How I make money from Internet for 6 years

Today, I went to renew my business registration at Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM). That means, my online business is celebrating its 6th anniversary. This is how it all began.

Campus life

I fell in love with Internet during my first year in undergraduate studies (yeah, I know I started kinda late). Before that, using a computer is like something that requires a PHD for me. I went to cybercafe to use the Internet and asked the operator all kinds of silly questions such as “What is right click?”, “Can I press this button?”, “How to open the Internet?”, etc… until he got fed up. After flunking few papers and burning holes in my pocket, I managed to “master” the art of Internet from a PC borrowed from my uncle. When everyone was revising aerodynamics and orbital mechanics, I learned HTML and web marketing. At first, I wondered why there were so many IT books in my campus library (my campus does not offer any IT related courses, not even computer engineering!). Now, I know why. It was for me. Me alone! Some people told me I took the wrong course. Honestly, before I discovered Internet, I have no idea what I like. Long before I realize it, I have developed websites for few societies in campus and used the web programming knowledge on my final year project which I got an A. Eventually, I managed to graduate with lousy grade in aerospace engineering.

Blessing in disguise

While most of my coursemates have secured a job right after the final exam, I was unemployed for 8 months! I would be lying if I say I never looked for a job during that period. I diligently applied for various IT related jobs such as web developer, IT executive, computer technician, graphic designer, etc… Understandably, none of them replied. I knew I would be wasting my time applying for something that I don’t have any paper qualification.

That’s when I have the idea of employing myself. Why rely on someone to do something that you love? I can do it myself. I know my own capabilities. When I was not applying for job, I planned and setup my online business. 8 months after I finished my final exam, the business went online, offering web development services.

Becoming an employee

Because it was too early to see any result and I needed money to support my family and myself, I applied for jobs related to my paper qualification and got hired as a QC engineer in the biggest cable manufaturer in Malaysia. Even though the pay and benefits were great, but doing something that I don’t have any interest in is awfully hard to accept. My online business was my part time job and the only way out of my miserable career. However, I took the opportunity to learn the skills of managing at corporate level. I sold off my time to my employer from 8am to 6pm every day except weekend. I refused to do OT. The rest of my time was mostly used to run my online business. I would stay up until late midnight every day developing websites for customers and provide support services. Time was simply not enough for me. I had no choice but to sacrifice all the useless leisure such as watching TV and playing computer games. I didn’t spend much time with my friends too.

Resign!

All the sacrifices paid off after 4 years. My customer base grew stronger over the years. When I can no longer juggle two jobs at the same time, the choice was obvious. I happily passed the resignation letter to my employer and left one month after that. The only thing that I miss is all the friendly colleagues I had.

Reaping the fruits of my own labour is the sweetest thing ever happen to me. The moral of this rant is

• Don’t do something because someone else is successful doing it. Do something because you love doing it.
• Don’t stop until you find what you love to do.
• When you do things that you love, giving up does not exist. The most is you get tired. But you will be fine after a rest.

I will share with you what is it like to be self employed in my future post.

One Response to “How I make money from Internet for 6 years”

1. garfield says:

   August 14, 2008 at 10:57 am

   i agree with u, self employ is something very fun!
   at least we able to manage our time with flexibility and we see the money come in(just that we need to pay taxes).

   while working for ppl, u see the money come in after we work so hard, but we only get very very small part of them, for me, it is not worth, while self employ, all the money we see coming in is belongs to ourself, just some part need to pay to the government.