1

Has anyone worked in IT and got sick of employers and started their own IT shop? How did it work out? Was it worth it?

16 Spice ups
2

Something I’ve wanted to do all my professional life but so far the right time hasn’t come. I either didn’t have enough experience in my opinion (a few years ago) or not enough money (had just brought a house) and my current issue is poor economic outlook.

I would dearly love to do something with my own business one day as I think I could make a go of it and bring something new to the table.

3

Those are same problems I have and I am guessing alot of other people too. Anyway, if anyone wants to start something let me know. I live in Orlando.

4

I’m getting sick of office politics, to many heads, and not enough arms. I want to start up my own business but i would have know idea where to start, i know what i want to sell but as far as organising equipment etc. clueless…

5

I as well would love to work for myself - couple of other hurdles.

  1. I don’t have the business sense to know what to do

  2. way too many people out there with similar skill sets doing the same thing. How do you show you are better than the rest.

6

I have delt with some IT consulting people and their is alot of fluff when it comes to how much they really know. Don’t get me wrong, there are alot of experts out there, but they also charge an arm and leg. Working for yourself you get to decline work if you want and work only on the things you know. As far as getting business, everyone knows word of mouth is the best espescially with small businesses.

7

I know what you mean BT, I have had to clean up after serveral consultants who’s skills were lacking which has always made me think that maybe I could make a decent go of going solo.

If you present yourself well and have a sharp, professional image, good personal skills and top notch IT skills then it shouldn’t be hard to make a decent living.

Its just taking that initial leap in to the unknown is difficult!

8

My advice is the following:

  1. find a niche!!
  2. Start it small to make sure it’ll work. It might mean that you’re doing ‘on the side’ work for a while and not getting much sleep, but you can keep your current job and not go broke!
  3. Talk to your current employer about having them pay your company for ‘IT Services’ rather than having you as an employee… at the same cost for them. It worked for me, and it allows me to both list the projects that I do for them on my job list, as well as list them as a client. You can then slowly roll out of your current job if things take off.
9

I have been a partner in a small IT business. I am now the IT Director for a community bank.

Please take what I am about to say in a positive way. I love the idea of owning a business. This country is perfect for it. But know that there will be some good and some bad. And you have to make the decision for yourself. Life comes around once so live it and enjoy it whatever you do.

There are pluses and minuses to both. The headaches exist in both worlds but they are different headaches. A few things that I can point out…

Cash flow!

When you work for yourself and visit different clients then you can put a fake smile for a while and vent your frustrations with the “ID 10 T” errors in the car on the way to the bank to cash the check from where you just got paid for that stupid support call.

When you work for an employer you can try to hide in your office or hold it in until the end of the day OR try to change your own attitude towards those “stupid” questions.

Cash flow!

When you work for yourself, yes, you can choose the jobs you want to take and not take. That is, as long as you have enough jobs available to be picky. Most new business owners don’t have that luxury so be realistic about this one.

Did I say Cash flow?

My experiences have been that other small businesses that you are working for have cash flow issues too and don’t normally pay within 30 days but 45, 60, 75 or longer. You need to cover that time because you will have bills that need to be paid as well.

Many people are great a IT work but bad as asking for payment. Think about this for a few minutes… Close your eyes, imagine working on one of those really strange problems that takes hours but you find out it was something really simple (to you). Now imagine that your customer understands that it was something simple. Now imagine the unpleasant conversation with that customer when he/she gets a bill for 5 hours @ $125/hour ($625) and he/she starts to think “it should have only taken 45 minutes”.

You have to be able to know when to stand firm and when to cut the invoice.

There are many, many other things that I could mention. But I will only mention one more at this time. Don’t have too many partners. Four partners is too many. Maybe just two of you but better that it is only one. Too many partners offers too many chances for different opinions on which direction to take the business.

Sorry if this is too long of a post but I love this idea and wanted to share.

10

So why are you not in that small IT business anymore?

11

I started my own business with a friend and we had a goal of trying to put as little money into it as possible.

Problem 1: There are a shit load of forms to file. I made a corporation when I should have made a LLC.

Problem 2: No matter how hard I tried I always missed some tax form and ended up paying for it later.

Problem 3: I didn’t always keep the best records and had trouble filling out the forms I did know I needed to fill out.

Problem 4: Being poor it was frustrating to find no matter how much I made I owed a Minimum of $800 in taxes to California (where I live) And I had to pay it within the first quarter of my 2nd year of business

Problem 5: Depending when you start you need to learn the terms Fiscal and Calendar year and which you should use.

Problem 6: Since you are the employee and the company, you pay income taxes and as the company you have to match the taxes. Instead of 20% in taxes it was more like 40%. You also need to take some money from all profits to grow the business. It is especially important when you are a corporation. If you don’t invest in the company and keep track of monthly minutes(aka meetings) and you get sued they can claim the company isn’t seperate and you lose your protection.

Problem 7: I really suggest an accountant, but I was told they can be $4000/month. I think if I had had better management of finaces I might have been able to do better. Also, find an online payroll company they are 100% worth the monthly fee.

Problem 8: It can be unreliable income. I was lucky and made enough to survive the first 6 monthes. Then I had a dry spell. I think I only made it that far because my friend was an employee at a Gateway store as they were all closing and all the current Service center customers asked where to go, so we had a good initial client base. and Geek Squad was just starting.

All in all my biggest problem was trying to be my own accountant and trying to save money by putting as little into the business at first.

If you bothered to read this far, I think the in-home support business has plenty of room for new businesses as many people find phone support from India is unusable.

12

All of those headaches were personal experiences. The bank became a customer of mine when they started in '99. They eventually grew to the point where they were going to hire an IT person to be on staff. My frustrations had mounted as a partner in the business, I had gotten married and was building a house… the bank seemed to be the answer to stability and less headaches. As I mentioned there are are still headaches, just different ones. But overall I am very happy. I am still in a position of some deal of power because, other than my one tecnician that works for me, I am the only one who really knows the IT job. And a bank has financial resources to do a lot of really cool technology projects that are fun and just grow my knowledge even more.

13

Clayton… all very good points to consider. I agree that having an accountant is a good idea. It, not IT, can all be really confusing and aggrevating.

When I mentioned a partner, I had in mind that you might find an equal partner who is better at the business/financial side of things and you can work together. But always try to learn enough about that side so you don’t get messed over.

14

Screw this, I’m going to play the lottery!

15

haha. I do that too. If you don’t buy a ticket then your chances are 100% that you will not win.

16

The only easy way to get rich is dumb luck.

17

Not completely but it doesn’t hurt to have some lucky days now and again.

18

I’m in the UK, different rules/regs from the States I imagine.

If there are any Spicers wanting advice, I’m reasonably well versed. Been running since 2000, I work alone, and make a damned good living. My partner is also a fully qualified book keeper, and I work for 8 accountancy firms.

Here’s a few tricks.

Don’t try to open a shop/store. Home/domestic users have not got enough money! Concentrate on Small businesses 5-100 Users. FOCUS.

Get an accountant, create a Limited Company, (better for taxation), kit out his network for free if necessary. He’ll be able to recomend so many potential clients, and if he’s recomending you. Your in.
(I’m proud to say I have NEVER advertised, all clients are from recomendations).

Try and get cusomers on “maintenance” e.g.

1 x SBS2003 £100

6 x Workstations @ £20 £120

So every month, you collect £220

Then start collecting more and more. 1 guy should be able to cover approx £5k/month (good money)

Pitfalls:

One client pays 3 months in arrears, and it’s a £2k account, so I’m out some £6k on one client. Daunting when I look at what I’m owed, but, once the monthy cheques start flowing, it’s not too bad.

You’ll need 6-12month “wages” in the bank before you start. Monthly income will rise, but you’ll need liquidity to gey you by for the first year.

Holidays. Pain.

PS. I would consider “merging” with another similar company. Not to “create a monster” of a company, but to ease the pressure of always being on-call.

19

Ive often thought about starting my own business. The real problem around my area is that out of about 20000 people living in it there are 3 main stores that deal with IT stuff and a further 30 that advertise as individuals in the paper, so trying to muscle into the market are going to me an absolute pain.

Money is another factor, I simply havent got any. There were some bad spells etc which basically stripped us dry and now giving the UK economy trying to find a job I am capable of performing which pays enough to help me support the family on is next to impossible.

Gordon, if you want to extend up my way give me a shout :wink: lol I could cover the area :slight_smile: (I say this as my place of work have been preparing to make me redundant and outsource the IT support. Not bad but they dont give redundancy pay either so im on a limb).

20

HI I have would love to start my own business and what you have said is very helpful but it all seem very darning and I just don’t know if I could afford it I can think of a more knish market but just don’t know where to start.

Would love to hear from others in the UK who have done this or tried it any way.