So, how do I make $100K in this business???

Hey all...so the wife and I were having one of "those talks" the other day. We just had a baby and she's a stay at home mom (mutual decision). She used to own a bridal boutique but she sold it to stay home w/ the baby. Not that she made a ton of money but without her business paying most of our bills, my paycheck just isn't cutting it. We're dipping into savings every month. We've tightened our belts a bit but when you own a house, there's always random things coming up that cost you an arm and a leg.

Anywho----

So, my question is how the heck do I make $100k in this business? I know its not an overnight thing. I'm in about 10 years in so far. I don't have a degree but I do have a couple of certs and I'm working more constantly. Obviously a degree would help me get into upper management more but I don't know if that's for me. I like getting my hands dirty. I don't think I'll be satisfied w/ just sitting behind a desk and giving out orders.

I guess this boils down to career advice mostly. I'm just attaching a benchmark ($100k) to it.

Should I specialize in 1 niche area more? I'm currently a Network admin, a sort of jack of all trades type. I do SQL, exchange, Web sense/surfcontrol, ms server maintenance etc. I pretty much do everything. My IT dept is a 2 man operation, I take care of just about everything while the IT director does alot of policy/paper work/politics etc. I don't think have much upward mobility where I am now but I want to raise my "net worth" to where I can make about $100k...

So any suggestions, thoughts, questions, and most importantly - career advice?

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Comments

TravR1

Also remember if you make 100k+ your probably going to pay around 40% to the thieves in Washington.

But to reinforce what everyone else said... the way to do it is specialize. My dad is a Sr. Java Developer. He knows everything there is to know about Java, and not much with other languages at all. But because he can do ANYTHING with Java.. he makes around 120k annual I think.

TravR1

94jedi wrote: »

I hear you on the home users. That's why I don't do much sidework. I didn't want to say it in case some of you do that type of work but yes, I've felt your pain as well, many times. Speed dial, free phone support all that crap. Then they moan when you charge $60 an hour or a $120 flat fee to wipe and restore a jacked up pc. Sometimes though, it's the only way to make some extra cash so I cant' really rule it out at this point.

People will pay $120 for a reformat? That takes like 5 minutes to learn how to do.

msteinhilber

TravR1 wrote: »

People will pay $120 for a reformat? That takes like 5 minutes to learn how to do.

Many people will, I frequently billed $140 for a format and reload and another $100 for a data backup. That's what we charged at the retail store I managed, I never used to bill that much but corporate agreed on set prices and that's what they came up with. To my surprise most people didn't bat an eye.

94jedi

TravR1 wrote: »

Also remember if you make 100k+ your probably going to pay around 40% to the thieves in Washington.

yea, good point. Hey we can all hope for a "fair tax" can't we? lol. Well, If I could stay in the tax bracket just below $100, that would be fine too!

94jedi

TravR1 wrote: »

People will pay $120 for a reformat? That takes like 5 minutes to learn how to do.

depends...if they provide me w/ all the OEM cd's and software I charge $80. If I have to go hunting, I charge $120.

TravR1

I should consider that. I need a little extra $$. Moving to Austin is going to cost me. Girls at the coffee shop are always asking if I can look at their laptops.

94jedi

TravR1 wrote: »

I should consider that. I need a little extra $$. Moving to Austin is going to cost me. Girls at the coffee shop are always asking if I can look at their laptops.

just be careful about it. Like everyone else said, it's painful. People will call you on the phone and ask you a million questions and expect you to answer them. And of course, they expect it for free. When you do side work for people, you become "their computer guy". Once you become that, they never leave you alone.

mikez

when doing a clean install and wiping data i do an image of their hard drive first. I keep it for at least a month i do work for them.
If the person says that i didn't put something back on I can go back to the image and extract the data. I do side work sometimes and have had this happen to be but have been saved because i still had a copy of everything. You can never trust them to have a back of their files - at least at the residential customer level - even if they say they do.

some people are willing to pay good $$ for silly services. I once installed a scanner and printer (plug them in and installed the software) for somebody and charged them $120 simply because i was there at their house and they kept telling me stories about their kids (hey the clock keeps running). Stupid-Easy click monkey work but some people can not be bothered with figuring out the easiest things.

Residential customers are nice, strictly cash. Good money is to be made as long as you have the patience to deal with them. Rates around my parts are usually $40-60 beans per hour

itdaddy

when doing a clean install and wiping data i do an image of their hard drive first. I keep it for at least a month i do work for them.

I do exactly what mike z does you have to else they blame you when sh eet goes wrong.."wheres my data???" never did that until you touch it!"

home user suck!

but if i am low on cash i will do it! for $$$