Becoming my own boss in 2010

Like thousands I want to become my own boss, but it's a challenge I'm willing to tackle. Currently, I'm contemplating on two opportunities and wondering if you guys can give me some advice:

1. Open an IT practice firm: The government funds these firms. Basically, you setup an office and offer 12-week practical work experience to unemployed, new graduates, immigrants and etc.

2. Launch virtual MCSE lab: Setup a small Win2k3 network and offer lab time where people can practice for MCSE. I will also partner with other companies to give users access to MCSE books, tests and videos.

Any of these sound viable, please comment and thank you

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Comments

exampasser

binarysoul wrote: »

Like thousands I want to become my own boss, but it's a challenge I'm willing to tackle. Currently, I'm contemplating on two opportunities and wondering if you guys can give me some advice:

1. Open an IT practice firm: The government funds these firms. Basically, you setup an office and offer 12-week practical work experience to unemployed, new graduates, immigrants and etc.

2. Launch virtual MCSE lab: Setup a small Win2k3 network and offer lab time where people can practice for MCSE. I will also partner with other companies to give users access to MCSE books, tests and videos.

Any of these sound viable, please comment and thank you

Good luck. The first idea sounds good. I'm not sure about the second idea though as Microsoft already offers free Virtual labs,http://www.microsoft.com/events/vlabs/default.mspx .

GT-Rob

I don't see the 2nd idea giving much of a return, but at the same time doesn't have much of a risk/cost.

I like the first idea, as long as theres enough funding available.

khayes

I want to start up my own business this year as well. I would like to focus on Virtualization, Voice, and Data, but its hard right now. I have 2-4 years experience in IT but I don't know if that's enough to run my own business. Any advise on how I should pursue my dream?

msteinhilber

I see the first option obviously costing a significant amount more since you would have a physical office rather than a home office. Also along with that is the logistics involved with obtaining funding, it's probably no walk in the park to obtain any form of government aid. Then you would need to also have work available for these employees to be performing, and on top of that you would have the possible issue of having people with little to know experience perform work for your clients and risk causing problems. Not something I would really want to get involved in given how much your reputation would be on the line. In addition, a lot of clients would probably raise their eyebrows should they become steady clients and they notice you area always having fresh people there.

The second option is clearly a lot lower startup costs involved, you would probably be able to get by with a business class Internet service to your home or if you wanted to go a more reliable route you could just colocate some equipment somewhere. Depending on how much you start out with you can generally get by fairly cheap since you're not likely to be utilizing a ton of throughput. When I was web hosting, a place I colocated at near me (I wanted something close so I could drive for upgrades rather than paying for remote hands which gets expensive) and you could get a 42U rack with 20 amps and 10mbps for just under $700. That wasn't top quality bandwidth at the time but for remote labs it would likely be ok and I'm sure the prices have lowered by now. If you don't want to stick the money into more expensive rackmount gear if you go the colocated route then you could try to find a place that will lease a "bakers shelf" and build your boxes into tower cases.

However, with the second option I don't think you could expect to earn much by doing this. It's simply too easy to build you own lab up with trial software for free. For it to be successful you would essentially have to become more of a training company and the lab access would just be a value added benefit. I suppose you might be able to structure something where they are given a package of books, CBT's, practice exams and lab time for a fee but keep in mind that this market is a fairly saturated market so you'll have a lot of competition.

binarysoul

msteinhilber wrote: »

I see the first option obviously costing a significant amount more since you would have a physical office rather than a home office. Also along with that is the logistics involved with obtaining funding, it's probably no walk in the park to obtain any form of government aid. Then you would need to also have work available for these employees to be performing, and on top of that you would have the possible issue of having people with little to know experience perform work for your clients and risk causing problems. Not something I would really want to get involved in given how much your reputation would be on the line. In addition, a lot of clients would probably raise their eyebrows should they become steady clients and they notice you area always having fresh people there.

I should have elaborated on what exactly a practice firm does. You can think of it as a fictional company where tasks are performed, but no real products or services are exchanged. So with respect to IT, of course experienced professionals wouldn't get any benefit from participating, but others could. I along with few other IT pros could assign projects, e.g. setup a network from scratch, create domains, users, printers and etc. Another project would be security, web development and etc. They perform real projects in a simulated environment. With so many people unemployed, government does take interest in such initiative, but I won't bet on it as getting government funding is like asking for a kidney. Nevertheless, I will give it a try.

exampasser

binarysoul wrote: »

I should have elaborated on what exactly a practice firm does. You can think of it as a fictional company where tasks are performed, but no real products or services are exchanged. So with respect to IT, of course experienced professionals wouldn't get any benefit from participating, but others could. I along with few other IT pros could assign projects, e.g. setup a network from scratch, create domains, users, printers and etc. Another project would be security, web development and etc. They perform real projects in a simulated environment. With so many people unemployed, government does take interest in such initiative, but I won't bet on it as getting government funding is like asking for a kidney. Nevertheless, I will give it a try.

So you want to provide hands on training. You may have trouble getting government funding for it unless it's non-profit. Would it be something like a few week course? You might have a lot of competition with schools that do provide this hands-on training. In any case it may be worth a try as you said. The government funded research for literally studying crap.

wd40

Point No #2

I was thinking of creating the same thing with adding some Cisco gear, but the cost will be high and our market is really really small.

+

in addition to online access I would also provide physical access to equipment.

dynamik

You need to differentiate yourself on specialization, service, and/or cost. Have you researched others that are doing what you are trying to achieve? How do you plan on standing out? I'd encourage you to research the demand and competitors in your area and write a business plan before you get you serious. I'm not trying to discourage you; just be sure to do your homework beforehand. There are always niches to fill. Good luck!

Mrock4

+1 on what dynamik said

Be sure to conduct an actual feasibility analysis to see how viable your ideas are in the market you plan on operating in. I had a great idea about a year ago, before launching my business on the side...after a thorough feasibility analysis, I determined it would have been a bad time to open that sort of business in my local market. I changed my direction thanks to that analysis and things are going much better. I read somewhere once "A business shouldn't be thought of as a solid entity..but rather a liquid lifeform that is constantly changing, and growing", that thinking left me to always leave a little bit of room to move in my business, so keep that in mind when entertaining any ideas!

And finally, check out any kind of entreprenuer magazines/forums/articles/(even the SBA site)..there's a wealth of information out there for someone looking to do just what you are. Best of luck..it's surely possible, and you sound like you have the ambition for it