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 [7am.com] and Aardvark [aardvark.co.nz].

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 ;-) 

I would like to highlight on number two though, we have always paid a little bit extra for someone good to do our books, and because of that we haven't had to deal with embezelment (spelling?) , our projectections where always pretty close and we usually knew exactly where we stand. None of us are being chased by the Inland Revenue (Uk Equiv of IRS) and everything is clean.

We might not be rich, but at least our books are in order :) 

good luck with your jet-venture. Sounds pretty damn cool. 

If you live in the US (which you don't but it might apply to other people starting their own businesses), you might be able to get free business counseling at your local Chamber of Commerce. Many CofCs participate in a program called SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Entrepreneurs). The SCORE people volunteer their time to advise people starting their own businesses who might not have the cash to pay an expensive consultant.

I used to work for the CofC in my hometown, and the SCORE guys there usually came in about twice a week, and the people who came in to see them seemed to find the service helpful.