I have not mentioned much about my strategy to survive and flourish in this economy. It is a plan with many moving parts. The trick is to keep them going and revive them when they stall.
First, I have my 9-to-5 job. That would be wonderful if it really was only from 9, got done at 5 and it payed all the bills with something left over. The reality is that it is often 10-11-12 hours of time at work and the pay does not cover the mortgage, rent, credit cards, food, let alone savings, retirement, car repairs. A corollary to this is that I am staying in touch with my profession network for better opportunities.
Second, I have a hobby that I want to turn into a business that eventually supplants my day-job or at least gives me back my time. On evenings and weekends, I carry my MacBook around with me as I work on some iPhone applications that I hope to bring to market. After that, I plan to port them to the Android and BlackBerry markets.
Third, I have a website for the hobby where I have such pages as technical information, favorite web sites and product information. The plan is to make it a web destination such that the technical community finds useful and, as a result, clicks on an AdSense advertisement.
Fourth, I have this blog that I hope inspires others with the same aspirations and needs to visit, share comments and click on a valuable advert from AdSense, Amazon, GoDaddy .... (any suggestions for others) when visiting. I visit and follow blogs of interest to me and if it has advertisement, I am assuming the blog has the same need as do I, so I click on a link and learn something that I otherwise might not know about.
It may sound gratuitous, but it is not intended to be. It is a survival strategy that I hope will have mutual benefit to my visitors and myself.
Oh, did I mention that my business plan is to donate a portion of sales (before profit) to charities and small business lending? That is part of the hope to help others by building financial strength as a community.
