@thwr said in Linux: File Colors:

@thwr said in Linux: File Colors:

@guyinpv said in Linux: File Colors:

@thwr said in Linux: File Colors:

@guyinpv said in Linux: File Colors:

PuTTY, CentOS.
I also use Consolas, 14pt text.

Fonts are a client-side thing, the data is plain ASCII/UTF8/whatever

Didn't say it wasn't.
I mentioned PuTTY in Windows. I particularly like Consolas, I also use it for programming.

Didn't mean to offend you, just wanted to clarify. Not everyone here is a Linux guru

OMG, that sounds very SAM-ish...

Here you go.

OH, you said SAM-ish, whoops.

Can someone explain why my screenshot jpg is being stretched? I don't see any settings or data about it being resized. It's not that big!

@thwr said in Linux: File Colors:

@guyinpv said in Linux: File Colors:

PuTTY, CentOS.
I also use Consolas, 14pt text.

Fonts are a client-side thing, the data is plain ASCII/UTF8/whatever

Didn't say it wasn't.
I mentioned PuTTY in Windows. I particularly like Consolas, I also use it for programming.

PuTTY, CentOS.
I also use Consolas, 14pt text.

I find the dark blue color for folders abhorrent. My eyes can hardly read it!

In PuTTY, you can go to the "Colours" section under "Window" and change it.
A common color for blue might be 74, 74, 255 and dark blue 140, 140, 255.

You have to save the session and give it a name in order to change these settings. And then after changing setting you have to save again.

On the topic of color, I like to narrow the contrast a little. Instead of pure black background I like a dark dark grey with a hint of blue, like 40,40,45 with the foreground text 230,230,230 instead of pure white.

@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

What they said was that there is a "Chance" that the consultant's opinion could be swayed by the fact that they could get paid because of the recommendation. That is all! Is that change worth it?

I dunno. Maybe the tech sleeps with his Dell rep? Should that be disclosed? Maybe there is a "chance" it causes bias too.
Maybe they worked somewhere where they paid him a handsome sum of cash to go to Dell training and now he kinda feel obligated to use that training and knowledge. Should that be disclosed?
Maybe he just really really likes Dell and they gave him a free sandwich once at the college Dell job fair booth. Disclose?
Maybe his favorite podcasts and screencast shows play Dell ads all the time and have Dell products and he's somewhat brainwashed because the costar is hot and there is a lot of subliminal stuff going on. Disclose?

Why is it a that a consultant is expected to just overcome ALL other biases to do a good job, and that's ok, but ONLY particularly monetary bias it's impossible to overcome ever because there might be one "chance" the bias wins? Some people would probably rather sleep with the Dell rep than get a few affiliate bonuses here and there. Seems a much bigger bias to me.

If all we're saying is it should be avoided due to one possible chance at any time ever, then this pretty much condemns ALL forms of bias, cause they might win sometimes too. We might as well just disclose that we are humans, and we might like some stuff better than other stuff. And that we can only be controlled by our lizard brains whenever money is involved but never for any other reason.

I get it that people have heard many stories of companies being hurt by biased consultants or VARs or whatever, I get it.
But the allure of the bias is also based on need, not only want. If a tech company builds into their revenue structure a dependence on affiliate income as a core strategy, they will be in trouble.
Just like I don't go shopping on an empty stomach, I throw everything in the basket and spend twice as much. If a company builds their structure on a dependence of commissions, they are in trouble.
Not only will be more willing to get the sale, but they'll be more willing to not disclose, because after all, it's a value added service, they get a better rate because we depend on the commissions. I'll help you get what you want as long as you get it through me because my business depends on it.

On the other hand, if commissions play no part of your business plan and you don't need them. It's just a tip jar and inconsequential to the work, nor does it effect your fee. Nor do you care if the client uses you or not for the things they buy.

@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

It's obvious people already in IT have all these strong thoughts on the subject, but I've never met a normal person outside of tech, even small business owners, who are this pedantic about things. I've never had somebody flip their shat after me offering them an affiliate link as if I've just totally screwed over their entire job.

Nor has a customer ever just paid you $500 for a consulting job then turn around and find out that Dell (which was in your consulting offerings) was paying you $50 because the customer bought the Dell, either.

You're assuming they would even care if it did happen.
Do you care if you buy something on ebay and find out they were just reselling it from Amazon with a $2 markup? Or vice versa from ebay to Amazon?
Do you care if you hire a mobile car mechanic and they install a starter from ABC company that they get a kickback for ABC starters? OMG I thought my mechanic was going to have pure, unbiased opinions about starters! Na, probably not, probably they install all their starters from ABC because they've found over the years they have the least amount of problems with them, they last a long time, have good warranties, etc.

People are so hung up on whether a commission utterly destroys the quality of work, when they should be asking is, was the work performed well and the equipment quality and the right choice.
Does it matter if Dell paid the tech? Or does it matter if Dell was a good choice and works? Would you rather prefer HP without the commission? Since that has everything to do with quality of solution apparently.
You're not asking if Dell was, in fact, the best choice. You're just implying that because of a commission, Dell was more likely a skewed and thus wrong choice. Commissions don't automatically make the product a wrong choice.

But the answer is no, no client "learns" I was paid, because if they buy anything "through me" that is explained at the time I offer them a link. Secondly, I didn't know Dell paid anybody anything, do they have an affiliate program? [[opens search engine....]]

Should we be completely hung up on commissions? Or does anybody care about what actually matters, like quality of work and equipment, which perfectly fulfills the needs, and is performed above and beyond the client's expectations? Maybe that should matter more. It does to me anyway, over and above some religious sense of IT piety and purity.

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

The question is do they ever choose them.

That's the client's choice. It doesn't change anything.

I suppose what you're saying is does the bias ever affect my work, even once.

So far, no, cause it's pennies and dimes.

Again, I've thought of affiliates in two ways up till now.

1. Tip money that is just a happy bonus should an affiliate product be used for a job and bought through me. Never high dollar amounts, never a question of priorities or which "master" is really in control.

2. A potential income source to offset normal fees. This point I am definitely re-evaluating now. Partnerships are a simple way to offset costs and allow one to charge less, thus undercutting competition. No matter how good I think I am, I always have to compete with the 14 year old who builds Wordpress sites on Craigslist for $50 dollars.

The cheapest website I built was a blog for $250, but the old dude wasn't hip to tech and sucked hours and hours of my time in email and phone calls, even having me come to his house, twice, for one-on-one training on how to use WP, all for $250. I wrote how-to documents fully with screenshots and even recorded a screencast and uploaded to Youtube to help explain further.
You can bet that after the fact, earning $50 extra bucks on affiliate hosting felt well justified. And this was a residential client, so bias doesn't really matter, one host is about as good as another when we're talking $6 bucks a month.
If I take away even the potential for $50, now I have to charge $300 or $500 for the same person, and for what? Because I won't be "biased" for the webhost I will STILL recommend anyway?

Regardless, I think the points have been made, though I obviously don't agree with many other sentiments, especially opinion-based assumptions about ethics and such.

I'm tempted to just deleted this thread, as it went way off topic and is just a brawl. Not sure it's useful to anybody and I don't want any ill feelings going around.

@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

Just don't do the reselling portion Like you said, it's trivial money, no skin off your back. So just skip it, problem solved.

Well yes, trivial. Like maybe the tune of $400 in the last few years? Thus I've only thought of it as bonus money, pocket money, lunch money, coffee money. Not something that changes my entire business model, focus, and how I go about working for people.

Honestly, for that, I wouldn't bother to be thrown into this pit.

Not that $400 is nothing, but to open this kind of can of worms...

I never thought it was this kind of can of worms, not at all. But then again, I never really tried to call myself a pure consultant. I've always been break/fix and general servicing.

It's obvious people already in IT have all these strong thoughts on the subject, but I've never met a normal person outside of tech, even small business owners, who are this pedantic about things. I've never had somebody flip their shat after me offering them an affiliate link as if I've just totally screwed over their entire job.

I am interested in actual case studies where this has happened. I get that sometimes a company can be oversold by a VAR, ok granted. But how about a company that was completely screwed over due to partner vendor bias?

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

The facts are that adding in a payment for being a seller's agent makes an inappropriate conflict of interest that must be disclosed.

I think of it more like a tip or bonus.
A barista who puts out a tip jar doesn't become a slave of the coffee shop just because sometimes during their work, some change is dropped in.

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

Just don't do the reselling portion Like you said, it's trivial money, no skin off your back. So just skip it, problem solved.

Well yes, trivial. Like maybe the tune of $400 in the last few years? Thus I've only thought of it as bonus money, pocket money, lunch money, coffee money. Not something that changes my entire business model, focus, and how I go about working for people.

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

But no one is defining it that way. Maybe in your mind that is what VAR means, but not to anyone else. VAR means you do sales and add services.

That seems like a perfectly reasonable conclusion. The problem is now that VAR is established, many many negative words were introduced to describe them.
Their ONLY job is "selling as much as possible."
They are "beholden" to the vendors.
The vendors are their "masters."
Their opinions are wholly "biased", if not totally "corrupted."
They cannot ethically/morally/objectively do any "consulting" when possible reselling is on the table.

I'm fine being called a generalist "services" provider, a VAR who provides services, break/fix, comes up with solutions and has some recommended affiliate/partner products in my toolbox should they be needed.
What I reject is being told I am essentially as good as a pushy vacuum salesmen, whose only job is selling for the man and so I can't be trusted for the best advice. Or that I've become a car lot and my whole job is selling the most expensive car.

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

I can't help but think in the real world case that I AM doing some level of consulting, AND some level of VARing. They need me to research and discover their needs and help them navigate options, but at the same time I already know they are going to end up buying something like a NAS one way or the other.

This statement is a great example of how the system turns you into a VAR. How does "going to buy a NAS" ever come up as a common, expected result? And how does any single NAS vendor come up as the single, almost always the answer? You have two layers of "this isn't how consulting would work" at least here. Because if doing real consulting... NAS would be not uncommon, but anything but expected. And that a single NAS vendor would be the right answer would also not be very common. Maybe one is 50% of the time, maybe. But not even that, in my experience.

Only a VAR thinks in terms of "the answer is nearly always the same." The answer only looks that way when you approach it from a VAR perspective. A consultant wouldn't see the world in cookie cutters. It's the affiliate programs that create the illusion of one size fits all. And it is the VAR emotions that make it seem reasonable to think that the consulting is a farce and that the same basic answer always results.

If you approach this as a consultant without the sales angle, you quickly see those things evaporate. There is no means of having one main solution.

I don't buy this. Is O365 "uncommon" in their market space? Is Google Docs an uncommon solution? Are cloud backups and antivirus solutions uncommon when they want central management?
Is AWS the uncommon choice for building a cluster of app servers? Is Azure uncommon when they want offsite management of AD?

Of course many solutions can be thought of as "common". Is Dell not common when a server is needed? In what situations would Dell not even be among the choices for a server purchase?

If you need free virtualization, is Xen or Hyper-V uncommon?

Why must one be a VAR before they can have some favorite tools in the toolbox? Or pull out some "common" options when a particular need comes up?

^^ forgive me if the below message doesn't take in account last 30 messages. Trying to also get work done!

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

There is one and only one problem being discussed. And that is...

Combining being a seller's agent with being a buyer's agent and not disclosing this to the parties.

That's it. If you think that being a consultant is bad, a seller is bad, affiliate programs are bad, mixing these roles while disclosing it or anything else is even hinted at as being bad.... you've totally missed what all of us have said. Completely.

Well, I think there are a LOT of issues, not just that one being discussed.

I fully reject the idea that a decent IT guy who typically weighs a half dozen or so various solutions to any given need, becomes a "salesman" should he sign up for an affiliate program of any given product.
There is no logical reason whatsoever that requires this person cannot still give objective and quality advice and recommendations.
I'm not saying this can't create bias in people, especially when the bonus is a lot. But I AM saying the bias is relative, affecting someone not at all, insignificant, when other things are of higher importance like integrity, quality work, ethics, morals. Signing up for an affiliate does not obligate them to push it.

I reject this silly two masters thing. The client pays the bills, they are paying the hourly wage, it's THEIR word of mouth that matters, it's their testimony, their future work. It's them I need to please, it's their problem I'm paid to solve, it's all about them, they have the power to fire me, sue me, reject me, or complain to the BBB, whatever. Oh, but that one affiliate product somewhere in my toolbox which may not even apply to this job, I am THEIR master!! I must do everything to sell for them, push them, I am beholden to them. Nonsense. Could care less. It's just bonus money if that product happens to be the best solution and the custom happens to be ok using my partner link.

I reject the constant use of false motives when phrasing these issues. I've said over and over, affiliates are not joined BECAUSE of money. They are joined BECAUSE I often recommend them and find them an excellent option in many common cases. This makes the affiliate money a bonus, just free money when I would have been recommending the product anyway. The money doesn't drive the decision, the decision is already made, the money is just there for the taking. The only way to argue against this is to change the motives around. This may be the case with some people. People can have all sorts of motives for anything they do. But you will not apply false motives to me. I know myself better than anybody else here.

I reject the illogical false dichotomies that are being created along black and white lines. There is plenty of "both/and" and not just "either/or" possibilities.

I reject that an affiliate makes me a "sellers agent" or "vendor agent". I'm not an "agent" of some company, that's absurd. I'm hired by the client, they control what they want from me and what outcome they need, it's my job to make it happen. My job is making this happen and make a happy customer whose needs are met. The existence or non-existence of an affiliate product as part of the solution is irrelevant to completing the task with exceptional value above expectations and doing good work. An affiliate link doesn't make me some kind of double-agent spy trying to trick people. I know where my priorities and loyalties are.

I reject the idea that apparent "conflict" of a potential affiliate product is SO great that all work is compromised and it can simply never be done. In reality I believe the "conflict", as such, means 99% favor to client, 1% favor for potential bonus on a solution. It's FAR more damaging to a person/company to have any kind of bad work done, than it is to ignore an affiliate. Ignoring affiliates while coming up with solutions has zero negative effect. Ignoring anything with your client can ruin it all and destroy a business. This "conflict" is no contest, the client wins.
Yes I believe bad companies/people can fail in this regard and chase the money, they don't last long if their priorities aren't strait.
A car salesman cannot take all customers to the cheapest car and then offer it at cost. They would be out of work in a couple days. But doing good work for clients takes place with or without affiliates. The objective is still doing good work, not selling the highest priced car.

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

....but being a good seller's agent and being a good buyer's agent is a conflict. You are opposing yourself, what is good for the client is bad for you, what is good for you is bad for the client. You are trying to create a paradox.

It's no more a paradox than suggesting, as a father, that having 2 kids and a wife is a paradox, cause how can I possibly love one equally to the other? Or work for the good of one without also hurting the other? How can I be a good husband without becoming a bad father? Or be a good father without becoming a bad husband! Oh the humanity!

I just don't see it as a paradox at all. The client has all priority. They will decide if my recommendations are good. They will decide if we proceed. They will decide if they want me to do the work. They will decide which option to go with. They will decide if it's all in budget. They will decide to use any affiliate links for purchases, should I provide any or have any to begin with. There is no "relationship" to an affiliate that must be maintained, no quotas, no contracts, no obligations. That is only bonus money IF the product is selected, and IF the client buys "through me".

Really gentlemen, we should have reached "agree to disagree" about 100 posts ago! LOL But I can't get onboard will illogic, false dichotomies, false motives, and the low opinions of mankind as expressed. Many of those thoughts are just opinions, not facts.

I can't respond any more, I've got too much to do today! Thanks for all the perspectives, don't think I've ignored them, it definitely changes how I'm going to structure my offerings and deal with potential partnerships/reseller accounts.
I may think of myself as a saint, but if you're telling me that the general IT industry is saturated with such "corruption", I will have to be very careful indeed not to fall in the trap.

@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@scottalanmiller 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?:

@IRJ said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

AH!! This summarizes the entire objection. You guys think the use of affiliates means a person is "chasing", perhaps obsessively, for pennies to screw over clients where the actual money is.

I've been fighting this whole time against this idea. The affiliate thing changes NOTHING. I and probably no one else whose though about this have any intention of screwing their clients and their "pounds$$" over pennies.

Your assumption is that this is exactly what we do. I don't know what else to say. The pennies are literally bonus money on the sidewalk. Just bend over. It's really not hard.

Do whatever you want. We all adults here, but making $20 on the side could ruin your whole business. I know what amazon affiliate links look like as many other people do and it could put your reputation at risk.

Here is an idea. If the $20 is that important to you then just add it on to the bill. No one will complain then.

I doubt that it will ruin his business. Chances are, no one is going to catch him. This kind of thing is super common in IT shops. Getting away with it is easy. Living with it is what is hard. If he can clear his conscious, that's his business. Well, and his clients' business. It's obviously unethical, maybe illegal, but likely to get caught or found out? No way. This is purely about professionalism and ethics, for all intents and purposes. It definitely will help him make a viable business out of the SMB market.

Well, the reality is also that it's likely that the OP will never do real consulting work either - and by that I mean a job where is he paid to do research and present the options for a project for a customer. It's much more likely that he will have clients who come and say - I want a server. Then he is welcome to be a VAR all day long with no ethical/legal concerns.

I think this is the takeaway from this massive thread.

That's the takeaway?

I wish the takeaway were some actual definitions and viable business models!

Scott suggests that so much bad IT, so many bad companies, so many biased recommendations, are due only to partners and affiliates being used. And that many of these also "scam" because they don't disclose when they recommend something with a kickback.

I want to point out some things.

1. All these companies and vendors have affiliate programs for a reason. WHO are they meant for? They aren't meant for the end users, since they can't get kickback for buying their own products. They aren't for resellers, since I can't buy a Dell laptop and put it on my shelf and resell it with markup and affiliate bonuses coming back to me (in other words, stores).
   The affiliate programs are precisely designed FOR IT people to use, and specifically for IT people who are implementing solutions FOR clients, i.e. clients making purchases through affiliate links/partner programs recommended by their trusted service provider.
   We can't simply conclude that all these programs are just evil. This is what they are FOR, for IT servicing companies. It's FOR them. But if the company uses it, they are sleazy? Yes yes, they can disclose the kickback, but that doesn't change the opinion that they are still a sleazy company, mastered by affiliates, beholden to vendors and not their clients, they are not IT people, they are sales people, etc etc etc.

Apparently one cannot have it both ways, you cannot use an affiliate program and NOT be a salesman at the same time. I reject that idea though personally. I could easily be a salesman for a company even without a kickback. Maybe a friend works there? Maybe I'm trying to be impressive and get a job there? Maybe I just know the product the most and push for it by default? Maybe a lot of things non-monetary, I can still be a shrill for them. Likewise, if there is the presence of monetary gain, it does not necessarily mean I'm their salesman. Maybe I have the affiliate program because it's easy to sign up for, but I don't particular like the product and rarely push for it due to many other negative biases? But in the event it really is the best choice, the bonus happens to be there.

It almost seems like affiliate programs should not exist at all. Because their very presence, or availability, for IT companies to use (for which the programs are create for in the first place), automatically makes those companies sleazy sales companies. Just a VAR, picking through a catalog of affiliates pushing for the highest kickbacks. Nothing more.

2. There does not seem to be any wiggle room whatsoever in human nature or ethics for an IT company to use the affiliate programs created for them to use, but also be considered a fair, objective, quality IT company. They are automatically suspect, biased, serving two master, overselling, and dangerous. Maybe even illegal!

What option is left for a company to who wants to BOTH be a high quality IT company, AND be a "real company" who must think of profits, AND can do objective work, providing the best solutions, AND thus take advantage of affiliate programs clearly created exactly for them by almost every vendor, which is essentially just free money when those vendors are purchased.
What option is there for them to be respectable, quality, service providers?
How an affiliate kickback any different than aiming for a bulk discount? Group buy? Combo/bundle purchase? There are lots of ways to "save" money by being choosy about products and vendors, but none of those are thought of as so sinful over against affiliate commissions.

Will the world be a better place if vendors could not offer any commission programs?

User of CentOS and Ubuntu servers myself. Mint is still top go-to for desktop, though there are interesting alternatives like ElementaryOS.

Linux is not always easy to learn, I just forget everything if it's not regularly used, especially CLI with their bazillion switches that no mere mortal can ever memorize. And moving between different distros where commands don't work exactly the same, Aptitude and Yum, etc.

Cool, but always challenging.

To be fair here, nobody has ever hired me for pure consulting. I have a feeling this is only something larger companies do who are facing huge budget, big ticket items and don't want to be screwed. Projects which may span pages and pages of requirements and require a ton of business intelligence and research.

This leaves me with only one conclusion to all this mess.

On one side you have pure, unadulterated "consulting" which must be absolutely objective and bias free in every way possible. Also, where the consultant or consulting company will not be implementing the solution or selling/reselling/linking to the products.

On the other side, is EVERYTHING else, which must needs be called VAR since they are no longer consulting, but are being paid to implement solutions and fix problems.

Am I on track here? Consulting, and VAR are the only two options? Perhaps "solutions provider" could be thrown in as a synonym?

I don't see any wiggle room for "consulting + implementing" as this breaks the absolute unbias rule, thus it's not consulting, just VAR and biased opinions. Therefore, either someone is consulting, or they are a VAR, with no grey areas.

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

But I don't see myself as the "reseller" part. I don't resell, I just throw out a link and tell them this is my partner link, if you want to give an extra tip. No pressure.

This is how I read this....

I don't see myself as a reseller. I just resell.

Um... what?

I read the term "resell" as that I buy the product myself and resell it to the customer, perhaps with markup. Or that I use white-label products and rebrand it, resell, with markup.

I don't see how an affiliate link is "reselling".

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

It is correct, we don't know each other, you don't really "know" the consultant you just hired. So do you ask them before any work is done, "if you are on commissions or use affiliates, I can't work with you?"

It's good to ask, but it is required that they tell whether someone asks or not in a situation where it applies.

For example, what if I resold Netgear equipment. I do consulting and I recommend Dell equipment. I need not disclose that I had a bias away from Dell. I probably should, but I don't have to. But if I consult and recommend Netgear, I must disclose that I'm getting paid to make that recommendation. I can explain why I'm not overly biased by that, but I must tell them, every time.

Disclaimer: I do NOT sell Netgear. It's an example.

Ok but what if you're NOT getting paid to "recommend" them? In fact you're not even getting paid to implement them. You're not getting paid if the customer goes and buys the equipment themselves and hands it over to you to install. You're not getting paid (via affiliate) to buy the product yourself and resell it and add it to the invoice (in affiliate programs you can't buy the products for yourself and resell to get the kickback).
So the ONLY way you get paid any bonus for anything is if the client buys the stuff themselves by using your affiliate/partner links, which they are free to not use.

You might "think" you are biased toward Netgear but in reality there is a huge chance you'd never get the bonus if they want you to buy the stuff yourself, or they have someone else install, or they run to Costco and get the model there, or from their Staples or OfficeMax accounts, or BestBuy credit, or Newegg Business, or Amazon Prime accounts.
You have no guarantee you'll ever see that affiliate fee come pay day, so how much is it really affecting your consulting?

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

It's the same thing, you don't know them, so find out. Or DON'T find out, and put blind trust that they are objective.

Caveat Emptor is great life advice, but very bad for a consultant to use as their own motto. This suggests the idea that the consultant in question is the enemy of his clients and out to get them, rather than doing their job and working for them. Of course, clients SHOULD question everything and audit their consultants. But consultants should also make customers not have to.

Don't be the consultant that proves why the customer should have been wary. Be the one that rewards their trust.

The assumption is, again, that possibility of some affiliate bonus completely and utterly destroys all objectivity and they could no longer ever hope to provide good advice. It's a pretty big stretch.
The objection is that I don't think I am "out to get my clients" because I affiliate with some of my top recommended, nearly industry standard, vendors.

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@BRRABill said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

So a sales person could be suepr technical, and really know how to implement something. But if they do that for free and only make money from the sale ... they are 100% a salesperson?

Wouldn't that be a VAR?

Correct and correct. People who are compensated through sales are salespeople. Whether they make sales by buying you a drink, showing some cleavage, knowing their product, having a low price, being in the right place at the right time or adding in some incentivized advice... they are sales people.

The assumption here is that the commission is their SOLE income, commissioned sales is not the sole income of someone who occasionally offers affiliate links. The pressure to upsell/oversell push the highest priced stuff only makes sense when the commission if the main source of income.

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

I don't give a two-bit rats behind what an affiliate thinks about anything. So no, I don't work for them.

Again, this is untrue unless you don't get any money from them. Period. I'm so lost as to how you think we would not see through this statement. This is so clearly not true, it's not even plausible to claim. Of course you give a rat's ass. This entire thread is about how much you care.

This thread is because I reject your conclusions and definitions in some parts. So my statement stands. I don't accept affiliate because I'm emotionally tied or those vendors have got some hold on me. I've stated many many times already, I accept it because it's simply free to do, a bonus if their product happens to be in the solution.

Sure I could purify myself and never use affiliates, no skin off my back, but the reasons for doing so are weak at best. I don't feel any particular obligations or drive to push one thing over anything else, you can claim this is impossible all you want but it's true for me and it's disclosed if ever used.

People who call me are always some mix of "I want that" and "can you help me make the right decision though". It's never pure consulting, or pure VAR. They never call and say "I need precisely a Synology with 4 bays using WD Reds of 3TB with RAID10 partitioned in 4 parts of these exact sizes". Instead they say something like "I want some shared storage we can all use, I've heard of Synology, Staples has a Buffalo on sale, Costco has a ReadyNAS, I don't know how much storage I need, can you help me?"

I can't help but think in the real world case that I AM doing some level of consulting, AND some level of VARing. They need me to research and discover their needs and help them navigate options, but at the same time I already know they are going to end up buying something like a NAS one way or the other.

For example:

@Dashrender said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

We say this because we know that VARs have one job - to sell you a product/service at the highest price they possibly can.

There is a serious issue with definitions here.

You say that if one or two vendors in my toolbox have affiliate programs that I joined, this MAKES me a VAR by definition, I'm now beholden to them, they are my master, I serve them, and it's now my JOB to sell just that product "at the highest price" I can, etc etc.

This is silliness. It can't be both ways. Because I would never say (affiliates or not) that my "job" is selling people things at the highest price. I'm not a car salesman. So what's it going to be?

If a VAR is a salesman who tries to sell as much as possible, oversell, and pushes only their things, but I do none of that, how can I still be a VAR? You can't define a VAR as a car salesman, then start applying the term to people who are not car salesman.

Something is still not right here.

Not only that but but these definitions cannot be applied universally. They can only be applied on a client-by-client basis. If I disclose to a client that they can use my partner link and I'll get a bonus for their signup and they are ok with it (they always are) then that is one situation. But my very next job at 4pm might be a person who doesn't need anything for which I'm affiliated, so no sales pressure, so it's not VAR?

I might have a client at 10am who just says "set us up with O365". I guess that means I'm a VAR since they already know what they want? But my next job at 3pm they want to know why they get no wireless signal in the concrete basement and just want to know what they can do about it. So now I'm just consulting and not a VAR?
Everything I do is based on client needs, what are they wanting from me? So it seems quite unfair to universally stamp me as a VAR when I may not be doing that with any given client. Salesman at CDW or the car dealership work sales with everybody, all day. They are VAR 100%. I don't work "for" anybody in the same sense, each client is different.

Again, I only reject the label of VAR because it keeps being defined as "pushy car salesman whose only job is sell as much as possible but also be smart about how products work". Since this doesn't describe me, I can't call myself that. My job is not to sell as much as possible, my job is to accomplish the goals needed by the client. So what then? Maybe I'm just a bad VAR? I don't know.