SITE UPDATE
It’s been almost 5 months since the last newsletter. I’m sure your email box, like mine, is always out of control anyway so I doubt you missed the CI newsletter too much.

I started ColoradoIndependents.com when I was on the bench and had plenty of time each day to do the work. About 10 months ago I took on what was supposed to be a 2 or 3-month contract. But I keep getting extended on the contract – the latest extension is through Thanksgiving. So that explains, in part, the slowdown in activity on CI.

CI is meant to be an informational website, mostly, and so can just sit there waiting for the next round of updates as it’s been doing. The goal for the site is to keep adding resources until it covers most of the salient links to hunting down contract work. I’d love to have another month to take the site to version 2 status but that will have to wait until I’m back on the bench.

With over 180 independents now listed on the site, which alone is a great resource for those looking for kindred developers or agents looking for independent talent. In fact, I had an email from an agent in Texas a couple days ago who was on the hunt for contractors and wanted to know how to sign up on the CI site to find them. I set her straight that this was a non-commercial site and she could browse away. The point is, the CI site is slowly getting noticed in other places besides Colorado.

VIRTCORPCO
A few weeks back a post to the RMIUG list set a chain of events into action that resulted in a new email list called VirtCorpCO. I jumped in with some ideas of work I’ve been developing in the area of how to form temporary companies to develop products. You can find those ideas if you view the posts on VirtCorpCO looking for the RFC’s 1 and 2.

Others on the list have been contributing ideas about how a virtual company could operate. There is now a pretty good set of resources, including bookmarks to interesting virtual corporation websites. If you are interested in this just go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VirtCorpCO

and sign up. At this writing there are 54 members and 70 posts. Like Colorado Independents, it’s a slowly moving and evolving idea.

THE IT SECTOR SLOWDOWN - SURVIVING
Hey, this hurts. A year ago I was making good money picking low hanging fruit out of the web development trees. This year I’ve gone back to the agencies, who themselves are laying off their own internal employees.

I’m old enough to have developed approaches to protect myself in these circumstances but it is never fun to be in a declining economy. I’m not at all wealthy, but here are some of the things that keep me going:

1. My wife works (she’s a realtor/broker). Don’t laugh, a partner who works is the ultimate diversification of skills. I really am amazed at how many people with kids get divorced and each try to earn enough money to maintain their own places, share child expenses with the ex, etc. I’m not trying to make a social comment here, but when times are tough, it helps to pull together.

2. I don’t rent a house and rarely have. That makes it possible to take out a second mortgage on the house you are buying, which can make a huge difference to buffer income. That and the tax advantages make buying a house a no-brainer. Yeah, it can take time to get in a position to do that, but it should be a primary goal. And yes, I try to keep the credit cards paid off.

3. When I buy a house, I look for one that has a rental unit on the property. This used to be common but our silly notion of housing development these days has gotten rid of the idea. Too bad, as a small rental can help supply your mortgage payment. In Manitou, where I live, there are 2500 housing units, half of which are rentals. Often the rentals are a small cottage or two behind the landowner’s house.

4. I fall back on old skills I’d developed before I entered Information Technology. In my case, that’s carpentry skills. I’ve spent the last year of weekends fixing up an inexpensive cottage my wife and I bought in Manitou. I really enjoyed the break of pace from programming. I guess you could say it was like working a second job. So inventory those other skills you have – you may be surprised.

5. I am constantly improving my IT skills. I do this by buying books and sitting down in front of my computer and just working my way through the technology. I also am constantly scanning for contract openings that take my skills to the next level.

Anyway, it’s time to wrap this up and get back to work. I wish the best of contract hunting to you as we enter this more challenging period. I’ll try to keep upgrading the CI website with the resources that will help us all find the next gig.

Regards,

Clint Lewis CI Editor