I’ve mastered my domain; now master yours

I’m an independent software engineer, consultant, teacher, mentor, and writer with over four decades of experience in tech. Twenty years ago, I quit my job (or was fired: details are unclear), and started my own business. You can too. Master of Your Domain is a complete guide to planning your career future, transitioning from employment to independence, starting and running a business, charging for your time, making and selling products, marketing, mastering your chosen craft, and passing that knowledge on to the next generation.

When you run your own firm, you’ll do only the work you want to do. You’ll set your own hours, decide your own way of working, and answer to no one. The outcome of your work will be directly correlated with the time, energy, and skill that you put into it: the harder you work, the more the rewards. If that sounds attractive, then you should read this book, because today is the perfect day to start your journey to independence. You'll learn everything you need to know: what it takes to start and run your own business, how to succeed at sales and marketing, and how to build an independent career you won't need a vacation from. Includes free updates for life.

You can also buy this book at a discount as part of the Complete Career Library. This is an early access edition. You’ll receive free updates as the book is developed, and a free upgrade to the final version on release.

Table of Contents

Read a sample chapter

You might also like to hear the story of My Horrible Career, and if you want to know how to succeed within an organisation as well as outside it, check out Code For Your Life.

What you’ll learn

Among the insights you'll find in the pages of Master of your Domain are:

• How to know whether independence is the right career move for you

• What you should do to prepare for the move, and when is the right time to make it

• Gaining experience and confidence with side hustles

• Playing the Secret Consultant: how to be more independent in your job role

• Setting up and running your own successful business

• How to set your pricing for independent work, negotiate deals, and get invoices paid

• Getting revenue fast with consulting: how to get clients and referrals

• Building your kingdom: the secrets of branding, websites, landing pages, and profile building

• Growing your customer base through targeted, effective email marketing

• Making products like books and courses instead of just selling your time

• Learning to write effectively for product pages, email campaigns, blog posts, and even full-length books

• Using AI tools to help you brainstorm, draught, and tune copy, and create compelling subject lines

• How to get published, increasing your reputation and authority, including independent publishing

• Passing on your knowledge and earning while they learn: master professional teaching, training, and coaching

What you won’t learn

The only thing you have on your side is pure chutzpah. Raw, iron-clad, unassailable self-belief: the cheek to approach people in the first place, the confidence to ask them for what you want, and the guts to walk away if you don't get it.

Unfortunately, the chutzpah you'll need to make a success of your own business is the one thing I can't teach you. You just have to have it. It's the little impulse inside that makes you overcome the fear and do it anyway: the courage to take a knock-back, get right back up, and keep on pitching.

—From the book

Excerpts

Self-driving people

More resources

See also my career training sessions, books, and tutorials—and please subscribe to my free newsletter for lots more!

What you get

Your digital download is a ZIP file containing the book in PDF and ePub formats. This should be suitable for any ebook reader, Kindle, computer, phone, or tablet.

Updating to the latest edition

All my books come with free updates for life, so if you’ve bought a previous version of this book, here’s what you need to do to get the latest edition. Click the link in your original download email (make sure you save this, as it’s your key to future updates). You’ll see what looks like an error page saying your download link for the old edition has expired, but that’s okay: click the link in the text, and you’ll be sent a new download email for the current edition.

Readers say

More reviews

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This book is just the kick in the pants I needed. It's time to stop dreaming about independence and actually start doing something about it.”
—Erwin Mathew

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I love the practical approach: focused, actionable advice on how to get my career on track and start building my own business. The book has a lot of valuable lessons they don't teach you on any MBA course.”
—Sara Van Bruggen

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “John's advice has changed my outlook on how I work, and it's really paid off. It's unlocked a lot of great things for me.”
—Bukola Jimoh