Five Year Plan : 10% done

So, back on November 5th I turned 35, and started what I semi-laughingly refer to as a five-year plan. I’m only working on it year-to-year, and doing it mainly through non-new-year ‘resolutions’ – although they might as well be a to-do list, really. In my head I hold what is pretty much the full development curve of what to do and when, but really I’m working on it on that year-at-a-time basis. It makes for something vaguely resembling a sane approach to the entire thing.
The final goal? Making enough money that I can make my own choices, and do my own things, rather than being tied to a job for the next thirty years. (Twenty-five, by the end of the project). There’s some other stuff in there as well, but that’s the bottom line. One of the things about me is that I have loads of ideas that could, should, or might make money, but for various reasons over the years I’ve failed to follow them through and see how they did in reality instead of theory. Since last November 5th, I’ve been working on making them into reality, and seeing how I do. With most of them, the initial costs are pretty low (and intentionally so) so that if any of the ideas do take off, it won’t take a lot to knock them into profitability.
We’re now six months in, so I thought I’d jot out a little progress statement, just to see where things are going…

• Photography
  1. Get a Macro Lens
  2. Get a Wide-Angle Lens
  3. Finish the Portfolio website – completed, and with extra uploads when necessary
  4. Sell/Publish some stuff – working on it
  5. Join a local club
  6. Get a decent flash – Done, a Speedlite 580EX
  7. New : Start aiming to get work and projects – Started, and ongoing
• Writing
  1. Finish at least one piece of writing – working on it
  2. When a piece is finished submit it to the right people
  3. Just see how things go
  4. Write more on d4d™? Maybe.
• Work / Websites
  1. Build and work on the other ideas I’ve got in my head – working on it, and getting some of them sorted
  2. Work (as always) on smaller sites, and do as many as possible – so far, three new sites launched, as well as the photography portfolio
  3. Sort out permanent job for the first part of ’07 while we’re house-buying etc. – All done, and no need to get that nasty ‘proper’ job after all
  4. Redesign d4d™? It’s about time…
  5. Merge lots of hosting accounts into one reseller account, and onto one server – done
  6. New : Start getting better at invoicing for work done – in progress, and all being done a lot more efficiently
  7. New : Develop some ideas in partnership with others, and see how they do
• Education
  1. Sign up with Open University – initially for a refresher course, and work from there
  2. Look at an official course/qualification in Photography?
• Other
  1. Restart the Archery once we’ve moved – booked, but not attended yet
  2. Complete the move to Norfolk – all done
  3. New : Buy a car – git it insured, all that.

So actually, the first six months has been very productive. All the foundations have been laid now, the website hosting agreements rationalised and merged where it’s necessary or beneficial to do so. In fact, just doing that and merging most of them into one reseller account has saved me £150 over the year, which is pretty impressive. In addition to that, the invoices I sent out at the end of last year amounted to a few hundred quid, which was also surprising – they were all for small amounts, so I hadn’t really thought about the way it all added up. Actually, though, D4D™ is going to be moving off that reseller server, though – it needs a space of its own, and it’s just taking up too much of the space and bandwidth available on the reseller server, so it’s going to go back to being a seperate entity. And that actually makes some sense, keeping D4D™ seperate from business sites etc.
In addition, I’ve been able to average at getting one solid site out per month, as well as a couple of smaller basic designs and/or amendments to existing stuff. There’s a whole lot of new stuff and new connections coming through at the moment, and that’s all going to start coming together over the next six month period, I think. That’s the plan, anyway. There’s some initial steps that need to be taken in order to make sure that everything has the potential and stability to get through (sorry, I’m sounding enigmatic, and while that’s not really the intention, at the moment it’s certainly the necessity.)
Photographically, now that the portfolio site is completed, and being regularly updated, I can start getting in touch with publishers, agencies and the like. I’m also considering doing image-library stuff, but it’s about making sure the photos get the best use made of them. I’ve also got a few projects in mind that have a lot of potential commercially as well – although the main thing about them is that they’re things that interest me – otherwise, if I’m honest, there’d be no chance of me going through with them. And of course there’s going to be lots of pictures of Hound over the summer…
Oh, and let’s not forget, within that six months we’ve also moved to Norfolk, bought a house, gone through all the bureaucratic nightmares of that little endeavour, and come through it intact. Over the next 10%, we’ll be moving in, and sorting the new place out too.

It’s been a good start. There’s still a long way to go – 4½years, to be exact, but the initial steps have been promising. Long-term I’ve no idea whether my goals and plans are realistic or not – but this way well, there’s no way I’ll be able to say “I wish I’d tried xxx” – because I’m trying it all. As time progresses, I’ll get ruthless, and if the ideas aren’t working out, they’ll be culled. Darwinian business – the good ones survive, the bad ones fall by the wayside.