Those of you that have been around me, any at all, over the past 6-8 months know that I’ve been working hard on educating folks in the area about WordPress¹.  For whatever reason it is something that I really have a passion about and for once in a really long time I’ve been pursuing that passion.  It all started earlier this year.  I had been reading a lot about WordCamp’s and really wished one was happening closer by.  So I sent out this tweet:

You would not believe how hard it was to find this tweet ...

From there, the train started rolling and there was no stopping it.  Folks started replying.  I started getting ideas for topics and before I knew it WordCamp Richmond was born.  I have many people to thank for helping me make this happen, Chris Gatewood of Hirschler Fleischer, Andrew Miller of Your Search Advisor, Eddie O’Leary of CoLaB Multimedia, Business Bullpen, and all of the speakers that gave up their time to prepare presentations and then gave up an entire Saturday to share their knowledge with all those in attendance.  I am grateful to all of them, and all those who attended.

Over the past months I have been busy helping individuals with their WordPress sites, building some sites for clients of my own and expanding my knowledge around WordPress as a whole.  Many people in the area seek me out when they have a question about WordPress, and that makes me happy.  I’m glad that I’m able to give back some to the community that I have taken so much from.

It has become quite hectic these past couple of months.  I’ve been rolling multiple freelance projects at a time, small things here and there, but they’ve been slowly and steadily growing in complexity and size.  I’ve come to the realization that it’s time for me to take the next step in this evolutionary process.  I have decided to start my own business (after much prodding from my friends).  I recently was told by my lawyer (Chris Gatewood of Hirschler Fleischer by the way) that the formation of my LLC has been made official.  We’re just waiting for the SCC to send the certificate in the mail.

I am excited beyond belief at the idea of this.  I have met with an accountant and lawyer to make sure my ducks are in a row.  I’m signing up for insurance for the business to make sure I’m all official and protected.  I’ve gone through almost all of the motions needed at this point.  I’m also excited about continuing to give back to the community.  WordCamp Richmond will continue to be an annual event, I will continue to help folks, develop plugins and hopefully much more.

So what’s left you might ask?  Well, I’m still in the process of getting my website built.  I am teaming up with studioSavvy to have a design produced for the site.  We’ve worked together on a couple of projects now and I look forward to many more with them.  They’re fantastic if you ever need design work done :)

Other then that though, my plan is to continue working my current full time job and continue to grow the business.  Once I finally reach that tipping point I hope to be able to securely walk away from working for someone else and never look back.  This is something that I know I can make happen, and I can be very “dangerous” once I’ve made up my mind about something.

I will be releasing more information about my new company in the near future, and hopefully will have the website ready to launch by the end of the year.   But that doesn’t mean I’m not open for business right now :)  So if you’re in the need of some custom WordPress work (theme development, plugin development, or anything else), please think of me and please refer your friends to me.  I promise not to let you down.