Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?
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@guyinpv said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
To be perfectly honest, I can't file one yet because I don't know if I'm going to keep my DBA. I created a name a couple years ago thinking I would stay in the IT business and try to do service work. But now I'm actually getting more opportunity with development and less IT.
Just file GuyInPV LLC. Later, DBA whatever you want to do business as. Doesn't matter what the LLC is really called. Don't let names be a hangup to the real business getting done. Not actually a big deal.
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@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@guyinpv said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
I consider having a good business plan and a way to actually make money to be a top priority.
A business plan? That's just playing around. I'm serious. Sure, you need a business plan if you are in a high school business class or you are trying to make a pitch to an investor. But for running your own business? You are talking about wasting time with the most critical thing that there can be for a business, and then suggesting that a business plan is even worth doing? I'm so confused.
You're confused cause you have things backwards
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@guyinpv said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@guyinpv said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
I consider having a good business plan and a way to actually make money to be a top priority.
A business plan? That's just playing around. I'm serious. Sure, you need a business plan if you are in a high school business class or you are trying to make a pitch to an investor. But for running your own business? You are talking about wasting time with the most critical thing that there can be for a business, and then suggesting that a business plan is even worth doing? I'm so confused.
You're confused cause you have things backwards
No he's 100% right. What's the business plan for?
This is like rearranging your house so you can buy an insurance policy. Doesn't make sense.
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@guyinpv said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@guyinpv said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
I consider having a good business plan and a way to actually make money to be a top priority.
A business plan? That's just playing around. I'm serious. Sure, you need a business plan if you are in a high school business class or you are trying to make a pitch to an investor. But for running your own business? You are talking about wasting time with the most critical thing that there can be for a business, and then suggesting that a business plan is even worth doing? I'm so confused.
You're confused cause you have things backwards
Do whatever you think is best. When you lose your house, you can explain to your wife that it was a million in one chance and it's all okay, because at least you still have the business plan.
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Or we lose the house cause frivolous lawsuits are still bloody expensive and drown us into homelessness and bankruptcy anyway?
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@guyinpv said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
Or we lose the house cause frivolous lawsuits are still bloody expensive and drown us into homelessness and bankruptcy anyway?
So you think that this is so common that it's not worth having solid, proven protection. But not so common that it could ever possibly happen?
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@guyinpv said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
Or we lose the house cause frivolous lawsuits are still bloody expensive and drown us into homelessness and bankruptcy anyway?
They can only be as expensive as the assets the LLC owns. That's the whole point of this. If you're an SP it's as much as they can take from you. If you're an LLC it's not.
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@stacksofplates said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@guyinpv said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
Or we lose the house cause frivolous lawsuits are still bloody expensive and drown us into homelessness and bankruptcy anyway?
They can only be as expensive as the assets the LLC owns. That's the whole point of this. If you're an SP it's as much as they can take from you. If you're an LLC it's not.
Right, he's intentionally making them costly. Unless he's saying that he owns literally nothing and has nothing to lose, then they are equally costly.
The LLC is the one thing that keeps lawsuits from being overly expensive AND reduces the chance of them happening at all. I just don't understand.
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Here is the breakdown:
- LLC costs essentially nothing.
- LLC reduces the likelihood that someone will bother to sue you as they have nothing to win.
- Skipping the LLC advertises to the world that you have enormous exposure and have it all out for the taking AND that you are a highly susceptible target that likely doesn't have an attorney or other basic protections. It's not just that your exposure is high, it flags you as likely to be unable to handle a lawsuit logistically.
- LLC gives you the potential to sell your business if necessary.
- LLC gives you the potential to get investors or partners if necessary.
So zero effort, enormous protection.
I'm 100% lost as to why this is even a discussion. But it is your family's future, not mine. Do what you think is right.
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@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@stacksofplates said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@guyinpv said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
Or we lose the house cause frivolous lawsuits are still bloody expensive and drown us into homelessness and bankruptcy anyway?
They can only be as expensive as the assets the LLC owns. That's the whole point of this. If you're an SP it's as much as they can take from you. If you're an LLC it's not.
Right, he's intentionally making them costly. Unless he's saying that he owns literally nothing and has nothing to lose, then they are equally costly.
The LLC is the one thing that keeps lawsuits from being overly expensive AND reduces the chance of them happening at all. I just don't understand.
Plus I don't know the full affect that has on your credit (obviously negative, just don't know to what degree) as a SP when going bankrupt. You could just dissolve the LLC.
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LLC gives you the potential to get investors or partners if necessary.
Along with this. If you ever decide to get a partner and aren't incorporated, both partners are fully liable for each other. That's even worse of a mess.
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Plus the partners kind of own each others assets.
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@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
Plus the partners kind of own each others assets.
Right which is why they are liable for each other. One decides to skip out with everything, you're in trouble.
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@stacksofplates said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
Plus the partners kind of own each others assets.
Right which is why they are liable for each other. One decides to skip out with everything, you're in trouble.
I've seen that happen many times, actually. It's pretty common.
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@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@stacksofplates said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
Plus the partners kind of own each others assets.
Right which is why they are liable for each other. One decides to skip out with everything, you're in trouble.
I've seen that happen many times, actually. It's pretty common.
I just dealt with helping somebody secure system accounts that had just happened last week
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@JaredBusch said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@stacksofplates said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
Plus the partners kind of own each others assets.
Right which is why they are liable for each other. One decides to skip out with everything, you're in trouble.
I've seen that happen many times, actually. It's pretty common.
I just dealt with helping somebody secure system accounts that had just happened last week
I knew that and it had slipped my mind. Very prescient.
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I don't know that we ever answered the matter of automation. I'm assuming the OP was looking for a god RMM tool?
I have been looking myself at what would be a fit for a small company like my current employer.
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@scottalanmiller said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
Here is the breakdown:
- LLC costs essentially nothing.
- LLC reduces the likelihood that someone will bother to sue you as they have nothing to win.
- Skipping the LLC advertises to the world that you have enormous exposure and have it all out for the taking AND that you are a highly susceptible target that likely doesn't have an attorney or other basic protections. It's not just that your exposure is high, it flags you as likely to be unable to handle a lawsuit logistically.
- LLC gives you the potential to sell your business if necessary.
- LLC gives you the potential to get investors or partners if necessary.
So zero effort, enormous protection.
I'm 100% lost as to why this is even a discussion. But it is your family's future, not mine. Do what you think is right.
Anything you read that is remotely business related recommends LLC or corp. Even just for an occasional side job.
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@magroover said in Moving from full time to part time, what can I automate?:
I don't know that we ever answered the matter of automation. I'm assuming the OP was looking for a god RMM tool?
I have been looking myself at what would be a fit for a small company like my current employer.
Thank you.
Yes the idea is:
- Good tools for keeping systems running smooth. So paid copy of ccleaner maybe? Or some other "maintenance" tool that checks for updates and does some cache cleaning and such? It would be nice to force them to do a system restart at least once a week too.
- Basic system monitoring where I could at least get an email over things like new programs that are installed, disk out of space, RAM filling up, or AV finding something.
- Remote control (preferably for free, but I've found almost all free options to not be very robust).
- Tickets for issues. Must be extremely non-tech friendly. As easy as sending an email, not having to have accounts to log in to to generate a ticket. Ideally this would be a ticket system I can use for my own business universally, not just something set up for this one company. I'm already connected to free Zoho, just haven't tested extensively. Also I use Freshdesk at work but it has some issues I don't like.
I even wonder if I can use my Producteev project management/todo app for this. Like shuffle an email into a task. - Slack. The company already has a slack account, but so do I. Is it more appropriate for me to be a member of their domain, or to make them a member of mine as a business? If I add them to my network (or any/all clients) it keeps my Slack clean. But if I'm adding all my client's Slack domains, it makes me have to keep a crap load of accounts open all the time which is annoying.
- Access to company data. Mainly I'm talking about things like passwords. I have all my accounts stored in either my own LastPass, or a KeyPass file. What's the best way to maintain access to accounts, while keeping it fully in their control? For example I guess I could keep the KP file in their Box account and get at it from there? I wouldn't want to run in to sync issues if too many people have access to such a file. Or I could keep my own KP file as a clone of theirs, and then they have to update me on all new password changes?
- Billing. Once I go independent, I'll have to bill them and track my time. There are a million ways to do this. I already have been using NutCache for quite a long time for billing so I could keep using that. They can even pay the bill by clicking a link on the invoice.
These are not only concerns for managing the company I'm easing out of, but certainly these methods could be used for any new clients I start working with.
I'm a sucker for organizing data, and using apps and such. I just don't want a completely new toolbox for every company I work for. Standardizing on tools is pretty important.
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That's a bit tough because different engagements will need different tools. A traditional MSP uses an RMM. But other kids of work normally do not.
