Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?
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Remember that a MSP is but one type. Going consultant is a completely different model.
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@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@IRJ said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
All the above is my opinion too.
@irj You aren't ripping at all. I need opinions from people who've been there.My last bench job was over 10 years ago, even then it was about $13/hr after 6 years at the place!
My last job interview for bench/repair/onsite general tech at "the" local "big" shop was just a year or two ago but they maxed out around $17 or $18/hr even for an onsite tech who does business clients.
I've never seen a general tech position in my local cities anywhere over basic $10 to $14/hr. It's pathetic.
The highest paying IT job I ever found/applied for was for city government which was about a $45k job with full benefits, maxing out around $70k ish.
Even hospitals and town governments pay around $40k-$50k tops.If the very best I can do in my city is government at $50k, there has to be something better I can do on my own. I just don't know what that niche is, what it looks like, what is my value/offering.
OK so if traveling technician is out, and MSP it out due to complexity and lack of experience, what other niches are there?
It seems obviously to cater to business rather than consumer, though there may be a small niche of consumers worth going after too.
Businesses must have a need for IT but not big enough to afford their own part time or full time staff. And not small enough where they just have one or two Walmart PCs and a inkjet.Maybe I just need more examples of what people actual DO if they run their own IT business, and how much can be made doing it. I might as well not leave the 9-5 if going my own way increases work load by 40% and only make a few hundred more a month! Or I can keep applying for government jobs. eww.
I would say an MSP isn't impossible, but you should probably work for one for a few years first to understand everything required.
None of those in my neighborhood.
A guy tried to "partner" me into starting one with him, only what the deal really was is "you be on call and I'll have you do my work for me as needed. No guaranteed income or schedule or anything, and you can take 40% billable hours and do marketing and sales and B2B door-2-door on your own time for my new MSP."
You can work with a meta MSP (MMSP) that will do most of the tech work and you mostly function as remote hands and work to get local clients. Let's you scale up to the sizes necessary to maintain constant monetary flow - basically you become a cog in a bigger MSP machine, but one that you have a lot of autonomy and control over.
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@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Remember that a MSP is but one type. Going consultant is a completely different model.
And far far more effective if you want to provide skilled IT solutions to businesses.
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@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Remember that a MSP is but one type. Going consultant is a completely different model.
And far far more effective if you want to provide skilled IT solutions to businesses.
..... Without a full firm behind you.
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@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Remember that a MSP is but one type. Going consultant is a completely different model.
And far far more effective if you want to provide skilled IT solutions to businesses.
..... Without a full firm behind you.
A firm which is often staffed with resellers and people who design pretty project design brochures
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@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Remember that a MSP is but one type. Going consultant is a completely different model.
And far far more effective if you want to provide skilled IT solutions to businesses.
..... Without a full firm behind you.
A firm which is often staffed with resellers and people who design pretty project design brochures
Well, that's a VAR. True MSP isn't a reseller. MSP is a services business. VAR is a reselling business. Many are both, but it is the VAR aspect that you are seeing there, not the MSP one.
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@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Remember that a MSP is but one type. Going consultant is a completely different model.
And far far more effective if you want to provide skilled IT solutions to businesses.
..... Without a full firm behind you.
A firm which is often staffed with resellers and people who design pretty project design brochures
Well, that's a VAR. True MSP isn't a reseller. MSP is a services business. VAR is a reselling business. Many are both, but it is the VAR aspect that you are seeing there, not the MSP one.
The 2 generally have merged with more and more companies, more resolutions and fixes are pushed towards the VAR arm rather than the proactive maintenance and fixing issues arm.
As for the VA part, What value added? It's getting more and more silly out there now.
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@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@JaredBusch said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
Remember that a MSP is but one type. Going consultant is a completely different model.
And far far more effective if you want to provide skilled IT solutions to businesses.
..... Without a full firm behind you.
A firm which is often staffed with resellers and people who design pretty project design brochures
Well, that's a VAR. True MSP isn't a reseller. MSP is a services business. VAR is a reselling business. Many are both, but it is the VAR aspect that you are seeing there, not the MSP one.
The 2 generally have merged with more and more companies, more resolutions and fixes are pushed towards the VAR arm rather than the proactive maintenance and fixing issues arm.
As for the VA part, What value added? It's getting more and more silly out there now.
The two are very separate. Just lots of MSPs try to take advantage of people being casual with terms to make money as sales people instead of as IT people from foolish customers.
Easy differentiation: MSP staff are IT, VAR staff are sales.
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@scottalanmiller said
Easy differentiation: MSP staff are IT, VAR staff are sales.
But there is no differentiation for the clients because they deal with the same 1 person. Acting as both sales and technical support. That nice guy who does site visits for you and fixes everything? He's also a sales person.
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@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@scottalanmiller said
Easy differentiation: MSP staff are IT, VAR staff are sales.
But there is no differentiation for the clients because they deal with the same 1 person. Acting as both sales and technical support. That nice guy who does site visits for you and fixes everything? He's also a sales person.
That makes them a VAR and a salesperson. If the customer is confused, that's a customer business identification problem, doesn't make MSP and VAR the same thing (or even related.)
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But I've seen that business model in industries other than IT.
As an example, in house AV manager for conference centres and other venues. He has the technical knowledge, skill and capability to pull off everything required but he is also there to sell solutions and services, extra equipment for rental and so on.
Same again with a venue manager, offering flowers or extra this or that as a service.
You don't have to be a "Sales" person by definition to sell things to people and a huge number of MSPs have their tech guys (Who the customer has built up a relationship with and trust) sell and pitch things.
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@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
But I've seen that business model in industries other than IT.
As an example, in house AV manager for conference centres and other venues. He has the technical knowledge, skill and capability to pull off everything required but he is also there to sell solutions and services, extra equipment for rental and so on.
He might be a technical salesman, but he's just a salesman. It's a standard sales model. But once a salesman, you're a salesman. It's just how it is. Understanding that he's a sales guy that might do some technical work too is critical for anyone that "does business" to see. This is a minimum level of "service buying competence" necessary to be a viable end user of services.
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@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
You don't have to be a "Sales" person by definition to sell things to people and a huge number of MSPs have their tech guys (Who the customer has built up a relationship with and trust) sell and pitch things.
Yes, you do. Buy doing so, you become a sales person by definition. It's that simple. If you think you are a tech, but you are out doing sales, you are really a sales person whether you call yourself one or not.
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@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
You don't have to be a "Sales" person by definition to sell things to people and a huge number of MSPs have their tech guys (Who the customer has built up a relationship with and trust) sell and pitch things.
Yes, you do. Buy doing so, you become a sales person by definition. It's that simple. If you think you are a tech, but you are out doing sales, you are really a sales person whether you call yourself one or not.
So let's say you sell someone on a VOIP phone system and you've done that once in the past year, are you by definition a sales person?
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@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:
You don't have to be a "Sales" person by definition to sell things to people and a huge number of MSPs have their tech guys (Who the customer has built up a relationship with and trust) sell and pitch things.
Yes, you do. Buy doing so, you become a sales person by definition. It's that simple. If you think you are a tech, but you are out doing sales, you are really a sales person whether you call yourself one or not.
So let's say you sell someone on a VOIP phone system and you've done that once in the past year, are you by definition a sales person?
If you are getting money from doing that, yes, assuming that you can continue to get compensated for that (you could have sold one and then given up the ability to sell them, that's different, that is "having been" a salesman.) I know tons of people who do full time sales but only pull off selling one or two things a year.
If sales is clouding your compensation, you are a sales person.
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@scottalanmiller said
If you are getting money from doing that, yes.
Then by that definition, every one on this planet is a sales man and everyone works in sales. For me it's too literal and rigid as a definition.
It just feels like saying if you've played the guitar once you are a musician.
If you've cooked a meal once, you are a chef.Does that kind of make sense? Or am I missing the point?
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@Breffni-Potter
I went through this whole thing with @scottalanmiller once. You'll never win.
My argument at the time was that if I scouted out, say, 4 products I thought were the best, and only sold/used those at client sites, there was nothing wrong with that. His take was that is not being an IT consultant, it is being a reseller/salesman.
I still never agreed with him, but I do understand his point.
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@BRRABill said
I still never agreed with him, but I do understand his point.
Let's say I will only ever sell Microsoft Office 2007 from now until I die. I am a salesman, I agree with that as a definition.
But Scott's angle seems to be if you receive compensation by "selling" anything you are a salesman.
Therefore if you have ever sold an old CD to a store, a car, a piece of art, an old games console, clothing, fresh air, you are a sales person.
Therefore, I am going to state that every single person in the world, is a sales person or has been a sales person because at least once everyone has or will sell something.
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IT is almost always both tech and sales, how can it not be? You go to fix stuff, their mouse needs batteries, well you have to sell some batteries I guess.
You sell AV, backup services, cloud services, VOIP, office hardware, monitors, printers, cabling, security devices, the list goes on.
One cannot ONLY be a "fixer" who never sold anything ever. At some point they have to buy/sell something to the end user.That said, what I think Scott is saying is that if the thing you are selling is also compensating you, that makes you a salesman.
If I buy all my hardware from one location because I use their 3% cash back card, that is incentive and makes me a salesman by my earned commissions.
If I sign people up to cloud services via affiliate connections, I'm a sales guy hooking people up.So the big question is, what's the problem with it? If you happen to absolutely love Dell and Crucial and Office365 and this that and other, and they just happen to have affiliate programs, why wouldn't you join? You "sell" those products anyway.
Do you sell it for the commission, or do you sell it anyway and a commission is just a bonus?
I don't see any problem with a little earned commission on selling things you already promote anyway. Just as long as those little commission benefits don't cloud your judgement about clients' needs.
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That was basically my exact argument.
I'm sure @scottalanmiller will chime in to present his side.
