Micro ISV (Micro-Independent Software Vendor) I finished reading a really awesome book not too long ago, very highly rated  (on Amazon / MicroISV: From Vision to Reality).  It is a book for those people who may have had the dream of leaving “Cubeland”, that vast corporate expanse, and starting their own business around their computer-related product or service.  I finished reading the book and now revisiting certain pages as part of a checklist to get the list of to-do’s and guide future work.  The author creates a roadmap for traveling the road to independence away from the world, and mindset, of working for someone else since he did it at some point in his career, somehow jumping out of journalism and starting as an independent contractor building Information systems for various clients; and later selling a time and project management systems to help individuals be more productive.  Since he was a programmer while working towards independence, the book has the perspective on what your technology has to do, how it looks and where it is seen.  There are a great number of interviews with people who have successfully been down that road and have grown a variety of business entities from the ground up.  The links in the book alone, along with context on why you’d need them make the book worth its weight in gold.  Another emphatic point is that it is harder than it looks, and he does mention the old adage of why work for someone else for 40 hours a week when you can work for yourself for 80 – 100 hours a week.  Among the many helpful tips this book has: the author pointed out the importance of getting your spouse’s buy-in before you take on this new endeavor, otherwise it can cause a lot of grief on the home-front. 

The author also happens to be the 4th rated blogger (in the top 25) on the topic of improving all facets of a blog, while maintaining a separate blog on all things MicroISV.  I think all sorts of tech people here will find it a fascinating and invaluable read.  I myself will try to work more closely to the principles he freely writes about, and it will temper my own programming bias since the book points out that you have to wear 47 hats to get that endeavor carried forward.

Like the rare movie that you can watch more than once, I have gotten different pieces of info and slightly different perspective when referring back through various pages to work on getting all the building blocks in place.  This chap has written a remarkable compilation in that book and the free resource as well.