This next goal concerns my web design business, Amber Eyes Solutions.
Innovative And Successful Software Solutions Business
I enjoy developing software applications. I enjoy learning new ways to use new technologies to build software applications. I like hanging out with others who share my enthusiasm. So I started a company where I hoped I could make money doing what I love.
Amber Eyes was initially an event management and services company. Then it morphed into an event services company. Now it is a software solutions company focused primarily on web design.
I am still struggling with how to make money doing what I love. But one thing is clear to me – I love introducing people to tools that they can use. Plus, I enjoy the design process. I enjoy sketching out ideas, investigating alternatives and finalizing the design. And…. I love it when a plan comes together.
I just need to make money doing it.
But my increasing skill level comes at a price, not of money so much as time. It takes time to learn and experiment. It takes time to research and delve into the intricacies of mastering a new set of tools and methodologies. I had to teach myself a new language, while simultaneously modifying code written by gurus and masters in that language. It was harrowing at times. But along the way, I got to hang out with some very cool people.
But now I need to create ways of building on that period of intense learning and begin to reap some reward for that investment of time and space. But it is not as easy at it sounds. The software continues to evolve and new versions and capabilities are coming out faster than I can keep up with them.
I need a way to keep current with the tool, support my current clients and build my business. This almost constant churn in the development arena is very taxing.
One thing I am considering is backing away from the developer community some, and instead focus on finding ways to automate more of the routine procedures and processes.
I also need to build sites faster, so I may need to simplify my theme development for new sites. Right now, I can build a site in less than two weeks even with my already packed schedule, but it can take me sometimes months to finish a theme. I need to let go of the idea that every site needs to be an original work of art.
2008 Goals
- Support ticket and CRM (customer relationship management) system
- Automating key maintenance and upgrade routines
- Publish my design philosophy on Amber Eyes web site
- Implement e-commerce solution on two sites
Ongoing
- Site design templates
- Several ongoing development projects
- Completing key site upgrades
What you do not see on this list are marketing goals. Last year I had a goal of 2-3 new web designs. I created two new designs last year but only one was for a paying client. And I am still working on her graphic theme (see above). I thought I had a new paying client in November, but the process got bogged down and now it is the start of the school year. Marketing is not my strong point, although I am getting better year after year.
I guess I could add a goal called, "Create marketing goals", but that feels kind of silly. This is an area that needs work.
2008 Goals Addendum
Posted in
Submitted by katrina on Mon, 01/21/2008 - 8:44pm.
Wish I could be there. Very well spoken.
Katrina,
I wish you all the blessings and power you need on your journey. Thank you for these words. It is good to remember that returning to work (and thus returning to grace) bring a chance for us all to rest and have joy.
Wishing you joy in the Work.
David
Dear Katrina- Thorn reposted your blog and happy am I. Your passion, always so immense, comes blowing out in these words. So akin to my own heart and soul that it makes me have a bittersweet smile.
The Storm is only now coming to the edges of our universe and yet it will sweep and consume all that is. In the end, our beautiful universe will be so much...more? Different? Complete? Who knows?
All I do know is my soul came here to witness and be part in this period. I cannot shrink from the work. I am here with you, fae sister!
Thought-provoking piece, Katrina. Thanks.
I don't know what to call myself either. In Pagandom, I've taken to referring to myself as a Witch at Large. In the interfaith world where I'm active, I call myself a Pagan. Sometimes I call myself an uppity woman or a Second Wave Feminist. I've never really thought to publicly identify myself by my sexuality, het woman, which is very "white bread" and old-fashioned. Not only het, but serially monogamous for the most part. It seems almost a liability these days to say you're het, but I am proudly and happily so. I tend towards intellectualism but only have a BA, which doesn't carry much weight, at least in public and professional worlds, no matter how much you've studied, trained, and can articulate, even teach.
My biological heritage is Irish, Dutch, French Huguenot, Euro-mongrel. My social heritage is Roman Catholic on one side and conservative Methodist, temperance-crusading, women's rights and education on the other, with distinct East Coast sensibilities, now mellowed by more than half a century living on the Left Coast. My maternal political heritage is conservative Republican (altho what my relatives might think of current trends in the GOP I cannot imagine, since they did have brains and they did think and they did have a social conscience), yet I am much farther left in my outlook than any elected official I know. My paternal political heritage is blue collar Democratic, except that my dad broke with his family on politics and allied with my mother's family's conservatism.
I'm a former hippie, a home-birth advocate, a home death and green burial advocate, an opponent of capital punishment and resorting to warfare to resolve humankind's differences. I support the right to conscious self-deliverance. I rejoice in any and all consensual expressions of love and eros. I'm a lover and a mom.
I have never missed voting in an election and I disrespect those who don't avail themselves of this hard-won right. (I have ancestors who fought the Brits in the American Revolution.) I support workers' rights. I recognize our interdependence on this planet, so could be called a greenie. I'm a committed environmentalist in my day-to-day life (in terms of eating locally grown food, expanding public transit, recycling, preserving open space and wildlife, opposing exploitation of natural resources [strip mining, oil-drilling, nuclear facilities, agribusiness, monocultures, clear-cutting timber, overuse of pesticides, genetic modification, etc.]) I want to make the city streets "safe for dancing," as my old friend Tony Serra said when he ran for mayor of SF on the Platypus Party ticket.
Well, you got me going there, my friend. Thought-provoking read, as I said. ;-)
xo,
Macha
Lovely azaleas!
[cough][gag][snort][sneeze]
Just lovely...
I know what you mean.
I feel you. There is too much bs- particularly when people decide that their temperament is tantamount to truthful and ignore everyone else.
I get irked by immature extroverts or closet introverts who ignore you REPEATEDLY and then pretend you're out of line for being upset by the time they can't pretend you didn't say anything anymore. I find that the same people will ignore you if you blow up right away, too, and that it's because they just don't think that honoring what you value is important to maintaining a relationship, or even worse: that you don't know what you value at all and that it's all a mind game for their pleasure or annoyance. Then they call you passive-aggressive, aggressive, moody, touchy and temperamental. I call them "not listening".