First of all, congrats Nathan! Cheers bro :)<p>At the same time, while all this sounds so promising, in my humble opinion, I would say this wouldn't apply to everyone. Whether you know it or not, Nathan <i>seems</i> to have a solid plan - 'This is what I should do. This is <i>how</i> I should do it. And this is <i>how much</i> what I do <i>might</i> generate.'<p>I see a lot of people quitting their jobs just because it's become more of a cool factor now and most importantly because they think they could become like Nathan <i>easily</i> or rather <i>quickly</i> (like it's some get-rich-quick scheme). You should understand that Nathan has put in some significant, rock-solid hardwork (like developing his own apps, writing some quality books, etc.) into all this. If you just quit your job dreaming of cash flowing in the very next minute, that might not happen.<p>FYI - I quit my day job too. I wrote some apps too, dreaming of becoming someone like Nathan someday. Here I am, commenting here on Nathan's success story instead. Life ain't that easy dudes :D
<i>Checking email, Twitter, and Facebook on my phone has also been a constant interruption of time spent with family. I think this is the biggest issue I need to deal with in 2013.</i><p>Man, do I ever sympathize. I was finding myself standing in groups of friends, outside on beautiful sunny days, and we'd all have our phones out looking at Facebook and commenting (out loud) on people's statuses (and the comment is always the same - "yeah, I saw that"). Its so lame!<p>For me the answer was really easy - just uninstall the app from your phone. You don't have to do anything drastic like quit FB, just uninstall the app from your phone and stop letting it fill up every free moment you have.<p>Do it now, before you do anything else. It will take 30 seconds and could change your life. Uninstall the FB app.
<i>Clients being unable to pay has been frustrating and made me want to do less consulting... That’s why I love selling products, I get paid up front and don’t have to worry about collecting payments.</i><p>This is exactly why I left the consulting biz too. I had a web development agency with a bunch of friends & ex-colleagues that was about to make $1M in profits after 3 years. That number would be much higher, had it not been for clients (mostly startups and small businesses) that weren't able to pay (so they claimed) or went out of business. This is despite collecting a deposit of 50% of the estimated costs up-front.<p>Before we broke $1M, I saw a great opportunity to develop a product, so I shifted my focus and have been doing that ever since.<p>Consulting is good for getting (relative) immediate cash up-front, while products can take a long time to begin earning that same amount of cash. However, if done well, products can scale and earn much more revenue in the long run.<p>Nathan is definitely taking the right approach for an individual entrepreneur. He's diversifying his income (consulting, apps, books) while presumably moving his focus away from consulting as his income from apps and books increases.<p>Good luck man!
I have to point out that most of his income came from the ebooks. His income from consulting and apps came in less than the job he left. Self help has always sold very well the last three decades.<p>I 'believe' that many who come here and quit their day jobs are usually doing it for _startups_ and/or _app dreams_.<p>Nathan is working hard, doing as many things possible. Not many people can do this (unless/until they reach some desperation factor which makes one realizes the need to _hustle_ and get stuff done).<p>Bottom line, it's hard work and all sweat. Of course, knowing what industry sells and finding what niche your skills fit in work too.
Congrats, succeeding on your own terms is what it's all about. Thank you for sharing your story, we need more of this and less of "hot new shiny mobile-social-blah raises 69 million, hires XYZ hotshot and fires ABC hotshot."
Nathan, firstly congratulations - it looks like you have definitely made a successful transition from company employment to self-employment. It's also great to see the variety of income streams that you have.<p>I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book and also learn a great deal from your blog, especially as you are so transparent with your failures and successes.<p>It would be great to hear a little more about how your time management differed in both roles. Are you working less, the same or more hours now? Also it would be good if you could divulge a little more on how the networking you've done has affected your success (if that's possible to describe or even measure!).
Thanks!
"In May I made a commitment to write 1,000 words a day. [...] That slow, consistent progress is what allowed me to write two books, almost two dozen guest posts, and over thirty posts on this blog in the last year."<p>Very well done that man.<p>I was just wondering how many hours each day it took to crank out the thousand words? I'm assuming that research time was minimal as these appear to be howto books - the research was in launching two successful applications.
Wow, that sounds great! Thank you for sharing such specific numbers on financials.<p>What I'd also like to see is a breakdown on the time spent doing things you'd rather not be doing (i.e. doing work), and how that compares to your previous salaried position.
Amazing, congratulations. And congrats on writing a post like this and coming off as a down-to-earth, regular guy. These posts (along with the people who write them) can often come across as "Look how great I am because I don't follow the status quo!" kind of stuff, but you sound completely humble about it all.<p>Best of luck for the coming year!
Thanks for sharing this, Nathan. I co-own a web development agency and share your consternation about accounts receivable. Our strategy has actually been to vet clients much more carefully and (as the agency has grown) to begin limiting the clients we take to larger, stable organizations where the accounting department and the product owner we're working are not the same person (so that a discussion about payment does not become a discussion about project status and vice versa).<p>Overall, congratulations on your success.
Congratulations Nathan. I've been a customer since 'The App Design Handbook' - and have never had an ounce of buyers remorse. I wish you all the best going forward.<p>I do have one question regarding consultancy though - how did you crack this one? How did you make the transition from web designer to consulting for clients and what does 'consulting' entail? (thanks to Swannie for providing a nice outline initially)<p>Thanks again for the transparency and inspiration Nathan.
Congratulations Nathan, it seems like the past year has been even better than you could have imagined.<p>I thought the write-up was great. There is something about your writing that comes across as humble and thankful for what you have, which is pretty refreshing seeing so many blog posts come across as a little too "know it all".
Hi Nathan,
Congrats on the amazing achievement. Being in a similar situation as you, I'm curious as to how you and your wife divide finances. What does she do? I am mobile and me and my fiancé want to travel long term but I'm wondering on how to handle the money issue because she can't have a job on the go, and I don't mind bearing the expenses but are there any pro tips that can help me avoid money issues?<p>Like could we work on a plan for her to help with my apps, etc. ? How do you guys do it ? Great family btw :)
What do you do for health insurance? I'd love to be self-employed, but I have to take care of health expenses for my family, and they <i>require</i> health insurance.
Your great success is very encouraging! I'm not sure if I could write a book, but the results from consulting and programming are very impressive for a first attempt.<p>I'm in the middle of making the jump myself, and am currently paying that $4000/mo for our family of two. Did you simply save up enough to live on that for a few months to make more of it? How did that work?<p>Thanks for the inspiration and congratulations again on your successful year!
Congratulations! Not only are those excellent numbers but the fact that you were able to do more of what you wanted to is wonderful.<p>Quitting a job isn't for everyone — no matter what anyone says, it requires tremendous discipline and focus so props to you for pulling it off. The key thing you are doing here, something that will hold you in good stead in the future, too, is the diversification of income sources.<p>Once again, congratulations!
Would be great to hear more less successful stories i.e. first freelance making less than the previous job.<p>It's tricky - and my first year isn't over yet, but not living in a concentrated tech city has made it difficult. Have been considering moving to a bigger city.
I prefer working in teams, which is also an issue as most freelancers seem to prefer to work solo.
You have inspired me to start writing 1000 words per day. While I'm typically satisfied with my finished written product, the process of writing usually isn't enjoyable for me. Hopefully, I will find a love for the craft of writing with this challenge. Thanks for sharing!
Nathan,
Great inspiration you are. I've read your thinktraffic posts and always enjoy. You have many great things to say.<p>Concentrate has helped me save thousands of hours.
<a href="http://www.getconcentrating.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.getconcentrating.com/</a><p>Keep up the hard work, and stay writing.
Good job Nathan, following the right path to being a successful solopreneur.<p>Do you use a publisher for your books and/or do marketing yourself to sell them?<p>Also, you should have visited Glasgow instead of Edinburgh, we are a much friendlier place :-P
Congratulations, I've read your other posts and always impressed by your concise way of describing the processes you are undertaking.<p>One thing troubles me though, why did you goto Swansea on your UK trip of all places!?
Great work landing on your feet and got it going great. It's very impressive to do it for the first year, even more so for doubling over your old salary in the first year. Keep it up.
Nathan, congrats. You seem incredibly focused (even though you said that focus was an issue). What is your workflow process like? In other words, how do you seem to get so much done? :)