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Handling the double life of corporate job and solopreneur
Hi makers,
I was thinking about people here who have a traditional corporate job in addition to a solopreneur life building digital products that are completely different from their area of expertise.
Example: A corporate job in VC and as side-projects the building of web2, AI websites.
I know sometimes mixing 2 different activities can be detrimental to your main activity from the traditional corporate world.
What would be the best approach for you?
1) You keep your real name and share both your solopreneur journey, promote your digital products AND share your expertise in your industry as a consultant/employee.
2) You keep your real name, share your expertise in your industry as a consultant/employee AND use a handle for your solopreneur journey.
What do you think?
I was thinking about people here who have a traditional corporate job in addition to a solopreneur life building digital products that are completely different from their area of expertise.
Example: A corporate job in VC and as side-projects the building of web2, AI websites.
I know sometimes mixing 2 different activities can be detrimental to your main activity from the traditional corporate world.
What would be the best approach for you?
1) You keep your real name and share both your solopreneur journey, promote your digital products AND share your expertise in your industry as a consultant/employee.
2) You keep your real name, share your expertise in your industry as a consultant/employee AND use a handle for your solopreneur journey.
What do you think?
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I'm doing the same atm - working both as solopreneur and a full-time job, now hitting almost 80 hours a week. I wouldn't recommend it, but in the early stages, it's worth it for me.
I keep my own name and use a handle for my solopreneur. It's my company's name, but I just share its progress under my personal name.
This way is double work to grow your personal/business branding I think
I have a pretty difficult name "Bjarn" to pronounce in English, so I provide my own services under my company's name instead. It's ok, tbh, but you are right indeed!
I like to have both, at least for now. I work for a Fortune 500, and do interesting projects, slowly, every line of code has a purpose. There is a lot of compliance around security and data privacy, unlimited AWS spend and limited creativity.
Side-projects are fast-paced, with a lot more creativity and entropy involved. I'm sure having experience in both make me a better maker.
So far people in corporate have been supportive of my side hustle, so I do not separate both on social media.
I kinda lead this double life too, one as a consultant for corporates, and the other, as indie solopreneur. I just use my real name, and focus on different platforms for different work. LinkedIn for corporate consulting, Twitter for indie. There's little confusion because the audience on each platform are different
Congrats Jason on successfully managing both activities!
Hey @brend, I've walked in your shoes before. In my corporate days, my employer laid claim to any work I did on my own time, even if it was with my own equipment. So, I had to part ways to kick-start my previous startup. You might want to give your employment agreement another look to be on the safe side.
If I had the liberty to pursue side projects, I would've leaned towards a slight twist on option #2 also: I'd target a different audience (LinkedIn vs twitter)—just something for you to consider.
Yep, LinkedIn for your corporate job and Twitter for side-projects!