After running Brightbit with Joshua Ogle and Eric Boehs for nearly fours years, it officially came to an end a few weeks ago on February 28, 2014 when we closed the office. It’s a long story, and there is no blog post for it yet, but now is not the time. Long story short, we worked too far past our deposits for a few clients who used to be awesome clients, but, as it turns out, couldn’t pay anymore. We ran out of money, had to lay everyone off, and close the office. It was the most depressing experience of my life – but like I said, that’s for another post some other time.

What do You do After Running Your Own Company?

This is a question I’ve been asking myself a lot over the past few months, facing the impending office closure and winding down of my own business. Thing is, when you’re a business owner, you get to (read: have to) wear a lot of different hats. On any given day, I’d do development, marketing, sales, project management, HR, project planning, business planning, financial forcasting, and more. Since your role isn’t really defined, it just expands to fill whatever role is necessary at any given time. It’s both frustrating and liberating, and it’s an incredible learning experience – and unlike anything else that any full-time job is going to give you. This makes choosing my next job very hard. A lot more thought goes into what I am going to go with the next few years of my life, and how that will help me along my path, whether or not it will be interesting and challenging enough for me, etc.

What I am Looking For Now

After taking a little breather to do some hard thinking and evaluate my options, I have come to the conclusion that… I have no idea what I really want to do next. I am open to – and actively evaluating – a lot of different options right now ranging from part-time and full-time contracts to more traditional (and even some quite unique) full-time jobs. One thing I do know, however, is that it does have to be something that is both very interesting and challenging for me – something that will force me to grow and learn. It also has to be either remote/telecommute or based in the OKC area. I have put down significant roots in OKC, am very involved in the local developer community, and have lots of family here. Basically, I really don’t want to move right now (unless maybe you need me to relocate to say… the Bahamas or the Virgin Islands and pay generous housing allowances. There’s a chance I might go for that.)

Have work for me? Get in touch. No recruiters, please!

UPDATE: I have accepted and started a full-time 12-month contract, so I am no longer looking for work. Thanks for all the support and emails!