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Fool I am, I'm doing this on hard mode, by starting a year after our first child arrived. It's hard work, and not earning me any money so far because I'm still

Fool I am, I'm doing this on hard mode, by starting a year after our first child arrived. It's hard work, and not earning me any money so far because I'm still working on the MVP, but I hope to get there sooner or later. Most of the work so far is the odd hour here and there in the evening, and a few hours a week during my commute. I am however greatly reassured by a colleague who is doing the same thing with an iOS app which is bringing in a reasonable amount of money - he works on it during his lunch break most days.

nextweek2 11y ago
> works on it during his lunch break most days That is very dangerous thing to do, using company time or equipment would entitle the company to between some and all of the revenue. Whilst you can claim it's within your own lunch break, a lawyer might argue that it is hard to separate the time. Using the companies Internet access and hardware would certainly constitute using the companies resource. Unless you have explicit written confirmation from your employer, DON'T do your own projects in their time or at their place of business.
- vijayr 11y ago
  You are assuming he is using company equipment. He might not be - may be he takes his lunch outside and uses his own computer to work on his stuff?
  - tony2016 11y ago
    I am a developer for over 25 years. I have been using company time and equipment for my own personal projects. Immoral.. not cool? Maybe. I still work the 8 hours and sometimes stay longer. I am very productive and every company is satisfied with my output. They will never know what I am doing on my computer. They don't care. The only way they would know if they install screen capture software. I would never work for a company who does this. Worst worst case that can ever happen is I will get fired. So what? There are tons of companies who would be happy to hire me. It's the company's who fired me loss.. not really mine. Use your judgement on what you can do at the company. In every case, I was able to work on my stuff any time. Usually all the company cares about is that your do your job and meet or exceed their expectations. Some people might not like these suggestions. But come on.. stop living in fear. If this a job that you really are afraid to lose, then you probably want to be more careful. You're not going to go to prison for working on company's time and equipment. If you create a software, there's no proof how you created it. I am working on the same stuff at home and work. A company doesn't care if I sell some software.. as long it's not competing with their own. Then they would come and say I am using their IP. Anyone who says the company owns everything you create using their time and equipment. Just legal words of fear mongering. Prove it.
- jon-wood 11y ago
  It can be a dangerous thing to do, but the company are fully aware and fine with it happening - there are actually a few of us with side projects that we'll sometimes work on during lunch breaks.
philsnow 11y ago
> hard mode, by starting a year after our first child arrived It isn't likely to get easier. I have kids aged 4 and 6 and I want to spend 100% of my time on four different things: spending time with my wife, spending time with my kids, my day job, and side/fun things. The light at the end of the tunnel [0] is that I'm sure the kids are eventually going to have their own things they want to spend 100% of their time on (and while I hope I'm one of them, that still means I'll probably only get 25%), which will free up time for me to spend on the other things. [0] very tongue-in-cheek, this phrase is implying that I'm in a dark period of my life or something, but I'm the happiest I've ever been right now with all these things pulling on me and my time.
- jon-wood 11y ago
  I feel your pain - I'm constantly feeling guilty about neglecting one thing or another, but there are only so many hours in the day, and I'm slowly getting used to the fact that I just can't do everything.

nextweek2 11y ago

> works on it during his lunch break most days That is very dangerous thing to do, using company time or equipment would entitle the company to between some and all of the revenue. Whilst you can claim it's within your own lunch break, a lawyer might argue that it is hard to separate the time. Using the companies Internet access and hardware would certainly constitute using the companies resource. Unless you have explicit written confirmation from your employer, DON'T do your own projects in their time or at their place of business.

vijayr 11y ago
You are assuming he is using company equipment. He might not be - may be he takes his lunch outside and uses his own computer to work on his stuff?
- tony2016 11y ago
  I am a developer for over 25 years. I have been using company time and equipment for my own personal projects. Immoral.. not cool? Maybe. I still work the 8 hours and sometimes stay longer. I am very productive and every company is satisfied with my output. They will never know what I am doing on my computer. They don't care. The only way they would know if they install screen capture software. I would never work for a company who does this. Worst worst case that can ever happen is I will get fired. So what? There are tons of companies who would be happy to hire me. It's the company's who fired me loss.. not really mine. Use your judgement on what you can do at the company. In every case, I was able to work on my stuff any time. Usually all the company cares about is that your do your job and meet or exceed their expectations. Some people might not like these suggestions. But come on.. stop living in fear. If this a job that you really are afraid to lose, then you probably want to be more careful. You're not going to go to prison for working on company's time and equipment. If you create a software, there's no proof how you created it. I am working on the same stuff at home and work. A company doesn't care if I sell some software.. as long it's not competing with their own. Then they would come and say I am using their IP. Anyone who says the company owns everything you create using their time and equipment. Just legal words of fear mongering. Prove it.
jon-wood 11y ago
It can be a dangerous thing to do, but the company are fully aware and fine with it happening - there are actually a few of us with side projects that we'll sometimes work on during lunch breaks.

philsnow 11y ago

> hard mode, by starting a year after our first child arrived It isn't likely to get easier. I have kids aged 4 and 6 and I want to spend 100% of my time on four different things: spending time with my wife, spending time with my kids, my day job, and side/fun things. The light at the end of the tunnel [0] is that I'm sure the kids are eventually going to have their own things they want to spend 100% of their time on (and while I hope I'm one of them, that still means I'll probably only get 25%), which will free up time for me to spend on the other things. [0] very tongue-in-cheek, this phrase is implying that I'm in a dark period of my life or something, but I'm the happiest I've ever been right now with all these things pulling on me and my time.

jon-wood 11y ago
I feel your pain - I'm constantly feeling guilty about neglecting one thing or another, but there are only so many hours in the day, and I'm slowly getting used to the fact that I just can't do everything.