Slashdot Mirror

This guy is an idiot. You're telling me his whole source of income prior to being shut down was designing cruise missiles?

No.
His previous income was building 7am.com from scratch.
He then sold it for handsome profit back the dot com days.
Under his own admission, he didn't pay the tax he should have, but was paying it off over installments. It was several hundred thousand I believe.
When it came to applying for funding from the government for another project, the Inland Revenue called in the debt in a lump sum. He couldn't pay so they filed for bankruptcy.
The missile was a hobby that he is now turning too for actual income.

I have been similarly disadvantaged by the "sharp" practices of so-called "businessmen".

Back in 1999, I "was" 7am News, a web business that effectively established the viability of syndicating content on the Net.

I had to fight for my success along the way, fending off attempts by "big" old-school publishers who claimed that syndicating their headlines and links to their sites was a breach of copyright and who didn't understand the difference between republishing and hypertext linking.

After starting the venture in 1997, and investing 18 hours a day, 7 days a week for nearly three years, I'd built the business up to the point where 7am.com's server was dishing out the news over two million times a day and Nielsens/NetRatings ranked it ahead of the BBC's news website, Fox News, Wired.com and even Playboy.com :-)

By 2000, 7am.com was delivering its news content through a nework of nearly a quarter-million third-party websites and was valued at US$20m-US40m (wasn't everything in those days though?).

Back in 1998 I was offered $1 million for the business by a US-based company but chose not to sell because they wanted to simply strip it for inclusion into their own product.

By 1999 I was still working 18/7 but had the help of two part-time writers who were also producing news and the service had racked up an impressive record for breaking news on the web. (Believe it or not, 7am.com was actually the first website in the world to carry the pictures beamed back from the surface of Mars by the Pathfinder mission).

Anyway, I was eventually promised the earth by a group of investors who assured me that they were not interested in simply asset-stripping the business, but were actually planning to grow it in a way that would ensure it continued to be innovative and maintain its lead in the field of syndicated news content and independent reporting.

My goal was not to become a "get rich quick" dot-com millionaire (I knew that would be a "fad") but to set myself up with a good shareholding in a company with long-term profitability.

Well do I look stupid now?

I still have around 30% of the shares in 7am.com but through some very clever "manipulation" by the investors, and a total lack of vision and willingness to accept good advice, that shareholding is effectively worthless.

Not only did they not invest in the continued growth of the company, they also hired another company (in which they had a shareholding) to provide consulting and other services which were never delivered (but they were paid for).

It appears very much to me as if 7am.com became a company that was used to raise a bundle of cash that could then be shifted into another company that was really their darling-child. The conflict of interest wasn't disclosed until after the contracts were signed and the money paid.

What's worse, they completely ignored my advice in respect to how the company should be changing and growing to maintain its dominance of the market it had created.

As a result, 7am.com, which was once the world's most widely syndicated web-based news sercice, is now a no-name website that no longer even features on the Web rankings.

Its news content is no longer fresh, exciting and different. Its offerings are tired and old, there's no innovation, no energy, no value left.

Because it's been run into the ground, the investors have lent the company huge sums of money by way of "convertible notes."

This means that if the do manage to sell the company as a going-concern, they can convert those loans into shares and thus effectively dilute my shares to near-nothing. If however, they sell the company's assets, then they simply use the money to repay the notes (plus interest) -- effectively leaving nothing for the shareholders but an empty shell.

Whatever happens, it's not so much the loss of money and long-term income that hurts, it's the fact that a really terrific ser

Back in 1998, I discovered that my 7am.com website was generating some pretty heavy traffic and decided that I needed a decent US-based provider on which to host it.

I chose Tierranet and was certainly never disappointed.

Within a few short years, 7am.com grew to become the world's most widely syndicated web-based news service, delivering news headines through its Java-based news ticker more than two million times a day across a network of more than 200,000 third-party webpages -- and it really started gobbling up bandwidth.

From memory we were doing 15GB-20GB and servicing 2-3 million HTTP requests per day on average.

TierraNet has always provided exceptional service, outstanding performance and brilliant support.

Although I'm no longer involved in the day-to-day operation of 7am.com, I still have several smaller sites hosted with TierraNet and I'm just as happy.

When my Jet-powered gokart page was slashdotted a while back, the service had absolutely no problems keeping up with the load. There were around 40,000 visitors in just a few hours and even though most of these downloaded videos and other large objects, the server didn't blink an eye.

All the usual diclaimers apply -- I don't work for Tierranet, I'm not a shareholder, I don't get a commission, I have no relationship with them other than as a very satisfied customer for about six years now.

They're not the cheapest -- but if you're looking for bullet-proof hosting with great support then I'm damned if I've seen better value anywhere (and yes, I've looked :-)

I know full well how publishers (and other online enterprises) can lose so much money.

Back in 1997 I started a little website at 7am.com.

It wasn't pretentious and simply sought to become a news aggregation site designed to save people time by bringing together links to the most interesting stories from all around the Web.

About this time I'd also just finished co-writing a book on Java (being a programmer from way-back) and it occured to me that I could syndicate my regularly updated list of headlines and links using Java-based news ticker.

Thus an empire was born!

Within a few short months, 7am.com had gone from getting just a few hundred hits a day, to getting half a million or so.

The News Ticker was a smart idea -- it allowed people to include regularly updated, topical information on their web-pages at no cost or effort.

Within a few short years there were over 200,000 third-party web-pages carrying the 7am.com news ticker and it was being hit around 2 million times per day.

By that time I'd also started publishing a "newswire" consisting of stories written by myself and a small group of other writers who were keen to get some experience in the (then) new and exciting world of online journalism.

Probably not a lot of people are aware, but 7am.com was (to the best of my knowledge) the very first website in the world to carry the pictures sent back from the surface of Mars by the Pathfinder mission in 1997. 7am.com beat NASA, CNN and all the other sites I checked by several minutes and -- thanks to the News Ticker's ability to "get the message out" to a heap of other sites, there were over 100K visitors within the first half hour of those images being posted.

The exact details of how this "scoop" was achieved is revealed in an upcoming book I'm writing.

7am.com also scooped most of the traditional media when NATO launched its attacks on Serb targets in Yugoslavia. One of our newshounds lived near an airport from which the B-52's were despatched and he filed a report within a minute or so of the first wave taking off.

The same thing happened in 1998 when the US and Britain attacked Iraq -- 7am.com got the news up first.

7am.com got the full Starr Report on Clinton's "misbehavior" online before many of the other news sites -- but we were smart enough to ZIP up our copy so that people could download it more quickly.

Our ability to scoop big (and small) stories like this, combined with the viral growth of our news ticker meant that 7am.com was ranked by NetRatings (now Neilsen/Net Ratings) as being more popular than Playboy.com, The BBC's news website, and right up there alongside FoxNews.

So why have I typed all this stuff?

Well here's the bottom line...

Until mid 1999, 7am.com was doing all this on a monthly budget of around US$7,000.

That's right -- the total cost of running what was, at the time, the world's most widely syndicated web-based news service, was just $84,000 a year. What's more -- there were months when revenues almost covered those costs so the actual operating loss was significantly less.

How was this achieved?

Simple -- 7am.com was a true "virtual newsroom" which took full advantage of the power the Net offers to slash overheads.

Although the webservers were located in San Diego, California, the "head office" of 7am.com was a tiny home-office in the New Zealand countryside, 10,000 miles away.

Total staff consisted of myself and two or three other part-time freelancers.

No Porsches in the carpark (no carpark!), no flash offices, no boozy lunches, no scooters in the hallway -- just a small group of people working their asses off and breaking some important new ground.

I have to admit that I worked 18 hours a day for four years without a single day off. In fact, I got an ear infection and had the rather unpleasant experience of my eardrum bursting because I was too busy to get to the doctor in time -- but hey, it's only pain eh?

About that time a group of VCs came along and said "we can take this business to the US and make a fortune". They promptly bought a majority stake in the business and set about "preparing it for sale".

Now remember, this was a business that had run very successfully on a shoestring budget for nearly four years and had built the largest syndication network of its type on the Net.

It had a very successful structure and operating model -- hell, it was even gearing up to make a profit!

Unfortunately, things changed dramatically once the VCs got their hands on the controls.

Suddenly the total outgoings jumped from $7K per month to nearer $120K per month. Offices were hired, staff recruited, new computers purchased, etc, etc, etc.

Suddenly seven figure sums were being consumed -- and, what's worse, the carefully crafted, and very successful publishing systems which had been put in place were being overhauled (ie: screwed around with) despite my objections.

To cut a long story short (buy the book if you want details ;-), the money-hungry VCs effectively bloated the operational costs by a huge sum.

Phrases such as "you've got to spend money to make money" and "image is important" were bandied about freely.

I was told that nobody would be interested in investing in, or buying 7am.com if it didn't have "substance". The "virtual" concept had to be replaced by lots of people huddled in little cubicles it seemed.

My suggestions that surely profit was more important than "image" fell on deaf ears (perhaps I was once again ahead of my time eh? :-)

The VCs ended up totally screwing the sale of the company, I got so frustrated I resigned, and now 7am.com continues to "chug along" but seems to have totally lost the spark, innovation and cutting-edge attitude that won it such success when the money-barons weren't in control.

By the way, I *am* serious about the book. There are literally thousands of "my secrets to success" type of books written by figureheads of business such as Richard Branson, Victor Kiam, etc -- mine has the working title "The secrets of failure".

I may not know what to do right in the world of business, but I sure have a very long list of things I've done wrong. Hopefully people will buy the book and learn from *my* mistakes rather than their own.

Let's face it, I must have screwed up real bad to come out of the dot-com boom with nothing but pocket change eh?

I was one of those "bright entrepreneurs" who built an online business (7am.com)with great traffic and an even better future.

Unlike so many of the flash-in-the-pan wondersites that no longer exist, it wasn't built on millions of dollars in VC funding and didn't have large offices filled with geeks on scooters or a carpark filled with Porsches and BMWs.

Started in 1997, it was very much a "one-man band" for two years, during which time it grew from a good idea into one of the most widely syndicated web-based news services on the Net.

Getting it from zero to two million hits a day by 1999 meant working 18-19 hours per day, every day for two straight years and living on the smell of an oily rag.

Suffice to say that I recall quite vividly the day my eardrum burst while I was typing up a breaking news story. I'd gotten an inner ear infection but was too busy to go to the doctor.

I should also point out that 7am.com didn't have the benefit of being US-based. Instead, it was located in rural New Zealand -- half a world away from its target marketplace.

This meant that my workday started at around 11pm and finished at 6pm-7pm the next day.

It also meant that I had to use sweat-equity and innovation to replace a large workforce and lots of capital. 7am.com was a real groundbreaker in the area of syndicated news content on the Web and to this day continues to deliver content through a network of over 200,000 websites.

In 1999 I was approached by a group of local (NZ) "suits" who wanted to buy in and take 7am.com to the NASDAQ.

Remember that by this time the webserver was tracking over 2 million hits per day, the syndication network was about 125,000 third-party websites in size, I had regular advertisers, and Nielsens/NetRatings had rated 7am.com as being more popular than news.bbc.co.uk, CNNfn, Playboy.com and a raft of others.

So, at the peak of the dot-com boom, what would you pay for a site with these respectible figures?

Unfortunately I didn't have a whole lot of other suitors banging down my door and I knew that in order to maintain or improve my position in the market I had to pour more capital into the operation -- so beggars can't be choosers. (The lack of other investors was/is a sad indictment on the state of the VC industry in New Zealand).

I ended up accepting a figure that was (in US$ terms) just in the six-figure bracket.

After paying back the money I'd borrowed to start up the business, some tax, and catching up on the mortgage I was left with just over $10,000 in cash.

I was also left with 34% of the company but I was promised that that I could now slow down my own pace of work, take weekends off and maybe even enjoy a vacation.

Most importantly to me was the promise that the investors would bring skilled business management to the enterprise.

Now I'm the first person to put up my hand and admit that I'm not, and don't aspire to be, a great business manager. I'm an "ideas guy" and I'm also quite competent at marketing -- but crunching numbers and brokering multi-million dollar deals just doesn't spin my wheels I'm afraid.

So here I was -- my bills were up to date, I had a few thousand in my back pocket, I had 34% of (at the time) the world's most widely syndicated web-based news service, and the future looked rosey!

What's more, an independent valuation of the business (made in 1999/2000) suggested that it was worth at least US$40 million

Unfortunately I soon learned that the promises of the new investors were pretty hollow and that they figured they knew the online news business better than me -- despite the fact that none of them had any experience in this field whatsoever.

I was working harder than ever and while everyone else was partying, I had to do 36-hours straight during the millennium eve/day celebrations so as to provide the site with around-the-clock coverage. That promised vacation never eventuated either.

I also gave up trying to provide input and direction because what had been a dynamic, exciting, innovative operation with ultra-low overheads became just another corporate monolith.

By mid-2000 I resigned my positions as director, board-member and news director -- it was simply too frustrating.

To cut a long story short -- I still have a 34% interest in 7am.com, the company continues to trade and remains a significant player in the syndicated news-content market -- but I've never seen another penny.

This annoys the snot out of me because I have since had a number of
good ideas but can't afford to fund them.

So, if anyone wants to buy my 34% of 7am.com for a song -- just drop me a line and we'll talk. I've got better things to do with the money than leave it tied up in a large, slow-moving corporate beast.

.ad afgjk uba dooba doo DRUDGE REPORT 2002
Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers

WASH POST: Bush Admin Split over Iraq...

IRAQ 'CLOSE TO NUCLEAR BOMB GOAL'

Passive smoking can kill your cat... TIMEWARNER to charge flood victims for cable boxes... Archerd: Democrats seeking Hollywood money... Republicans will tie ANWR to Iraq; Say threat in Baghdad necessitates oil drilling in Alaska... Ventura Goofs On God... AP WORLD
AP NATIONAL
AP WASHINGTON
AP BUSINESS
AP ENTERTAINMENT
AP ON THE HOUR
AP HEADLINES
AP BREAKING
SEARCH
Headline:
Date Range:
Within 14 Days Within 13 Days Within 12 Days Within 11 Days Within 10 Days Within 9 Days Within 8 Days Within 7 Days Within 6 Days Within 5 Days Within 4 Days Within 3 Days Within 2 Days Within 1 Day
Any word(s) in article:


ANANOVA
DOW JONES
BLOOMBERG
PAKISTAN WIRE
PAKISTAN BROADCASTING
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC WIRE
ITAR-TASS
KYODO WIRE
PR NEWSWIRE
[SHOWBIZ] PR WIRE
SCRIPPS HOWARD
US INFO WIRE
U.S. NEWSWIRE
WORLDWIRES
XINHUA ABC NEWS
AD AGE DEADLINE
BBC
BBC AUDIO
BILLBOARD
BOSTON GLOBE
BROADCASTING & CABLE
CBS NEWS
C-SPAN SCHEDULE
CHICAGO TRIB
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
CNN
CNN TRANSCRIPTS
DAILY VARIETY
D.C. DAYBOOK
E!
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
EMERGENCY NET
ENT WEEKLY
FINANCIAL TIMES
FORBES MAG
FOX NEWS
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIB
HILL
H'WOOD REPORTER
HUMAN EVENTS
INSIGHT MAG
INVEST BUS DAILY
JERUSALEM POST
JEWISH WORLD REVIEW
LA DAILY NEWS
LA TIMES
LUCIANNE.COM
MEDIA CHECK
MEDIA LIFE
MSNBC
MUCHMUSIC
NATION
NATIONAL ENQUIRER
NATIONAL REVIEW
NEW REPUBLIC
NY DAILY NEWS
NY OBSERVER
NY POST
NY TIMES
NEW YORKER
NEWSBYTES
NEWSWEEK
N. KOREAN NEWS
PEOPLE MAG
R & R
REASON MAG
ROLL CALL
SKY NEWS
SLATE: PAPERS
STAR
TIME MAG
TV SHOPTALK
[U.K.] DAILY MIRROR
DAILY RECORD
[U.K.] EVENING STANDARD
[U.K.] EXPRESS
[U.K.] GUARDIAN
[U.K.] INDEPENDENT
[U.K.] NEWS OF THE WORLD
[U.K.] PEOPLENEWS
[U.K.] STAR
[U.K.] SUN
U.K. TABLOIDS
[U.K.] TELEGRAPH
[U.K.] TIMES
US NEWS
USA TODAY
VILLAGE VOICE
WASH POST
WASH TIMES
WEEKLY STANDARD
WORLDNETDAILY
UPDATE: Mob Kills 2 in Ill. After Van Crash... US Senate Fails to Pass Medicare Drug Plan... Agents leaving Border Patrol in droves, union says... French spa to host next G8 summit... GLASSMAN/HASSETT: Dow 36000 Revisited... MATT DRUDGE
3 AM GIRLS
CINDY ADAMS
ARMY ARCHERD
DAVE BARRY
MICHAEL BARONE
PETER BART
BOB BARTLEY
STEPHEN BATTAGLIO
MARILYN BECK/SMITH
BLANKLEY
GLORIA BORGER
L. BRENT BOZELL
BRESLIN
DAVID BRODER
PAT BUCHANAN
BILL BUCKLEY
MONA CHAREN
ELEANOR CLIFT
RICHARD COHEN
PAUL COLFORD
JOE CONASON
ANN COULTER
STANLEY CROUCH
MICHAEL DALY
LOU DOBBS
MAUREEN DOWD
STEVE DUNLEAVY
ROGER EBERT
JOSEPH FARAH
SUZANNE FIELDS
ARI FLEISCHER
MICHAEL FLEMING
ROGER FRIEDMAN
JOHN FUND
LEAH GARCHIK
BILL GERTZ
GEORGIE GEYER
JONAH GOLDBERG
ELLEN GOODMAN
MARTIN GROVE
LLOYD GROVE
PETE HAMILL
CARL HIAASEN
NAT HENTOFF
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
H'WOOD REPORTER E-MAIL
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
INSIDE BELTWAY
INSIDE POLITICS
INSIDE THE RING
MOLLY IVINS
AL KAMEN
MICKEY KAUS
KEITH J. KELLY
MICHAEL KELLY
MICHAEL KINSLEY
HARRY KNOWLES
MORT KONDRACKE
KRAUTHAMMER
LARRY KUDLOW
HOWIE KURTZ
JOHN LEO
DAVID LIMBAUGH
RUSH LIMBAUGH
HAL LINDSEY
RICH LOWRY
MICHELLE MALKIN
CHRIS MATTHEWS
MARY MCGRORY
MICHAEL MEDVED
DICK MORRIS
PEGGY NOONAN
BOB NOVAK
OFF THE RECORD
KATE O'BEIRNE
MARVIN OLASKY
BILL O'REILLY
PAGE SIX
ANDREA PEYSER
JIM PINKERTON
JOHN PODHORETZ
TV PROGRAMMING INSIDER
WES PRUDEN
ANNA QUINDLEN
WILLIAM RASPBERRY
REX REED
RICHARD REEVES
J. MAX ROBINS
RICHARD ROEPER
RUSH/MOLLOY
BILL SAFIRE
SCHLAFLY
TOM SHALES
GAIL SHISTER
LIZ SMITH
MICHAEL SNEED
JOE SOBRAN
THOMAS SOWELL
ANDREW SULLIVAN
HELEN THOMAS
CAL THOMAS
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
NEAL TRAVIS
TV COLUMN
DEB WEISS
JEFFREY WELLS
GEORGE WILL
WALTER WILLIAMS
WASHINGTON WHISPERS
BILL ZWECKER
GERTH ZEROS IN ON CHENEY... AIRLINES TO TRIM FLIGHTS ON SEPT 11... Accounting controls on EU budget 'unreliable'... Man Accused of Raping Nine Women He Met Through Internet... Pentagon: Hamas experimenting with chemical weapons... AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
AFP INTERNATIONAL
AFP NEWS WRAP
AFX
UPI WIRE
UPI NATIONAL
UPI WORLD
AP/REUTERS PHOTO WIRE
REUTERS ROUNDUP
REUTERS SPOTLIGHT
REUTERS WORLD
REUTERS POLITICS
REUTERS ODD
SEARCH






*FINDS ANY STORY LINKED ON DRUDGE WEATHER ACTION
QUAKE SHEET x x x x x VISITS TO DRUDGE
07/31/02

004,776,309 IN PAST 24 HOURS
107,519,403 IN PAST 31 DAYS
895,224,122 IN PAST YEAR DRUDGE ARCHIVES DRUDGE REFERENCE DESK EMAIL: DRUDGE@DRUDGEREPORT.COM SUPER-POWERED BY ALLEGIANCE TELECOM... DRUDGE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB SPEECH TRANSCRIPT

Sometimes it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I consider myself to be one of the pioneers of news aggregation and linking -- having done this on a number of my own sites since 1995.

Back in 1998 I came into conflict with the Nando Times when my 7am.com news site over the use of their headlines and links on the syndicated Java news ticker and news-aggregation pages.

Nando tried to claim that use of its headlines and links to its pages were a breach of copyright and that anyone wishing to do this would have to pay $100/month for
the privilege.

I told them to go take a hike and they threatened to sue for breach of copyright. Suffice to say that once they checked with their legal department as to the validity of their claims they decided to back down.

Although they were one of the first news sites on the Web, Nando simply didn't get the concept that links drive traffic and traffic generates ad revenues -- or at least it did when there were advertisers willing to pay for placements.

The stupid thing about this whole situation was that the 7am.com News Ticker became so popular and drove so much traffic to the various sites included on it that if I decided to remove the links to a particular news site I'd often get an email complaining that I *wasn't* linking.

Around the same time I had similar problems with my Aardvark site and found myself battling a long list of local news publishers who threatened legal action if I continued to deep link to the stories they were carrying.

As with Nando, these sites eventually worked out that traffic = revenues and withdrew their stupid threats.

I should make it clear that I have a very ethical and honest linking policy which I advertise on my sites so that both the linkers and linkees know what I expect and offer. It's a shame that more sites don't do the same so as to avoid confusion and conflict.

I've been deep linking for some seven years, been threatened with law suits over my linking activities by much bigger publishers on no less than six occasions -- but never had to spend a day in court and never backed down.

Some people just take longer to learn that the WWW is *made* from deep links and that to disallow them will effectively destroy the fabric of the web.

I recently found myself in a similar situation when my Daily self-published internet column finally became just too much of a drain on my finances and I was faced with shutting it down after seven years of work.

The subscription option was considered but in the end, just 2% of the regular audience said they would subscribe -- a number far too low to support the site.

However, I was very lucky insomuch as I managed to obtain a 12-month sponsorship from a local ISP which, while not covering all the costs, at least pays for the cofee, power, phone and some of the other outgoings.

Given the sad fate of so many great online publications, it strikes me that perhaps the secret to longevity and (ultimately?) profit may well be KISS - that's Keep It Small & Sponsored.

It strikes me that too many online publications focus on building empires rather than simply creating and publishing good content at minimal cost.

For example -- does Salon rent office space?

Why?

Surely a "new media" publisher would realize the enormous savings to be made by having writers work from home and email in their copy.

When I launched 7am.com, I ran the entire operation (2 million hits per day and a network of 200,000 third-party websites) on a completely virtual basis. No rented offices, no conference room, no company cars, no scooters -- just a group of hard-working people staying in touch and coordinating their efforts over the Net.

The Net may be a great medium for publishing content -- but it's an even greater way to slash your operating costs -- if you use it properly!

After I resigned as a resource manager for a large Telco, I started up my own online communications company (back in the days when 2400bps modems were the standard and 9600 was truly exotic).

I was too early -- it was only 1989 and email wasn't even a feature on local area networks, let alone nation-wide ones.

However, I sold that company and started up a software venture that developed some very successful email/fax bridging software. I also sold that company as well when it started to get so big that I was entering "management drift"

About that time the Net really started to take off (1995) so I started up several online ventures including a couple of news sites 7am.com and Aardvark.

For several years I ran 7am.com with the aid of just one US-based reporter which meant that I had to be "on call" 24/7 for 365 days of the year. That was really hard.

Making it worse was the fact that I live in a timezone that is up to 14 hours ahead of the USA which meant that I had to work from 10pm through to about 5pm local-time -- snatching just four or five hours a day in the late afternoon/early-evening.

Thanks to the efficiencies of being a small operation (and some smart marketing) I built 7am.com up into a syndicated news service that provided news headlines to over 200,000 websites by way of its Java newsticker which was loaded about a million times a day (not bad for a 1.5 person operation).

I eventually sold 66% of that business to some investors because it needed to grow and, once again, I didn't want to drift into a management role. Unfortunately the investors had no clue about where the value was and, in my opinion, really stuffed things up.

With the money I made from selling part of my shareholding, I started building jet engines (yeah, I'm the guy with the jet-powered gokart that featured on slashdot a while back).

Now I'm working 14/7 trying to keep up with the orders (a little accident a while back didn't help at all) and am in the process of organising a number of licensing deals so that I can get back to R&D rather than production work. The obvious alternative was to employ people to do what I do now and move myself into a managerial role (no, that ain't going to happen!).

You want tips about being self-employed?

1. Make sure you like what you're doing.
It's really easy to put in the hours and produce good quality work if you're enjoying yourself.

If you're not enjoying yourself than it can be awfully hard to roll out of bed and you'll find yourself looking for excuses not to work -- which means you'll probably piss people off and won't make any money.

2. Get an expert to do your taxes.
I have fought with the taxman for years -- even went to court over a tax issue and won. Unfortunately, you can't beat the system and as we left the court-room, one of the people from the tax office said "we'll get you" -- and they kept the pressure on right up until I got an professional to file my taxes for me.

Besides which -- I find all that paperwork to be really boring -- and therefore it's the kind of thing which you're tempted to leave to the last moment -- not good.

3. Don't underestimate how much money you'll need.
If possible, ease yourself into self-employment. It's much easier if you can work on your own stuff evenings and weekends until you're making more (tax-paid) money from it than you get from your day-job. Then you can dump the day-job, safe in the knowledge that you're not going to be living off your savings.

And remember, billing someone isn't the same as banking the money. Some companies will try to delay paying you for as long as they can -- and that can really screw you up if you don't have money in the bank to tide you over.

4. Get some good business advice.
You might be the best programmer in the world - but that don't mean squat unless you've got a plan. Spend a few bucks to get some quality business advice. There are people out there who will take you through all the steps -- right from working out exactly what it is you'll be offering customers through to the details of incorporation.

You need to stay in touch with these people and get a regular checkup to make sure that you're sticking to your business plan.

5. Keep your overheads down.
I've been working from home ever since I went out on my own -- and it's great.

Not having to suffer a long commute every day means that I'm already at least a couple of hours ahead of those who have to travel to their office and back. I also save money on gas, wear and tear, parking and the like.

Remember -- the days of dot-com excesses are long gone. Unless you can find someone to bankroll you with millions of dollars in venture capital, the money you'll be spending is probably your own.

However, while on the subject of working from home, it really pays to set yourself up an office in a separate room if you can. This provides a virtual border between work and play.

If you set yourself up in the living room or your bedroom you'll be sitting right next to temptation such as the TV, your bed and other stuff which sometimes looks a lot more attractive than a subtle bug lurking in a piece of code you've already been pawing over for hours.

Hey, I could write a book on this stuff -- hmmm, maybe that could be my next project ;-)