All good things...

First, I feel I should apologize to anyone who reads this blog about not updating more. I could make a bunch of excuses about being too busy, but that doesn't make up for the fact that I had intended to more thoroughly document my little experiment.

With that out of the way, the big news update:

I decided to take a job working for Amazing Society.

There are a number of factors that lead to this decision:

• Medical bills can be very expensive. Some might say that bringing a baby into this world without medical insurance may not have been the wisest choice. While it did involve an unexpected surgery (emergency c-section), we got relatively lucky with not requiring any ICU time or emergency airlifting. In the end, it's debatable as to whether it would have cost more or less with insurance, as any insurance that would have covered the expenses we did have would have been very expensive anyway.
• I didn't start out with a large enough bankroll. Most advice that I found online advised having 6 months of net pay saved up. My liquid savings were closer to 4 months when I started. (My savings got closer to 1 month at the end thanks to the medical expenses.) If this had been the only factor, I might have been able to get by and rebuild my savings, but life is rarely that simple.
• The market turned out not to be as strong as I had thought. While it seemed like the entertainment industry wasn't going to be significantly impacted by the economic down-turn, it was not that simple. Funding dried up for a lot of developers, and a lot of teams got laid off. Video games are turning out to be a strong industry, but some belts got tightened, and it became more common for my clients to cancel on planned engagements than it was for them to follow through. (Thankfully, I did have a few very strong clients that were happy to pick up the slack.)
• Christmas is a very bad time to lose a major client, especially if the following client falls through as well. Combined with the other above factors, that meant I was looking at the prospect of a very bad end to the year, and no prospects for turning it around in January.
• Being independent can be very stressful on relationships. While I started this whole journey with the intent of being able to focus on my family more, I focused more on work instead. As I was entirely accountable for my own success, I felt compelled to work at my maximum potential 100% of the time. Mix 1 part mental fatigue with 2 parts colic, and serve chilled for maximum stress levels. Even further than that, I had completely overlooked the impact that not having a stable income would have on other people in my life. Even if it would work out as a net positive on the financial balance sheet, it can lead to a lot of extra worrying. (Especially if some of the income gets delayed by 6 months due to bankruptcy filings...)
• I wasn't in a position to take full advantage of my independence. As it worked out, I didn't realize early enough that I needed to invest more in my own future. Part of the appeal of being independent is that you also have opportunities to profit directly from your own efforts. Without that, you're still entirely dependent upon your clients. Not realizing this fact lead to this dependence ultimately being the downfall of the whole idea.

In summary, it turned out that my little business plan was poor timing, both for the market, and for me personally. I still think it's a good idea, but next time I try it, I'll be taking these factors into account.