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Is Finding Part Time Work In IT Unrealistic?
I like my current job writes "Having worked full-time in IT for the past 12 years, I would really like to work less and focus on other goals and priorities in my life. I asked my current employer and was shot down. It seems like everyone I know in IT works full-time except for entry-level help desk staff. Striking out on my own seems to be the only way to control the ball and chain around my ankle. However, my experience with independent consulting is a 'feast or famine' situation, with work coming all at once, thus making part-time impossible, or the other extreme (which is even more likely). Is part-time work a pipe dream in IT? Maybe a career in toilet cleaning is calling me."
One reason corporations don't like part-time is that as long as you are full-time, you actually tend to work way past 40 hours a week. You do whatever it takes to get the job done, under impossible deadlines.
Once you are part-time, you start saying no to crazy demands. Corporations just hate that.
My answer? Be your own boss. It comes with a caveat: starting your own business alone is a bad idea. Guess what? It takes more than one person to provide something of value. It doesn't take an army of hundreds, but a small dedicated group of friends can do amazing things. The sum really is larger than the parts.
Take a look at fairsoftware.net. It was designed for exactly that purpose: geeks starting a side business together.
Schedule an appointment with your boss, then walk into his office(shutting the door behind you) and grab his tie. Yank it down so hard that it chokes him and his head slams into his desk and say with your other fist clenched,
"You punk motherfucker - I'm going to come in at 7am and leave at 11am and you're going to pay me my regular fucking salary as if we didn't have this little discussion, capiche?"
If he says anything other than "yes" then grab his stapler and pistol-whip him with it. Go back to work while keeping a loaded pistol in your desk so that you can point it at your boss whenever he walks by your cubicle. Leave early so that you can break into his home and hang his pets from his ceiling fan, but take one of the pets, behead it, and place its head on your boss' bed. Then write, "I see you" above his bed using his favorite pet's blood.
If the plan outlined above dosen't work, you just might have to play hardball.
If you are involved in the development of software then you will be on the treadmill. The only way out is to either strike out on your own or to give up on the industry altogether.
Personally, I wouldn't do it. But I can see how leaving the industry completely is attractive for some. Just be prepared for the paycut.
But then again, money isn't everything, and if you can improve your quality of life, even with a paycut, then more power to you.
Depending on your definition of part-time, but many companies in The Netherlands will allow for a 32 hours week (4 days).
As far as I know is hat not uncommon in Sweden either.
As a contractor I have the option to work less. I can voluntarily choose to cut my hours to 6 hours a day (or alternatively 4 days a week) if work is slow & I have nothing to do. That saves the company's money and gives me more time to enjoy life.
The drawback is that when crunch time comes, then you're expected to put in the overtime.
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
Outside of IT, how often do you find people working higher level jobs part-time? It seems to me that part-time jobs are almost ways lower level, lower responsibility positions. You'd probably have better luck finding something with some sort of flex time or telecommuting. By altering your schedule that way, you can save quite a few hours.
My department has two or three part time workers. One of them is a part-time, remote worker.
They don't play in-depth technical roles. One is a project manager. She manages a single project that would, with full time people, be one of two or three projects that full time person was managing.
Another does do support, both helping with features and interacting with users about future features they would like to see on the reporting system in question.
I can't remember what the third one does but I'm pretty sure they exist.
I'm a development team lead, and wouldn't have a problem with a part-time developer, so long as they were largely self-managed - if I can give them a vague description of something and get a design and time estimate and then get the work done when they estimated, that would be fine.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
I did it for about 6 months. I went from 40 hour weeks to 20 hour weeks comprised of 2 10-hour days. After a few months the situation became untenable and I chose to quit and move on.
The problem was the manager couldn't sequence the work where I could perform it on the days I was there. I wasn't just asking myself to rise to the challenge, I was asking him to do so too. He couldn't. So he placed another employee to deal with issues that came up while I was out of the office. The other guy was what I like to refer to as a brilliant idiot. That's not just sour grapes; a few months after I left he escaped just ahead of the axe. In the months I was there he took it upon himself to unilaterally reconfigure systems on the days I wasn't scheduled to work.
Faced with the conflict, the boss made the decision to go with the guy who was in the office. Not the wisest of choices as it turned out, but completely understandable.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
...that doesn't need full-time IT. The company I work for only has forty employees and we have a part-time admin who comes in two days a week. The only drawback is that he's on call 24/7. Just remember that remote access is your friend.
If your reasons for wanting to work part time are that you're lazy and you don't like being told what to do, good luck! You'll need it. I successfully ran my own independent software business for a couple of years, with a combination of internet sales of my own product, and part-time contracting for a couple of companies. I could set my own hours of work, but that didn't mean that I worked any less - just that I had to rely on personal motivation and sense of responsibility to get the work done. And if you think "being your own boss" means that you can do things your way, think again. It means that you have to learn to put ego aside and do what your customers want.
You could go into consulting, and only spend 1/3 of the money you earn and put the rest into reserve for between gigs, and then work parttime by doing 55hr/week some of the time and 0hr/week most of the time.
Logically conceviable, but would require trememdous dicipline financially and some luck in finding gigs.
or
You could develop your own software as part of an independent entity, and then set a schedule and stick to it.
I've seen a few donationware projects outthere that seem to run that way, but you would have to have the tremendous luck of being able to make something useful with parttime work.
Logically conceviable, heck people do this, but the odds of looking for it and getting it? More people win the lottery.
or
If you live in a city, really all you need to do is find a job 5 minutes from your home and take a couple hours out of your day that way. It will feel like parttime compared to what you are doing now, and still probably have benifits.
OR
Find a job you love, and you won't mind working fulltime. Even if you think you don't have a social consciousness, try working for a company that does (like a B-corp or a charity). You won't feel like you are wasting your limited and precious time on earth so much if you spend your days making this place better.
Okay, follow me here - FLSA (Federal Labor Standards Act) exempts computer professionals from getting time for working more than 40 hours per week. However, this federal law does not trump any state law. For example, Pennsylvania law specifically requires employers to pay time and a half for hourly paid computer professionals working over 40 hours per week. Now, this can at least keep your hours reasonable in an IT worker friendly state like Pennsylvania. More important, if your employer refuses to pay that overtime, the state will come after them, since the state gets taxes on that overtime.
It's not completely unrealistic.
(( tl;dr - Find a one-man show who needs help with current workload and is willing to contract out. ))
Let me tell you my quick story: I've been in IT most of my professional life, having made a lateral move from printing (prepress) into working for a hard/software developer in the field. A few years later, after running my own show for about five years, I worked for a helpdesk.
I didn't like working at this helpdesk, but I kept chalking up my displeasure to personal concerns. In the end, I was trying to fit into a management role and I hated management. My anxiety and depression (as I am inclined to) kept building to a point where I literally walked out one day with a serious bent toward harming myself.
Despite my situation, I needed work. I set out to find work in which I could set my own schedule. Now, I _hoped_ for part-time work, but was willing to do full-time if that's all that was available.
The first thing I did is leverage _all_ my contacts. I interviewed with companies with which I already had worked with or employed people I knew. When they asked me about availability, I told them "I would prefer part time, but we can talk about full time."
One contact was a guy who was in the same situation I was during my business' run. I had loads of work, but didn't know how hire or manage people. I never really solved that issue, but he was committed to trying. I started working for him part-time. Today, I work 4 days a week at about 4-6 billable hours a day. The rate is generous.
Now, initially, the hours available were pretty low. (Considering my mental state, I was happy to have a lot of time out.) What's key, however, is that as I learned his customer base and their needs, the customers realized that my colleague's business was simply more available. So, the customers started making more requests and, now, the company has the ability to serve the requests. My hours increased and I can do more if I want.
So, like any other search, you have to network. You have to state what you want, but be willing to compromise. Be nice. Be humble. Be enthusiastic.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
Well, if you are really bold, you could take a full time job and just not show up sometimes. Sooner or later, you will get fired, but, if you can keep the balls up in the air you might be able to make it work for a year or two, and, you'll make a lot more money. Let's face it, there's plenty of people that simply do not do anything except show up, so, it might not be too hard to give output comparable them..
This is my sig.
Especially in small businesses, part time work can be deadly for productivity.
When you only have a handful of people, there is usually less enforcement of proper procedures and documentation, leading to situations where only a single person can help with certain issues fast - of course, other people would be able to figure it out too, but need more time to immerse them into the situation.
For example, i have a few customers with which i work every week. I keep the documentation up-to-date, but it doesn't change the fact that i know their infrastructure by heart and don't have to look up most of the stuff.
So when i take a day off, people have either to choice of investing 30-60-90 minutes of reading docs and familiarizing themselves with something, or calling me and getting an answer in 5 minutes.
Of course my coworkers respect my time off, but customers don't. This can lead to nasty situations, which is why i think part timing is a big problem.
Of course in big, faceless corporations, it matters less, as employee morale is basically nonexistant.
I suspect only working part time in IT would make it difficult to maintain a current skillset. I seem to learn something from just about every project I do - and I'd hate my job if I didn't. Only working part time gives you fewer opportunities to learn new things, stay current with what you already know, and keep up with the constant changes compared to a full-time co-worker. Unless you really focused on keeping up - which I find tougher to do without a specific (job related) task associated with it, you are going to fall behind over time, and you'll be lucky to get any job in IT.
The benefits are twofold.
Unionized workplaces usually have a lot of flexibility in terms of hours, part-time, mat/pat leave, benefits, leave of absence, etc. The only way to lose your job is to do something really stupid and indefensible, your employer can't just sack you, they have to prove their case.
Working at a non-profit means profit isn't the be all and end all, the focus is on service instead. There's a different mentality and work philosophy, people work at non-profits mostly because they're either useless at any other job or they really do believe in the cause.
Of course, this combo is guaranteed to keep your wages down...
As someone who did exactly what you are trying to do I can tell you that while the arrangement was ok for me, it wasn't that great for my employer. What happened was that I decided to quit my job as a developer because I was starting a business (not IT related) and wanted to devote more time to it. Since we were in the middle of a pretty major project, my boss tried to persuade me to stay and after a bit of wrangling we settled on a 3 day week, Mon to Wed.
The problem is, on most IT projects you don't work by yourself. And other people on the team are still there when you are not and face a choice of either calling you on your days off (in which case you might as well work full-time) or assigning your tasks to other people and working around the fact that you're not there (in which case your role will be increasingly marginalized to the point where you might as well not be there at all). It's not just a matter of scheduling. Unexpected things pop out all the time and since we were working on a deadline it was a major annoyance for people to postpone say a conference call where I was needed by 5 days (say Thursday to Monday) etc.
I guess it depends on the circumstances, but generally I would ask a question what's in it for the employer? If you are absolutely essential to them and there is no other way they can keep you then great, but in most cases they might as well hire a full time person instead.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
Um, no. The common usage of the phrase "pipe dream" most often was a reference to the crazy whims and idea a person would talk about after smoking opium. Freud doesn't matter to enough people to become vernacular.
Say bad words about my book, in cold oatmeal, or I shall sue!
I can recommend IBM (UK). Didn't do it myself, but I knew several people who did. Of course they switched to part time, they didn't join as part timers.
In the IT industry as I've known it, 'part time work' is anything less than 80 hours/week.
-- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
i too have worked in IT fulltime for 12 years, and i've always been in positions which required working above and beyond the standard 40 hour work week. in the beginning i used to envy my 40 hour co-workers, but then i started putting things into perspective:
+ i don't punch a timeclock.
+ although i am consistent in my arrival and departure time, my time is flexible enough that i can come and go as i please.
+ my lunch hour can be as short as 30 minutes, or as long as a couple of hours.
+ i'm often taken out to lunch by various vendors(existing and potential) to discuss new products, services, etc.
+ the company pays for my cell phone(i know it's a leash, but i'm also not limited in my usage).
+ i get equipment refreshes with a higher frequency then most users(save owners and other bigwigs).
+ i have more technology in my cube/office than several co-workers combined.
+ i can wear what i want.
+ i usually set my own agenda for my work week.
+ i'm often involved in interesting projects, many of the involving exploratory research regarding cost, deployment, etc, stuff that actually is challenging.
+ i'm a techno-god in the eyes of my co-workers.
+ i get a regular paycheck.
+ i have ability to authorize up to $5000 purchases per P.O.(no limit on number of P.O.s... how did that happen?...)
+ i get reimbursed on work related expenses.
+ i get paid vacations and official holidays.
+ i get to go home to my family and leave work behind from time-to-time.
of course on the downside:
- i get stuck holding the bag when technology misbehave.
- i have to work long hours from time to time.
- sometimes there just isn't someone to hand things off to, so i have to see things thru to the end.
- there often isn't anyone else to blame.
- i don't always get compensated for my time appropriately.
etc...
etc...
i can go on and on with the plusses and minusses, but the bottomline for me, i'm better off workin' for the man, and not for myself. you need to run a +/- list for yourself and see how it shakes out. work less? and you're thinking of going into business for yourself? pull your head out of your ass!
your gonna work harder and longer when you work for yourself, for a while(months, maybe even years)...
and you bring your work home with you...
and you can't take a day off 'cause your sick...
and you can't just up and quit cause your boss is an asshole...
why don't you ask for a different compensation schedule? or maybe a flex schedule? track how many hours you work(regular and overtime) and see if you qualify for overtime pay in your state/country. ask your employer to pay for your cell and home internet connection(so it's less money out of your pocket). start becoming creative about how you are compensated for your work, and maybe not just money...
sometimes i wish i was a bricklayer: only responsible for making sure that my shit is level, straight and plumb, and be able to leave all my work behind at the end of the day, but alas, that's not my lot. oh well, maybe the next reincarnation.
three can keep a secret, if two are dead - benjamin franklin
If you work three days a week - 60% of the time...
Your computer doesn't cost 60%.
Your software licenses aren't 60% either.
That desk you use didn't cost 60% as much.
The office space to put your desk in doesn't cost 60% as much.
The HR department doesn't only do 60% of the work for you.
Your health insurance doesn't only cover 60% of you - you either insure or don't insure a person.
And so on.
As a rule of thumb, most employees cost their companies 2-4 times the cost of their full time salary. Take a hypothetical $50,000/year salary. Cost to the company may well be around $200,000 a year. You take a pay cut to $30,000 in exchange for working 40% less, that $200,000 cost has just dropped to $180,000 or only 10% less. They're paying 10% less to get 40% less value out of you. Hardly a good deal. Admittedly, many costs do scale - 401k matching only matches what you pay, taxes are relative to salary, etc. Still, those that don't ensure the argument's not in your favor.
Worked in reverse, it makes it painfully obvious why companies like EA so famously loved forcing overtime, especially when they could get it unpaid, out of workers. Health insurance doesn't cost them any more for a 100 hour week than it does for a 40 hour week. Office space costs no more. Hardware and software costs no more. On purely mercenary terms, efficiencies come in with more hours, not less. You're asking them to do the opposite.
Can we please dispense with the euphemisms, seeing as how this is slashdot and all? "Rightsize" is just a word companies came up with to save a little face when they cut jobs.
"Company loyalty" is false, some are just better than others at hiding the fact that the company they work for doesn't define the person. You go to work to pay the bills, provide for your family, and maybe if you are in the right industry, to make the world a better place. Company loyalty only exists to the extent that a company allows you to do these things. And that's not loyalty in the true sense of the word.
blah blah blah
I once knew a lady who worked for Sun when she lived in Colorado, and wanted to move to Kansas to be near her family.
They said....cool, and even paid for her wISP connection for her, and bought her a computer for working on.
I think she said she traveled to the office once a quarter or something.
By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. -- George Carlin
As I've understood, working part time actually means doing the same amount of work as you'd do when working full time, except you'll have half the time to do it.
This is not the best economy in which to quit your full time job in search of contracting or part time work. Everyone who has been fired (and may not have a savings cushion) is looking for anything they can get, including part time and/or underbidding your contracting price. I know it is not the answer you're looking for (and many above have offered helpful suggestions) but I would seriously consider riding this recession out a little more and be happy you still have a job. At the very least, build up a *minimum* 6 month savings cushion before you quit, in case you can't find anything or end up hating the job you move to.
If your IT skill sets are in demand and you are good and knowledgeable with your skill sets, or you can pick up and master new skills without too much pain... and you have the capability to be personable and social and you can also get up in front of a small group and speak, then perhaps you might want to look into becoming a contract trainer.
I worked as a trainer in this fashion from '99 to '05 and it was a great experience. Generally it involves traveling to a client's site or training facility to do the work, but if you live in a big city, it will reduce the probability that you have to travel depending on the organization you do work with. The pay is pretty good... you can bring in between $400 to $1000 a day or more depending on various factors such as content complexity, demand, and class size. Most IT classes seem to run for about 3 to 5 days.
It is part time work in the sense that you train only when classes are available to be taught, and when you feel like teaching them. (Though turning down requests for training will move you to the bottom of the 'available trainers' list with most companies) So you could easily work 26 weeks during the year and realistically bring in a $75,000 salary. That gives you the other 26 weeks of the year to learn new skills and brush up on old ones, and to basically do whatever you want to with your free time.
On the downside, unless you are always learning the next new "hot" thing, it can be difficult to find work... Especially now that the economy sucks, as training budgets typically are the first to get slashed.
But if you find the right niche, you have partial control over the times and places you work. Also, you typically don't work during the weeks where there are holidays. And usually, a training day is exactly 8 hours, which includes a 1 hour lunch break and other smaller breaks in between. You typically won't work more than that unless the materials are new to you, where you have to spend an hour or two per night reviewing what's to come the next day.
As a bonus, if you can write your own materials, you can also make an additional income. Course materials sometimes go for anywhere from $10 to $75 per student per day.
Granted, training is not for everyone, and this is probably the worst time to consider starting off in the field... wait for the markets to go up... but it's an awesome part time gig!
There are tens of thousands of quality part time IT jobs in school districts. Companies, too, but those are harder to locate and less predictable. Many schools, both public and private, cannot afford a full-time person, but desperately need professional IT services. Also for smaller Cities, working directly for city gov't. (Look for a City where the city offices are in the same building as the police department.) These organizations don't know what to look for or how to interview. They will appreciate your experience. Walk in with a complete IT support plan for them, not just a resume.
I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
Visit every small office you can find near home, tell them that you are willing to come in every Monday (or tuesday, etc.) and serve as their dedicated IT person for that day or half day. Tell them you don't want to be 1099'd but instead want to be a part time employee, in exchange for a regular schedule and the reduction in risk that 1099 work entails, you would be willing to take a far lower wage than their current on call guy.
So your giving them the benifit of having an in house IT guy who's not going to over bill, no going to make unnecessary recommendations in hopes of profiting.
I did this for a couple of years while I was in school... it works great. Most small business owners network with other small business owners, and you will turn down more offers than you'd imagine. Pick one who has a good health package and agree to work in exchange for healthcare. All together, most of my employers were out less than 10K per year, far less than they spent when they called the "geek squad" or their $100/hr consultants.
Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
I went from working as an IT consultant to an in house DBA/head network administrator position. I took a pay cut, but I enjoy a better quality of life. Instead of driving all over southern California and flying across the country on a regular basis, I now take the train to work. Instead of working random schedules whenever I was needed and putting in a lot of overtime, I work 35 hours a week and some times even less. I spend the mornings and evenings training martial arts, and spend the weekends and Wednesday nights with my girlfriend.
Life isn't all roses though. I'm working for a non-profit that has been all over the papers (Los Angeles and New York Times) because of serious fiscal mismanagement on the part of the board of directors and senior staff. I could very well lose my job due to the mistakes of others.
What you really need to do is to take a long hard look at how hard you want to work, and what you want out of life. I decided that I could live without a Porsche and a nice big house. I simply wasn't willing to put in the hours it took to make the big bucks. Some people are driven by those rewards. I'm not. I value tranquility and simplicity. I don't deal well working with the ladder climbing, self centered prick types who seem to end up at the "top" of the material world. I'd rather have free time to meditate, and practice tai chi, and read, and cook, and do other things that don't have me sitting in front of a computer, or sitting in meetings and thinking about work all the time.
If your meta question is, "Can I make the big IT dollars and work part time?" I think the answer is a big NO. People make a lot of money with IT skills because, a lot of IT skills require a serious time commitment. Being successful in IT requires constantly upgrading your skills and staying abreast of the trends. In the two years I've been working where I'm working, I've missed the shift to virtualization. If I had stayed with my previous employer, I'd have VMware ESX skills right now. Since I didn't, I don't. I make ~$68k a year which is on the low side of what IT people make, and in southern California it isn't much at all. I'm happy though. I'm not going to starve any time soon.
He did when he was alive.
Anal Retentive, or just anal, is one example of his influence.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
My company hires a lot of part-time people for engineering. They are entry-level, and the savings in pay and benefits are marginal compared to the added costs of supporting part-time people. We do it because it helps us find quality people and poses little risk for us (not hard to terminate someone part-time).
For people more senior that only want to work part-time, we hire them as independent contractors. They all have day jobs and moonlight, and their pay is really just 10-20% above their day-job salary. Again, we gain benefits at minimal risks, making it worthwhile.
It works for us because the tasks they are doing are between 2-10 hours, and can be done in one or two sittings. It works for them because they already have benefits and the money is generally extra cash.
Part time employees don't take the place of full time employees. There are tasks that part-timers can't be expected or trusted to do. You get disappointed with performance periodically.
So, converting a full-time job to a part-time job is generally impossible, especially on a long-term basis. (I pulled it off for 8 months once though.) You aren't going to get 2x the hourly wage to cover billing, benefits, and overhead if you are working part time and picky about hours.
What does work is recognizing a deficiency and understanding how it can be solved part-time or in a geographically-agnostic way by someone with your particular experience.
I work as a "Software Consultant" (21 years so far) and 10 years ago I went from the standard 40 hour week to 30 hours when our second child was on the way (FWIW I am male: all the other part-timers at that time were female).
Just recently a friend also went down from 5 to 4 days a week.
IIRC the law here in Germany just changed such that the onus fell on the employer to show a reason why *not* to let you work part-time.
It took me two steps to make it happen.
Step one was to move to an industry where part time is the norm. In my case I moved into health care.
Then after getting settled and proving my worth I asked about part time.
I am now working 32 hours per week, Monday to Thursday.
Extra hours/overtime happen during my normal work days. If I have to work on my scheduled day off I take another day as comp time.
Good luck. YMMV.
> I have several friends who have tried this over the years, and know other people who have tried this. The bottom line is: friendships can fail under the strain of a business relationship ...
This is so true. I've worked on a number of projects with friends and have to conclude it's a bad idea. People, even those who hang out a lot and met in the same organization have very different expectations about how to go about work. Being friends, it's so much harder to confront the issues because you don't want to end up fighting them. Even if you agree lets be upfront as soon as we think there's a problem and we'll head it off, well, that doesn't work either. People hold it in.
Trick to resolving problems WITH ANYONE is you need to jump on them asap. Putting it off only makes it worse. Being friends, you put that off (and it gets worse) until one of you blows a fuse, then it's so much harder to undo the damage.
And hate to say it, but money changes most people. Sure there are people it doesn't, but at the moment my sample rate shows 100% and that includes some awfully nice people. One stage I was owed $100K by someone I thought was a friend. But when they had to decide between me and $100K, from their luxury waterfront beachhouse, well, Satan likes water views.
> where two friends created a business, had a falling out, and the business collapsed as a result.
I've never *lost* a friendship because of business. When it did go bad, we agreed to put it behind us and never do it again. That required a lot of forgiving in some cases, but learned the lesson.
Except for the Freudian Slip.
But most people refer to that using the more common term parapraxis, I suppose.
Big money, flexible hours and so little competition that you will never have to worry about your income again. The secret is "Hydrochloric acid". There is not a filthy toilet anywhere in the world that will fail to respond to two ounces of acid, a brush and a possible repeat after a 15 minute wait for the crud to be dissolved. With this information the world is your oyster. Buy the acid at a building supplies company - It is used for cleaning up excess cement after brick-pointing.
About 70% of new callers have malware issues. The rest run the full spectrum from true PEBKAC to cat hair in the vents: today, I got ninety bucks for un-checking "Mute" in the Volume Control applet (although I was there for about half an hour, checking for malware and giving advice). My ad says "your call is answered by the same Microsoft Certified Professional who will come to your home or office," and this is a big selling point for people who have bounced from Dell Support to the Geek Squad's credit-card collection team.
After I establish myself with the customer, I get their new PC & peripheral setups, along with any future problems & infestations. I have several customers with multiple PCs who have spent well over $1000 each over the years.
The number in my ad is my cell phone. I answer all my own calls, and usually schedule jobs for the same day or the next day. I often tell new customers "We accept Visa, MC, and cash" if I'm unsure about their checks (e.g., if they live in a trailer park or a crappy apartment complex). I have a concealed carry permit, so I'm not too afraid of bad neighborhoods... but I don't take unnecessary risks, as it doesn't make me bulletproof. I only have two or three (business) customers who don't pay upon completion, and their checks arrive within the week; my A/R balance is $0.00 right now.
One of the most important things, IMHO, is knowing how, when, and to whom to say "NO." I don't get sucked into working for people who think $90/hour is exorbitant, and I routinely decline to work on Win9x. I don't fix video games or hook up HDTV's. I usually turn down obvious major electrical problems like lightning strikes, and I don't do internal hardware work on laptops. I don't provide phone support to anyone, even family: within 60 seconds of answering the phone, I have usually said "I would be glad to take a look at the machine." This separates the real customers from people who are fishing for free advice. (However, I will often tell a caller something like "You don't need me: tell Verizon you have a bad FIOS router" because I don't want to knowingly charge for an obvious one-sentence fix).
My goal is to accumulate 1200 customers who spend an average of $100 per year, so I can easily live without the most annoying 2 or 3 percent of the customers I meet on the way to that goal.
I will be available for you 24x7 if needed.
But you will pay for it.
If you can't do planning that is not my problem.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.