quite interesting. The one downside to the contract is that it's (depending on traffic) a 1.25 hour commute away from Cheltenham. In the past I've always shyed away from commuting but as a contractor it's probably something I need to get used to. Bristol seems to be an up and coming area of the country in terms of technology and the chances are there are going to be more contracting opportunities in the Bristol area compared with Cheletenham.

I don't actually mind the actual commute, it does unfortunately reduce the amount of time I get to spend with my wife and daughter in the week, but the main thing is that I'm absolutely shattered! The last thing I really want to do is work when I get home in the evening. This has also given me a valuable business lesson - my business at the moment isn't scalable! It's just me! I have already mentioned that I have helped out Trigger after starting in Bristol and that is something that they would be happy for me to continue doing. Unfortunately, I have had to push back on the Trigger work, purely because I am too tired to commit to working every evening and at weekends as well. I still do bits and pieces for Infusion and as someone just trying to get a business off the ground in a trying economic climate it seems crazy to turn down work, but there is only so much work - in addition to the dirving - that I'm physically capable of doing. My product ideas have taken a total back seat at the moment and I really want to get them started, this is really the only way I can see that I can actually scale my business, by generating enough income to finance expanding my consultancy business.

Having said all that, I have managed to find time to start an open source project. It is very early days so far, but I think I can get something reasonably feature complete in a couple of weeks, assuming I'm not too wiped out from driving to Bristol and back each day. As soon as I'm at that point I will do a blog post about it.