Lesson one? Check!
Mike received a phone call yesterday at work. From the conversation, I gathered the person on the other end of the line was looking for Drupal developers, and had been referred to our company.
The first call Mike pushed off: our time was booked, we couldn't take on another client at the moment. The second call was more insistent, but Mike still pushed them off. The third call started causing Mike stress. He looked at me and asked me if I wanted to take on another client.
I've been pushing off adding clients, in favor of actively reducing my client load. I've found the optimal number of clients for me is two. Any more than two and I start thrashing, spinning my wheels and accomplishing nothing. With my new insistence on transparency, my work on my own projects and on me, my time seems pretty full, but I thought, sure, I could help a bit.
I called the original recruiter. I talked to the company's CTO. I chatted with the company's lead developer, whom I had met a month ago for a different reason. The work sounds interesting.
But.
Always a but.
I don't really have time to take on more work. I could help them out. I could work for them for a week, a month, a few months. And after those weeks, months, I'd be a bit richer. Given the recent money issues, taking the work was tempting. Very tempting.
In the end, I couldn't do it. I'm saddened by the fact I'll be missing out on working with a lead Drupal developer (which was the biggest draw to the project, actually). But, I couldn't go into a project where it feels like everyone is already stressed, and pressed for time and in a near panic. I'm finally down to two clients, why add the stress by adding another one?