Hey Patrick, This is a pretty timely question because I just drafted a blog post yesterday answering the same thing, which I hope to post real soon now (i.e. realistically, months from now). Because I usually write and talk about my indie business, a lot of people are surprised that I have a "regular" job as well (and some client work, and too much other stuff for my own good).
The important thing to me is just that you consider your indie software a real business, not a hobby. I can only speak for myself, but I treat my side business as if it was a full time job, regardless of hours. Some weeks the revenue matches a great salary and the hours are long into the night, and other weeks it doesn't and they aren't, and that's fine. Not being a hobby means acting professionally, responding to support email quickly, and definitely not making excuses for why there aren't more software releases. There are plenty of reasons why software is late even for larger companies! As long as you can keep up with the support load, you shouldn't feel guilty if you don't live up to your own personal standards. Anyway, hope this helps a little. Having the right attitude may do wonders for your business (for example, it pushed me to exhibit at Macworld last week). Good luck! > Hello all, > > I've been wondering how open I should be on my company's website/blog that I > do the Mac/iPhone Indie thing on the side and that I have a regular day job? > > I'm still just getting my indie business started and I have a very demanding > day job. Particularly right now in the middle of Tax Season here in the > States. Which means some weeks, the indie business has to take a back seat. > This makes me feel bad because I'm not putting out releases as fast as I want > and I think my users might expect. > > It's not about making excuses, but more about keeping my customers informed > about where things are. To be a little more open about what's going on. > > Should I be open about that, or should I should keep my mouth shut, hunker > down and do the best I can? > > Patrick -- Manton Reece http://www.manton.org/
