It is an amazing day in Toronto. I think all the the bloggers need to have at least a little post saluting a first day that looks like a real spring. The first words that I head this morning were “Thanks G-d it is Friday,” when I got to the office to my regular “How are you?” the response was “Thanks G-d it is Friday.” I agree! I love Fridays! Especially a Friday before Passover -a  Jewish holiday that celebrates the liberation of physical and mental slavery. It is a great day.

Wait it is not the end of my post. On this beautifull  day I bought my favourite lunch, wore my converse and went to relax in write this post in my backyard. I also wanted to make it offical that last Friday I submitted my two weeks notice and I am quitting my 9-5 job to become a business owner. This day is even better, but just for me.

There are different reasons why I decided to quit and say no to “steady paycheck” – it was not that steady.  Reader’s Digest version is that I believe that I am in my prime time to start a business. I am young, energetic and without a lot of responsibilities. Doing what I want to do each day (and not what I am told or just have to do) will ultimately make me happier and healthier person.

I am planning to go home for a month to completely re-boot my system and not just to recharge my batteries, but put some new ones in. Yes, yes I will spend a whole month lying on a beach without worrying about bills, deadlines, sales and revenue reports. I will just surf – the Mediterranean sea.

I have some sort of plan, not a complete business plan on what I am going to do after I return. Obviously, part of the plan is to develop www.toronto4couples.com. I am planning to use all the tools I received while earning my degree, that I forgot while doing something unrelated for two years at my job.

I feel like a kid before summer vacation. One more week and I will be released from rat race prison. Yeah I am scared, but oh well as we say in Russia you have to take risks to drink champaigne.

P.S. I wish I had quite like that Guy, but no I didn’t burn any bridges and used a polite letter from www.i-resign.com

I just realized that I didn’t post since Thursday partly because nothing happened I could reflect on and partly because I’ve been working on www.toronto4couples.com.  Oh well who I am kidding? I have both seasons of Heroes and I’ve been watching the show non stop. I am now wondering where is my superpower.

I am facing bunch of challenges with Toronto4Couples:

• Lack of time
• I don’t know php, so coding is a pain. I just read lines of code and try to make sense of them. I did took computer science fundamentals back in a High School so at least I know how it is supposed to work
• I can’t come up with a clear vision – whether it is a blog or a static site.
• My main challenge is growing traffic. Most of the blogs rely on comments, trackbacks and social media to promote themselves. However, there is only one blog with similar topics in Toronto and bunch of other static sites that don’t allow comments. This leaves me with couple of options: 1) promote the site through the blogs that are based in Toronto regardless of their topic (hopefully close to mine like restaurants) 2) Run an ad campaign – right now though this is a social project, so investing money in it without a real business plan makes no sense.

I also created a list of pressing issues that I used by keeping in mind the action oriented to do lists.

• Need to make a logo, preferably for free and high quality
• Register business name – just in case it will pick up and I will start making money of it
• Try to find writers
• Waiting for the new release of the options theme

Let’s see if I can actually make time to work on all of those this week. Can’t wait for a long weekend!

On a lighter note I am moving along with the design for my side project www.toronto4couples.com

The plan is to make a user generated content site for best tips on where to go and what to do in Toronto and area for couples or may be for a single guy or girl who just want to have a great time.

I’ve been playing with Justin Tadlock’s WP Theme “Options” and it is just amazing. I can’t believe how professional the site looks and I still didn’t touch a line of code. Cudos to Justin for such a great theme that is distributed for free.

Let me know if you have any suggestions to the site or may be would like to submit a post about cool places in your own city?