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

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: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..