Today's a special day. Not just because it's my dad's 70th birthday, but because I'm still employed by Rockall Design ltd, which turned 8 years old yesterday. Today is the first day of the ninth year.

There's normally nothing remarkable in the passing of another year, but considering the year I'd had before it's noteworthy that I made it through at all.

As a recap: in year 7 my turnover plummeted. I hadn't accounted for this happening and, like an idiot, hadn't put aside enough money to pay the corporation tax (CT) for year 6. This meant that, I've had to use money earned in year 8 to pay the CT for year 6 and year 7. All this at the same time as putting money aside to pay tax for year 8 itself. And put money aside I have! I will never put myself in the same position I was in at the beginning of the year gone.

It's a miracle I managed to survive and feed the family. This was only really possible as takings were back up this year just gone, as you can see:

Without a return to previous income levels I have little doubt I'd have had to throw the towel in. As it is, I scraped through. Just.

Running your own business really is like the proverbial emotional rollercoaster!

Looking Forward

Ideally I'd like to stay employed as I am and work from my little home office indefinitely, but, at a minimum I'd like to at least make it to Rockall's 10th birthday. Might not sound much, but, unless you've run your own business you won't know what an accomplishment that would be.

As it stands I'm currently doing quite a bit of Domino work. Yes, still! There's just no escape. Not that I'm complaining, of course. Although, to be honest, it's not where I wanted to be or where I want to be in a year's time. My heart is kind of set on being a C# MVC developer. Or a mobile app developer. Although I'll just go where the money is I'm still keen to enjoy whatever I "choose" to do.

Money will always be the driving factor. I'm not greedy but I do have demands to meet. Heck, if it came to being a SharePoint developer I'd gladly do that if I thought there were a good future in it.

All the Domino work I've done in the past year has been for customers who have no long term plans to continue using it. I tend to work mainly in a maintenance and support role with only the occasional chance to shine and add something new.

Ultimately I'm aware of the fact that I'll lose all my current customers. That's why - whoever I work for - I always try to make sure they know Domino isn't my only skill. Primarily I try to demonstrate skills outside of any given technology that make them remember me -- personal skills, understanding problems, solving problems etc. That's always what I hope anyway.

Here's to the next 2 years. Must make it to the tenth birthday...