[vox] Does this sound...totemo baka?

[Edward Elliott]

Don, there is a sizable market for quality independent consultants

1) Focus - since you have other committments (e.g. school), take a look
at your skill set and pick out those items that are not mission critical,
where a client can schedule service time with you. That way, there will
be little to no disadvantage to being committed to a school schedule.
(PS If you're a good presenter, don't forget training as an income
source.)

2) Join a success group to help with your resume and marketing package,
I can recommend several excellent ones in the bay area.

3) Join the key online network groups and set up a web page so you have
the standard professional material.

4) If you know independent consultants you respect, offer to subcontract
as a way to learn the trade. Mentoring and apprenticeship are a valuable 
learning path.

5) Study the market to see what groups are contracting and what services
they require. Education has tremendous needs, but very little money. So
I'd be cautious about looking to education as a strong revenue source.

6) Phone support - it may be possible to do part time technical help desk
work for one of the Open Source companies from your home office. I know
someone who does tech help for Dell from their home office in the Walnut
Creek area. Having Red Hat, or Suse, or IBM on your resume would be
attractive later on when you are pursuing clients as an independent.

Good luck, please feel free to call if you want to discuss
any of these ideas.

Ed Elliott
(707) 428-6620
Ed_Elliott@email.com


----- Original Message -----
From: <donw@examen.com>
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 15:08:55 -0700
To: vox@lists.lugod.org
Subject: [vox] Does this sound...totemo baka?

Re: I've been running through my mind, coming up with ideas of how to make
Re: an income after I leave my wonderful cush sysadmin job and go back to
Re: school full-time to finish off my BA and MA.  I've got money saved up,
Re: and so don't 'technically' need to work, but I don't feel like finishing
Re: school up and having insufficient funds to purchase a postage stamp,
Re: which by the time I graduate, will probably cost several thousand
Re: dollars.
Re: 
Re: One of the ideas I came up with, partially inspired by LERT, is offering
Re: contracting / consulting / support services to area businesses and schools
Re: interested in using open source software, covering everything from
Re: drop-in general replacements for applications running on Windows
Re: (Mozilla, OOo, etc.), to full-blown Linux setups using LTSP.  I've got a
Re: pretty decent sysadminning background on both Linux and Windows, so I
Re: can offer services for both, as well as security services -- things like
Re: firewalls, intrusion detection, setting up edge-level mail servers with
Re: virus scanning and spam filtering, etc.
Re: 
Re: But, the question remains: Does this sound like a totally stupid idea?
Re: If not, does anyone have any suggestions as to what reasonable rates
Re: would be, as well as good places to advertise?  I've got some ideas, but
Re: it'd be nice to hear back from the local linux geeks as to what their
Re: ideas are.
Re: 
Re: Oh, and you'll see me at more than one meeting a year after I'm not
Re: working full-time and doing night classes. *grin*
Re: 
Re: Thanks-in-advance!
Re: 
Re: -- 
Re: Don Werve <donw@examen.com> (Unix System Administrator)
Re: 
Re: Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue,
Re: Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn bork! bork! bork!
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