Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

The Big Plan

Taking two days of leave into account, I now have eight more days at my current job before I leave on the 31st July and become not unemployed but self-employed. (It sounds so much better, you know?)

The business plan's still being tweaked and has turned from a business plan into more of a business... outline, but I'm almost ready to go - seeing the bank to open a seperate business account next week, then a bit more paperwork needs to be done after leaving here before I'm Officially Open For Business. Of course anyone wishing to get in touch with enquiries about my splendid and unique service is welcome to start now, but I anticipate a slow start. Hopefully it won't stay slow for too long, as if it does I'll have to give up and find a new job instead. I'm determinedly telling myself that if that does happen despite my natural charm, raw talent and animal cunning, at least I'll be able to say I tried.

So anyway. What am I actually going to do? What is this fantastically amazing plan which will doubtlessly lead to world domination within two years, or at least will hopefully let me almost make a living? Well, the general category of business I'm aiming at is "consultancy", but a better (albeit less commerce-friendly) category is probably "Geek Hire". This is something you won't find in the Yellow Pages (I know, I looked), but it is, in summary, hiring geeks. Myself to start with, but hopefully more in the future if things work out well. Real geeks. Geeks who know their stuff. Geeks who can talk enthusiastically at length about some neat stuff they did recently rather than just pointing at their vendor qualifications. Certainly not just people who can wear a suit and project an "I'm a consultant! Look! I'm doing important things!" aura while irritating the customer's own IT staff as their company fleeces the customer for 1000 quid a day.

There are a lot of people out there with computing problems which basically need a second pair of experienced eyes to look at them to see if there's anything which has been missed, or to suggest different ways of fixing them. There are plenty of places which need short-term projects doing, advice on how to make the best use of their existing computing resources, or just help with scratching a particular itch (uh, make that computer-related itch) that's been annoying them for a while. There are companies and organisations which have to move office and move their machine room at the same time and need extra hands to co-ordinate or just to help with planning the necessary work to make sure everything goes smoothly.

More fundamentally I see a need in the market for simple, honest, opinionated consultancy and advice on how to deploy and administer IT systems and on how to make better use of the resources people have. Too many organisations have systems which don't quite fit them but which were sold to them by salespeople more interested in maximising their commission than selling them the right systems. All too often, the only fix which vendors suggest involves buying new hardware and software, which can be completely unnecessary as their problems can often be solved using existing resources.

This is the kind of work I'd like to do - a couple of days here, a week there, even a few hours somewhere else, as a Consulting Geek - available for hire to do anything which you'd normally expect a competent, experienced geek to be able to do without any of the fuss and sales meetings and formalities that dealing with most computer consultancies involves. We'll work with your own IT staff rather than scaring them away by showing up in suits. We'll tell you honestly what we think is the best thing to do rather than what we think will make the most money for us, and if you want us to we'll go ahead and do it if that's what you wish.

I think that all organisations deserve access to quality computer support from seriously competent people rather than just dubious support from people working from scripts and premium-rate phone lines, and I'd like to promote this philosophy further. A lot of computer users don't get what they should get from their IT investment, and they deserve better. I'd like to think that there are others out there who think the same way.

So. Need an extra pair of hands for a major piece of work or a weekend migration? Need a computer itch scratched? Need honest advice from someone who won't scare your own IT staff? Genuine Geeks can help. Or at least we can once the website's more than a placeholder, but I thought that at least mentioning the name at some point was a good idea.

Is it scary to be jumping into the uncertain world of self-employment like this? Certainly. Is it mildly terrifying not to have that guarantee of a big lump of salary on the 22nd of every month? Absolutely. Am I looking forward to it? You bet.

PS - Genuine Geeks especially loves Macs and UNIX boxes of all flavours, but does not shun Windows in cases where that's the right platform for the customer to use.

Posted by mpk at July 16, 2004 6:29 PM | TrackBack