What I learned shipping alone for a year
6 min read
A year ago I left a team of forty to work on my own. I expected the hard part to be finding clients. It turned out to be deciding things without anyone to argue with.
Decisions pile up
On a team, a decision waits for a meeting. Alone, it waits for you, and if you don't make it, nothing happens. I started keeping a short list of open questions on a sticky note, and a rule that nothing stays on it longer than a week.
Write it down anyway
I kept a changelog even though nobody asked for one. Every Friday I wrote three or four lines about what shipped and what I dropped.
It did two things. It showed clients progress they could read in a minute, and it showed me when a week had gone by with nothing to write.
What I would tell myself
- Say no to the second project in the same month. The first one always takes longer.
- Charge for discovery. The first two weeks are where most of the value is.
- Keep one day a week with no calls at all.
Working alone is quieter than I expected, and a lot more honest. There is nowhere for a bad week to hide.