I've been in the field sind 1991. It's different when it's a job, then when it's a hobby. There's a lot of aggrivation: dealing with Redmondware, seeing the same old crap over and over, answering "Why is my Windows slow?" 30 times a week, routine virus/spyware scouring (which is a cash cow, BTW. Good for 1 to 3 hours of billable time, easy).
Many professional concerns (doctors, lawyers, insurance/real estate agencies, and the like) contract with companies an hour or more away, who basically come in, charge EXORBITANT rates to set up shop with a small business network, file sharing and web access, and then blow off the local clients except when they can make it worth their while coming down here by selling them a new PC every time they make the trip, charging $2,500-3,000 for a basic workstation (costing maybe five or six hundred bucks).
Doctors are (in my experience) cheap! Cheap cheap cheap! They'll spend as little on their computers as they can get away with.
What's exorbitant? Remember, you're not going to be billing out a full 2200 hours in a year. There's other things you have to pay attention to, besides the cool stuff. Suppliers and sources. Accounting -- do you know Peachtree or Quickbooks? Certifications (gotta get slogging away for the HP Server test. . .)
So, I'm thinking, as I get more and more steady business just from word of mouth and referrals, cleaning up virii or spyware, adding memory or a CD burner, if it would be worth the jump into a full-time venture.
I've seen a lot of people do that. Did a bit of it myself, last time I was bettween jobs. If I'm ever bettween jobs again, I'll push the solo stuff a whole lot harder than I did. That said, the mortality rate in this business is pretty high.
The best bet for the big bucks is to get in on a niche vertical market.
The best bet for the big bucks is to get in on a niche vertical market.
Would you be so kind to define and expand on this please?
My instructor is cool, smart and has the ability to actually teach.
Bascially Network Admin is what suggests. He has some other areas that fall into that label.
He has been sharing how the IT industry is changing so fast. Now part of the class are dummies like me. The other part includes folks in the Air Force, Army, retired Army, Blind/ Deaf School ... actually doing Network Admin, have been for awhile, just getting some certs. Others include a few that had "workstation specialist" and are tired of Tier 1 and dealing with matters ...they get yelled at from all sides. Time to move on up for them.
Retired Army guy is one of "us" - a good guy, Pro Gun and all that. We work together on projecst along with the fellow doing Admin for a Blind School. Retired Army fellow Just got his pink slip via email, has a great severance package, wife has a good job...now he needs another one. Seems Alltel sold / is selling wireless division. This guy has moved around with various jobs since Army Retirement 15 yrs ago. Economy sucks here, then again it always has. Not that is better elsewhere. NC and GA wants him back, he may end up there again...or AZ or CO, at this time he is not to a point to share.
Fig, kinda like you, "where is what gonna be best down the line?"
niche vertical market.
Would you be so kind to define and expand on this please? smile
Selling and supporting a specialized (usually expensive) piece of software and possibly related hardware into a small market with few competetors.
An example would be the package that's the biggest money maker for my company -- a school lunch room point of sale package. It's specialized to just that, and has features you won't find on any usual POS software -- things like support for "free and reduced lunch", reporting features, blah blah blah.
Stuff like that tends to be expensive, in the multiple thousands of dollars per site. The software is specialized, and (unlike a lot of software) support is easy to reach and _really_ knows their stuff.
That's where the big bucks is.
Aahh, like Dentrix.
The dentist's office computer nightmare I inherited included dental practice management software, that they 1) paid a mint for, and 2) continue to pay a ton for support. But, when you call the support line, it's like you are old friends. They are warm, welcoming, knowledgeable, and go to the Nth degree to ensure that every issue that's even indirectly related to their product is 100%. I spent four hours on the phone with one of their reps one day, and the guy was as nice at the end as he was at the beginning.
Precisely like that.
What's a pisser is if someone has a package like that, decided they want to go cheap, and let's their support contract lapse. No support from the vendor, sometimes not even a knowledge base you can access, things break when Windows versions change or for whatever reason (causality is a slippery thing when Redmondware is in the mix), you get to figure it out, etc. I've got a couple lawyer's offices like that, that want to keep Amicus working, but don't want to pay support. .
There are verticals for all kinds of businesses. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there was a gunshop package.