Good info from all. I know it's going to be hard, but can't see myself going to work for someone. I don't have any desire to become a large company.

Are any speaking from experience in starting a company fresh or is this mostly anecdotal?

@scottalanmiller said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@dashrender said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@scottalanmiller said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@dashrender said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@scottalanmiller said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@ccwtech said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

No doubt. I waited too long before hiring. I've been working 7 days a week about 17 hours per day... Not fun.

Yeah, probably too long. But the longer you do it, the more time you have to bank the money to pay the next person with less risk.

Yeah, you have to either be prepared to get a loan to cover their salary, or have it in the bank already. You might find your own salary going down, possibly significantly, while you continue to grow the business.

This is often the case. Employees are expensive. Lots of people never get back to where they were before hiring.

once you hire, there are a ton of new or at least significantly higher fees/taxes/etc you have to pay that you didn't before.

Unemployment taxes, payroll costs, workman's comp, etc.

I'm 'very aware' of that... It sucks...

@dashrender said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@ccwtech said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@dashrender said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@scottalanmiller said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@ccwtech said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

No doubt. I waited too long before hiring. I've been working 7 days a week about 17 hours per day... Not fun.

Yeah, probably too long. But the longer you do it, the more time you have to bank the money to pay the next person with less risk.

Yeah, you have to either be prepared to get a loan to cover their salary, or have it in the bank already. You might find your own salary going down, possibly significantly, while you continue to grow the business.

Yes, I saved enough that if 0 dollars come in I would still be able to operate for over a year.

Paying yourself and an employee? If so, that's awesome, sounds like you're nearly read to make the jump to your first employee.

Yep... and I did it 2.5 weeks ago.

@dashrender said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@scottalanmiller said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

@ccwtech said in How to Grow from a One Man Operation to Two:

No doubt. I waited too long before hiring. I've been working 7 days a week about 17 hours per day... Not fun.

Yeah, probably too long. But the longer you do it, the more time you have to bank the money to pay the next person with less risk.

Yeah, you have to either be prepared to get a loan to cover their salary, or have it in the bank already. You might find your own salary going down, possibly significantly, while you continue to grow the business.

Yes, I saved enough that if 0 dollars come in I would still be able to operate for over a year.

No doubt. I waited too long before hiring. I've been working 7 days a week about 17 hours per day... Not fun.

I have more business than I can handle, so right now I am in a pretty good spot. Hopefully that 'eases the pain' somewhat.

So essentially unless you have a large amount of capital, the small I.T. business owner is pretty much screwed?

Somewhat off topic, but in my case, I am semi-retired (with a pension) and a 1 man shop. I know the incredible challenges of going from 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc. I can't imagine myself going to work for a boss. I think I read in another topic that you (Scott) mentioned that bringing on a business partner was a better way to go than just an employee. (They have skin in the game).

Somewhat off topic... I have read many posts on here about going from 1 person to a 2 person shop. It's very hard. I would think that one thing as a business owner could do is to bring on a partner (vs. just employee). Then they have skin in the game... I'm not willing to go back and have a 'boss' after being my own boss. (Unless I have to) But I also can't go alone so I need to grow. Not an easy task by any means.

Thanks Scott. This is very helpful.

Would it not be cheaper to just buy another copy of Server 2016 Standard?

To clarify, that's required even if you aren't deploying Virtual Desktops to users? (In this case it's just to Teamviewer into to run a program vs. having a user Teamviewer into the server itself.)

Is that required for any 3rd OS or just if you add Microsoft desktop products. In other words, could a Linux VM be a 3rd w/o VDI/VDA?

Got it. Thanks!

That's what I was thinking. Thanks Scott.

When setting up a Windows Server Hyper-V Host, should that host be a member of the domain or just left as a workgroup?

If I have a physical Windows 2016 Standard server that has only Hyper-V role installed on it. Per M$ licensing I know you can run 2 VM's with Windows Server Standard on it.

If I need to add a 3rd VM Running Windows 10 Pro, is there a license I need in addition to the Windows 10 Pro license?

@coliver said in Should You Job Hop for Your Career in IT - SAMIT Video:

@ccwtech said in Should You Job Hop for Your Career in IT - SAMIT Video:

Scott specifically mentions that for my company 'size matters'.

@scottalanmiller said in Should You Job Hop for Your Career in IT - SAMIT Video:

Even very large MSPs struggle with this, but at least they have more ability to handle it than do smaller ones. But in a shop with just two people, I suspect that you will find that this does not work as you imagine that it does and that incrementing an employee up the ladder doesn't work very well because customers don't generally have any need with regularity for incremental movements in their providers.

Ah I see. I won't speak for him. But what is your market currently? Doesn't that have a lot to do with what technologies you and your employees are going to interact with on a daily basis? if you're being the IT department for multiple SMBs you are still restricted to what those SMBs do/want/need. So training your employee in a technology won't, necessarily, mean that you are gaining any marketable skills for the customers in your field. Sure you can pay them more for have a new skill in their repertoire but does that actually add value to the company?

Absolutely. If she learns CISCO networking it opens up opportunities that I have had to outsource. If she learns data recovery I can stop sending Level III recovery's out to a lab (I do Level I and II in-house), all of the other skills added open up new opportunities for revenue.

Scott specifically mentions that for my company 'size matters'.

@scottalanmiller said in Should You Job Hop for Your Career in IT - SAMIT Video:

Even very large MSPs struggle with this, but at least they have more ability to handle it than do smaller ones. But in a shop with just two people, I suspect that you will find that this does not work as you imagine that it does and that incrementing an employee up the ladder doesn't work very well because customers don't generally have any need with regularity for incremental movements in their providers.

@coliver I guess I don't know the size of NTG.