This seems like a good time to explain how I got started in business for myself. Here's what happened. I had already been a computer professional for about 5 years when it occurred to me that I could actually just go into business for myself. I had been working for Control Data Business Information Services (BIS) in downtown San Francisco, but business was flagging.
BIS was a *management timesharing company* and I was an applications consultant for them - building end-user decision support systems with our custom tools. These were the days of 300 baud modems, folks. By the time 1986 rolled around, PCs were eating our lunch. So, I volunteered to be laid off so I could get a nice severance package and started looking around for work. I interviewed here and there but didn't find anything very exciting.
One day I was polishing my resume and decided to use a Mac even though I had never used one before. A couple days later, I had a chance to play with a Mac again (these were the 512k Macs, people!). I loved the Mac from the moment it came out. Way cooler than a DOS machine. Visual and exotic. Forward-thinking, outside the box computing.
Within the next couple of weeks it occurred to me that I could become a Mac consultant. Getting paid to play with computers. Kind of like being a ski bum. The Mac was the new thing so I could be one of the first to master it. And that's how it went. At the time, I needed to write a Masters thesis for UC Berkeley so I could get my MBA. So, I picked doing a business plan for my own consulting business as the topic.
That's where creative services businesses come in. One of the assumptions in my business plan was that I would use a Mac. Guess who used Macs back in 1986? Designers! I looked at lots of different market segments, but this one was the most exciting and attracting. Design is a very cool thing. And, I just happened to have been a Marketing major in my MBA program. It's lovely how everything comes together sometimes.
I sold my car and my piano to to finance my new venture: to buy computer equipment and fund myself for a couple of years of lower income while I was getting my business going. It was fun. It was exciting. And, it's never really stopped. Somewhere along the line, I added staff, created Studio Manager and the Net took off. Macs went from doing MacWrite and MacPaint to just about everything under the sun - much of which was never done on a computer before.