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Linkedin Learning: Business Tips featuring Bear Cahill


This is an excerpt from an interview I did at Linkedin Learning while there recording my online courses.

 

I enjoyed the process and it’s great to see the outcome in these various complications.

 

My part starts at 3:42 but I encourage you to watch all four of us and our thoughts on running a business as a developer.

 

It’s also the same trip I took the headshot picture above. That was using a green screen. But the interview was on a real set they still had from another course. It’s an actual constructed set – real brick and everything. Before they tear it down, they take a bunch of images of it to use as backgrounds (green screen) later. Very efficient.

I suggested they take some video of passes left to right, etc. to use as motion backgrounds too. Not sure if they do???

The transcript of my part is below….

 

 

– I’ve learned a lot of things the hard way, that sometimes you just don’t fit with a client. And that’s okay. That’s fine. It could be you, it could be them, but it’s not necessarily a bad thingto walk away from something that somebody else would be a better fit for and you’re just going to get frustrated. But I’ve had to have that experience and I’ve had to have people explain to me, “You need to charge the right thing.” If you don’t charge enough, you’re not going to stay in business. That’s not good for anybody. You need to balance your work and life. If you’re unhappy doing this, that’s not good for anybody.

So those types of things that aren’t the technology side of it necessarily, but more the business side, the balance side, those are the kind of things that as a developer didn’t come naturally. I didn’t have that experience in how to run a business. I would tell people if you love flowers, don’t become a florist; you’ll never touch flowers again unless you can hire somebody to run that side of the business. So, being able to wear both hats and run the business but still get to do what you love to do and code, that takes a lot of balancing and juggling.

If you don’t do it right, you’re going to have to go get a job.