Self employment in IT.
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Self employment in IT.
17-05-2008 10:45 PM
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Custom build computers.
Upgrades/Repairs.
Home and small office networking.
Internet services including domain registration, hosting, email accounts, small websites etc.
My problem is that I lack the motivation to do this and am kind of just drifting along with my 40hr/week job. Although this is a good job I know I could make a lot more money. Based on how much I get tortured by friends family to do IT work for them without any advertising I know there is definitely a market in my area.
I have just finished a website for my local bar/restaurant/B&B at www.paddysbarn.com and although you may agree that I am not the worlds best web designer it was a very easy and enjoyable way to make good money!
From my own site at www.seanbranagh.ie you will also see that I am very confident in my IT knowledge.
I have a friend who I would trust with my life who is more interested in actual computer hardware than I am and has expressed an interest in this. I am meeting with him this week to discuss further. The idea is that he would look after the computer building/upgrade/repair jobs and I would look after the networking and internet services. At least then there would be 2 people each to motivate eachother. We would do small jobs outside of our full time jobs and see where this leads us. Ultimately I would like this to lead to us registering self employed and leaving our full time jobs.
Has anyone done this? Any advice?
Re: Self employment in IT.
17-05-2008 10:50 PM
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2. Don't do it if you haven't got the motivation.
3. There's no money in hardware, only in services.
4. Market research, market research, market research, (you can't do too much)
Re: Self employment in IT.
17-05-2008 10:53 PM
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What services do you offer?
Do you have a site?
Is it just you or others aswell?
Re: Self employment in IT.
17-05-2008 11:09 PM
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I have a site but don't wish to publicise it here, or indeed anywhere not relevant as it's not a significant source of business. Word of mouth recommendation is maybe 90%, to the extent that most clients never even ask what I charge.
Mostly I sort out computer & network problems for home users and SME's (small businesses). I try to avoid supplying hardware but do give (and charge for) advice on what to buy, then set it up properly.
I'm in a very different age group to you with a load of prior business experience which was a great help. But I also had formal help and advice when I started. This covered all sorts of things including setting up and running a business, tax, insurance, health & safety law etc.
There are lots of different support schemes, I recommend you research what is available to you.
It's very satisfying
PS When you start get a proper phone number, domain name, web site and email. Don't operate from a mobile phone and free webmail address!
(someone recently put round flyers in my area with a mobile number and web site. The web site was just a "holding page" - how dumb can you get!)
Re: Self employment in IT.
17-05-2008 11:34 PM
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Although I am only 27 I have had quite a bit of experience over the years including in retail management (Maplin). I also studied business at school although it was only A-Level.
As for phone number, email and such all of this is already in place. I have a reseller hosting account with eukhost which makes things as professional as can be. I even have my own nameservers with them so my custommers would not even know eukhost are there. For example if you do a whois lookup on paddysbarn.com you will only find my own nameservers ns1.branaghcomputers.com and ns2.branaghcomputers.com
I think it is so unprofessional when you see an "XY Services" van with the email address printed on the side "XYServices@btconnect.com" for example!
I will be doing some research as you suggested. Thanks for the advice.
Re: Self employment in IT.
18-05-2008 12:46 AM
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You cant offer all the services you suggest companies have web developers, flash developer's, first line, second line and third line support, cisco specialist, desktop support, network support and the list goes on.
The reason for all these people is you can only be good at one thing maybe two. Its one thing sticking a few none mission critical servers in your loft it a whole different ball game setting up a domain for a company when it may effect their whole company if you get it wrong. Could you specify the spec for a terminal server for 30 clients how much bandwidth would be needed what spec for the server how would you run transform files etc?
You may get very small companies who are desperate to have your services but you will have a hard time convincing others unless you can prove commercial experience.
If you take the website you give as an example the van at the top is very poorly cut out, you use flash paper which wont register in Google so you loose a lot of page rankings. If I was a large company I would notice these things and want more examples of your sites etc.
The bottom line is forget it unless you want to go to college and get a degree or MS qualifications
Re: Self employment in IT.
18-05-2008 1:02 AM
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Re: Self employment in IT.
18-05-2008 7:29 AM
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If you are not MCSE certified then a lot of companies will not touch you.
The company I work for is small (3 engineers), has been going for over 10 years, our 'patch' covers north London all the way up past Milton Keynes and we are struggling to find business as many people have been cutting back on IT needs. As Samuri says, just doing bits a pieces for yourself and friends is no comparison to the real world where companies rely almost entirely on IT and could easily go under if their systems don't work, even for a short time.
You are better off joining another company (ideally small) and learning the job and all its pitfalls. There are a lot of 'IT' people around doing similar stuff to what you want to do so competition is very fierce. I was thinking of starting up myself (I have over 20 years IT experience and web design) but having seen how much of a struggle it is to run a small IT business I gave up that idea.
It will be a huge risk but if that is something you still want to do, make sure you have public liability insurance as one mistake could cost you a lot of money and ruin your current and future business prospects.
Re: Self employment in IT.
18-05-2008 9:16 AM
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Re: Self employment in IT.
18-05-2008 9:27 AM
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But certainly in my case what I'm on in my job developing software for a large retailer is probably more than I'd get going solo and a lot less hassle and with a family to support probably not worth the risk.
I get lots of calls from mates and some small business to sort them out, but like samuria says if i started charging proper rates those calls would probably dry up. Maybe it's worth a try 🙂
You could always have a look at http://www.nerdsonsite.com/, though I don't know if they operate in Ireland yet.
If you do it, best of luck.
If it helped click the thumb
If it fixed it click 'This fixed my problem'
Re: Self employment in IT.
18-05-2008 9:52 AM
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Charging rates are key. Companies with employees, premises etc. and of course backup, holiday cover etc. have to charge what they do to stay in business.
If you're a self-employed sole trader (and under the VAT threshold) you can charge somewhat less but DON'T underestimate what that needs to be.
A rough rule of thumb I used to use when doing IT contracts was - what's the salary & benefits package for someone doing this job as an employee? Divide by 1000 for your minimum hourly rate. So if you're doing a £60K job charge at least £60 per hour.
Finally your clients need to understand what you can and can't do. Don't, as noted by others, attempt to do too much as you can't be good enough in them all. And try to find gaps in the market of course and focus there.
Re: Self employment in IT.
18-05-2008 10:20 AM
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You'll be able to meet people doing similar things in many lines of business who'll give you a lot of useful advice.
Re: Self employment in IT.
18-05-2008 6:04 PM
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I the meantime I have been playing with a site for the services. Obviously the address would be www.branaghcomputers.com which I already own but my newly crteated "prototype" is at www.seanbranagh.ie/branaghcomputers for testing. None of the buttons work but I am just concerned with getting the apperance right.
Re: Self employment in IT.
18-05-2008 7:20 PM
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Re: Self employment in IT.
18-05-2008 8:15 PM
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