Hey, friend, thanks for joining me!Ā š¤
I promise that wasnāt a clickbait title, but before I tell you what Iām desperate forāand whyāI need to talk about what I said the last timeā¦
In the last edition of the Bumpy Ride, I made two promises: to write again by March 9th, and to have launched the Polar Habits paid plan by the time I write. Well, Iām here, and the Pro plan isnāt, soā¦ at least I kept one promise!Ā š
Iāve actually done 90% of the work on getting the paid plan out there. Thereās just some UI polish and a few hours of work left before I can call it done, done!
But a paid subscription isnāt exactly a āfeatureā to promote on its ownĀ š,Ā so we wanted to launch and announce the Pro plan together with some new features!
There arenāt any new paid features weāll be promoting yet, but we do have a very important free feature to announce: daily reminders by email and push notification!Ā š
As I wrote last month, I wanted to look into push notifications for web apps, assuming that itād be worth implementing even if for Android alone (because iOS doesnāt support them for web apps at the moment.)
It so happened that while I was building push notifications for desktop browsers and Android phones, Apple released iOS 16.4 Beta, which introduces support forā¦Ā š„
Web Push notifications!Ā š¤Æ
This is exciting because reminders and mobile notifications are possibly the biggest reason for having a mobile app at all.
Iāve already shipped this feature (albeit silently) so if youāre a Polar Habits user, you can go ahead and turn on reminders on desktop, and on your phone too if you have Android.
I expect the final release of iOS 16.4 to happen in the next couple of weeksāif not daysāand even though reminders will be FREE, I think itāll be exciting for us to announce push notifications for web, Android, and iOS alongside the new Pro plan!Ā šš»
So, about being desperateā¦
As you may know, Iām a freelance web developer. Thatās where I find the dollars!Ā š¤
It also happens that my current contract ends next Tuesday. Iāll be free to do whatever I want after that!
Are you thinking what Iām thinking?
I could take a break from freelance work and focus on Polar Habits full-time!Ā š¤©
But how long?
I wish I could do this full-time, forever!
Iām #@%!$ desperate to do this full-time, forever!
I hate being told what to do. I want to āownā the products I build. So many companies claim to give you āownership,ā but how can I own something I donāt feel excited about? Besides, Iām not sure most companies understand what ownership even means. To me, ownership isnāt just about responsibility, but also about having influence over the direction of a product and how it serves its users. I donāt want to be a silent cog in a machine, no matter how critical that cog may be.
Thatās why Iāve struggled to stay in one company for more than a year or two, and itās the reason I started freelancing in the first place. But even as I do that, with every new job, I feel my patience and commitment to the next project shrinking. Iām afraid of the day when thereās nothing left!Ā š¬
So, there. Thatās why Iām desperate.
Iām desperate to make enough money with Polar Habits to go full-time with it.
But hereās another secret: I have almost a yearās worth of expenses saved up!Ā š°
Iād love to feel confident that I could build a sustainable income with my own product(s) in one year, so I could take on that financial risk, invest my savings, and make it happen.
I donāt.
Even if I did feel that confident, I think itād still be a mistake to take such a huge risk. I mean, I could use that same money to pay off a decent chunk of my mortgage. Thatās what a sensible and responsible adult would do (or so I think.)Ā š
Iām always inspired by the success stories of people who quit their jobs, use up all of their savings to start a business and come out on top at the end, but Iām also well aware that for every āsuccessā story out there, there are hundreds, if not thousands of untold āfailureā stories.
Iāll probably take some time off to focus on Polar Habits full-time, but no matter how desperate I am to make that a forever deal, Iām not going to bet all of my savings on itā¦ yetā¦Ā š
My next commitmentā¦ ā”ļø
Same as last time, but this time, I promise to keep my promise!Ā š
Iāll be writing again by March 30th, if not sooner, and I will absolutely, 100%, have launched the Polar Habits Pro plan by then!
Thatās the single most important thing I can do towards my goal of working on Polar Habits full-time. I canāt keep postponing it!Ā š
Thanks for joining me on this ride!Ā š
It means the world to me, so thank you!Ā ā¤ļø
Oh, and thank you to Jimmy Fallonāwhoās not reading, btwāfor helping me express my emotions.
Hey Merott, just been having a read of your posts and I think it really cool what you are doing! I saw you said that you didn't like writing in your first post (i'm the same lol) but I find your posts really genuine and interesting to read - keep documenting! I am also on my startup/entrepreneurship journey and am launching my product on product hunt tomorrow! Problem is I really don't think that it will do well as I launched to a few people and they didn't like it, I don't know if i should continue pursuing the idea or start something new - have you got any thoughts? Btw I use polar habits and its great :) keep doing what you do! Cheers, Tom