The BIG ISSUE at TBPR
Originally uploaded by unusualimage

So today I need to be efficient. What do all of us want than the maximum return on the time we’ve invested. My major work buckets of time spent includes :

1. Client owned projects on basis it generates revenue even if account receivables sux. Pays essential bills, allows you tap into sector specific labourforce and building up knowledge capital solving problems and building stuff in the space. So not all bad, and you do have an asset that is a 6-10 times earnings services business. I call this an insurance policy as if you have earnings there is a high chance you will get 6-10 times. While a dotcom 2.0 site with X000′k unique users, is never guaranteed a value esp if only breakeven/lossmaking. But 6-10 times means u either need to build large earning scale or be happy with a low exit eg $3m. (which is prob not bad if u own 100%, have taken under 3 years to build business, and havent taken investor$)

2. Client deployed (y)our (key buzzwords being) “hosted”, “recurring”, “proprietary” data technology/software/webservices solution(s). Worth at least 4 times a services business!

3. Future consumer facing technology initiatives for(y) our company. 10 times revenue if Mountain View are paying, but is the exception that proves the rule. That it’s very hard. And competitive. Where you compete against self destructive players often. Better to be positioned in a healthy vertical with multiple acquirers and a product with a good rapidly growing gross margin and customer base. ($1m for each engineer is one multiple used by Yahoo etc so keep yer geeks happy!)

4. As above, future enterprise applications. Easily the best segment downunder along with mobiles. Ala hitwise, atlassian.

5. Investor or corporate related investor discussions. In Australia otherwise known as the timesuck.

I’ve been doing alot of #1, bit of #2, hardly any #3, some #4 and a consistent amount of #5; Obviously the sweetspot is you close #5 (investor) which allows u to invest in #3 + #4 equally, then shift into #2. There is one major real trade off though and this is cash in pocket. You can generate revenue, but it needs to be paid, and then u and others involved in projects need to be able to take your shares that make it a (Thewin/win/win. freelance individually vs contract as a group dilemma)

As things get increasingly mixxxed up in a good way and life has its own wings that decide to fly you up up n away, the aim (as projects are completed, and natural transitions occur) in the next 8 weeks is to optimise my time allocations working on projects that can become real assets that in 3 years you look at and believe would generate good financial returns and be of value to another more mature party:) But these assets need to also be financially attractive in the short and medium term - One needs to generate cashflow. How many web2 sites in Australia for example would sustain more than 1 or 2 people at a very basic level ? So what r your greener fields options :

Option 1 (Workn4TheMan) : You can go for security and know that every 14 days a certain amount of money goes into your account, which then goes out to pay for investment a, b, c and cost 1, 2, 3.

Option 2 (FreelanceHo!) : Or you can freelance individually keep costs low, charge high hourly/daily and take no project risk. Alternatively put a project in, add margin, project risk, then hope or make sure u get paid.

Option 3 (JustBlackBoxn:) : Go one step higher and build a platform you host, then charge leasing fees for data updates. Hope it’s unique and build a network of paying customers.

Option 4 (The Facebook of…) : Finally, the biggest risk try and be the next YouTube, Seek, Flickr, MySpace, Carsales - in designated consumer vertical. Secure funding to pay you coz advertising wont support more than one engineering founder.

OK BB therapy meets cooptive career planning over… ask me in 8 weeks if my time allocation asset optimisation transition worked. Now I’m off to work on #1’s:P