Soul Searching

I probably make so many of these posts that you guys are sick of them, but I'm starting another anyway.

I'm not happy with my current job. My wife has a promising interview tomorrow, and that has me nervous. If she does pull through with the position, I'm looking at restarting an old business of mine.

At one point, I did computer service house calls. I was pretty young and reckless at the time, but learned a lot quickly. I learned the value of good customer service and how much loyalty pays off in the end. At the time, it just wasn't making enough money, because I was the sole income earner in the house. If I would have been financially able to keep at it, I'd be making an alright living doing it.

If my wife gets this job, how do you think a reboot would fare in the current economy. Cheapie boxes have slowed computer repair down, but networking and other devices have gotten more complicated, and every business has an IT guy just a phone call away. I'm looking at being that IT guy again.

I'm savvy with computers, networking, and the myriad of troubles that customers can dream of from my days working at another computer shop, working on my own, and working 3 years of call center tech support for a MAJOR ISP in the North East. I also have a vehicle that I can dedicate to the job instead of having to run around in a beat up Honda. With the normal income from my wife's would-be job and our current standard of living, we'd already be making more than we have in the past 5 months, so money wouldn't be an issue like it was for me the first time.

So for all of you business and tech savvy people around here, do you think it's a good time for me to jump back in? It fits every description of what I want in a job, and I don't have 8 bosses staring at me over my shoulders at any given time, just one, the customer. The customer I can deal with, I've seen and heard it all before.

I'm open to any comments, positive or negative. I'm also open to rotten tomatoes being thrown at me and being booed off stage.

Overhead is minimal, capital cars virtually non-existant, liability is slight. Those are all very powerful pluses for starting up a business and making it actually profitable.

I agree with you, that at home quick repairs are a marketable idea. Don't neglect your advertising (if that can't find you, or don't even know you exist, they won't call). Give it a shot.

If you're at all handy, you might want to consider expanding that to other things. I sideline as a general handyman for some older people. I do software updates, lightbulb replacements, holiday decorating, window cleaning, etc. All the things they cannot really do any longer, but still want or need to have done.

I do computer repair as a side job, and I'd say a lot depends on your area. For me, being in a small, somewhat isolated town with an elderly population, and large number of non-tech-savvy middle-age & younger people, means there are still frequent calls for what are often simple fixes. It also means I have to keep my rates low, and I'll always have a small customer base.

And while I service a few businesses, the fact I have a day-job keeps me from pursuing more. But from what I see in my day job, I can tell that in the larger markets, the independent guys who try to service multiple business are having a hard time.

I think if you really want to go for it, do it. But have your goals set on growing it into a small managed-services business, and work your way to having a few employees, and several contracted customers, plus the occasional others.

Might have to cut your hair.

If my wife gets the job, I'll keep my current job until I've replaced the income with computer work. I do live in an isolated market with a ton of older people that have problems. I used to offer lessons on basic stuff, and that made me some decent money. Going local market rate is $45 an hour for the bigger shops, but with my low overhead, I'm comfortable at $30 an hour. I'm also huge on customer service, and I care about every customer. I still get calls from one of my old clients and do side work from time to time with upgrades and minor repairs with her business.

Around here, businesses tend to stick with the big shop, the place where I used to work. A lot of them remember me and how much I cared about their needs when I showed up. The replacement, not so much. It's not the market I'm looking for right now, but I'll be there in the future.

For now, it will be a one man show. I want to build up enough business to where I would have a brick and mortar shop and have at least one good employee. If that keeps growing, I plan on building it to the point where the business is worth more to sell than to keep, so I'd sell it off and work on another project that I have in mind, but need to build the skill set and hardened business skills for.

Josh, I've cut it since the Challenge. I think I've lived enough days being mistaken for Wolf from Hair. I'm digging the new cut, too.

Hair- LOL! I realize you only know me with my military cut, but I used to have a ponytail that touched my belt. I'm so into the low maintenance that I totally love never having to untangled it- heck, I don't even OWN a comb or a brush any more!

Derrick, you're smart. There is no reason you can't make this work.

Well, wait a minute. There is one reason. The fact that you "probably make a lot of these posts" might be an issue. Owning a business includes a lot of drudgery. I've done it for 35 years, but my greatest skill is my stamina and endurance. I'm like a freakin' pit bull- I never give up. If driving yourself to stick with something is challenging for you, then running your own business will be tough.

But that doesn't close the door on the idea. It's a personality trait- some people are wired that way. If you are, simply structure the business accordingly.

One of my weak points is that I hate sales. Businesses are driven by sales. I didn't recognize this weakness in myself or my business for a long time. Life is MUCH better now that I know it exists- I work with a talented salesman who balances me well.

So, if the endurance is not your strong point, hook up with someone who has it. For example, you could do remote IT services for small businesses (who will push you when you need it), or find a webmaster who is doing the utility type accounts and offer to extend the available services to their customers.

My strengths are a good thing, but I became significantly stronger when I stopped working with my strengths and started managing my weaknesses.

Go for it!

Paul, you hit it right on the head. Right now, I'm fed up with the corporate world and want to get back to my roots. I had a lot of fun back when I was doing PC repair and networking. In my current job, I have to focus on doing one thing at a time, and that kills me. I HAVE to have multiple things on my mind or my mind wanders from the task at hand to something that keeps me from being productive.

My manager told me last week that she wants me to do more than work in a call center. She doesn't think it's a good fit for me, and I agree with her. I loved substitute teaching, because it gave me about 25 things to keep an eye on at one time. The pay wasn't there, which is why I moved on from that.

If I have to name my biggest flaw, it would have to be stalling out on a project. I do it with cars all the time. If I can overcome that, I know I can be successful. I need to make it fun and interesting, not a boring 9-5 job. While I'm socially awkward, I thrive on getting to know new people.

Another thing I want to point out is that one of the reasons I'm thinking about this is because I think I'm about to be fired from my current job for telling one of the execs what he wanted to hear, not what management wanted me to tell him. The call center in which I work is an outsourced center, and the exec in question was one of the client execs. They were looking for reasons our center wasn't performing well, and I laid out every reason. He seemed impressed that someone would be so forthcoming about being honest. What I brought up got the client to go down on the Center Coordinator, the Operations Manager, the entire Training department, and ALL of the Team Managers. Being that I'm in a will to work state, I don't see my employment lasting the rest of this week. If it does, I'm very lucky. If it doesn't, I really hope the center changes for the better, because I really care about the jobs the center provides out community.

I've started 2 businesses in recessions. Both paid off. If you can survive the down times you will only grow that much more when the boom times come back.

But you'll never really know unless you just do it. No risk no reward.

I risked it once about 4 years ago. I wasn't mature enough to handle a business then. Now that I see how businesses are run and have connections in the local marketplace, I feel that I have a huge advantage compared to then.

If I'm not the only income in the house, it will be cake, because the wife's earnings cover everything and then some. I still make some money flipping parts every once in a while, and I've started getting deeper into that and it's beginning to pay off a little. I'm trying to put a little into the funding for that, but I want the repair business to be my primary source of income.

If I could talk my wife into ramen every night like I would eat, we'd be doing very well for ourselves otherwise.

Derick Freese wrote: If I have to name my biggest flaw, it would have to be stalling out on a project. I do it with cars all the time. If I can overcome that, I know I can be successful. I need to make it fun and interesting, not a boring 9-5 job. While I'm socially awkward, I thrive on getting to know new people.

This is not a flaw. It is a character trait.

Notice that I didn't use the word flaw in my comments. I used the word weakness. Knowing my weaknesses does not make me flawed, it makes me intuitive. Then I can adjust wisely.

You probably can't overcome your tendency to stall on a project. Manage it. Find someone who balances you in that manner and pushes you to complete stuff.

You can do it by having the right customers, partner, financial backer, etc. It generally works best if the person 1) has the needed skill and 2) has some skin in the game.

If your customers are businesses, they need you to finish so they can make money. They'll push. If your customers are people who can't get Farmville to load properly, they won't push, and if it's important to them, they can go elsewhere instead of being bothered with waiting on you.

You can sell to small individual accounts, but you might need a partner who wants to push for the utility hosting service account, or schedules and doesn't bill until completion (so they'll push you).

Just a few thoughts...

Very good points, and they are very welcome. Right now, my push is to be out of the corporate world. If this is my way out, it sure is screaming at me to make it on my own. That is my drive right now.

I never bill until completion. I also don't leave until I complete if it's at all possible. I never did it working for a shop, and I didn't do it the last time I did this on my own. My only wish is that I could have stayed at it instead of needing guaranteed income right then, right there.

I'd do it. Hell I did. A service company is probably one of the safest to start. When we started ours, we did it on a wish and a prayer. My partner using his truck and me driving my wife's minivan. Our office was in my partners living room. That was 6 years ago. We now have employees to deal with and 4 vans.

SvRex and I must be a lot alike. My downfall has always been sales, so my business partner is a salesman. Know what you can't or won't do and find a way to get it handled. Talk to the wife even, she might be willing and able to help you in areas where you are weak. She will probably even work for free...for a while.

Careful with the wife thing.

I know it works for a lot of people, but it failed for me.

I failed to recognize early on that she responds to risk and financial pressures in a different way than I do, and that she is more sensitive to criticism than I am.

I would run forward with something fairly risky and not very secure (a trait of an entrepreneur), then push things on her. If I said something like, "I would have done that differently", she interpreted it as criticism, which made her shy away from the task (and the business). I might have been trying to teach, or adjust things to succeed, but it came across as criticism.

Eventually, she and I developed a very big gap in our ability to work together. I would become frustrated that a task didn't get done, pull it away from her and do it myself, which she interpreted as criticism (I thought I was in git-r-done mode). We are very fortunate that it didn't wreck our marriage.

It did, however, wreck a lot of business opportunities.

I didn't understand the dynamic for over 20 years, and therefore did a poor job of managing it. We are in a great place now, but I am starting over business-wise, and we don't work together.

Be careful.

And that "she's free" thing is BS. Don't build a business relying on the servitude of someone.

Better get your wifes OK to see how she feels about supporting you.

30 hr? 45 for big shops? where is this at? I'd make sure those numbers work for you.. I have been doing this for 10 years now and those hourly prices would put me on the street (and give me way to much buisness to keep up with - norm here is 75-85 and this is middle of no where indiana).. i say go for it and good luck!

I'm in a fairly small area. The entire county has right around 65,000 residents. There was a shop that was charging $55 an hour in shop and $75 an hour for out calls and they're in the process of closing up their shop completely and getting out of the business.

Most people around here throw away a computer when it has a virus on it, so you have to price it low enough to make it worth fixing.

I didn't get walked out the door yesterday like I though I was going to, so I'm going to have to start much more slowly since my hours at work are 9-6, and I work Saturdays. I can still schedule for Sundays and Mondays and after hours, so that does leave me some time for it. I kind of need to replace the income with other means before I leave on my own.

I have a friend that's a book keeper that will do my books for me. She gives us a friend rate on our taxes (free), so I won't be paying much for book keeping services. That's something I'd rather leave to a pro.

My wife won't be involved beyond being an answering service. We clash too much when it comes to money as it is, so I know it won't work out. I also have friends that I put into that same group. I don't have a single person that I feel would be willing to help out that I would expect to perform well helping out.

My wife doesn't want me to quit work to start the business, but they've been trying to fire me for a while because I take the customer into account and not the bottom line of the company. I hate that, and it's my biggest issue with that company. While I understand the company needs to make money, the company needs to understand that they need customers, and I'm one of the few in the company that actually care about the customers. It's a sad state of affairs when caring will get you fired.

That's definitely the new dynamic: caring will get you fired. I used to tell my service advisors 'if you can show me where everything you did in a given situation was for the customer's good and to keep them coming back, we will never have a problem'. But those up the ladder from me looked only at the short term profit, not keeping a customer. But if a customer complained we were being too cheap, those same managers would jump all over my ass.

Curmudgeon wrote: That's definitely the new dynamic: caring will get you fired. I used to tell my service advisors 'if you can show me where everything you did in a given situation was for the customer's good and to keep them coming back, we will never have a problem'. But those up the ladder from me looked only at the short term profit, not keeping a customer. But if a customer complained we were being too cheap, those same managers would jump all over my ass.

It's not new. It is just new in the sense that other people are living it now. I believe that the axiom from PT Barnum, "A sucker is born every minute." is being applied incorrectly. What happens when you run out of suckers to swindle? I was commended during a regional management meeting for increasing commercial sales 30+% over the previous years sales when I worked for Retread Auto. Sad part was I wasn't doing jackE36 M3 to pad my numbers like upselling additional product or beating down their doors to sell them anything in the store as soon as they open. I just told my customers what their price was and if I had it. Sure I sold a ton of cheap inferior junk that the shops wanted, but they still were beating down my door everyday, as it seemed I was the only one in the area that would go out of their way to help them.

Back to the OP:

As long as you frame your work as a side biz to your SO, but explain that IF it takes "off", you are out of the job YOU HATE and nothing will really change, if you are correct about your numbers. Keep the side biz to itself. Meaning it doesn't make "family" money nor should it take any. If it does, momma will spend it as so. The biz needs to feed itself.

In reply to Derick Freese:

I'd say if you have a chance to do something you'll enjoy and you pass it up-- you'll be kicking yourself when you've realized you should have gone for it. Full steam ahead.

maybe you should look at it in a slightly different way.... ( keeping in mind that my track record in personal relationships isn't all that great )

try basing your decision on which is more important in the long run... your financial and mental health ( at least trying to do what you really want .. succeed or fail ) by getting out of a job you HATE and working for yourself...

or your long term relationship with a woman who doesn't want you to even try ( and yeah you're right ... I don't know what her objections are.... )

It is NOT in the customer's best interest for the company to be unsustainable financially.

Just a thought...

you're right, it does no good if the company goes under or can not provide the best service. I still honor my warranty from when I did this when I didn't have the money to continue with the business, though. heck, I got a call last week about a network I set up 3 years ago and I still honored my warranty from then. customers seem to respond well to that sort of thing.

In reply to Derick Freese:

My ramble: There are people who can and will spend the money for good service. Even in Palatka. Cheap people will always nickle and dime you to death. Pursuing frugal people as your customer set when buying a whole new system is so inexpensive is a waste and a death sentence. You are an expert, you should charge more than the big box stores, not less. If not so in the beginning, definitely so in the future. I would not even bother pursuing the small stuff at first. I would show up and talk to whomever is in charge at every business within 100 miles that has a computer. Get a few business accounts to make ends meet and keep pursuing more businesses. Branch out to employees of the businesses as filler work.