Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?
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@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said
For the love of god - WHY? why are you asking that? He told you he wanted a server, so sell him a server. He didn't come to you and say - hey, I have a problem and I think a server will solve it, but I want to make sure.. can you help me? he just asked for a server.
Why do his job for him for free?Why? Because I care? And I want to provide good service?
I argue that you are providing bad customer service. You are not doing what they asked. Instead you are trying to convince them that what they know is wrong. And clearly they haven't bought into your argument by your own admission.
And have you seen a dime for that time you've spent? nope. but if you would have just sold them a server, you would have money in your pocket and maybe a support contact out of it.
Well, we should be charging for putting together what they need. You are all correct in that.
But most customers in that case won't pay you for that. If you spend one hour asking those questions, then put a $150 charge for information gathering, they will scream bloody murder at you.
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I'd be willing to bet that the majority of IT shops like @guyinpv are VARs. Can they do consulting? of course they can. But in reality most SMBs don't want to pay for it... they call you up and say I want X, so you sell them X.
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@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
I'd be willing to bet that the majority of IT shops like @guyinpv are VARs. Can they do consulting? of course they can. But in reality most SMBs don't want to pay for it... they call you up and say I want X, so you sell them X.
You can try to "do the right thing" as @BRRABill mentioned, but you really have to ask - is it the right thing? If they just ask you to sell them something, why assume they don't know what they want? of course as IT people, we know that 9/10 they really don't, but it's not our job to correct them.
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@Dashrender said
You can try to "do the right thing" as @BRRABill mentioned, but you really have to ask - is it the right thing? If they just ask you to sell them something, why assume they don't know what they want? of course as IT people, we know that 9/10 they really don't, but it's not our job to correct them.
That's where I disagree. I think it IS our job.
Talk about unethical. Knowingly selling someone something they don't need, I feel, is unethical. Though it sounds like it is also the definition of sales.
For me, personally, people have come to me because I have helped others, and they want the help and advice I can give. They WANT me to say "no that's not what you need" or "hey if you switch to this, it'll give you more features and be half the price".
Am I a VAR? Sure. I have no problems with it. I'm not pegging myself as anything.
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@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said
You can try to "do the right thing" as @BRRABill mentioned, but you really have to ask - is it the right thing? If they just ask you to sell them something, why assume they don't know what they want? of course as IT people, we know that 9/10 they really don't, but it's not our job to correct them.
That's where I disagree. I think it IS our job.
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Talk about unethical. Knowingly selling someone something they don't need, I feel, is unethical. Though it sounds like it is also the definition of sales.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
But they did not come to you for discovery and research on what is needed.
For me, personally, people have come to me because I have helped others, and they want the help and advice I can give. They WANT me to say "no that's not what you need" or "hey if you switch to this, it'll give you more features and be half the price".
Those are all good qualities of a VAR. But the point is they came to you with specs known already. At least fairly close to what was needed.
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@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said
You can try to "do the right thing" as @BRRABill mentioned, but you really have to ask - is it the right thing? If they just ask you to sell them something, why assume they don't know what they want? of course as IT people, we know that 9/10 they really don't, but it's not our job to correct them.
That's where I disagree. I think it IS our job.
Talk about unethical. Knowingly selling someone something they don't need, I feel, is unethical. Though it sounds like it is also the definition of sales.
For me, personally, people have come to me because I have helped others, and they want the help and advice I can give. They WANT me to say "no that's not what you need" or "hey if you switch to this, it'll give you more features and be half the price".
Am I a VAR? Sure. I have no problems with it. I'm not pegging myself as anything.
If they really want you to tell them No that's now what you need - then they should hire you to do that. You shouldn't do that for free.
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@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
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@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said
You can try to "do the right thing" as @BRRABill mentioned, but you really have to ask - is it the right thing? If they just ask you to sell them something, why assume they don't know what they want? of course as IT people, we know that 9/10 they really don't, but it's not our job to correct them.
That's where I disagree. I think it IS our job.
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Talk about unethical. Knowingly selling someone something they don't need, I feel, is unethical. Though it sounds like it is also the definition of sales.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
But they did not come to you for discovery and research on what is needed.
Even more so, they didn't come to you to have their decision questioned on if they need a server or not.
That's obvious in the case of the example non-profit because you say they are still arguing with you over it. -
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
No one comes to me just to buy a server, so I am never in this position, but if I was, I would tell said church person, that they have no idea what they need and they need to hire someone to actually figure that out. Me or another company I don't care, but hire someone who knows wtf they are doing to make sure you are not getting jipped.
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@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
Who are you to say any of that is true? You would have to ask several questions, none that have anything to do with the server itself to come close to knowing that's true. So you start your relations as follows:
Customer walks in:
Customer : Hi I want to buy a server, here are the specs.
You: oh hold on a second, do you really need a server?
Customer: yes
You: are you sure? how do you know?
Customer: because I know what servers are and I know I need one.really, how could it have started much different from that? How did you learn they are a three person shop? You're questioning their server purchase without other information first just seems odd.
now if it went more like this:
Customer: Hey I'm a three person shop, we have 150 GB of data on my laptop that I want to share with the other two, I've heard I need a server, what do you think?
Now you can question them, but really, now you should also be on the clock.
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@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
No one comes to me just to buy a server, so I am never in this position, but if I was, I would tell said church person, that they have no idea what they need and they need to hire someone to actually figure that out. Me or another company I don't care, but hire someone who knows wtf they are doing to make sure you are not getting jipped.
JB, what do you do when said church person tells you they don't care about that.. that they just want you to sell them a server? Would you?
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@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
No one comes to me just to buy a server, so I am never in this position, but if I was, I would tell said church person, that they have no idea what they need and they need to hire someone to actually figure that out. Me or another company I don't care, but hire someone who knows wtf they are doing to make sure you are not getting jipped.
JB, what do you do when said church person tells you they don't care about that.. that they just want you to sell them a server? Would you?
Well because I do not sell, I would then spec it out on Dell.com or something and have them buy it themselves.
Well actually, because they are a church and likely a 501c, I would recommend a VAR to them for the purchase that I know handles 501c all the time. That or TechSoup.
And then tell them I will gladly set things up for XX hours @ $X/hour.
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@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
No one comes to me just to buy a server, so I am never in this position, but if I was, I would tell said church person, that they have no idea what they need and they need to hire someone to actually figure that out. Me or another company I don't care, but hire someone who knows wtf they are doing to make sure you are not getting jipped.
JB, what do you do when said church person tells you they don't care about that.. that they just want you to sell them a server? Would you?
Or even better, when they say "yeah I'd llke to hire you"
Then you say "OK. Tell me about yourself."
They say "We are 3 people, with about 1GB of data stored"
You say "You don't need a server. Get Office 365."Done.
I can do that in 5 minutes without needing to charge them hundreds of dollars in consulting fees.
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@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
No one comes to me just to buy a server, so I am never in this position, but if I was, I would tell said church person, that they have no idea what they need and they need to hire someone to actually figure that out. Me or another company I don't care, but hire someone who knows wtf they are doing to make sure you are not getting jipped.
JB, what do you do when said church person tells you they don't care about that.. that they just want you to sell them a server? Would you?
Or even better, when they say "yeah I'd llke to hire you"
Then you say "OK. Tell me about yourself."
They say "We are 3 people, with about 1GB of data stored"
You say "You don't need a server. Get Office 365."Done.
I can do that in 5 minutes without needing to charge them hundreds of dollars in consulting fees.
That is impossible to do in 5 minutes. You just screwed them because you did not do proper discovery.
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@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
No one comes to me just to buy a server, so I am never in this position, but if I was, I would tell said church person, that they have no idea what they need and they need to hire someone to actually figure that out. Me or another company I don't care, but hire someone who knows wtf they are doing to make sure you are not getting jipped.
JB, what do you do when said church person tells you they don't care about that.. that they just want you to sell them a server? Would you?
Or even better, when they say "yeah I'd llke to hire you"
Then you say "OK. Tell me about yourself."
They say "We are 3 people, with about 1GB of data stored"
You say "You don't need a server. Get Office 365."Done.
I can do that in 5 minutes without needing to charge them hundreds of dollars in consulting fees.
That is impossible to do in 5 minutes. You just screwed them because you did not do proper discovery.
Yeah, perhaps that was too dramatic an example.
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@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
No one comes to me just to buy a server, so I am never in this position, but if I was, I would tell said church person, that they have no idea what they need and they need to hire someone to actually figure that out. Me or another company I don't care, but hire someone who knows wtf they are doing to make sure you are not getting jipped.
JB, what do you do when said church person tells you they don't care about that.. that they just want you to sell them a server? Would you?
Or even better, when they say "yeah I'd llke to hire you"
Then you say "OK. Tell me about yourself."
They say "We are 3 people, with about 1GB of data stored"
You say "You don't need a server. Get Office 365."Done.
I can do that in 5 minutes without needing to charge them hundreds of dollars in consulting fees.
That is impossible to do in 5 minutes. You just screwed them because you did not do proper discovery.
Yeah, perhaps that was too dramatic an example.
What I think you were driving at is no, I do not charge everyone for a conversation like that. I charge it to marketing internally. I will get paid. I did work. But I also know I have to balance what I actually bill with my marketing.
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@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
No one comes to me just to buy a server, so I am never in this position, but if I was, I would tell said church person, that they have no idea what they need and they need to hire someone to actually figure that out. Me or another company I don't care, but hire someone who knows wtf they are doing to make sure you are not getting jipped.
JB, what do you do when said church person tells you they don't care about that.. that they just want you to sell them a server? Would you?
Or even better, when they say "yeah I'd llke to hire you"
Then you say "OK. Tell me about yourself."
They say "We are 3 people, with about 1GB of data stored"
You say "You don't need a server. Get Office 365."Done.
I can do that in 5 minutes without needing to charge them hundreds of dollars in consulting fees.
That is impossible to do in 5 minutes. You just screwed them because you did not do proper discovery.
Yeah, perhaps that was too dramatic an example.
What I think you were driving at is no, I do not charge everyone for a conversation like that. I charge it to marketing internally. I will get paid. I did work. But I also know I have to balance what I actually bill with my marketing.
I mean, I can say with 99% certainly no 3 person church needs a server. At least none I have ever worked with. Is there a white unicorn out there? Sure. But I'd like to think I could detect that.
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Most churches (have setup many) need a NAS (a place to store files) but because they know they need to store their files they THINK they need a server (they heard it somewhere).
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@Minion-Queen said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Most churches (have setup many) need a NAS (a place to store files) but because they know they need to store their files they THINK they need a server (they heard it somewhere).
And then they forget that they need to backup that NAS somewhere else.
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@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said
If it is your job, you should be getting paid.
In order to get paid, you have to bill people.
In order to bill people you have to not do things for free.Agree 100%. I mean, a 5 minute discussion is OK, I think, but anything more needs billing.
NO one said sell them something they do not need. It was stated that they came to you for a server. So sell them the server they asked for, verify the basics, yes. You are a VAR, that is your job.
So if a 3 person non-profit church comes in and wants a $5K server. No questions asked you just sell it to them? Not me. Because I know they do not know what they need. They know the term server, but have no idea what it means, and what it is for. And how for 1/100th or less of the cost they can have a much better solution.
No one comes to me just to buy a server, so I am never in this position, but if I was, I would tell said church person, that they have no idea what they need and they need to hire someone to actually figure that out. Me or another company I don't care, but hire someone who knows wtf they are doing to make sure you are not getting jipped.
JB, what do you do when said church person tells you they don't care about that.. that they just want you to sell them a server? Would you?
Or even better, when they say "yeah I'd llke to hire you"
Then you say "OK. Tell me about yourself."
They say "We are 3 people, with about 1GB of data stored"
You say "You don't need a server. Get Office 365."Done.
I can do that in 5 minutes without needing to charge them hundreds of dollars in consulting fees.
That is impossible to do in 5 minutes. You just screwed them because you did not do proper discovery.
Yeah, perhaps that was too dramatic an example.
What I think you were driving at is no, I do not charge everyone for a conversation like that. I charge it to marketing internally. I will get paid. I did work. But I also know I have to balance what I actually bill with my marketing.
I mean, I can say with 99% certainly no 3 person church needs a server. At least none I have ever worked with. Is there a white unicorn out there? Sure. But I'd like to think I could detect that.
I know of a couple around here that do live streaming around here, one installation I know of actually has a live switching board and 3 or 4 PTZ cameras. Still, none of them require an on-site server.
Actually, it would be possible to make good money around here and with short (30 minute) drives to specialize in doing IT consulting for churches. It takes a minute to drive by some of the properties they're so large.
