TJD Software to cease trading later this year

I knew this day would always come and that day is today. After a pretty rocky 5 and a half years I've made the unfortunate but necessary decision to close my business. There's no set date on when this will occur but it's likely to be later this year before Christmas.

This was not an easy decision, and in fact was a very sudden decision that was only made about 5 or 6 weeks ago. Up until about mid June things were going along smoothly but after crunching the numbers in the lead up to the end of the financial year it was pretty clear that there was not much point continuing. I do apologise to some of my newer clients who may feel a little betrayed but unfortunately I had no idea this was going to happen when I began your work and as I've already mentioned it was quite sudden. The good news is that I'm going to remain upbeat even though I have technically failed. I'm going to fail forwards and simply view this as just another part of the path to future success.

The truth is things have not been good for a while and this is due to many reasons. For one the rise of free social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc) has completely killed the web site industry as businesses prefer to use these networks more as they allow better engagement with their customers. Secondly I've probably under quoted most of the jobs I've ever done. Part of this was due to me misjudging the amount of time required but also part of it was me feeling sorry for other people and under quoting to ensure I got the job. This is probably not very good practice but when you've got no work going on you need to ensure you make the most of every opportunity that comes your way. Long story short I kinda shot myself in the foot a bit.

I've always firmly believed that you need passion for whatever you are doing in life. Unfortunately for me my passion for web site development has disappeared in the last few years. The modern process of grabbing a generic Wordpress template and styling it to fit a clients business requires minimal coding and to be honest completely bores me. The complete ignorance some people have for what I do is also driving me crazy. When I'm in the pub and I tell someone I build web sites for a living their response is almost always “So you fix computers?” I don't know what planet some of these people come from because that is not even close to what I do. I don't mind doing a few computer repair jobs for family and close friends (as it helps buy a few beers) but the fact that some people think that's all I do absolutely infuriates me.

Anyway I'm sure some of my clients are a little worried about what is going to happen to your domain names, web/email hosting and web sites etc. As it stands at the moment it's business as usual and will continue this way for a few months yet. You will continue to get invoices for any services you have with me for the time being. When the time comes I'll be sourcing another business (hopefully locally here on YP) to take control of your various services. I don't have anyone set up to take over at the moment but when I do find someone I'll let you know straight away. I'm not going to rush into this as I want to make sure I find the right person/business that will hopefully provide even better service than I've provided you.

I'd like to take this chance to thank you all of my clients (Past and Present) for your business over the past 5 and a half years. I hope you were happy enough with the service I provided you. An even bigger thanks to those of you who referred people onto me, it is always a good feeling when someone mentions that they were referred to me by another client. I want to wish you and your businesses all the best for the future and I hope that they remain strong and don't suffer the same fate as mine.

I'd also like to thank my family for all their love and support especially mum and dad who helped out when the going was tough and the money wasn't coming in. I'm in debt to them for life.

As for what I'm going to do next year, I haven't completely decided yet. I still love building iPhone/Android games even though they are not making much money. This is one thing I still have a passion for so I'll probably keep doing this as a hobby. I've always been good at maths and have an interest in finance, so there's a possibility I may go back to uni to study (online) Accounting or Commerce. I've ruled out relocating back to the city as it nearly killed me last time and I'm happy living in Ardrossan (for now). I've met a lot of awesome people here and I have my favourite watering hole that I like to venture to that is not full of stuck-up people and a**holes.

At some stage in the future I'd like to settle down meet a woman and maybe start a family but it's pretty hard to do that at the moment when I can't even support myself properly. I'm still young at 27 so I've made the decision to make a change in life now before it's too late.

If you would like to discuss anything further please feel free to email me.

Tim “Spud” Dayman
TJD Software

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt