Part Two: Technical Self-Employment For All

MoNickels writes "I've posted part two of the article series encouraging the unemployed to take up freelance technical support, including advice on knowing if this work is right for you, marketing yourself, learning on the job, handling and educating clients, managing the business, the temperament required, and the negative aspects of the work." See part one if you missed it.

Comments

I make lots of money freelancing

[typical geek]

I have a PEARL script that downloads porn from my newsreader, then I use mkisofs and cdrrecord to put onto CDs, which I sell to horny junior high kids without broadband, $5 a CD.

Thanks Open Source!

Re:I make lots of money freelancing

[Trigun]

I will go through and cataloge these images, and write a web slideshow for each category for a 25% cut, plus a generous supply of Kleenex(tm).

Re:I make lots of money freelancing

[Anonymous Coward]

It's PERL, dumbshit...sheesh.

Re:I make lots of money freelancing

[leviramsey]

Sir: I have patented that business model. I shall be suing you forthwith.

Re:I make lots of money freelancing

[etp]

What the fuck is a PEARL script? I think you mean PERL, moron.

Re:I make lots of money freelancing

[Anonymous Coward]

What was that sound? Something just flew over you... oh yes, THE JOKE!

Re:I make lots of money freelancing

[Hatta]

It's a joke douche.

Re:I make lots of money freelancing

[Anonymous Coward]

PEARL is also a language, dorkus. :)

Re:I make lots of money freelancing

[Anonymous Coward]

Kleenex? Dude, take some advice from someone who was on a submarine for months at a time. Use socks, they work much better as they don't fall apart and stick to everything...

Of course I am posting this AC!

Eh, whatever you do...

[ambisinistral]

Don't print your business card in Elfin. Showing up to your first meeting with a potential client dressed as a Klingon is a bad idea too.

Re:Eh, whatever you do...

[Microsofts slave]

THat is unless of course you just so happen to be getting a job as a traslator at a publisher for the Lord of the rings and some star trek literature (yes Star Trek is Literature). Then the Elvin card would be perfect

Re:Eh, whatever you do...

[Esion Modnar]

Showing up to your first meeting with a potential client dressed as a Klingon is a bad idea too.

Of course. Everybody knows that dressing up as a Romulan is a much better idea.

Re:Eh, whatever you do...

[Anonymous Coward]

Having stock in the company and knowing more about their core businesses than the interviewer is also a bad idea. That was one of my worst interviews ever, which was a huge disappointment since I thought I'd easily get the job.

Re:Eh, whatever you do...

[WTFmonkey]

Nope. He's a businessman. Go with a Ferengi.

Re:Eh, whatever you do...

[endoboy]

you might also want to avoid mentioning that you think that "Star Trek is Literature"

Re:Eh, whatever you do...

[DNS-and-BIND]

You call yourself a nerd? It's "Elvish", dumbass. And besides, you didn't even say if it should be in Quenya or Sindarin.

Re:Eh, whatever you do...

[forgetmenot]

Unless applying for the position of Elf-Klingon disputes arbitrator to settle territorial rights over the embattled convention centre main floor.
In which case you won't get the Job cause it's "ELVISH", not elfin.

Re:Eh, whatever you do...

[phoenix_rizzen]

Depends who you are dealing with. It might be better to go as a Vulcan. Especially if dealing with lawyers. Cool-headed logic is bound to confuse the daylights out of them, allowing you to add some nice kick-back clauses to any contract. :)

Re:Eh, whatever you do...

[Anonymous Coward]

"...It's "Elvish"..."

See, you fouls? I told you, Elvish is alive!

Only one question..

[kmak]

What do you do about health insurance?

Re:Only one question..

[panda]

You either don't have it, or you PAY A BIG WAD OF MONEY for it.

Re:Only one question..

[pogle]

3 words: Don't get sick...

Re:Only one question..

[tbase]

Ummm, I don't know, maybe pay for it, like you do when you're working for someone else? Just because 100% of it isn't coming out of your check, doesn't mean you aren't paying for all of it. It's all part of the expense of employing you, along with unemployment insurance, worker's compensation, etc. That's why freelancer's generally charge a much higher rate per hour - they have to pay that stuff themselves, instead of having someone else do it for them.

Re:Only one question..

[confused one]

You charge enough to cover your expenses. Including insurance (not just life, business insurance covering liability, insurance on your equipment, etc.)

Re:Only one question..

[smitty45]

Blue Cross of California. works fine for me. cheap.

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

Do not get sick

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

Make sure you at least get major medical coverage.

Get in a car accident, fall off a ladder, etc need a little surgery and spend 5 or 6 days in a hospital bed and you'll have medical bills of over 100,000 dollars EASY.

if you are under the age of 35, you can get major medical in most states for 200-300 bucks a month. VERY small price to pay.

Re:Only one question..

[Kutsal]

When are we going to learn how to count?

In the phrase "Three words: Don't get sick..." there are actually _five_ words, not three...

Or maybe I'm being picky.. I don't know.. :)

Re:Only one question..

[pogle]

LOL, true, in one sense. I was using the colon to indicate that the three words started there, however ;)

Maybe I shoulda used some quotes to better delineate what I meant. But I'm bored, so at least it created a chance for me to post and waste 2 minutes of time...

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

200 to 300 bucks a month is not a small price to pay. That's like half of rent.

It's better to save the money, put it in bonds or back into your business, and take out a loan to pay your medical bills (or just get on a schedule with the creditor) after the event happens.

In theory, insurance should be a good deal. You should pay regularly, they take the money and invest it, and run the business off of the interest, even having a little left over, so that in the long run you should expect to take out more in claims than you paid in. But no modern insurance company in the US works like that; they blow all the cash right away on CEO's salaries and lobbying, and then demand the government bail them out when they get a sudden flood of claims from a hurricane or something.

Take your premiums, and ignore the FUD about $100,000 ( my Mom's brain tumour removal was half that, for christ's sake ) and then run the numbers, using the interest rate on government bonds and the formula for present value of future income. I think after examining a few senarios you will conclude there are currently no deals in the insurance industry.

Re:Only one question..

[PCM2]

Ummm, I don't know, maybe pay for it, like you do when you're working for someone else?

Yes, yes, spoken very authoritatively and with the requisite amount of condescension for a Slashdot poster.

Fact is, however, insurance is a much better deal when you get it through an organization than if you get it as an individual. That's because health insurance is a numbers game. If they can sign up an entire company, it's a pretty safe bet that not everyone in that company is going to be hospitalized at once. If it's just you they're signing up -- who knows what your problem is?

So it isn't just a matter of whether you're employer is paying for it or if you're paying for it yourself. As an individual, you're typically going to pay a higher monthly rate and still get a higher deductible or fewer benefits. Coverage for your children or spouse is going to be still more.

So maybe the question shouldn't have been, "what do you do for insurance," but "how do you get good, quality, comprehensive healthcare in the United States as a self-employed person"?

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

Does Trollcore provide a option for a supplemental medical plan?

Re:Only one question..

[bigman2003]

I had Blue Cross catastrophic insurance.

My wife (now ex) needed to have her appendix taken out. Cost me about $7,000 out of pocket. They don't pay for silly things like bandages, IV's, food, etc. They pay for the doctor, and the surgery.

Two years later, she had to have her gallbladder taken out (they shoulda just taken her brain out at the same time) that one cost me another 8-9 thousand. (Emergency room coverage is really, really bad)

Catastrophic insurance is pretty crappy, and after having these two episodes, I think that Blue Cross is one of the crappiest.

People may complain, and hate HMO's, but when your biggest priority is covering your ass (financially) they can't be beat. Those two surgeries combined would have cost me $10 with Kaiser.

Re:Only one question..

[arnie_apesacrappin]

Being a consultant, I carry my own insurance. I know it seems like a pain, but it is quite easy. I used ehealthinsurance to find a policy that fit my needs.

One thing to ask yourself is, "how much do I get sick?" If you're single and rarely visit a doctor, a very simple policy could be good for you.

The company that employs me as a consultant offers health insurance. For me being single, it would cost $65 a week, for a minimum expenditure of $3380/year. The policy I have costs $130 every three months, for a minimum expenditure of $520/year.

But, the coverage isn't that great. The policy covers zero percent of the first $2000, then eighty percent of the next $8000 and everything after that each calendar year. So if I became really ill, I'm looking to pay $2000 (1st $2000) + $1600 (20% of 2K to 10K) + $520 (yearly premium) for a grand total of $4120.

I've been working for this company for about a year and a half. I've been to the doctor once, with the visit + meds costing about $250. Add that to six premiums, and my total output comes to about $1030. If I had paid for my "employer provided" health care, I would have already spent over $5000 plus any co-payments.

Now there is the fact that the "employer provided" healthcare is paid for by pre-tax dollars and I'm paying after taxes, but the difference unless I become quite ill still doesn't matter.

Re:Only one question..

[RazzleFrog]

Who modded up this 15 year old troll? Maybe you should take a look at the difference in cost before you start spewing. I pay about $30/month at work. If my self-employed girlfriend tried to get insurance it is closer to $300/month. That is more than $3,000 a year extra you would have to pay. That can be a very serious entry barrier for people who are barely paying the bills as it is.

Re:Only one question..

[bigman2003]

You are absolutely, positively nuts.

That has to be the worst advice you can give to anyone in the U.S.

Playing the odds like that might be okay if you are single, young, and don't have any responsibilities. But, what if we are playing the numbers like that, and get hurt in the first year. Tons of money goes out the window, and you will probably end up bankrupt.

What if you have a problem with lingering effects? Maybe you need to take medication, or continuing treatments? Shit outta luck.

I was a person who ran a lot, worked out at the gym, etc- I was in very good shape, and excellent health. Eventually, I developed a back problem that required two surgeries, and dozens (upon dozens) of trips to the doctors office for treatment. This entire situation would have probably cost me well over $100,000. And I was 'healthy'!

Do you know how much an MRI costs? A myleogram? CT Scan? One set of those would wipe out a years worth of your savings- easy. Surgeries, hospital stays, doctor visits, medication, physical therapy, etc. etc. This is big bucks.

Of course, you could be an indigent (which is exactly the way they would classify you WITHOUT INSURANCE) and be treated at the County hospital. But, just take a look at their staff/doctors/clientele, and you will pray for something- anything - better to come along.

Just my opinion, based on my experience.

Re:Only one question..

[nxs212]

$300 - to $350 per month (in NJ) with Horizon, some rediculous deductible - like $5,000 or $10,000. Of course, you can get a discount if you pull enough people together from the same consulting company or just people who are in the same line of work.
Workers' compensation insurance - $500 per year - put your wife/husband on it if they don't work - it's only +$50 more or so. If you do something that's more danagerous than sitting on your ass all day, then it's more.

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. Not only are group policies cheaper but laws for group policies are different. An insurer can refuse to insure my diabetic son on an individual policy (and they do) but not on a group policy.

Re:Only one question..

[Just Some Guy]

...except that you're completely wrong. Groups are underwritten as, well, groups. Group insurance is very cost-effective for older or less-than-healthy members who would otherwise be paying a lot of many for a comparable policy. It is very cost-ineffective for young, healthy males (we don't get pregnant) who are, in effect, subsidizing the first group.

You're right about one thing: health insurance is a numbers game. An office of young, healthy employees will have very good rates, albeit a little higher than for the individuals (mostly invisible because of the employer's contribution). Throw one or two employees with a history of cancer or heart disease and see what happens to the rates.

Re:Only one question..

[pongo000]

Form a legal corporation (or LLC, or LLP, or whatever) with two or three other individuals. Then you're eligible to negotiate group rates. You don't even have to like the people you're organizing with; just find some like-minded individuals who need insurance but don't want to be bilked by individual policy rates (if you can even get an individual policy -- good luck).

Re:Only one question..

[tbase]

Yes, yes, spoken very authoritatively and with the requisite amount of condescension for a Slashdot poster.

Right back atcha :-)

Excellent points, especially for the clueless whom I'll reply to directly in a moment...

You clearly state the other side of the coin - I was addressing the comment from the standpoint that many people think that the $30 a paycheck that gets deducted is what their insurance is actually costing them. Not even close. First of all, it's pre-tax, so it's even less. Second, most employers pay a good chunk as a benefit.

Obviously a group plan will be cheaper per person, assuming that the groups mean health demographic is roughly the same as the individual's. But when you compare making say $15 or $30 an hour as an employee to say charging $60 to $120 as a freelancer, you should be able to afford good, quality comprehensive healthcare. It's simply a cost of doing business like anything else. And like many things, it's more expensive for a small business than a large one.

The same goes for comparing rates of a business with 30 employees to a business with 300. Are you going to turn down a better job with a smaller company because the health insurance is more expensive? The problem is that the 'one man operation' only has himself to consider, so he often considers health insurance as optional, or too expensive to afford.

Re:Only one question..

[tbase]

Actually, I'd be willing to wager that I've got a few years on you, my naive young Slashdotter.

I'm sorry if my wording was overly complicated. Maybe you should ask your employer what percentage your $30 actually pays. Then ask your employer how much it would cost to add your girlfriend to your policy, if you were to get married.

Allow me to spew a bit more... your employer is paying the majority of your insurance premium, and that is part of the total cost of having your mass grace the presence of their facility. You will likely find that they will not pay the majority of your theorhetical spouse's premiums, so don't expect to add her to your policy for an additional $30 a month, should you ever get married.

Now pay close attention, because this is the point you missed last time, and probably the point that got me modded up - You make more money per hour freelancing because you have to cover these types of expenses that your employer is paying now. Now the problem is getting to the point where you're billing almost as many hours as a full-time job - that's why you save, plan, save some more, and then plan some more. And then save some more. Most people have jobs instead of working for themselves because they like being taken care of, and having someone else worry about things like insurance. And unemployment tax. And Social Security. And worker's compensation. And vacation time. And sick leave. And FMLA leave. And maternity leave. And training. And wrongful discharge. And liability. Well, you get the idea. Or maybe not.

Re:Only one question..

[kfstark]

If you are leaving an existing job, look at a COBRA plan to extend your existing insurance for 18 months. You will pay slightly more than the group rate, but it will guarantee you coverage. Do NOT let your coverage lapse!!!

The following is my personal experience and should not be taken as complete truth since I am still working through the process. Since my father-in-law is an accountant, I have been getting good advice to guide me through this process.

Until recently, I was able to keep insurance for my family through my wife's insurance. Since my wife no longer works we are looking for insurance for the four of us.

Surprise! my son's bout with pneumonia (sp?) more than 1 year ago has caused all sorts of problems with acquiring individual insurance. Not only will they not cover my 4 year old son, they want to increase the rates on the rest of us by 50%. This amounts to quite a sum of money.

We stopped the process of trying to get insurance online and contacted an agent. We still couldn't get reasonable insurance and no company wanted to cover my son. However, we have been informed that we cannot be refused insurance if we sign up as a group. This will also keep our rates lower than the quotes we had been getting.

How do you qualify as a group?

You need to have two people involved in your company. I formed a single member Limited Liability Company (LLC) in California about two years ago. I have since added my wife as a member of the LLC and we suddenly qualify as a group and can apply for group medical insurance. We are doing this now, so I don't have estimates on costs. However, I would like to mention some other steps I have taken because of this.

Normally, an LLC does not require you to be a W-2 employee of the LLC since the money passes through the LLC to you as an individual. This means that you don't have to file a corporate tax return or employer tax statements. I did not want the burden of managing all of the paperwork that comes with hiring employees and printing paychecks. Surprisingly, the payroll companies (ADP in this case) are very cheap and handle the paperwork for you. I will pay a total of $50/month for all of my payroll and tax reporting requirements.

Why would I spend $50/month on this?

When you have employees, you can set up an employee medical reimbursement plan on a pre-tax basis. Without an employee medical reimbursement plans, you can only deduct medical expenses in excess of 7% of your income (I think this number is changing). With a medical reimbursement plan, you can deduct 100% of your employees medical expenses (vision, dental, prescriptions, copays). However, you need to have employees for this. Since my wife is already doing the books and my billing, I hired her and gave her a salary (less than my salary of course).

What does all of this mean?

It means that you should consult an accountant. There are a number of ways to reduce your tax burden and get better insurance. Some of the things that seem expensive and a pain in the ass might not be. Learning the ins and outs of business practice can be time consuming and may not seem that important when deadlines loom. This is why you pay an accountant and follow their advice. If you are earning $100k/year and wasting $10k on insurance,taxes or other business expenses, you can afford to take some time to fix your expense structure or pay someone to fix it for you.

Good Luck,

--Keith

Re:Only one question..

[tbase]

Hey - finally a valid point! :-)

In most cases, it's only a matter of cost. Even if you're a high risk, with a group it's just spread out over the other people in the group. It's not like they're giving deals to companies because they like them.

I've known a few people in your situation, and often the only choice is to have a job just for the insurance benefits. I know one couple where the husband has a business, and the wife brings home about $20 a week - despite a very respectible salary. After insurance, daycare, taxes and retirement deductions, it's pretty much all gone.

The only other option (which I'll admit may not pan out) may be to get in a group policy through an association.

Sorry if I insulted you in my original post, it was directed at healthy younger Americans who whine about health insurance costs stopping them from striking out on their own. There are plenty of people who have a legitimate reason to complain about healthcare - like yourself, and people who have jobs that don't provide health insurance. Like part time workers, temps and people who for one reason or another can't stick it out long enough to qualify.

Re:Only one question..

[GreyPoopon]

Catastrophic insurance is pretty crappy,...

That's the key. While I can't speak for Blue Cross in particular, I can state with some degree of confidence that pretty much all catastrophic policies are ... well ... catastrophies. (insert groan here).

What would be more interesting to note is what you would have paid WITHOUT the insurance. Catastrophic insurance is really only intended to keep you from losing your house or otherwise assuming an unbearable debt load. Although in your case you might not be able to get a new car, at least you would be able to keep the home (assuming you aren't renting). Also, you should be able to reclaim a large chunk of the expenses in your tax return.

Re:Only one question..

[Golias]

As a self-employed and reasonably healthy person, I get catastrphic-only insurance.

For about $100 per month, I am not covered for piddly little expenses like antibiotics or doctor visits, but once my expenses exceed my deductible, I stop paying, and full coverage kicks in.

This way, I know for a fact that I will never need to pay more than $1500 in any given year for health care. I pay the first 1000, and half of the next 1000. If I have a $100,000 medical problem, it only costs me $1500 (plus the $1200 I spent that year on premiums.)

In other words, catastrophic-only coverage is what insurance is supposed to be: insurance. If you don't have any serious ongoing health problems, it's a much better deal than the uber-plans which cover everything from prescription drugs to marriage councilling.

Re:Only one question..

[bigman2003]

In both cases, the insurance covered just over half of the surgery. Neither one of these (appendectomy, gall bladder ectomy (whatever)) is a difficult/expensive surgery.

Yes, the insurance did save me money. I believe that health insurance is necessary- but I would rather pay more money, to get better coverage.

Re:Only one question..

[GreyPoopon]

I believe that health insurance is necessary- but I would rather pay more money, to get better coverage.

Agreed, although I'm now at the age where medical bills start to rise, and I have a family that requires medical care too. Catastrophic isn't really an option for me. If I were still 21 and single, I'd probably opt for the Catastrophic.

Re:Only one question..

[nitehorse]

...Then ask your employer how much it would cost to add your girlfriend to your policy, if you were to get married.

Heheheheheh.

Girlfriend? Wrong site, man. :)

Re:Only one question..

[heck]

Fact is, however, insurance is a much better deal when you get it through an organization than if you get it as an individual.

Actually, I get lower rates as an individual than I do if I work for a corporation because I am a healthy male in his 30's. The corporate rate includes a cost for all of the more costly coworkers. I've set up insurance for myself as an individual and set up insurance while working for a corporation.

That said, insurance is a better deal as a corporate entity because:

corporations can deduct the costs from their taxes (you can too if you set things up correctly)

corporations get better coverage depending on the state. In the state I now live in, individual coverage for my family does not cover maternity, although life saving surgery such as C-sections are covered. Beyond that, everything is covered and my coverage is equivalent to what I would get working for most corporations. Better way to say this is "if you are a female of child-bearing age you will get screwed with higher premiums and stranger restrictions." My wife's portion of the premium is 3 times mine; my kids are 80% of mine. When I was in California there was little difference between what was covered (there the state specifies that maternity is covered for all policies); and because Blue Cross knew my age and health history they could offer me a lower rate in comparison to the equivalent coverage I had when I was working for a corporation.

you are screwed if you have existing conditions (corporations have existing conditions factored into their premiums; hence their higher costs in comparison to me)

Dental insurance, however, sucks. There is no decent individual plan in any of the states I've lived in. It's cheaper to pay it out of pocket.

Re:Only one question..

[PeteEMT]

Some states regulate this with Pre-existiing condition type laws, citing limits on excluding conditions and/or jacking your rates up because you are sick.
These vary state by state, but if I remember right, most of the rate-limiting laws used the "Community Average" for figuring out the rate.

Of course they can still flat out deny coverage.

Re:Only one question..

[roman_mir]

You are both on crack.

Don't get sick == Do not get sick.

If you do `wc -w` on a file with that line of tex in it you will get 4.

Re:Only one question..

[edverb]

You could look into a resellers consortium like the ASCII Group and avail yourself of group discounts on health insurance, and other useful services for small independent service vendors.

There are plenty of ways to get discounted health insurance. If you're in this field, another suggestion is to consider joining the local chamber of commerce. Not only can the local CoC's offer discounts among it's members, but they also serve as a valuable source of potential clients (albeit at a slightly discounted rate, of course).

Another useful tip is trading your service for various needs. For example, I found an amazing accountant who trades his services (both my corp and personal tax filings) in exchange for service calls once or twice a month when something needs to connected, built, or otherwise attended to. He's so thrilled with the arrangement and my help that he's a constant source of referrals and testimonials in my sales literature. He pays my cost on hardware, and the service (which saves me considerable money-- the guy's a financial genius of the highest integrity, the best combination of attributes in a small business accountant) is a wash. Fred's sage wisdom & business acumen comes at no additional charge, another huge plus. One thing these articles don't mention is how hard it can be to "work in a vaccuum", left entirely to your own devices. It's nice to have someone to bounce ideas off, and provide an alternative take on business decisions (hiring, marketing, etc).

By the way, excellent article. It's apparent that Grant Barrett has the wisdom of the experience. People looking into independent computer service as a way of making a living would do well to take his advice, especially the parts about sharing the knowledge freely with "competitors" and providing free phone support where it suffices.

Re:Only one question..

[ortholattice]

As a self-employed and reasonably healthy person, I get catastrphic-only insurance.

I used to think this, and in theory this is how it should be. The problem is that insurance companies have negotiated DEEP discounts with the doctors under their plans, and as an individual you can't do that. In other words, you will get raked through the coals (until your deductible is met).

I just went to my file cabinet and looked up the actual insurance company's bills (that normally are not sent to me, but were as part of a response to a payment issue I had). These are from the past year, in Massachusetts.

Physical exam - $256.00
Blue Shield payment - $104.53
Blue Shield "adjustment" - $136.47
My co-pay - $15.00

In other words, you would have had to pay $256, but the insurance co. only had to pay $104.53. From the doctor's point of view, still not a bad income for 15 minutes of actual work (plus scrawling a signature on a routine letter the secretary typed up about the blood test).

The blood test associated with the exam was billed at $474.00. The Blue Shield payment was $114.62, the "adjustment" was $359.38, and my co-pay was $0. So in addition, with your catastrophic insurance you would have paid $474, whereas the insurance co. paid $114.62.

Now, perhaps you still come out ahead - stuff like this quickly adds up to your $1500 deductible. I don't know how much my company pays for my insurance.

Re:Only one question..

[geekoid]

"Dental insurance, however, sucks."

you know it, brother.

If my arm gets an infection, 50 dollar deductible is all I pay. If my mouth gets an infection, 50 dollar deductably with a 500 dollar max.

Now, last time I checked, the mouth was part of the body, much like an arm.

The fact that they break out the two, three aounting vision, is just wrong.

Re:Only one question..

[RazzleFrog]

I'd be pretty willing to wager that you don't have years on me. The point is EXACTLY how much your employer pays. Any moron who read my post could do the math and see what is being picked up by the employer. Contrary to your kindergarten experience - I worked as an auditor of Employee benefit plans for one of the Big 6 (now Big 4). I know very well how expensive it is for an employer. That's why temps and consultants are so popular.

My point, for the unintelligent masses, is that until you have a working established business you don't usually have health care. You usually go without until you can afford the premiums. As I said before, my girlfriend is going through this exact process right this minute. Healthcare is a huge obstacle to going out on your own. That is why the original poster asked about what do you do for healthcare.

I would also point out that the self-employed do not work about worker's comp, vacation time, etc. unless they have employees which is not something discussed at all here.

Re:Only one question..

[Reziac]

There are group health insurance policies available for the self-employed. One trade outfit, called something obvious like "Association of Self-Employed Persons" (can't remember exactly) has a $100/yr membership fee, and as a member you can get Blue Cross coverage for the lowest available group rate.

It's the same outfit that runs TV ads occasionally, and yes, they are legit.

Re:Only one question..

[eyeota]

Yes, so very true.

Additionally, like you said, better healthcare rates are available through a large organization; however, that organization does not need to be your employeer.

I belong to IEEE which offers insurance through their group plan. Many large organizations have that ability, and If I didn't have coverage otherwise, I'd heavily consider it.

If losing benefits is a problem, you should check out (if you haven't already) your COBRA rights. In short, the Cobra act of 1986 allows an employee who is no longer elgible to participate in an employer's health plan (i.e. fired, laid off, etc..) to still continue to participate in the health plan for up to 3 years if the employeee (former) is willing to burden the premium costs 100% plus a small administrative fee. Again, it may not be the cheapest way to do it, but if you're worried about switching providers with a pre-existing condition that may not be covered under a new plan it's an option.

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

But if your young and healthy, Blue Cross is cheaper then HMO. Sure, you have to pay more when you go, but consider this:

At the last place that I worked that offered both BC and HMO coverage, Blue Cross cost me $2 a month, and RMHMO would have cost ~$150, so over the course of the year, I saved $1775, or $775 more then the BC deductable.

So, in my case, I came out ahead.

Re:Only one question..

[Lumpy]

So maybe the question shouldn't have been, "what do you do for insurance," but "how do you get good, quality, comprehensive healthcare in the United States as a self-employed person"?

you dont.... at least not in any affordable way.

Healthy insurance for the self employed is horribly dismal. the insurance companies get jollies in raping you. (Yes they do.. the only thing worse than lawyers is health insurance providers.)

Basically, you had better maintain your health as best you can.... Prevention is 9000% cheaper than any insurance.

and dont even think about Dential insurance.

Re:Only one question..

[Golias]

But since I have that "catastrophic-only" insurance from a medical insurance company who negotiates the same way places like Blue Cross/Blue Shield does, I get those insurance-company adjustments, even for the money I pay (because that money is considered a "deductible"), so the end result for me is win-win. I have only the coverage I want, and I don't pay single-buyer prices for what I pay for.

Re:Only one question..

[tbase]

Sorry, but when you compared the "$30" you pay to the $300 it would cost your girlfriend, I couldn't help but think you didn't have a clue. I think "any moron" would have read that as a direct comparison, and as such it is flawed. What your employer contributes is part of your compensation package, and you obviously know that. I see your point, and I can respond to it without the need to insult you.

Your original reply told me to look at the difference in cost before I started spewing. Now you say you know what the cost is, but if that's the case, why can't you see my point. What difference does it make if your employer pays it, or work for yourself and pay it?

Like I said, just as insurance is part of the cost of having an employee, it's also part of the cost of working for yourself. If you can't afford it, you can't afford to work for yourself - you need to save more. So yes, if you don't have adequate savings, it can be a huge obsticle.

Choosing to start a business without adequate startup capital to fund your insurance is a choice. That's how most small businesses start. Most small businesses also start without even the simplest of business plans. And the vast majority of small businesses will fail - That's a fact. And they will fail because of choices. Sure, most will fail for lack of planning or funding, but really, they'll fail because someone's choice to jump in without proper planning or funding.

As far as the worker's comp, vacation, etc.- having run my own business for over 6 years before incorporating and moving on to more fulfilling pastimes, I am fully aware of what is required of a self-employed person, an employer and a corporation. I my statement was that most people have jobs so someone else can take care of those things - in other words provide all the things that come with employment, which includes the security of worker's compensation and unemployment insurance, and the relaxation of a vacation.

It's all about choices. I even knew of an employee (not mine, thank goodness) that thought he couldn't afford his share of the health insurance premiums (the $30 in your case, working at a small company, more like $80 in his case). Although he "couldn't afford" the coverage, he somehow managed to smoke over a pack of cigarettes a day. Now he wouldn't have even had to quit smoking to afford insurance - just cut down. Choices. That's what makes this country great - choices. Some good, some bad, some illegal. But you make them for yourself, usually.

When I first started my business, I worked 10pm to 2am at a newspaper so I could afford what I felt I needed for my business, and still be available during business hours. (You can't imagine how hard it was to get that job with my "kindergarten experience").

But hey, what's to worry about? If you're uninsured and get sick or hurt, you can always go to the emergency room, and declare bankrupcy if it gets too expensive. Let the healthcare system absorb the cost, it's not like they're going to loose any money. They'll just keep upping everyone's premiums. So no big deal, right?

Seriously, read the article, check out the SBA, go to the library - there's a ton of free info out there to get started right. My first business went like most others - I jumped in and went at it, with no business plan or savings. It even lasted a couple years- but with a plan, some savings, and some free help from the volunteers (mostly retired business owners or corporate officers), it probably would have done as well as my second one.

And your girlfriend - my God, being a self-employed single woman is way better than being a guy - there's all sorts of help out there. She should check out the ABWA. And if she's a minority or a single mom, there's organizations practically begging to give her a small business loan so she can start off right, with a salary and health insurance. You just need a business plan, and the SBA or ABWA will help with that.

If you can barely pay the bills as it is, and you think that's a good position to be in to start a business, you've been watching too many infomercials.

Re:Only one question..

[pogle]

wc expands contractions? Interesting...

Re:Only one question..

[Jondo]

I live in Canada, so our socialist healthcare covers everything that happens at the hospital. I am curious however. In the US, what happens if you need major surgery *tomorrow*, and as it is you can barely afford to stay afloat. You have negative credit rating, and nothing to go on. Do you just die, wishing you were living just a little farther north?

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, even startrek's Data couldn't work with those :-)

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

No. If a licensed doctor says you need a procedure, i.e. like tumour removal not like breast implants, you will get it.

If you have no insurance and no big chunk of cash, that hospital will jump through hoops making sure you sign up for and get every bit of medicare or any other program you have coming.

If it was a hospital run by a big church organization, you may get a break on the bill. But mostly likely they kick you out of the hospital as fast as possible (because they know they're not collecting) and you end up at home, sore and sick and staring at a bill for $60,000.

What you do then is start paying $100 a month on that bill. As long as you send them something around that amount, they won't (maybe can't) go after your bank account or wages. You may not be able to do even that if you are also not working and have no savings, and no family or spouse to depend on.

Once you have a steady paycheck coming in again, presuming you have been paying something on that monster bill, you go for a "debt consolidation." The services that offer this are often ripoffs, doing it yourself is best. Basically, pay off all the small dribbling shit like random $50 bills from ambulance companies. Then take all your major bills left over, go to your bank, and say here, see my bills, you know my salary from the check I deposit every two weeks, help me or I'll go bankrupt and you'll lose a customer.

And either them or the lawyer or "debt counselor" they send you calls all the hounding creditors offers to buy the debt off them at about what a debt collection agency offers, anywhere from %30 to %80 depending on what your resources are. Then you just owe a big single monthly payment to the bank, which you can work through in 5 years.

A large number of people just don't pay their medical bills for the last 10 years of their life and die with no estate.

In many ways it sucks, but all the socialized systems suck also, they never are the pleasant utopias the European liberal college students claim.

You know what one of the nasty secretes at the heart of the whole thing is ? If you have no insurance in the US you live longer. That's because most medical procedures don't help you live longer, and being inthe hospital always comes with increased risks. The fact that they kick you out fast when you have no medicare or insurance makes you statistically longer lived.

Re:Only one question..

[eric76]

insurance is a much better deal when you get it through an organization than if you get it as an individual.

That's exactly right.

The best deal on insurance I've found is as a student. Check with your local college to see if they have a student insurance plan. If they do, take a course each semester. And sign up for the insurance.

For what it's worth, my major medical insurance is under $1,000 a year with a $100 deductible.

Re:Only one question..

[kevinbarsby]

Look after yourself. As a tech going round many offices you're going to be far more exposed to illness than working in a single office. You will get colds / bugs etc, but your immune system will strengthen as a result. If you get ill, take the day off, you will recover far more quickly than if you try and soldier on, also you won't turn up on client site's dripping with goo and put off customers. If you are worried about serious illness then some sort of insurance is probably worthwhile.

Re:Only one question..

[danheskett]

No,

In the US somewhere between 18% and 40% of all care is provided as "charity care" - ie - without upfront payment.

On top of that, the US has the largest network of free-of-charge hospitals (many teaching hospitals) in the world who perform all manner of procedures for little or no compensation.

This has the net effect of driving up costs for everyone, but hey, its better than letting people die on the streets.

FYI also, all doctors of repute in the world pledge to treat patients in front of them. If a sick or injured person is in front of a doctor and he refuses to help them, that person isn't a doctor anymore.

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you do about health insurance?

Help get Howard Dean into office. one of his plans is to use the money Bush plans for tax cuts to get most Americans covered with health insurance.

Depending on how much you make it is either free or you could opt to buy into the same coverage that federal employees get.

http://www.deanforamerica.com

There are a lot of other good things about him as well...

/me

Re:Only one question..

[qasama]

> So maybe the question shouldn't have
> been, "what do you do for insurance," but "how > do you get good, quality, comprehensive
> healthcare in the United States as a self-
> employed person"?

Unless you're as filthy rich as Bill or Larry,
you don't.

Re:Only one question..

[rsax]

Do you just die, wishing you were living just a little farther north?

Oh please stop. We (Canadians) have health care but I wouldn't solely rely on that. Have you been to a hospital recently? Here in Ontario the situation is unbelievable. My dad had a serious heart attack a couple of years ago. He had to lie on an uncomfortable stretcher for almost two days before they got another patient to go home and used his bed. Just recently he was complaining about chest pains so my mom took him to the emergency room and he waited for a good four hours before returning back home without being attended to; thankfully it wasn't another heart attack and he was examined the next day by the family doctor.

Cancer is the number one killer (disease) in Canada and if you're a woman with breast cancer then you have to deal with a backlog for months to get a mammogram. Need a MRI? Deal with another backlog or do what most people (who can afford it) do and go to Buffalo to get one. That's great healthcare. Nurses here complain that their underpaid, short staffed and over-worked. Thankfully our current government has a great plan to work this all out: deny that there is a problem with health care. All I can say is that I'm glad I have company coverage.

Re:Only one question..

[jafuser]

This reminds me of an article I read or heard not too long ago about how a national health care system would improve economic productivity by much more than what would be immediately obvious on the surface.

Just think of all the BS we have to go through to get, maintain, and use health insurance, and how our economy could benefit as a result of that productive energy being spent on something else.

And it's not just the patient that has to waste time with BS insurance bureaucracy, it's also your doctor's office, the pharmacies, your employer, etc... Just look at all the excessive paperwork as an example of how much energy is being wasted.

Ah, I can hear the McCarthyists grumbling already...

Re:Only one question..

[cayenne8]

"Who modded up this 15 year old troll? Maybe you should take a look at the difference in cost before you start spewing. I pay about $30/month at work. If my self-employed girlfriend tried to get insurance it is closer to $300/month. That is more than $3,000 a year extra you would have to pay. That can be a very serious entry barrier for people who are barely paying the bills as it is. "

Well, if you're a contractor, incorporated..like I read into this article...you can be making some serious cash. If your doing $50/hr...figure about 1864 hours a year doing full time...you're grossing in the ball park of $93,200 US. $3K or so out of that annually is nothing...

And face it, today...the job security is about the same as a direct job.

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

Or there's the UK, where every hospital is free of charge, and do ALL procedures.

Re:Only one question..

[danheskett]

Wrong. The good hospitals are private. The rich get the good care. Everyone else gets the crap.

Re:Only one question..

[pyite69]

There is a company called SimpleCare that offers
HMO-sized discounts on medical procedures if you
agree to pay the full cost when you visit. It's
only $20 a year for this service.

Here is an article about it:
http://www.reason.com/rb/rb052803.shtml

Make sure to get a high deductible catastrophic
policy to go with it, in case of a serious problem.

Re:Only one question..

[pogle]

I have to say, at least in Red Hat, that wc -w returns 3 for said statement.

Re:Only one question..

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be true if doctors actually charged insurance companies and non-insured patients the same amount. They do not.

I've seen the insurance charges for relatives while I myself have been uninsured. What I was charged for a general office visit was much less. This has been true in several different states for several different doctors, so I'm guessing it's fairly widespread.

Re:Only one question..

[ErikZ]

You've GOT to be kidding. You have no idea the amount of beauracy that would spring forth once a government health plan is put into place.

Re:Only one answer...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't get sick.

Great Checklist

[dlosey]

The personality checklist fits the bill of both a technician and an entrepenuer very well.

I'd also say it is a pretty decent description of the typical slashdot reader, IMHO

Re:Great Checklist

[DNS-and-BIND]

In MY opinion, he's waaaay too much into the whole slashdot thing. His bland comment about other techs not reading slashdot was a real eye-opener. You know, it is actually possible to have a rewarding career in computers without ever ONCE reading slashdot. He makes several other offhanded comments that reveal just how parochial his world-view is.

Besides, who wants to do windows tech support for a living? That's what it is, doing freelance support for small businesses. They only call when they have huge problems and then they never have application support because they got their software for free. Try troubleshooting a problem in QuickBooks without being able to call QuickBooks support! And no thanks on the 50-70 hour weeks.

In conclusion, small businesses are ghetto. They're frequently late with payments, as well.

Re:Great Checklist

[edverb]

In conclusion, small businesses are ghetto. They're frequently late with payments, as well.

Not so, if you don't offer payments. I get paid upon completion of the job. (I'm not the author, but it's obvious he's insightful about being an ISV via his experience) If a small business can't agree in advance to pay upon completion, then I don't take the job. It's a simple matter of managing your receivables by not allowing them to accumulate.

I realize that critizisms like "how parochial his worldview is" sound impressive, they just happen to be wrong. The bit about ignoring the print magazines is spot on, you'll find exposure to 50x more useful (and interesting) concepts reading Slashdot than you ever will reading "Top 10 Mobile Devices for 2003!" in one of the many periodicals offered beside the checkout in Staples.

I imagine you're a tech too, and have experience of your own, but to encapulate that whole article into some "worldview" box of your creation is ridiculous. This article consists of practical advice, not a manifesto.

Lastly, can you think of a more never-ending source of revenue than repairing Winblows boxen when they crash (as they occassionally do ;-)...at $75-$120 an hour?!? Sure I use GNU/Linux myself personally (and I recommend it as often as possible to my Windows clientele), but I'm not above whipping a Windows machine into shape when I'm getting $75 an hour to do it. Heck, it's fun. Some of my clients are already getting used to Mozilla and OpenOffice.

Re:Great Checklist

[jafuser]

I'd also say it is a pretty decent description of the typical slashdot reader

So is this.

Super Geek.

This is an easy one

[mao che minh]

My brief collection of "must knows" after a year of consulting:

1. Dress neat, above all else. Work out too. If you are good looking, PHBs don't care whether you know anything or not, especially the female ones

2. Never admit that you don't know something - act like you know everything that has to do with computing

3. Charge fair, but on the high end. If you charge too cheap, the PHBs think that you aren't skilled

4. Never linger. If Accounting is having problems with a database client, get in, find out what's wrong, and leave immediately until you fix the problem. Don't stop to chat with the pretty secretary and try to gauge her age. Just assume that she's 17 and get the hell out of there

5. It doesn't hurt to keep you mouth shut unless there is something that you absolutely, postively have to say. Chances are, they won't understand what you're talking about anyways, you'll confuse them, which makes them annoyed. Just shut up and nod yes and no

Re:This is an easy one

[smitty45]

"2. Never admit that you don't know something - act like you know everything that has to do with computing" Terrible idea. Every dweeb out there has enough ego to support pretending that they know everything. I keep my clients by being able to admit I don't know, then find out. They appreciate the honesty, instead of the pseudo-consultants that talk up a storm.

Re:This is an easy one

[Anonymous Coward]

6) and whatever you do, never use the words 'Evil Diabolical Plan' on your resume.

--
We're overpaying him but he's worth it..

Re:This is an easy one

[Zooka]

2. Never admit that you don't know something - act like you know everything that has to do with computing

2a. Never get caught in a lie. Admitting you don't know something might be a negative, but it's better than proving yourself to be deceitful.

Re:This is an easy one

[prator]

They appreciate the honesty, instead of the pseudo-consultants that talk up a storm.

I agree. I think that it is horrible advice to tell someone to act like they know everything. Everyone that I've ever known that interviews prospective employees always says to be honest about your knowledge.

-prator

Re:This is an easy one

[mkelley]

'3. Charge fair, but on the high end. If you charge too cheap, the PHBs think that you aren't skilled "

I charge about 50% less, simply because I don't have the overhead of my competitors. Most, if not all, of my clients dropped their previous service when they realized that they got better quality, cheaper, than others who were out to gouge.

Re:This is an easy one

[MrLint]

Even if your clients dont know anything its certainly clear when someone is flailing. Knowing when you don't know something is wisdom. Knowing how to find what you don't know.. thats smarts. If your customers trust you because of your previous work telling them you will find out or you have to research is ok. People don't like being lied to.

Re:This is an easy one

[mao che minh]

I just landed a gig at a law firm (a rather large one) to install a bunch of imaging systems and "fix" their mail server. They decided not to use their usual guy because "he didn't always know everything that we needed, and would have to go look it up (sic)".

It depends on the client. Some don't mind. Some view incomplete mastery of a trade as laziness and/or ignorance.

Afterall, they all know that they could always find someone else.

Re:This is an easy one

[Fulcrum of Evil]

I charge about 50% less, simply because I don't have the overhead of my competitors. Most, if not all, of my clients dropped their previous service when they realized that they got better quality, cheaper, than others who were out to gouge.

This isn't about gouging so much as setting expectations - charge too low a price, and people will think something's amiss. It's like selling a new BMW for $15000.

Re:This is an easy one

[Zork the Almighty]

1999-2000 : Thwarted Evil Diabolical Plan

Re:This is an easy one

[Clover_Kicker]

Geez. That's pretty fucking ironic, considering that lawyers spent more time consulting reference materials then almost any other profession.

Re:This is an easy one

[Zooka]

"I keep my clients by being able to admit I don't know, then find out. They appreciate the honesty, instead of the pseudo-consultants that talk up a storm."

Exactly. If you don't have the answers to simple questions, then you you're just doomed. But no reasonable person expects you to have all the answers to all the difficult problems. "Hmm, I don't have the answer to that one now, but I'll have it for you by this afternoon." - has always worked well for me. It shows you not only to be honest, but smart, confident, and able to work outside of a set boundry.

Re:This is an easy one

[Shant3030]

2. Never admit that you don't know something - act like you know everything that has to do with computing.

Interviewers can smell bullshit from a mile away.

Re:This is an easy one

[Shant3030]

Well since you are dealing with lawyers, you have to bullshit, because that's the only thing they know.

If you tell them that the flux capacitor on the intranode serial bus is broken, they'll just shake their head and pretend they know more about that subject than you.

Re:This is an easy one

[Anonymous Coward]

2. Never admit that you don't know something - act like you know everything that has to do with computing

Until two months ago, I would have violently disagreed with this.

But recently, we interviewed this guy for a full-time position in our company. He had been a consultant for some time, and he had taken your point number 2 to heart. To say that he was cocky is an understatement.

He got a few of my technical questions wrong. This wouldn't have been that bad to me, but he was so cock-sure and arrogant, at least until I pointed out in no uncertain terms that he was wrong.

When we were deciding whether to hire him, I pointed out this flaw, and went at length about how I thought this was unacceptable. However, the other people on the team were impressed with him, and said of this, "He has been a consultant -- he has to act that way."

They ended up hiring him, much to my amazement.

Re:This is an easy one

[Scalli0n]

4. Never linger. If Accounting is having problems with a database client, get in, find out what's wrong, and leave immediately until you fix the problem. Don't stop to chat with the pretty secretary and try to gauge her age. Just assume that she's 17 and get the hell out of there

What if I'm 17 and single? I'd mack on her, she'll recommend you to your boss if she likes you. Of course, the breakup could get ugly...

Re:This is an easy one

[smitty45]

"2. Never admit that you don't know something"

this works great until something needs to get done quickly, you really DON'T know what you're talking about, rack up the timesheet for thousands because you're flailing, and then have another consultant tell the guy writing the checks that you didn't know the 5 minute answer.

Hiring people because they are cocky (even if they have skills to back it up) is so 1999. I'm so glad that the Age of Primadonnas is over.

Re:This is an easy one

[SuiteSisterMary]

1995-2002 - National Security Agency
Job duties consisted of CENSORED, CENSORED, CENSORED and CENSORED.
As part of Project CENSORED, I increased CENSORED of the system by CENSORED percent.
Worked with CENSORED, using CENSORED equipment.

So, you worked for the NSA?

Yes, and they have instructions to kill anybody who inquires about it.

Re:This is an easy one

[ErikZ]

Why shouldn't you linger?

Re:This is an easy one

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I charge about 50% less, simply because I don't have the overhead of my competitors.

You have to be careful with that sort of policy. A lot of serious business will look at a price differential that big, and ask what you're not telling them. Some places automatically ignore the highest and lowest bids for any job. Better to accept that people want to pay for things so they feel they've got a quality job done, and charge 80-90% of the market rate instead. Think of it as a downpayment on your honesty in charging less than everyone else. :-)

Re:This is an easy one

[mkelley]

I'm up front with my clients, and have to be, since they're the only advertising I use. The price difference, is mainly people taking way too long, doing things like installing network cards and such. It's not a hard thing to do, so why should a $20 card with a manual and drivers, take three hours to install? Why should a basic html template for a small business cost $1k? I've been doing this for 6 years, mainly as a side job, and this has never popped up.

If I needed to bid on a job, I would give them a fair price, but also include my portfolio and references. That down payment in honesty is good, but I also expect a potential client to perform "due diligence" and contact my clients. "Don't take my word for it, call my clients".

Re:This is an easy one

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course they would. It makes their job a lot easier, like the way that pleading guilty makes a judge or jury's life easier.

Re:This is an easy one

[Reziac]

Personally, I've found the best way to wow a new client is to run Regedit (saying "Hmm" a lot) while the baffled client watches over your shoulder. ;)

Re:This is an easy one

[geekoid]

if that were true, I wouldn't be sitting next to a guy with '5 years' of .net experience.

Re:This is an easy one

[pod]

That's true, but on the other hand, if you're 'supposed' to know something, ie, it falls somewhere within your domain, and you don't know it, just say you've done some work with it in the past. Then hit the bookstore. Don't pass yourself off as an expert when you're not, but don't admit knowledge holes so readily, especially when you later find out that just a few hours reading up will bring you up to speed. It looks bad.

Re:This is an easy one

[Neil Watson]

Completely agree. A lie, big or small, will always come back to haunt you. I tell my customers: I will always tell you the truth. Whether you like it or not.

Re:This is an easy one

[mariox19]

Why was this modded up as "funny," when it obviously falls under "insightful"?

Re:This is an easy one

[smitty45]

if your knowledge is enough to get the job, then you shouldn't have any problem explaining that you don't know anything.

I'm sure Linus Torvalds doesn't have nearly as much security knowledge as someone like Stephen Northcutt, but saying so shouldn't stop the presses or kill the contract.

admitting knowledge holes readily is different than admitting that you don't know the answer to a particular problem at hand.

In fact, I have been more impressed with people's troubleshooting skills when they _don't_ know and find out, then someone who says they know and then waste a lot of time protecting their image as a "master".

Re:This is an easy one

[boy_afraid]

SWORD OF OMENS GIEV ME SITE BEYOND SITE!

Okay, Lion-O. Is Snarf with you, too??

Thunder, Thunder, Thunder Cats, Hooooo!

Is that really what we set out to do?

[teutonic_leech]

I didn't study non-stop for the last 11 years just to join the ranks of technical support. The whole reason for me to get into technology and eventually into IT was to 'build cool sh...t' - not to listen to some technophobe bitching about why her/his system got corrupted after opening some suspicous email attachment. Seriously, is that all we'll be relegated to do? Hey, I rather start laying bricks then - at least I have something productive to look as the fruits of my work. Just my two cents, I bet many will disagree - but I'm not wired that way...

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[smitty45]

are you assuming that the people reading the article have been trained for years only to work in a less-skilled position ?

or do you think it's possible that some people reading the article are fresh out of college history majors who like computers and would make excellent money doing technical support ?

some people like (and make LOTS of money) doing technical support.

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[Anonymous Coward]

> I didn't study non-stop for the last 11 years just to join the ranks of technical support.

Well... with one year of high school left I would advise you to stay

SCNR!

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[teutonic_leech]

I was referring to my professional experience in IT... I was not counting school education.

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[artemis67]

Everyone has different goals for their careers, though. Your goal is to build cool stuff; mine is to eventually build my own business. If I could walk out today and duplicate my current income by freelancing, I would absolutely do it.

But I take issue with the article's author that there is enough freelance tech support for everyone. A lot of programmers are going to naturally fall back on that as their jobs move overseas, and it will quickly become saturated.

Beware of anyone promising a "one size fits all" fix for this downturn...

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[swb]

The new world order being built has a clear line between the Aristocracy and their service help. They're trying very hard to eliminate the pesky "skilled service help" who actually expect to be treated like, and paid like, the peers of the Aristocracy.

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[zeromentat]

I'vegot to agree with you, if only we could find jobs laying brick that paid so well ....

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[paitre]

I'm with artemis on this one.

I want nothing more than to be running my own business, reporting to noone except for my clients and my self.

A lot of programmers are going to naturally fall back on that as their jobs move overseas, and it will quickly become saturated.

This is assuming that the average programmer is -able- to do technical support work. I've worked with guys (and gals) who, outside of their IDE, knew -nothing- about the software on their systems and how to fix it. -These- are the programmers that are losing their jobs more often than the truly skilled people. That's not to say skilled people aren't losing their jobs too, because there are.

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you don't understand what tech support may entail?

I worked for myself for about 8 years doing freelance computer work (more or less "tech support"). It's amazing how knowing what the computer is capable can expand the scope of solutions. My "tech support" over 8 years involved installing and setting up networks for many small businesses, writing and debugging scripts to automate catalog updates from the mainframe that held pricing info to the PC that held the catalog layout, custom programming in Borland C++, some (but very little) custom microprocessor hardware design which I thought would be the biggest seller and a whole lot of other things. All in all, some of it was building very cool shit; certainly a helluva lot more rewarding than laying brick. Some of it was grunt work to pay the bills.

BTW, I should also mention that I got out and took a "real job" because I got tired of the feast or famine nature of the business; I was either flush and frantically busy with too much to do OR broke and bored because there was nuthin' to do!

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[iSwitched]

The corollary to this is that I have known many exceptional programmers, possibly even brilliant ones. The types whose algorithms flowed unflawed from their fingertips, and whose knowledge of the systems and software involved were deeper than mine ever will be, but who could never possess the interpersonal skills and level of patience required to support an unsophisticated client base.

This career path is decidedly not for everyone.

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[Lemmy Caution]

Think from a business perspective: why *wouldn't* IT become commoditized? It's a cost center, ultimately. Your "shit" being twice as cool will almost certainly not return double the investment. For most IT functions, good enough is good enough, and the less businesses have to pay for it (in toto, not just up front) the less they will.

It's still a world of stuff, not bits. The economy of bits is pretty quickly worn out. Housing, clothing, transportation, health - these are the needs that people will constantly spend on. A system that simply makes processes a wee bit faster, or cuts production costs a wee bit, is attractive, but not proportionally to the veritable horde of people who entered that service market.

So, at the end of the day, did you stop and ask yourself for whom, and for what value, your cool shit would be for?

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would agree. I too have been doing technical support for some time, and one of the reasons that I've never had the desire to go and "freelance" consult on my own is because I really don't feel like helping end users do basic simple computer tasks all day. Aside from that, working for myself would be a blast.

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[Anonymous Coward]

well said. just finished up my masters in cs at a top school, sad to see much smarter people than me taking crappy jobs in IT support. what a waste of talent and from experience i bet their morale goes way down pretty damn quickly.

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't study non-stop for the last 11 years just to join the ranks of technical support. The whole reason for me to get into technology and eventually into IT was to 'build cool sh...t'

Funny, I went to 2 year of trade school and now I have a great job building really cool stuff..

I found that it does not matter a damn what you know, it's your basic skills with people and the decisions you make that direct's your career path.

The IT staff here bitched about pay rates and policies that sales were not following...

They were let go 2 weeks ago.

I'm still here building the fiber infrastructure, getting new Cisco equipement to play with. How did I snag this position? By making sure everything I did met the needs of my management and users as well as the management and users of a department that I had nothing to do with but their IT was ignoring them.

Do your job, go beyond the call, learn management speak... you win.

Besides, I developed and engineered a $6.00 replacement to a $95.00 temperature sensor for the companies building monitoring system, saving the company over $100,000 country wide. Nope, no formal EE degree.. I screwed with electronics like I did computers.... It's being a people person first and foremost... when someone asks you "how ya doing".... you answer "GREAT" no matter what. and ALWAYS be happy to help them.

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[MannyDixn]

I feel ya.

But if ya wanna 'build cool shit', then just do it! If you are a true geek, build first and worry about it later. Hardware is cheap enough these days, open source is free (pssst, don't buy that SCO licence), build whatever you want.

If you are good at it, maybe someone will see what you build and will want to either buy it, or the buy rights to it, or will want you to build them more of the same, or admire your skill and hire you for something else equally cool.

But if you are a true geek, you are not building cools shit for gain, but for the fun of it. And to eat and have a roof over your head in the meanwhile, it may, just may, be least painful to do some tech support. If may very well pay for your hobby of building cool shit.

I think you are right on about laying bricks, or pouring concrete, or framing wood houses -- immensly satisfying. That'ts what I do, by the way. But most techie people ould rather do tech support.

I think thats what the article is trying to convey.

Re:Is that really what we set out to do?

[Ksatriya]

I, personally, very much doubt that the market can ever be saturated due to the simple fact that it takes a very specific type of person to put up with people need constant hand-holding and can't tell you if they're running Windows or MacOS. The person who's going to suceed in this field needs to be patient, preservering, and polite ON TOP of having all of the requisite technical skills.

Lots of people have the former (customer servie) and lots of people have the latter (programming geek), but it's a hard combination, especially due to the fact that many computer folks have anti-social tendencies.

I simply don't see there being that many people like that out there. I work tech support and tend to enjoy it, but there's a lot of things I can't put up with and I'm more tolerant than most people in my department, who laugh and call users names as soon as they walk out of the office. Joking and/or tearing out your hair is not going to endeer you to any client, because even if you do it behind their back it tends to show.

charge money?

[thorgil]

You mean I can charge people for the work i do?!

Re:charge money?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean I can charge people for the work i do?!

Yes, it's called step 2.

1. Fix person's computer

2. ???? = Charge for work done.

3. Profit!

Re:charge money?

[magsymp]

Now if you could only charge them to have intercourse with their wives! .... hmmmr...
1) Charge to have intercourse with clients wives
2) ????
3) Profit!!!

Wait that's prostitution...
then again at least it's not trading illegal copyrighted material!

Re:If you are unemployed...

[Daniel_Staal]

Really? Maybe you just can't prove you are good at what you do. I've been in that situation: No job, no job history, and no job prospects because you have no job history.

SCO

[john_smith_45678]

You don't think there's a killing to be made by trying to "collect" SCO licensing fees from Linux users? ;P

Re:SCO

[st0rmshad0w]

Yes, but you will be legally required to change your middle name to "The".

Re:If you are unemployed...

[John Jorsett]

Really? Maybe you just can't prove you are good at what you do. I've been in that situation: No job, no job history, and no job prospects because you have no job history.

I once knew somebody in that position. He went to a company and offered to work free. They took him up on the offer, and after 3 months, he said, 'hire me or I'm going,' so they hired him. Not the easiest way to break in, but it showed real initiative.

Glamour

[nycsubway]

This reminds me of the glamorous lifestyle that so many people 'enjoyed' in the late 1990s. It sounds as though he is simply piecing together most of his life in a way that respresents success. I wouldn't see it that way. It seems he knows how to talk to people, not engineer things. The way this person writes tells me that he doesn't know much more about computers than his 'clients'. He is simply a person who enjoys talking with people, and is relatively intelligent so he can learn the things his clients dont bother to read about.

I dont think this person describes most of the people who regularly read slashdot, the scientists, engineers and people who like to solve problems and learn technical things. He is more describing the ideal world than something that can actually be attained. And, this is something that very few people can actually do to make a living.

Re:Glamour

[s20451]

he can learn the things his clients dont bother to read about.

You can make that argument about any specialist.

e.g., That lawyer, he's not so good at law, he just read law books so that his clients don't have to.

It seems he knows how to talk to people, not engineer things. [...] I dont think this person describes most of the people who regularly read slashdot, the scientists, engineers and people who like to solve problems and learn technical things.

So ... you're saying that everyone on slashdot is a techie nerd with no social skills?

Wait ... never mind.

Re:Glamour

[MoNickels]

The way this person writes tells me that he doesn't know much more about computers than his 'clients'.

I don't have to point it out to you that I am indeed technically qualified, but I will. How do you think I've run the tech for entire 65-person offices? My good looks? Do you want references, or what?

If it sounds like I'm writing about people who don't know what they're doing, that's because I'm talking about the beginning stages, where I was about ten years ago. I know plenty now.

Re:Glamour

[arf_barf]

I was tempted to moderate you down but rather respond to your post:

I guess you might be correct by classifying most /. As '...scientists, engineers and people who like to solve problems...' But one thing you have to understand that it doesn't matter how technically good you are unless you know how to SELL yourself. This applies to almost all fields: graphic design, web design, programming etc.

I see it every day. Sometimes I wonder if some of these people have autistic tendencies ;-)

Anyhow, here is good tutorial on how to get started selling yourself: Freelance Workshops. This guy is a graphic artist, but most concepts can be adapted to any field.

Re:Glamour

[s20451]

Sometimes I wonder if some of these people have autistic tendencies ;-)

Why wonder, when you can find out right now.

And it's not such a joke, really. There is a surge of autism diagnoses among children of computer professionals in Silicon Valley. The argument is that geekiness and autism have the same genetic root.

Re:Glamour

[rk]

Plus your Slashdot ID is lower than mine!

Re:Glamour

[Jason Earl]

Glamour my @$$. There is nothing remotely glamorous about doing tech support for small businesses. It's all about showing up, getting things to work, and getting the heck out. He runs a one person consulting business. At the end of the day his stuff either works, or he doesn't get paid. Yes, talking to people is a requisite part of being in business for yourself, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have to actually fix his clients problems.

$50 to $100 may sound "glamorous" to someone who has never been in business for themselves, but the fact of the matter it is that this fee is so low that larger consulting firms can't even pretend to compete. Those prices simply don't leave any room for overhead. Once you take into consideration that you only get paid for "billable" hours, and the fact that you get to do all the bookkeeping, billing, tax work, etc. it isn't nearly the deal that it appears to be. Being a plumber or an electrician is probably more lucrative.

It's definitely doable, and there really is plenty of work. However, it's hard work, without paid vacations (or respite of any kind :).

Re:Glamour

[maelstrom]

If only that was all the mattered to getting a job... I'm a currently unemployed recent Computer Science graduate. Anyone got a job? I've got a really low slashdot id, that means i'm l33t right? Anyone? Anyone?

Resume

Re:Glamour

[MobileC]

"He is more describing the ideal world than something that can actually be attained. And, this is something that very few people can actually do to make a living."

It's great to be one of the few.

Re:Glamour

[Mesaeus]

You know, if we both had to have this final interview with a PHB, I wanna bet I'd get the job with my much better (higher) id.

Re:Glamour

[JudasBlue]

I beg to differ. A lot of the stuff he was talking about that in that article in the detailed examples strikes me as pretty good stuff. BSD solutions, needs anaylsis for mixed platform shops, what to put in the network DMZ, rebuilding mail servers and a host of other crap, including a very simple but often neglected point about changing critical passwords on a regular basis. I mean, none of that is necessarily rocket science, but is sure is the kind of thing I look for in an admin/tech and often find woefully inadequate in people passing themselves off as experienced.

What he seems to be admitting is that he didn't know all this when he started, and learned it by doing it, which says to me that he can tackle new problems on the fly and find solutions. Another thing I always want to see.

Re:Glamour

[geekoid]

Not to insinuate this aplies to you, however I have worked with people incharge of tech. support for Fortune 500 companies that wouldn't know the difference between a baud and a byte.

Re:Glamour

[Reziac]

I RTFAs, and (speaking from 30+ years of experience as my own boss) your advice is pretty much valid for any sort of self-employment: half the battle is getting word out that you can indeed do job X, then making what clients you scrounge up feel like they got their money's worth, so you're their first thought when someone they know needs the same services. And after a certain point, it becomes self-sustaining. Frex, at this point about 70% of my business comes from referrals or repeat customers; the rest wander in from my website (my giant public business card).

Re:Glamour

[Anonymous Coward]

Post is almost correct. I made a few corrections.

this person describes most of the people who regularly read slashdot, the wannabe scientists, wannabe engineers and people who like to think they solve problems and learn technical but trivial things

Re:Glamour

[Reziac]

I think the original "glamorous" comment was being sarcastic -- for a while in the '80s and '90s there was this social-climber thing of being self-employed (as if this automagically created a self-made millionaire), and it had nothing to do with the tech or consulting fields. Tho come to think of it, I wonder if it may have contributed to the dot-bomb mentality that followed.

Anyway -- working for yourself doesn't mean you have to do all the billing, tax records, etc. too. If you don't want to do it, farm it out to an accountant. There are plenty of SOHO businesses out there that specialize in such support for other SOHO businesses.

An independent plumber or electrician is *exactly* the SAME sort of business as a computer consultant, except that they deal with pipes and wires, not bits and IC chips. Remember, a plumber or electrician has to self-promote, since he doesn't work for someone else for a guaranteed wage. And he has to deal with bookkeeping stuff too, either himself, or farmed out to yet another (likely one-person) business.

As to overhead -- that's a tradeoff: If you don't have a storefront, obviously you don't have to include that overhead in your hourly rate. OTOH, the lack of a walk-in storefront reduces your visibility (and to some, your credibility) to the general public, and you'll need to make up the difference with other forms of self-promotion (business cards, yellow pages ads, etc.)

Vacations, days off, and sick days are of course unpaid, and getting them at all depends on whether you're making enough to afford 'em, and whether your business allows that much time away from clients. Set days and hours you're available if you can, but be prepared to be on call 24/7 until you're established enough that you can be "closed" after normal business hours.

(And yes, I've been self-employed for over 30 years.)

Re:Glamour

[ralphdaugherty]

The way this person writes tells me that he doesn't know much more about computers than his 'clients'.

I don't have to point it out to you that I am indeed technically qualified, but I will. How do you think I've run the tech for entire 65-person offices? My good looks? Do you want references, or what?

If it sounds like I'm writing about people who don't know what they're doing, that's because I'm talking about the beginning stages, where I was about ten years ago. I know plenty now.

Anyone who read your two articles can tell how much you know. The poster couldn't have actually read them. They probably dropped out when they got to the question as to whether the reader has a short attention span.

rd

Re:Glamour

[whatch durrin]

I'll tell ya what's glamourous...

Bold, baby! Lots and lots of bold!!

Re:Glamour

[sasami]

I dont think this person describes most of the people who regularly read slashdot, the scientists, engineers and people who like to solve problems and learn technical things.

You're right, he's not describing average Slashdot readers... he's educating them.

"The way this person writes," as you say, tells me he has a profound understanding that technical knowledge is only a part of what's needed to get a career going. Notice how most of his "bad tech" stories are not fundamentally about technical incompetence. The article doesn't just espouse freelancing, it firmly encourages techs to develop skills such as taking initiative, good communication, good judgment, cultivating relationships, perseverance, adaptability, planning, teaching, learning...

No, these are not just empty PHB buzzwords! They are all skills that can be learned. And there is no reason not to. Many intelligent people get by without them -- but this is exactly the same, and exactly as stupid, as doing a technical task using the wrong tools.

Even the skill of learning is deceptively uncommon. You speak of "people who like to... learn technical things." Indeed, we geeks like to think we're fast learners -- but really, how true is this outside of technology? The really successful people are the ones who are fast general learners, who can rapidly digest things that don't come naturally to them.

And even that is just a skill to be learned. I was a CS major, but the best classes I took were things like poetry and art history that lie far outside my comfort zone; these classes literally improved my brain. This never happened with CS classes because I was already good at that. As a result, I'm now a well-paid kernel developer while my friends who attended engineering schools are unemployed Javaheads.

The themes in both these articles are applicable to any field, not just tech support.

--
Dum de dum.

It sucks...

[Ironpoint]

Damn, tech support sucks.

Tech support sucks because people don't want you touching their Porn Station 9000, aka company laptop. Thats sound like a good idea from a sanitary standpoint. Note to users: I will not sit on your lap to work on your computer. MOVE.

Employee: You guys gonna help me?

Nick Burns: Show me what you're doing..

Employee: Well, I'm trying to save it.. so I downloaded it..

Nick Burns: Uh-huh.

Employee: ..and then I pushed..

Nick Burns: Yeah.

Employee: ..this button, and I..

Nick Burns: Uh-huh. Yeah. MOVE! God, do you run the Internet on this thing? It looks like it's got a 28.8, or something! [ techies laugh ]

Jingle: "'Cause he's Nick Burns, your Company Computer Guy!"

Re:If you are unemployed...

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn, I need to find some more employee friendly places to work. The last place I worked would have been too suspicious to take him up on the offer. They didn't even trust their employees much less someone offering to work for free. Then again, the company was featured here in a very negative (but deserving) light about 6 months ago, and no, I wasn't the submitter.

Old lady...

[superpulpsicle]

I helped this old lady on some freelance work way back with Corel wordperfect. Was that a mistake. Here are some questions I got...

-Why didn't Corel wordperfect come with a pen?
-Where do I buy ink if the typewriter runs out of ink?
-If I press delete does that delete everything?
-I heard it comes with a dictionary. Can I upgrade to an encyclopedia set?
-Does this program open on sundays and saturdays?

Re:Old lady...

[poot_rootbeer]

Seeing the days of Corel Wordperfect referred to as "way back", I suddenly feal really REALLY old. And I'm only in my mid-20's!

Ok, but how much do I charge?

[scorp1us]

I've done side work for years. Never made much at it. My parents told me to never talk about money, and so I feel uncomforable at billing time doing something I enjoy.

I really need to know how much to bill grandma.

$30/hr for a not related grandma?
$45/hr for others?
$90/hr for PHBs?

Of course it'll vary depending on the work and the client, bit some pricing structure would be of great help to me!

Re:Ok, but how much do I charge?

[mhs1973]

Simple rule:
Family: don't bill them (expect if they want you to do work for their BUSINESS),
anyone private: a fixed price they can afford (like 50 bucks),
anyone business: an hourly rate in which you bill them for the started hour, including the time you needed to get there

Re:Ok, but how much do I charge?

[Reziac]

That's pretty much my policy:
-- Family (and a few folks who can't afford *any* support otherwise): no charge except for parts, tho I have one such client who pays my labour charge in chocolate :)
-- Individual: fixed hourly rate ($50/hr is enough to make them feel they're getting their money's worth, yet not so much that they balk at the whole idea), but I'm not hardassed about how long an "hour" is, nor about travel time, unless it's an emergency where they've got to have it fixed NOW. And if it's a simple job hardly worthy of the one-hour minimum charge, I also give the machine a once-over and clean up as needed.
-- Business: what you said, being it's part of their cost of doing business.

Re:Ok, but how much do I charge?

[HeyLaughingBoy]

a) Find out the prevailing rate and discount it by 30% or so
b) Find out how much the average auto shop charges and set your rate within $10/hour of theirs. What you do is at least as skilled as a mechanic's job and you're working at a billing level that people are used to.

Don't be afraid to charge heavily for work you enjoy. I like my job, but if they stopped paying me, I'd be gone the next day!

Re:Ok, but how much do I charge?

[demaria]

Travel time should not be billed unless they are extremely far away (an hour or more drive) and you make that point clear to them. When you hire a plumber, carpenter, dog trainer or accountant you don't pay them for the time it takes to travel. Nor should you.

Re:Ok, but how much do I charge?

[mhs1973]

You are certainly right in parts of your statement. However your observation that plumbers, carpenters, etc. do not ask for their traveltime paid is wrong. They will, they do and they will keep doing so.
Furthermore it is usual that, if the customer is not able to explain the problem and you end up driving there, just to see that said customer then proceeds telling you that it (e.g.) "was just and he just forgot about it and you can leave again" you will end up wasting money. not the customers, but he will do the same thing again to you and not learn from his mistake.
The learning effect is only achived (at least for businesses) when there is a bill connected to a mistake. Otherwise it is not.
How much you want to get paid for a useless drive and propable other business lost, is up to you of course.
A statement "Nor should you." is IMHO short sighted.

Wow...

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally a reference to a site without any banners or popups!

I'll read your whole story when I get home.

My life work.

[DigiShaman]

Basically, this article hit the nail on the head. Unfortunatly, there are way to many geeks out there with a holier-then-thou (think EGO)attitude that really pisses clients off (they are not customers, you want to keep there business). Not only that, but those type of geeks are anti-social. If you really want to been in the on-site end user support industry, you must have the nack for salesmanship and the love of technology. This is job you must LOVE to do. If your in it for the quick buck, then your just going to be another looser all future prospects for the rest of us entrepreneurs .

Re:My life work.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunatly-Unfortunately

to - too

then - than

been-be

nack-knack

looser-loser

Re:My life work.

[DigiShaman]

Yes, my spelling sucks ass. But at least I got this post right. >;-)

I think this is pretty hilarious

[Anonymous Coward]

CmdrTaco:It's turkey time. Gobble, gobble.

Summery-Become a verbosity engineer.

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously why not become someone who does the documentation that others depend upon?

There's always a call for someone who not only knows the material, but has the skill to explain it to those who don't.

Also there's the "hire your family" bit as well.
For example I have a cousin that's a wiz at graphics. I can have him do my site, and other advertizing.

Re:Timely article since our jobs are being shipped

[Captain Pedantic]

Why do you think it is UNAMERICAN getting someone to do a substandard job for less money?

Re:Timely article since our jobs are being shipped

[Anonymous Coward]

You're welcome.

Fuckwad

[Anonymous Coward]

It's turkey time. Gobble, gobble!

Re:Fuckwad

[etp]

i can't believe i missed that joke! it's so funny!

Only one question..Strength in numbers.

[Anonymous Coward]

There are insurance plans that cater to the small business.. You may even go in with other small businesses and buy a group plan, getting a better deal. Remember there's strength in numbers. That's one of the reasons you see multiple doctors working under one roof. Kind of like marriage. :)

The same idea applies to many other aspects of one's business. Office supplies for example. Use your imagination.

one more: buy Windows software

[mblase]

From the article: It's better if you have your own laptop to take with you.

I'd go this one better: make sure it has the latest version of Windows on it, if not the last two or three on distinct partitions.

I'm not a freelancer, but I recently gave freelance web development a go while I was, ah, "between jobs." My one big client came back badmouthing the work I did two months after the project was completed, mainly because I telecommuted the entire project from home using my Mac OS X desktop. This slowed down the project initially, because they wanted to give me Windows remote access software (and weren't bright enough to get VNC working through their firewall) and have me work out major problems in person instead of on the phone.

A physical presence is everything to a client, followed closely by your willingness to conform to their needs instead of imposing your own. Your clients probably use Windows heavily. When working with them, you should too.

Re:one more: buy Windows software

[A Naughty Moose]

Did you know that Microsoft makes a Remote Desktop Client for Macs? It might have helped you out in this case, as you could then connect to their terminal server without having to resort to VNC.

Re:one more: buy Windows software

[cayenne8]

There is also rdesktop for linux so you can run terminal services on a win boxen...

http://www.rdesktop.org/

Does this make me look fat?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Beware of anyone promising a "one size fits all" fix for this downturn..."

Become a clothing designer.

Huh?

[HungWeiLo]

...encouraging the unemployed to take up freelance technical support...

Don't most geeks already do freelance tech support for friends/family/friends-with-benefits/ungrateful people?

Just what I want....

[gatkinso]

...an unemployed (God knows the real reason why), person off the street working on my network... while he is learning his job via OJT.

Wonderful.

Re:Just what I want....

[rsax]

Hmm, I wasn't able to figure out that latency problem the last time I was down at your place, what's this OJT thing? Sounds like it could help.

Let them eat cake.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I've posted part two of the article series encouraging the unemployed to take up freelance begging, including advice on knowing how to pick a light touch out of a crowd at first glance, crafty excuses for why you need a dollar, being threatening without getting arrested for assault, managing your territory, the temperament required, and the negative aspects of the work." See part one if you missed it.
No really, this kind of "help yourself" crap pisses me off. If the capitalist state requires unemployment then the fucking unemployed should be supported by the capitalist state.

Re:Let them eat cake.

[Anonymous Coward]

pls mv 2 sweden

(R die)

k thx

I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[Malc]

... you insensitive clod!

Seriously though, I am so glad I no longer have to worry about health coverage. I moved to Canada a few years ago, and it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I'm happy to pay for it via my taxes. I think we get good value for money. I don't have to worry about not being given the best insurance deal because I'm an individual and not a huge corporation looking to cover thousands of people. I also know I won't see any of the doctors bills if I get hurt reminding me that I'm ultimately responsible even though my insurer has also received a copy. I don't have to worry about my or my family's health should I unexpectedly lose my job/contract.

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[kmak]

Ya, it's actually something I've considered doing for years, moving to Canada.. and people don't know/hate Canadians except for Americans anyhow..

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it's so soothing to know that Big Nanny will take care of you from cradle to grave. Now close your eyes and relax, little sheep...

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[mousse-man]

We have a somewhat socialized medecine in Switzerland as well, but I always opt for the highest franchise since I never become ill. Saves me 1500 CHF a year, and the last time I had to pay something was when I needed some eyedrops.

The problem with socialized medicine is that as long as nobody pays, everybody wants to use the service to the max, something which does not bode well with the idea. Basically, people should a small percentage of their income for trips to the doctors cabinet in addition to the fixed health insurance primes we have per person down here for basic insurance. Would solve a few problems.

To compare, just look in what mess the German health insurance system is.

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem with socialized medicine is that as long as nobody pays, everybody wants to use the service to the max, something which does not bode well with the idea... To compare, just look in what mess the German health insurance system is.

Well, how about comparing to the US system. We pay a higher percentage of GDP for healthcare (and our GDP/person is higher) than (almost?) anyone yet our health, on average, is not demonstrably better (indeed it's worse in many categories). We're not getting value for the money we put in. A huge amount (10-20%?) of this extra money we pay is for extra paperwork.

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, well, at least in canada the leader of our country was actually elected by the people, not via dirty electoral tricks.

And he was never almost killed by a pretzel.

And he never did cocaine, or got a DUI.

And he never stuffed his pants with a sweat sock before stepping out of a fighter jet in front of a big "we won" sign during a war which was never won, and which he lied to the people of his own country and to the world to start.

Did I miss anything?

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[Prof.Phreak]

A huge amount (10-20%?) of this extra money we pay is for extra paperwork.

I'd guess a bit more. We're paying for the existance of the insurance company, that has to make profits, etc. We're paying for EVERY person they employ. We're paying for everyone who screws with them, and for every lawyer they ever hire.

Yes, the system can be simplified, and automated, but who'd wanna do that? Insurance companies make enough as they do now (no point to streamline), and everyone involved with medicine makes a killing compared with other professions (while $100k is on the 'high end' for developers, $300k and up is on the 'low' end for most doctors [most docs I've worked for were making a few grand per day!]).

Nobody cares to change the system because everyone who's involved in it makes a ton. (excluding low level nurses, secretaries, staff, and of course patients)

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[Dun Malg]

I no longer have to worry about health coverage. I moved to Canada a few years ago, and it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I'm happy to pay for it via my taxes. I think we get good value for money.

Yeah, right. So long as you don't get anything like cancer requiring chemotherapy, or need coronary bypass surgery, it's a great value. The part where you have to wait 3-6 months for major procedures really bites. In the US you can get that stuff done next day.

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[akuma(x86)]

You live in a social democratic country. There's a big diffrence :)

I went the other way...I moved from Canada to the US.

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[danheskett]

Its not a joke at all.. you are 100% right. I have two relatives who died waiting for procedures that in the US would not have been a big deal.

One had kidney problems and needed to have some "plumbing" cleaned up. There were something like 4 people in all of Canada who could do the surgery, and 1 decided to stop practicing cause of the trouble. The remaining three were booked for a long time. Basically, they had lots of stop-gap things to do - drugs, therapy, etc etc but the surgery was scheduled 8 months out.

Another relative had an accident in the car and was hurt. The delay in emergency surgery combined with some bad judgement pretty much ended that situation with little chance for survival.

Yeah, it could probably happen in the US, but there are far more hospitals, far more choices in the US.

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[Anonymous Coward]

Having been a patient in the Canadian health care system all I have to say to "Dun" is until you've walked the walk, stop the talk, because you're full of it!

Cases in point.

Pacemaker, I was diagnosed as a needing one ASAP (20 beats per minute in my sleep, ouch). From the time the requirement was indentified to installation, 4 days! Cost $0.00

Colon Cancer (my dad), colostamy, chemo, etc. within days of being diagnosed. Cost $0.00

Sure the waits are long in some cases (like for transplants, we need more donors), but for CRITICAL care patients the waits aren't that long.

Also, Health care is a PROVINCIAL (for the US readers, it's like a state), responsibility funded by the Federal government. Health care quality does vary across the country, it isn't uniform by any stretch of the imagination.

We have an OK system, it's not the best (in some areas it's excellent), but you can't complain about the price!

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[jafuser]

But it's so cold up there.

Can't California split off and join Canada? =)

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting how far apart danheskett's and anonymous coward's experiences are. I wonder why.

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[chrisbtoo]

Perhaps they live in different areas, between which, as Anonymous Coward suggested, the quality of care differs.

Re:I live in a SOCIALIST country...

[Dun Malg]

Having been a patient in the Canadian health care system all I have to say to "Dun" is until you've walked the walk, stop the talk, because you're full of it!

Your experiences and those of your immediate family amount to nothing more than anecdotal evidence. Try getting radiation therapy in Montreal. Three months wait. Find a lump and need a biopsy? Likewise, about 3 months. Like you say, "Health care quality does vary across the country, it isn't uniform by any stretch of the imagination." You are fortunate enough to live in a better area. Too bad for those poor saps in Quebec, though, right? At least it's free! Fool.

Self-employment guidelines...

[bytesmythe]

A few of these caught my eye...

-- I almost always solve my own computer problems on my own, or as the result of my own research.

Sure. Google is an amazing resource.

-- My friends, coworkers and family often turn to me for help with their computers and peripherals.

... and I am in no hurry to exacerbate the situation by subjecting myself to it intentionally.

-- My own computer probably would work very well if I didn't keep installing alpha, beta, development and trial software on it all the time.

I love fdisk.

-- I can usually quickly find what I'm looking for on the Internet.

Oh god... no comment.

-- I read constantly, and just about everything.

Right now it's Slashdot.

-- I rarely have a problem explaining myself.

Well, you see, officer...

-- I am somewhat sociable, but I can work for long periods on my own, too.

Sociable? ME?? Hahahaha!

-- Although I hate the term "self-starter," that's what I am.

No, I'm not! Procrastination is the root of all goofing off.

-- I believe all computer peripherals and devices are hot-swappable unless someone else is around.

What, is this Schrodinger's Computer? Once, I closed my eyes and with no one else watching, I jammed an old PCI Voodoo card into the AGP slot with the machine still running. The damn thing worked until I opened my eyes and its wave function collapsed...

-- I only keep my AOL account so I can more easily get my email from any web browser anywhere.

What geek would pay money to AOL when it's cheaper to just sign up with a host that provides webmail?

-- I get a lot of spam, but I block or filter most of it, so it's not an issue for me anymore.

I don't give out my email address to everyone and their grandmother, so spam isn't a big problem to begin with.

-- Unix is like a lover to me: I don't understand it very well, and it makes me angry sometimes, but I am still in love with it.

This one is just too sad. Sure, unix has some kinky command names, but nothing like actually engaging in their real-life namesakes.

-- I have some computer books on the shelf, but I only use them as references, not as literature.

This should be just the opposite, I think. I bet a lot of computer geeks read computer literature, not just "manuals".

-- I see nothing wrong with strapping a wireless PDA with GPS to the dog so that we can log his roaming patterns through the neighborhood.

The gadgetry (and possibly the dog) would get stolen in my neighborhood!

So, do I qualify to be an entrepreneur?

Re:Self-employment guidelines...

[moitz]

-- I have never impersonated someone of the opposite sex in an AOL forum.

Damn! Looks like I need to quit my job now!

-moitz-

Re:Self-employment guidelines...

[MobileC]

"-- Unix is like a lover to me: I don't understand it very well, and it makes me angry sometimes, but I am still in love with it.

This one is just too sad. Sure, unix has some kinky command names, but nothing like actually engaging in their real-life namesakes."

Mutt?

Re:Self-employment guidelines...

[MoNickels]

So, do I qualify to be an entrepreneur?

Sadly, no. Not funny. F-minus.

Re:Self-employment guidelines...

[bytesmythe]

"-- Unix is like a lover to me: I don't understand it very well, and it makes me angry sometimes, but I am still in love with it.

This one is just too sad. Sure, unix has some kinky command names, but nothing like actually engaging in their real-life namesakes."

Mutt?

You're the one who apparently thinks it's kinky... ;)

Re:Self-employment guidelines...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wish I had mod points so I could mod your post down while the post you claim as being not funny sits there with a +5. :)

Professionalism

[jeddak]

Lots of good advice in these articles. Some questionable advice. I agree with the notion that you don't want to act like a pretentious "I'm-a-big-corporation" poser.

However, some degree of professionalism is in order. If I called in need of tech support and got an outgoing message from "Monkey Boy," (one of the author's helpful examples) I think I'd hang up and call some friends for another recommendation.

Re:Professionalism

[NotClever]

The way I read it he was just using 'Monkey Boy' as a placeholder for your real name. A bit of humor in a write up like that isn't a bad thing.

Upsell

[Animats]

Every one of those questions is a sales opportunity:

• Why didn't Corel wordperfect come with a pen?
  Would you like to buy this tablet computer, on sale this week?
• -Where do I buy ink if the typewriter runs out of ink?
  We're having a sale on inkjet cartridges...
• -If I press delete does that delete everything?
  To delete everything so that nobody can ever read it again, you need this special program.
• -I heard it comes with a dictionary. Can I upgrade to an encyclopedia set?
  Of course. Just click here to order Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• -Does this program open on sundays and saturdays?
  Yes, but if you don't want it to, we can put in a timer that shuts it down on weekends.

Re:Upsell

[geekoid]

Now we know the Animats is a frys employee...GET HIM! ;)

Frys, the coolest looking stores, with the orste help.

Going to Frys is like dating a good looking dumb woman. Sure, you want to get in, but you sure as hell don't want to talk.

My "tech support" story

[YllabianBitPipe]

Way back when I was in college I was doing some desktop publishing for a company and this older manager guy wanted me to show him how to use the computer ... he was so computer illiterate he could hardly use the mouse to "click and drag".

I remember trying to get him to select a certain menu item, and he was like, "Where is it?" I said, "Right here ... " and pointed at the monitor, practically touching it to make sure he knew exactly where it was. He said, "Oh, I get it!" and started touching the screen with his finger. It then dawned on me, he thought the monitor was a touch-sensitive one, I guess like on an ATM.

Groan.

Re:My "tech support" story

[boy_afraid]

He said, "Oh, I get it!" and started touching the screen with his finger. It then dawned on me, he thought the monitor was a touch-sensitive one, I guess like on an ATM.

Did you just die right there and start laughing? I know it was hard, very hard, but I'm sure you had to correct him with a straight face. I've been there, done that. I think that's the time to get out the coloring books and start from the basics.

Obligatory Simpsons Quote

[Nova Express]

Kang: Technical Self-Employment for all!

Crowd: BOOOO!

Kang: Technical Self-Employment for none!

Crowd: BOOOO!

Kang: Alright then, Technical Self-Employment For some, tiny American flags for all!

Crowd: YAAAAAAAAA!

Re:If you are unemployed...Name game.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do charity work. Design their site. Write some software for them. Use your imagination. Try the same for others, individuals and small companies, with the cavet: "Can I use you as a reference?", instead of being payed.

The only way you're going to make a name for yourself is by making the effort, however small that may be.

I don't want my mom or my dad,

[anomaly]

just the bunny

The US is Mexico

[DigiShaman]

A lot of programmers are going to naturally fall back on that as their jobs move overseas, and it will quickly become saturated. You know, with CEOs and top executives raking in the millions and every other employee bearly staying alive on their wage. Well, the middle class of America is going away. The county has is in deep shit. I'm not sure what's going to happen in the future. But one damn thing is for sure, it's not going ot be good. Hell, with the the way the government is involved. The barriers to entry in starting your own business is next to impossible without having a shitload of lawyers and accountants managing taxes. In a nutshell, can we say our government is communistic lead by a few elite in a fascist manor. Damnit all to hell!

Re:The US is Mexico

[ErikZ]

Dude, you've been saying that since the 1940s!

He's going about it the wrong way

[pongo000]

I work from 50 to 70 hours a week.

This isn't anything to brag about, nor is it something to write articles about.

Nobody becomes financially self-sufficient by trading their time for a monetary equivalent. Who wants to work 50-70 hours workweeks? The proper way to do it is to spend a little money up front starting your own corporation, then hire someone else to do the work for you, such as the author of this article. Use the time you save by hiring someone else to do stuff meaningful to you. After all, no one wants "Worked 70-hour workweeks" on their tombstone when they die.

Re:He's going about it the wrong way

[Anonymous Coward]

I work 50-70 hours a week... 6-9 months a year.

Ah the joy of being fiscally "responsible".

Re:He's going about it the wrong way

[MoNickels]

Well, I'm not bragging about working 50 to 70 hours a week. I'm just pointing out that those are the hours it takes.

Realize, of course, that about a third of that time is spent in transit (which I count as working, since I am clearly not playing) or at home writing proposals, writing reports, putting together and sending bills, answering non-emergency email, making notes for my own use, reading the tech sites and discussion forums, and keeping my updaters/patches/service packs up to date.

Which is what I should be doing now...

Re:He's going about it the wrong way

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Nobody becomes financially self-sufficient by trading their time for a monetary equivalent

That's odd. Lawyers seem to manage just fine.

Re:He's going about it the wrong way

[rsax]

That's odd. Lawyers seem to manage just fine.

Lawyers also charge a hell of a lot more than someone doing freelance technical support.

Re:He's going about it the wrong way

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Lawyers also charge a hell of a lot more than someone doing freelance technical support

Yes, but that's beside the point. He said it couldn't be done; not that it could be done, but you'd have to charge an arm and a leg.

Re:If you are unemployed...

[asr_man]

He's in good company. That's how John D. Rockefeller got started. Well almost -- he did get paid at the end of the 3 months but he had no clue what his pay, if any, would be.

Dang...

[Dan667]

I was going to comment only about his one, but it is hard to beat a comment when someone has created a scientific theory in their answer.

-- I believe all computer peripherals and devices are hot-swappable unless someone else is around.

What, is this Schrodinger's Computer? Once, I closed my eyes and with no one else watching, I jammed an old PCI Voodoo card into the AGP slot with the machine still running. The damn thing worked until I opened my eyes and its wave function collapsed...

ObJameson

[sharkey]

No job, freelance! Best thing for a tech your age. If you can fix my PC again, I'll pay you, but I never said you had a job. Meat! I'll send you a nice box of Christmas meat!

Re:ObJameson

[Anonymous Coward]

... best I can do.

how I view my career

[Anonymous Coward]

Only 2 years into it, but I think I am going to work at my steady yet relatively boring job and do other more interesting stuff (like this jackass) on the side.

What tech-support forums do you read?

[zarthrag]

I've often had to research a problem in order to avoid wiping an installation of windows and starting over, but often, I do it anyway. It never dawned upon me that tech support forums archive this kind of stuff. But then again, I don't know of any, which do you read?

remote tech support via ssh / vnc

[hopeless case]

That was a very interesting pair of articles.

I have often wondered about doing this sort of technical support remotely, by having a linux box on the inside that I could ssh/vpn into and thus diagnose/troubleshoot. Windows and Mac machines could have WinVNC (or the equivalent Mac program) installed and left running so that after connecting to the linux box, you could run vncviewer to connect to them.

I use just this setup to be able to connect to my windows machine at home when I am at work and it works like a charm.

You'd think more tech support would be done this way, but I never hear of it (although I am not well connected in the field, so perhaps it is done sometimes).

sounds like a flirt to me...

[syukton]

The client I mentioned earlier who is very sweet but not very bright was one of those clients who refused to learn, and a client I had to let go. She's very young, too, in her early twenties. I believe she was perfectly capable of learning what she needed to know, with a little bit of effort, but she constantly called on the same issues. And I constantly had to recite the same solutions over and over. She refused to be educated (see below for more about client- and self-education). She's one of those people who are used to relying too much on others, and are happy with being told there are no stupid questions.

Hmm. Sweet young lady calling every day about the same stupid issues. hmmmm. I'd like to venture a guess here that maybe she's turned on by your intellect and wanted to screw you eight ways from tuesday. Now that, my friend, is the kind of client you pass on to another reasonably intelligent tech, unless you're willing to take it yourself. ;)

non-for-profit companies as starters.

[KKBaSS]

Snag a local non-profit & help them, get them going with all the latest
slickest stuff from novell and what opensource has to offer as a show of what you can do.
http://www.giftsinkind.org/ has a great Novell product donation policy, &
http://www.techsoup.org/ has some other good stuff too (i want that 24port
cisco switch, can i be a nonprofit too? :))

Also check out www.computerclub.org/nonprofit.htm, that has some good links
on it also, & had good luck with members of www.cristina.org too like reboot
from Atlanta.

Plunk a couple of these very satisfied not-for-profit companies up as testimonials to your work & you may very well be off & running with your own consulting biz. Just dont forget about the nonprofits once you actually have paying clients.

This is NOT a troll, but

[jxliv7]

I can see that the typical slashdotter has more interest in making a possibly snide/cute/humorous/clever remark about Grant's lessons in the IT business than putting it to use. How sad.

From personal experience, however, it works. You may have to fine tune the techniques from city to city, but his common sense approach works consistently.

If I wasn't medically retired, I'd be thinking about starting up another business after reading his absolutely fantastic article.

Re:This is NOT a troll, but

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I can see that the typical slashdotter has more interest in making a possibly snide/cute/humorous/clever remark about Grant's lessons in the IT business than putting it to use. How sad.

But not surprising. I'm sometimes amazed by the level of venom unleashed against non-technical people here. There are quite a few /.ers who use their technical skills to "validate" their supposed superiority. An article that focuses on the human, rather than the technical, aspects of being in business for oneself gives them a lot of ammunition.
I for one love these types of articles. It's interesting to see a different perspective and observe how people turn knowledge of technology into money. Then again, I subscribe to misc.entrepreneurs.moderated :-)

Re:This is NOT a troll, but

[purplette]

Certainly, both of these articles were timely for me, since I was looking to earn enough money to finance my hobbies, but by doing something that I enjoyed. I'm already volunteering teaching "How to use the computer" at one organization and revamping another's webpage. Why not leverage that into a part-time job?

These articles point the way. A little bit of tweaking for my target market and I'll be off. (With no competition from the whiners who don't want to part with their knowledge.) And a very slow, word of mouth build up, since I am lucky enough to not have a mortgage.

Everyone's circumstances differ, but sometimes being satisfied with enough makes life very much simpler. There must be some /.ers out there who have actual lives, right?

Liz

Prove it to me, then...

[scrawny]

why can't I print?

Re:Prove it to me, then...

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't print?

I knew you couldn't sign your name. Is making an "X" as a signature too taxing for you as well?

Corny title, awful cover...

[pmorrison]

but 'From Serf to Surfer: Becoming a Network Consultant' by Matthew Strebe gives the same sort of advice on the same topic in great depth. Highly recommended if you want more information. Also recommended 'The Secrets of Consulting' by Gerald Weinberg, great for understanding pricing and the value of your time among many other things.

I was self-employeed for 1.5 years after the internet consultancy I worked for folded... I made as much money and had more free time (some of it spent biting my nails about when the next gig would start). In my experience the advice in the articles and these books is pretty solid.

Re:If you are unemployed...

[geekoid]

simple, get documented history of work, which is what we are really talking about here.

Go down to a local community center, teach.

Start your own business. Work under the business name.

Have your wife(whomever) start a business, then 'hire you'.

Find a non-profit group that teaches whatever it is you want to do, then do it for them.

I understand what your talking about, and have been there. However, if someone had given me this painfully obvious advice years ago, I would have started out much better.

most of the people who regularly read slashdot

[Hubert_Shrump]

...the scientists, engineers and people who like to solve problems and learn technical things...

I hate to tell you this...

Billing and Financial Stuff

[WickywiK]

After reading through both articles, I'm still not quite clear on how much to bill clients. He mentions that you shouldn't bill home users by the hour but instead by the visit. So how much? I know it's all relative depending on where it is you live. How long should a normal visit typically last? For small business, how do you come up with a fair price? I'm thinking that looking at what a competing business charges for repair (bestbuy) might be a good starting point. Does this sound reasonable? What should one do about fees for home users versus small businesses? Ideally you would want to be able to account for both of them come tax time. Are their liability issues (besides tax stuff) that you would want to be aware of if you kept the home user "off the books?" What type of software would work best for billing? I'd like something that I could use on my Palm that could sync up with "the office" back at home. Are there any good templates out there for billing statements? I think overall his articles are very informative and have some important steps for getting started.

Re:Billing and Financial Stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been doing this since Feb 2000. Prior to that I was a network engineer for 15 years. I have a couple of steady customers where I sysadmin their network and tech support their workstations, rather than a bunch of "one night stands". The trick is to find the right fit with clients, not too big, not too small. I bill a straight $120 hour for most work. I carry a calendar (paper) to keep track of time and what I do daily. My wife keeps the books in Quickbooks on her workstation (W2K) for the accountant. A wife with benefits is one of the secrets. I enter the clock time on my workstation, into OpenOffice (Linux) spreadsheets to convert to hours and minutes then batch enter into Quickbooks invoices once a month. Bill for all your actual time! I do quite a bit remotely with ssh and rdesktop (depending on wheither it is nix or w2k). I try to bill 50 to 75 hours a month, which is a comfortable living for me.

Re:Billing and Financial Stuff

[MrDemeanour]

After reading through both articles, I'm still not quite clear on how much to bill clients.

Just make sure you don't pitch too low (as Grant Barrett mentioned).

I've been in full-time employment for 7-8 years now, so I don't know what the street-rate for a general-purpose freelance geek is. But you can work out what your personal minimum is, based on how much you need to earn, how much billable work you are expecting to pull in, and how the expenses are likely to pan out.

Then (and again, as the author pointed out), if you find yourself turning away work, raise your fees.

Oh, I thought the article was excellent. I know techs who behave as if their know-how was something to conserve rather than to share; they always make me suspicious that they don't actually have very much of it.

And I liked the advice about fixed-fee and minimum-fee billing arrangements - one of the things that used to stress me out when I was freelance, was the fact that diagnose-and-fix jobs are open-ended; after the first few hours, I began to worry that the client was beginning to worry about the cost. And worrying about that would put me off my stroke.

Oh, sure, everybody come on in

[Anonymous Coward]

And add to an existing glut of people with freshly printed six week training certificates.

Here is a quiz: Are you ready and eager to...

undercut prices and condition the client to perpetual discounting, so that computing never again pays enough for ANYONE to make a living?

cause amounts of chaos and then disappear, causing clients to think that all computer people are scamsters who don't finish jobs and then disappear?

If so, then please refrain from going into the business. These are the factors that have driven some people out, after investing considerable amounts of money and heart into making a go of it only to find ones self competing and losing to some who will do anything for a little money.

Re:If you are unemployed...

[Anonymous Coward]

I was in that situation....decided that working for a corn seed research company in 100 degree weather while supervising 15-30 14-17 year olds wasn't a real cool gig. Most companies didn't trust the offer...one did. 3 months later the web designer flaked out (technically much better than I but couldn't show up to work) and I had a full time job. And yes...I just did admit to being a web designer on Slashdot. I would say that I do know a thing or two technically, but now no one will believe me...so just ignore this post. Sig? What's a Sig?

non-for-profit companies as starters.-sage advice

[Anonymous Coward]

You're welcome :)

You've got it all wrong!

[camusflage]

I've always had more success with dressing as a Vulcan. For the cognoscienti (ie, those that don't call security and have you removed from the building), having them believe you to be completely logical and unemotional engenders a certain trust that something like a Ferengi (I tried this once -- don't repeat my mistake) simply cannot.

Freelance tech support

[Jondo]

I work as technical support for Comcast (www.comcast.net) and we get quite a few calls (especially from Texas) from people who claim to be freelance tech support, and are helping customers to "fix their computer". The truth of the matter is, these guys generally know absolutely dick all about anything, and its no better than walking the customer through the same troubleshooting. The manage to get by by pretending to know something, and then just calling tech support. Its really sad. They must enjoy the money though.. all those ritch Texans. ;-)

Re:If you are unemployed...

[zcat_NZ]

Try "Apu Nahasapeemapetilon"

This isn't a troll

[Anonymous Coward]

Points 1, 3, 4, 5 are dead on. He's not trolling.

Re:Glamour-"Chef" Boyardee.

[Anonymous Coward]

"If only that was all the mattered to getting a job... I'm a currently unemployed recent Computer Science graduate. Anyone got a job? I've got a really low slashdot id, that means i'm l33t right? Anyone? Anyone?"

Yes, yes, but can you cook?

I started doing this 3 years ago....

[Anonymous Coward]

About 3 years ago people stopped asking me
questions about their computers that I didn't really
know the answer to offhand.... So I started charging.

I live in a small town.... Consequently I am unable to charge what I could in the next big city.
Fortunately I don't mind charging less to avoid having
to work in the city (shudder)

Repair work for Home users:

Everyone under 65 years old. $60/hr with a One hour minimum.
Everyone over 65 years old. $40/hr with a One hour minimum

Tutorial rates:

Everyone under 65 $20/hr
Over 65 $10/hr

Thinking on it.. I should probably charge more for tutorial... yet I don't do enough for it to become a hassle yet.

As for businesses... I only do a few and they are on a per-visit basis as of yet.
I generally don't charge them the minimum, just tally and add up at the end of the month.

I do excellent work..... have for years....
I don't lie or sell them things they don't need.
I try to talk them out of stuff they want (but don't need) and get them the stuff they need for the best rates.

When everyone is smiling.. you know the job is done :)

Heh. What if I...

[edunbar93]

From the article:

-- Unix is like a lover to me: I don't understand it very well, and it makes me angry sometimes, but I am still in love with it.

So, um, what if I can make it sit up and do tricks? What if I know it so well that I know every nook and cranny, every lovely curve, all the sweet spots, and every way to make it respond to my slightest whim and desire?

Does this make me a pervert? Am I normal? Do I need help?

Self employment & solution management

[b0j3]

Do you log any solutions to new problems ?

Growing instead of turning down jobs?

[daybyter]

That was the one point, I really didn't understand. Why not get some help? Try to find a partner? Hire someone? Sounds like you turned down a good chance. Other than that: great article! Ciao, Andreas

Not 3 years

[fendel]

Not exactly... from the site you linked to:

• Up to 18 months for covered employees, as well as their spouses and their dependents, when workers otherwise would lose coverage because of a termination or reduction of hours.
  
• Up to 29 months is available to employees who are determined to have been disabled at any time during the first 60 days of COBRA coverage and applies as well to the disabled employee's nondisabled qualified beneficiaries.
  
• Up to 36 months for spouses and dependents facing a loss of employer-provided coverage due to an employee's death, a divorce or legal separation, or certain other "qualifying events".

I wish it were 3 years for people who were fired/laid off/etc. I have a good friend who's approaching the end of her 18-month COBRA coverage, and she has a chronic medical condition that would make individual coverage prohibitively expensive. If she goes without coverage for about two months, then pre-existing condition clauses may apply in future group coverage for her. It's a nightmare. She will have to take absolutely any job she can get that has medical benefits, or face life-threatening illness because she couldn't afford her meds.

Funniest line...

[boy_afraid]

In the spring I met another fellow at another party. He, too, specializes in small business technical support. We talked geek for a while and sniffed tech tails to suss out the other's geek level. He thought he had me with his MCSE, but I trumped him with my low Slashdot ID.

HAHAHAHA!!! I do the VERY same thing!

Re:Funniest line...

[FreeForm Response]

234,774 is low?

Re:Funniest line...

[boy_afraid]

No, 234,774 is not not low, but you find each other's skill/tech level. It's like playing chicken and when someone flinches first the other person has won.

Re:Only one answer...

[cayenne8]

I've looked into it...single male 35-45 age range, is only about $3K annually for health ins. Dental is a bit extra...not bad.

And if you are incorporated...in many cases you can write a lot of this off on taxes.