When I was young, dumb, and full of...well, youthful enthusiasm, I used to really think that it wouldn't be long before I was wealthy and living The American Dream.
I just needed to scout out the landscape of local commerce, identify some gaping deficiency, and it wouldn't be long before I could, based strictly on enthusiasm and vision, infect some venture capitalists with my dream, and once I'd engaged sufficient backing, I would join the ranks of the Moguls.
'bout that time, honey brought me some stupid looking little device with a plus sign on it. Took me a few moments to process that this incongruous trinket was the indicator of my virility and impending progeny. So, for the ensuing 20 years, I've been on the treadmill of Corporate America, being a Wage Slave, a corporate mule.
Only now, I'm in some tiny little backwater burg, sort of the star of a bunch of other minor little burgs around the state's big ol' 'vacation destination' lake. TONS of commercial potential around here. Lots of money, just has never been any well-organized approach to economic development.
Long story short, there's a real need for both commercial and residential computer support, and not much in the way of COMPETENT businesses meeting that need. 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).
So, I'm thinking, as I get more and more steady business just from word of mouth and referrals to clean up virii or spyware, adding memory or a CD burner, if it would be worth the jump into a full-time venture. The kids are in high school, Jr. high, and elem. school, so it's a little daunting to leave a benefit package of medical insurance, 401K, and the like, to be flying solo.
Contacts we've made since moving down here have been very promising, and we'd have a good base of support within church and civic organizations, and it'd just be a matter of making the jump.
Any personal stories, whether good or bad, from those of you who've made a similar move (or wish you had), and the results? Any advice from the self-employed out there?
Thanks,
Fig