My current expectations have little to do with the ones I had over 16 years ago, when I first became a self-employed software programmer.
During all these years, I have used different commercial names and had different concerns. My activity hasn't changed much though. Most of its main features, like remote work and English as the primary language, have remained unaltered too.
It has been a really tough process. Something which I would never repeat, even which I would disadvise, but which has been essential to become what I am today, and not just on the technical or professional aspects. As I am saying on my other website (at least, on its current version), "time is on my side". I understand, learn and grow always and from anything. I am not looking for problems or non-ideal conditions, although I will certainly get the most from them.
Some information about the previous stages of my self-employed career is surely required. In any case, it is important to understand that, at least with me, the past isn't too relevant, much less if the correct context isn't taken into account. I haven't really had one or a few life-changing moments, not from my present perspective at least, after having experienced quite a few which could be easily considered so (professionally and otherwise). Multiple events have been pretty influential, none of them truly defining. Although there are some characteristics which have been quite constant throughout all my career, especially while self-employed: sticking to my principles, having very limited resources/money, my work being systematically misappreciated and me being surrounded by people with a surprisingly distorted image of me (what I do, want or need) and of themselves (their capabilities or relevance).
- trendingIT (2008-2010):
- My overall attitude and expectations were very naive and ignorant.
- My original intention was to focus on numerical modelling and the commercialisation of a certain tool which I had developed. The main activity moved to custom software development pretty quickly.
- I was eminently concerned about growth and making the company more than just myself.
- I was the one doing everything, but wouldn't have minded to outsource some work (evidently, without going against some of my basic ideas). The whole website back then (still on the domain trendingit.com), for example, was designed and developed by someone else.
- Custom Solvers (2010-2013):
- Only the commercial name changed. The activity and my expectations continued being the same.
- I was still hiring external companies for issues not directly related to my main activity. Someone else made, for example, a website redesign, which was already hosted under customsolvers.com. I was the one taking care of the backend and, of course, of the contents (I have always been the only person writing all the text/contents). I never outsourced any work, although I wouldn't have minded to do so (of course, with full transparency, honesty and fairness).
- I had various employees at different points. Their contributions to the main activity of the company were always marginal. Their work was always fairly (and beyond) rewarded and recognised.
- I brought my growth intentions still further and got more involved in the non-technical business side. I got closer to entrepreneurial circles. My financial debts increased notably.
- I wasn't able to find what I wanted and, after losing all my motivation, I closed the company. That is, I terminated my activity as self-employed.
- Custom Solvers 2.0 (2015-2019):
- I regained my motivation, found the right direction on which to focus all my efforts.
- No more expectations of growing the company beyond myself or outsourcing to compensate for some of my lacks (e.g., web design). Custom Solversand Alvaro Carballo Garcia became synonyms.
- Contrarily to what I had been doing until that moment, I put my main focus on the public, open internet. I explained a lot. I did a ton of unpaid self-promotional work. The idea was to showcase my skills and attitude as a way to improve my chances of finding clients who shared my views.
- I created lots of public samples of my work during this period. The new varocarbas.com, for example, was a living proof it: the R&D-focused sidekick of customsolvers.com! As explained on the work samples page, most of this is gone now.
- My ideas regarding what I wanted were pretty clear, but not so much the best way to accomplish such a goal. Additionally, the required (unpaid) effort to keep all that up was very important and the associated benefits were quite modest. I simply stopped including the "2.0" bit and created the current version of customsolvers.com.
- Custom Solvers (2019-2024):
- Now:
- Starting in July 2024, varocarbas.com has become my main website. I am planning to keep customsolvers.com as a reference (e.g., description of my background) and for historical reasons. In any case, this transition will still take some time. The current version of varocarbas.com, for example, is almost a placeholder (but it has useful information!). I have to build a proper website.