Wasn't sure if I would get much response but will ask anyways. Currently not happy with where I working so thinking about going self employed. I have a heavy IT background after college and a lot of personal learning. To get to the point I thinking if starting a small local company I can operate from home to start with, would offer services like technical support, advice, data recovery maybe computer repair if I can find the room. To start with I was considering as a lot of that sort of work is call outs so would need massive space but data recovery I got a powerful desktop PC for that. Was running on the whole no fix no fee idea or charging callouts but if it cant be fixed just charge for time. Anyone got any advice of how to get started and what's the do's and don'ts....
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Start up company! Need advice...
- Thread starter Carlv8415
- Start date
Yh I do odd jobs for friends and family and don't charge for it but a small donation goes a long way in my mind. Recovered over 600 photos off a friends SD card I know somebody would charge over £100 for that I said £10 but at first I said nothing it only because he forced it in my hand!
I just interested in starting and seeing what I getI am not a fan or no fix no fee, if a plumber advertised that i wouldn't be calling him for a leak as i want someone to fix the issue not to come out for 4 hours and say sorry cant do anything but you don't have to pay me. Not sure why IT should be any different. Also how broad are your troubleshooting skills? If someone calls you up with a blue screen do you know how to deal with it? Application crashes, slow performance, random corruption etc are all areas that can really take up time with no real indicator to why the problem has happened.
Good point about the no fix no fee bit. I would say they are fairly good I would say but I suppose in some incidences a simple fix is not available and a whole reinstall is needed. This is then down to the customer if they wanna go down that road because they are the one paying end of the day. But it may just be me buy surely sometimes nothing will do so some good advice is needed.
Bluebeard
ClioSport Moderator
Whichever has fuel
No fix no fee is a stupid concept. If you cannot provide me with the service you advertise, of course i'm not going to pay you. As spoonie says, if a plumber came out and spent 2 hours trying to fix something and couldn't, I wouldn't be paying him a penny because he hasn't fixed anything!
IMO, you need to start your business off whilst still being employed. Don't jump ship until you are at the point where your personal work is backing up too far. If you jump ship and have no money coming in, you'll start to go backwards very quickly.
I effectively ran my business for 2 years alongside being employed before I left my job. Working on my days off and evenings. It's hard work but it's the only way you'll do it.
IMO, you need to start your business off whilst still being employed. Don't jump ship until you are at the point where your personal work is backing up too far. If you jump ship and have no money coming in, you'll start to go backwards very quickly.
I effectively ran my business for 2 years alongside being employed before I left my job. Working on my days off and evenings. It's hard work but it's the only way you'll do it.
Good point about the no fix no fee bit. I would say they are fairly good I would say but I suppose in some incidences a simple fix is not available and a whole reinstall is needed. This is then down to the customer if they wanna go down that road because they are the one paying end of the day. But it may just be me buy surely sometimes nothing will do so some good advice is needed.
172 Cup
Firstly, Get a job with full time employment then do it on the side. Its how most people start up computer repair work and it seems to be the best way.
Secondly, Every man and his dog is a computer "expert" and with most problems they will ring their mate Dave who will format&re-install for a couple of fags and a 4 pack of skol.
Home users will call you up at silly hours and expect most support for free "since it only took you two minutes and must be easy for you"
Sorry if the above points are a bit of a downer but that's my experience of it! If you are going to go at the home repair work, I would do it on the side and hope you fix someone computer who runs a small business. Once you have a couple of small offices on your books the work is easier to plan and bill for without the bullshit.
What experience have you got in IT?
Secondly, Every man and his dog is a computer "expert" and with most problems they will ring their mate Dave who will format&re-install for a couple of fags and a 4 pack of skol.
Home users will call you up at silly hours and expect most support for free "since it only took you two minutes and must be easy for you"
Sorry if the above points are a bit of a downer but that's my experience of it! If you are going to go at the home repair work, I would do it on the side and hope you fix someone computer who runs a small business. Once you have a couple of small offices on your books the work is easier to plan and bill for without the bullshit.
What experience have you got in IT?
Bus w**ker
Also don't forget that the IT market is massively over saturated. Like blburied says everyone with a PC is an expert, so you really need to be able to offer something - which is where word of mouth comes in. Take Daniel for example, he's a fat ginger car salesman that sounds like a farmer however from his presence on CS, the fact that he's a nice bloke and that he doesn't try to rip people off he has a good rep and people go to him from CS or recommend others to see him.
Been using windows based PC for about 10 years and Mac for the last 1 year. I would say my knowledge it good as all my friends and family come to me for help. I get your point about IT being saturated as its so hard to get a job in it. I have no formal experience that's the problem I can't get a job anywhere as I have no experience! I seen a job a advertised as part time and at this point I getting desperate. It would involve taking a cut in pay but the experience I would get would be invaluable.
172 Cup
Getting experience is what you need. I'd keep applying for the 10k pa jobs. Its where I and my brother started off. Granted he's done something completely different within the realms of "IT",but its where most start and progress from. I too have been messing with computers for about 15 years and been professionally at it for 7-8 years now working as a Systems Engineer, which for me is a broad term as no year has really been the same to the previous with what I'm doing. Some years I have done PC Support, then Servers and Networking, Few in Telecoms and now back round to Servers&Networking. I'm far from specialised in anything, hate wanky buzzwords and cant give you an "Expert Explanation" on what gone wrong but 98% of the time I can fix it without a format.
Personally I'd try really f**king hard to get a job at the bottom of the pile in 1st Line Support and see where you go from there. Get applying to everything and anything IT related. Get on Agency books, You will be there with plenty of others but just try Outshine the s**t(of which there are plenty).
In short, Keep your current job, Do some home support on the side and get applying for those 1st Line support jobs.
What within IT do you have a "hard on" for doing?
Thanks mate that's some really good advice. Tbh I don't really mind most things in computer but as you put it, I get a "hard on" for computer hardware, networking, and diagnostic. Can't stand software and programming but can put up with it if need be.
172 Cup
Well if your trying to get into a Tech Job, Instead of saying "No experience, willing to learn, quick learner, able to multi task etc etc". Maybe a Skill Matrix or whatever they are called would be better. I.E. Windows XP.
You said your PC was quite powerful? How much ram has it got? If its got enough grunt you could look at getting some Virtual Machines and a Virtual network running on it and see how a Domain Controller runs? DNS, AD, DHCP, File&Print. Having some "Experience/Proficiency in that may just swing you a job? Microsoft let you download 180day trials/VM images of their Server&Client software. *
It all depends where you want to be. Programming as I'm sure you aware is extensive on what language you can program in and what the market is after. No point programming in some shite like Clarion if the world doesn't use it.
You said your PC was quite powerful? How much ram has it got? If its got enough grunt you could look at getting some Virtual Machines and a Virtual network running on it and see how a Domain Controller runs? DNS, AD, DHCP, File&Print. Having some "Experience/Proficiency in that may just swing you a job? Microsoft let you download 180day trials/VM images of their Server&Client software. *
It all depends where you want to be. Programming as I'm sure you aware is extensive on what language you can program in and what the market is after. No point programming in some shite like Clarion if the world doesn't use it.
2012 Retina MacBook Pro Core i7 with 8GB DDR3, run fusion on it for virtual machines. Ran my own windows server on an old desktop so setting up DHCP, DNS FTP and other network terminology.
Like I say I don't mind programming just I'm not a massive fan, if the time come I willing to do it.
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