Boring, however, is contextual. We have flex hours. We have unlimited PTO (and frequent reminders to take personal time - I already know the data related to offering unlim PTO and how often people then take PTO, thank you very much). We make over $1 million in revenue a year with 6 people and no plans to have exponential growth, coupled with high margins so that we aren't rugpulled by a rainy day (and to take appropriate profits of course). My employees report high levels of job satisfaction and happiness.
Our focus? Maintaining boring legacy software for low-risk clients. We also do some greenfield work, but we like the stability that comes with working on older cash cow software.
The jobs are out there. We're just not super flashy about it.
EDIT: I appreciate everyone who commented :) if this wasn't a burner I'd totally reach out to some of you!
Unlimited PTO to me would only be interesting to me if you had a policy stating the minimum number of days/hours you must take a year. Reminders are nice and all but (written) policy is better.
Thanks for your input. Somehow my employees manage to take lots of time on their own as ultimately they have agency, not me. There is no cultural blocker to them taking time (that I'm aware of).
More correctly: I state that I do not have a time-off policy. This is mainly to prevent administrative overhead - something that a minimum number of days would require. I know this won't scale, so I imagine we'll have a "formalized" vacation process long term, but I'm not there yet and don't plan on being there for at least 2-3 more employees.
Illustrating the "no cultural block" point: I had an employee tell me on a Wednesday that he needed the week off the next week to unwind for mental health reasons. I moved a few things around with customers and he happily enjoyed the week. That is signal enough to me that my employees feel fine asking for time off.
None of the employees I have in the states they work in require me to pay out accrued vacation/sick time by law, so your point is moot because I wouldn't offer such a benefit anyways. That said, your cynicism is noted.
Can you share some more about what you do? Looks interesting! Like sibling comment, I'm also looking for remote part-time work. Such opportunities seem relatively rare.
I would love to hear a bit more about how you built your consultancy firm. I've done some consultancy work for local companies, and I'm looking to focus on similar work (helping local companies with ERP system integrations). If you have some time, I would love to connect and ask you some questions! If you can, please reach out to alon@greyber.org. Thanks!
Basically: I built a network and reputation over years as a tech leader in a specific niche (think Java Spring). This was done with articles, speaking at conferences, and building rapport and reputation with peers at these conferences and with co-workers (including non-technical peers). I was the lead developer at a startup for a long time and spent time building the platforms they still use today, which gave me a lot of credibility amongst my peers.
Those relationships were invaluable. The speaking/articles got me into professional networks that then got me referrals. I kept up with former peers enough such that I was able to get both business and employees from them.
I have done zero advertising and have projected $1.5-2 million in revenue this year. Most of that is profit. I'll personally have a net income of over $1 million this year... and at this point I'm spending a good portion of the day playing FPS. ;)
As it should be. I provide stability to both customers and employees. In exchange, we work on stuff that other engineers frequently turn their nose up at AND add value to the companies we work for.
And the best part - we're often able to integrate new technologies into older, legacy systems gradually, which is fun for devs and risky-yet-risk-adverse enough for stakeholders. Win-win!
i didn't meant to be critical i trully wanna what businesses are generally seen as boring. as someone who just doesn't have much exposure i only recognize retail businesses. I have no idea what type of businesses are in all the office buildings everywhere.
Boring, however, is contextual. We have flex hours. We have unlimited PTO (and frequent reminders to take personal time - I already know the data related to offering unlim PTO and how often people then take PTO, thank you very much). We make over $1 million in revenue a year with 6 people and no plans to have exponential growth, coupled with high margins so that we aren't rugpulled by a rainy day (and to take appropriate profits of course). My employees report high levels of job satisfaction and happiness.
Our focus? Maintaining boring legacy software for low-risk clients. We also do some greenfield work, but we like the stability that comes with working on older cash cow software.
The jobs are out there. We're just not super flashy about it.
EDIT: I appreciate everyone who commented :) if this wasn't a burner I'd totally reach out to some of you!