Start busniess

[dlots]

The networking support in our area sucks and i was thinking about starting my own tiny company.  Anyone do that?  Any tips on how to get customers, or start the business?

[deanwebb]

Who handles your marketing, sales, and booking? Can't do it all on your own.

Do you also offer server/telephony/database support?

[SimonV]

It's very hard to combine an own business with a day time job. I can't compare with the US of course, but with all the paperwork and taxes it's very hard to make it worthwhile. Subcontracting for another firm is a lot easier, and it pays well...

[dlots]

Right now I am not doing anything.  I can't really do database or server help sadly as I lack those skills, I might be able to do some CME stuff but not really.

The marketing, taxes, etc is where I wanted help at

Honestly I don't know that I'll do anything, but I hear stories of like $3k to put in a 3 WAP wireless system, while making the location close on Friday cause the folks don't want to work on Saturday.

[SimonV]

Honestly I don't know that I'll do anything, but I hear stories of like $3k to put in a 3 WAP wireless system, while making the location close on Friday cause the folks don't want to work on Saturday.

That's a bad way of doing business. Saturdays are 150% 

[deanwebb]

You would do well to look up local accountants and see if there's one that would be willing to act as your financial advisor for getting a start-up together. There's all kinds of papers to file and stuff like that.

Do you plan to keep your day job? If so, what happens when you have a conflict between a client emergency situation and your day job? "I know you said you weren't available at all during normal business hours, but we're *hemorrhaging* here! Please, what can we pay you to get you to come over?"

Do you say no and piss off your client and kill your local reputation?

Or do you say yes and piss off the guy providing you with your main income?

And does the party that provides you with your main income generally approve of employees doing work elsewhere? If not, best to not try to do both at the same time.

[Reggle]

Well I don't know how the market is where you live. Here, your own company for networking will currently give you a lot of work. You'll likely make customers easily and make money easily, but you'll be working practically around the clock with customers with very varying demands. ANd of course, there is the accounting and finding new customers part.

[wintermute000]

Well I don't know how the market is where you live. Here, your own company for networking will currently give you a lot of work. You'll likely make customers easily and make money easily, but you'll be working practically around the clock with customers with very varying demands. ANd of course, there is the accounting and finding new customers part.

yeah seems like the finding new customers part is the hard bit.

Chicken and egg - how do you find new customers when you're working a day job 9-5 and any new customer you have to tell them BTW I'm only available weekends and evenings, er, when my day job doesn't need me that weekend or evening.

I have 1 steady customer (used to have 2, he went broke hahaha - it DEFINITELY WAS NOT THE NETWORK! lol) which gives me a nice 2-3k a year but I basically need 30 of them of a similar size to make it viable. Anyone need a guy in Melbourne, give me a shout, also more than happy to do remote config/design work 

If I could find a way of getting that customer base I would so go out on my own immediately. I have built an entire SMB's setup before from scratch, unfortunately that turned out to be a one-off but if I could get a job like that per month, it would be heaven.

One point I'd make, if you're solo, the customers you meet tend to be SMB so adjust budgets/scopes accordingly. Large companies tend to only deal with other large companies or outsources/recruiters, kinda hard to get your foot in the door with a corporation as a solo gun for hire UNLESS you have existing contacts - even then that will just be for one-off projects etc. usually and then you're not really running your own operation, you're just a sole contractor.

[deanwebb]

And if the small company grows to where it needs you full-time, you either lose a customer as they hire someone else, or you lose 29 customers as you get hired by the growing firm.

[icecream-guy]

so what you need to do it start with family and friends, do some stuff for them and build up references and experience. get a feel for how things work. there is a lot of different technology out there you will need to know.  once you have some exp and references, you can post an ad in a local community newspaper or something like that, using built up references and all that helping local community businesses. as your company expands, there are several online network sites where you can bid for work, try them out. once your time starts getting crunched, see if your company will allow you to have flexible work hours or take you on as a consultant, that will free up your time so you can work for other customers during the day and still keep your day job.  once you can bill 60-70 hours a week on a regular basis, consider going at it full time.

the other way is to get wads of cash, at least 5 years, start your business, rent a store front, market your business and burn through the cash like crazy until you are profitable or go out of business....

[dlots]

My work is fairly flexible, we have 2 guys in my department who's majority of their income is their side busness, so I don't think that would be a huge issue.

What are some of the websites?  I have seen alot for programming and windows work, but not many for networking stuff.

[icecream-guy]

I have seen alot for programming and windows work, but not many for networking stuff.

I looked into onforce.com a few years ago.  place may have changed since then.

[SimonV]

Getting an after-hours business runnnig, doing networking only, would be great. In reality though, businesses operate during business hours and it's very hard to get your foot in the door if you can 't be available 24/7. For IT organizations that have multiple people on staff, it's easy to set up a standby rotation, but when you're alone it's a liability. That also means you have to factor in vacations, and the odd chance of getting called in the weekend while you're out getting drunk. You can also get in a difficult situation if your day-job requires travel...

Try staying away from consumer IT as well. Consumers always want the cheapest hardware, bother you with the silliest of problems and in the end you can never bill the hours you actually spent - definitely not at the rates you'd get for network consulting.

Do you need a degree about basic business knowledge in the US, when you want to start on your own? Over here, it's a requirement but probably not the case everywhere.

I did my first three years doing mostly consumer stuff, although the initial thought was similar to yours. Then I started doing subcontracting for another firm a couple of days per month, and spent a big part of my "vacation" days working. After about a year of that I was confident enough to start full-time. If I could do it again though, I would have gone the subcontracting route immediately, instead of trying to start from scratch.

My work is fairly flexible, we have 2 guys in my department who's majority of their income is their side busness, so I don't think that would be a huge issue.

There you go, see if they need some help. Or would they be your competition?