A decade ago, I took my first steps with CiviCRM curious, a bit uncertain, but excited by its potential. Every project taught me something new not just technically, but about communication, expectations, and the nonprofits, associations, and advocacy groups that CiviCRM serves.

Over time, freelance projects turned into steady work. Then more work. And eventually, it became overwhelming too much for one person to handle. That’s when I took on my first employees, hoping to ease the load and keep quality high. With their support, we got back on top of things, the work kept building, until the cycle repeats.

Somewhere along the way, people started calling me an “expert.” It’s surreal one day you’re figuring things out as you go, the next you’re the person others turn to for answers. Apparently, becoming an “expert” means becoming an expert at awkward invoice follow-up calls too.

Growing a business is constantly bringing new challenges managing finances, hiring, scaling operations. I’m a systems engineer and consultant, but I’ve had to become a manager, an accountant, an organizer, a planner, and finally, what comes least naturally to an engineer, a marketer! Sometimes it feels completely overwhelming, sometimes it feels exhilarating.

If you’re starting out with open source, or freelancing, or even unsure what’s next: you don’t need to have all the answers. Just take the next step. Then the next. You might be surprised where it leads.

More recently MJW has been taking an active role at Community CiviCRM events and CiviCamps. Providing Developer training and assisting with administrator training, leading talks in recent developments that MJW have made with CiviCRM.

(Photos from the last conference in Lunteren, Netherlands. Sarah partaking in a talk about Shopping Cart Functionality. Liz Made use of the Art Room. Matthew lead the Developer Training, whilst Jade attended training, all in all it was a blast!)