As I near the end of my college career, I think I’ve finally decided which route I’ll be taking in the coming months, and hopefully years. My strategy is three-pronged, but in this post, and subsequent ones in this series, I’d like to elaborate on one of the less conservative approaches I am taking.

Ever since I took a job last year as an internet contracter, a position that was literally “work from anywhere,” I’ve been hesitant about going back to work for someone where I have to go to an office and have someone else dictate where I have to do my work. I think work should be based on results, and sitting in a cubicle somewhere isn’t going to help me be more productive.

As such, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to manage working from home full time. I consider myself a talented web developer and code slinger, so I knew I could leverage that to build a business. The problem stems from the fact that there are countless numbers of web developers out there, many of whom would be cheaper than me. I knew I needed to find a niche to fill, and that’s when inspiration struck me.

Most of my web development work has been writing plugins for popular open-source publishing packages like WordPress and Drupal. That’s certainly a niche area, and plugin development is something that is in high demand right now as individuals attempt to grow their online presence. As such, I’ve determined that I can make an impact, at first, as just a plugin developer.

I’m determined to make sure this isn’t another one of my ideas that goes for naught. As such, I’ve made a guarantee to myself that I will go from nothing to profit with this business venture in 40 days. That gives me enough time to get my product to market and in front of an audience that demands my services, and it also gives me enough time to complete a few projects that can earn me some much needed cash.

I’ll be chronicling this journey right here on this blog. To start, I’d like to summarize my current state of affairs. I started this project on April 18, 2008 by registering three domains that I couldn’t believe weren’t already taken. In the last two weeks I’ve been developing the website for this business venture, and I’m almost ready to push it live. I just need a logo developed and I’m good to go.

So far, my expenses have been as follows:

• Domain Registration — $29.85

I fully expect these expenses to increase as I go. I need to start using some type of project management tool, but I’m not sure what it will be yet. I’m investigating my options right now. I also need to get around to registering my business as an LLC, but that will probably wait until after the 40 days are over. That makes it easier to claim a profit, at least. Finally, I’ll have to do some marketing to get my name and website out there, so to speak. I expect to spend at least $150 on that, targeting it appropriately.

In the next post, I’ll be revealing my website to the world and talking about the marketing that I’m doing, as well as posting about any progress I’m making as far as project goes.