Almost 30 years ago I started my Microlite business, this was after a number of years of being totally out of electronics doing stuff like building and driving instruction during which time Bill Gates invented the PC, unknown to me. So I decided to launch out self-employed as an electronics design house: a one-stop-shop from client's vague concept to the reality of pilot production. The name suggesting a shedding of light on micro-electronics with hints of low-cost and providence.
Yesterday I decided to begin to wind down and retire Microlite, specifically to extricate myself from the stress of long drawn-out, complex, firmware-intensive projects, and clients unwilling or unable to pay in a timely fashion. I will continue to support existing clients but be very selective about any new work I take on, and aim to reduce the business to a part-time occupation.
Today I am faced with taunts of "failure", "you gave in to pressure", "you are letting people down" - thoughts of Churchill's never give in, never, never, never, in nothing, great or small, large or petty. But even he follows this with an "except" category into which I fit. I am in fact taking hold of my destiny. I believe it was God's idea to start Microlite and I believe that this is the time for it to end or at least change course. In case you are asking "why? here are some of the ingredients:
- An increasing gut-feeling that Microlite is past its sell-by date;
- Precipitated by the particular project I was limbering up to which has proved to be more complex than I had bargained for;
- A recent chance remark made by someone here that I might retire from electronics one day;
- Ongoing stress caused by unmanageable clients vis-à-vis their unattainable expectations and unwillingness or inability to pay in a timely fashion;
- The ever-increasing complexity of electronics systems often surpassing what a one-man-team can manage;
- The ever-decreasing scale of electronics component so that my ultimate resolution of my PCB CAD can no longer cope, but to upgrade would be expensive plus a steep learning curve;
- My junior assistant programmer having recently left, on whom I was relying on more and more for software and firmware solutions;
- Increased needs here for my involvement in building maintenance due to other folk being otherwise deployed;
- Our finances being no longer so dependent upon Microlite income now another community business has taken off;
- Recent bad experiences with certain projects taking much longer than expected or clients not being fully satisfied.
Maybe I'll post again when the dust settles and it becomes clearer what all this really means.
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