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Advice on How to Start an IT Business (Video)
Lee Drake owns a small IT service and sales company in Rochester, New York, called OS Cubed. He was a cubicle denizen many years ago, and didn't like it. So he started his own business, first with a partner and later as the sole owner. Rochester may be part of the infamous "rust belt," but Lee seems to be doing well, to the point where he's happy to pass on some tips about how to start and grow your own IT business. While Lee's company specializes in "Microsoft solutions," his advice applies to almost any IT business -- and almost any other kind of business, too.
Move to India.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
What the hell is wrong with you, Slashdot? Autoplaying video is incredibly annoying and an insult to your readers (who, by and large, know how to play a video they want to watch).
But, what's worse, you've managed to make it even more annoying than normal!
1. The video doesn't autoplay right away - there's a delay of several seconds, plenty of time for someone to scroll down to the comments only to then have the video start playing out of view.
2. With Flashblock on, the audio plays, but there's no video (mind you, in this case the video is largely superfluous)
3. There's no volume control
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
One thing I'm very curious about is how his personal income has changed over time, relative to what he'd be earning as a typical IT employee. Owning a business has a lot of pros and cons, but for most of us, the extra hours are partly justified by higher income.
Same here. One of my biggest gripes in IT is the "for someone with a hammer, everything is a nail" philosophy. For example, a MCSE wants to toss everything on a MS solution. A Big Iron person will have a zSeries solution. A UNIX person will have Linux or Solaris. It could be that the best solution is not one that a consultant is familiar with.
I see this almost everywhere in IT. The Windows guys have some Linux servers or appliances, and they sit unpatched because nobody wants to touch them. The Linux people just have all the production Windows boxes fetch patches from Windows Update instead of using WSUS. The Hyper-V people wonder why the heck the VMWare appliances ask for so much RAM without realizing VMWare has the ability to deal with overcommits.
The hard part is finding people who have enough of a clue to know that their favorite solution is not the right one for a job. Mistakes because someone likes one RDBMS or loves NoSQL based DBs for everything, even rigid financial transactions [1], can be extremely costly.
I see this in internal enterprise apps. The SolarWinds people, versus the Splunk people, versus the SCOM guys, versus the Xymon guys. The people who loved one PC maker's servers coming into another shop that uses another PC maker's stuff, and then tossing the existing PC maker's servers for no real reason, other than lack of knowledge about them.
Once an IT person realizes that all solutions suck, it is finding what sucks the least, that is someone who actually worth having on board.
[1]: MarkLogic is the only exception that I know of where a NoSQL DB is ACID compliant.
For what it's worth, I've been co-owner of a small software-as-a-service business focused on libraries for the last five years. A week or so ago, I wrote a blog post on our experience and financial situation.
Basic summary: by keeping costs low and our expectations reasonable, we're thriving even without a huge revenue stream.
This video is pretty good, but his other video is rock solid:
http://youtu.be/SBioHq3aPsQ
The last thing they want is more competition, despite all their claims of worshiping the free market and risk.
I thought I was losing my mind, there was an odd voice telling me to start an IT company coming from behind my testing server. Thankfully it turned out to /. with an autoplay video. Seriously, this is not a Geocities site. Act like professionals make disable the fscking autoplay!
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
Just common sense stuff like you have to be passionate about your business, when you have your own business sometimes you have to work more than when you were an employee, focusing on solutions for the client and the list of truisms goes on and on ...
It was a waste of time for me.
"Think globally, act locally".
I agree, this is a serious problem. I see it all the time. But not EVERYONE is like this.
I have a deep understanding of Windows technologies (since NT4, AD, Exchange 2003 through 2008, SQL Server and more) as well as Linux (been using it since 1995), FreeBSD (1993), OpenBSD, Solaris, and more and most opensource technologies like MySQL, Sendmail, Postfix, Exim, Courier, Dovecot, Bind, etc. Hell, even stuff like Oracle.
I also have a deep understanding of programming (C, C++, C#, Java, Perl, PHP, JavaScript, Assembly, and more) and other IT technologies such as Storage (EMC, IBM, NetApp and newer technologies like Tintri), Virtualization (arguably, mostly only VMware ESX), and Networking (Cisco and Juniper switches and routers, all the way up to the really big stuff like MX960s.)
I like to use the right technology for the job. Even though I _prefer_ Linux or Unix based solutions, I will use the right tool for the job. Sometimes FreeBSD or Solaris is better (such as when ZFS is concerned.) Sometimes Windows is the better solution (granted, not often. Mostly just as AD for windows desktops.)
Yeah. We exist. We're called Senior Systems Engineers and Systems Architects. There might be a short supply of us, though. My skills got me a visa and I now live in the SF Bay Area because my employer spent over a year looking for a local and couldn't find one that was any fucking good.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
Ironically... Im the guy that fixes this type of stuff.
When I go into most shops I call out the trends immediately... Im a fan of Dell servers, cheap, run well and are reliable.. But admittedly, I have seen some cases where the lenovo and hp options were a better choice and were chosen...
I have gone in and ripped out Oracle.. when mysql was more then enough and they had no issues... they also had in house talent for mysql and were spending uselessly.
Im happy to be where I am but.. admittedly I want to just co back to being a consultant... There seems to be a lack of good ones out there right now.
This package Does Not Contain a Winner
I don't see a video at all.
That's not how exponents work...
Agreed! Anti-kudos for that one. Mad panic for the volume slider.
Table-ized A.I.
I've tried to "slide away" from Microsoft solutions over the years, but the bottom line is that Microsoft-related work pays the bills. When the bottom fell out of the IT market after the dot-com bubble popped, Microsoft shops kept me afloat when pickin's were slim.
Maybe that's the selfish point of view, but I have a family and bills. I don't know exactly why, but MS work just "pays". Some say it's comparable to being in a boy-band: no dignity, but you get a decent check.
Table-ized A.I.
I'm a lifelong business owner, and this guy is calling it exactly, giving good advice, and all you can do is complain about autoplay? Just be decent and don't complain about cubicle life, OK?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Specializes in does not mean we ignore other solutions. It means when we encounter an issue outside our area of expertise we collaborate with experts in those technologies. Or we refer them out if we are not able to contribute meaningfully.
Go back to mom's basement please.
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
If you want to start your own company, then one thing matters: cashflow.
I ran a side business from about 2003 until 2010 when I decided to quit my job and go into full time business, where I still am today.
All the good ideas in the world don't matter for anything if you don't have income actually coming in, day by day. You can have the biggest profit on the balance sheet but if you don't have actual cash in the bank, you're dead. So you find yourself perpetually chasing debtors, chasing money and doing work you would rather not be doing because it pays immediately.
My advice is - start young, don't wait. When you're like me and you have kids in private school, cars, mortgages (and now staff), you can't have bad months. When you're 23 you can afford to eat noodles or whatever if it slows down, so start young when you're not already tied up with responsibilities. Make sure you have a couple of stable (couple - not one) customers, who can pay you some money each month, so you're ok and you can survive one of them going quite for a while - because they will.
Don't base your business on a dream of money coming in once you make something unless you have deep pockets (i.e. a start up) or no costs.
Don't base your business on one customer because a) as far as your government is concerned (at least most of them) that's not a business - that's being a consultant, which is not the same thing for taxation and b) if they hit a rough patch, you're screwed.
Diversify your customer base as fast as you can. Don't assume that a project on the horizon is going to happen because it my fall apart for reasons out of your control.
Minimise your outgoings, always. This goes for IT, rent and every other cost.
The bad thing about running a business is that you're running a business. If you love development or cloud or IT or whatever, if you start a business doing it, you wind up running a business. You have to chase leads, find money, do your taxes, pay staff, hire staff. Manage them when they're lazy or pissed off or bored or whatever. Pretty soon, you're not doing development or whatever - you're going to some shitty "business leaders breakfast" to hear a bunch of PHB bang on about their latest buzzwords because of the off chance you might get a meeting, which will allow you the privilege of spending 4 days making a detailed proposal (for free) to then give to someone so they can never bother getting back to you to even say "no thanks".
All that said, I wouldn't leave it for anything.
What!? And then Dice misses all those comments ;-)
Perl Programmer for hire
4. Clicking on the video picture does not pause the video (unlike just about every other video player out there!)
It's a pain in the butt, but /. clearly can't be trusted with javascript. So it's disabled now on 263 computers when they attempt to view slashdot. In fairness, only one or two of those computers visit here, probably. It's a work environment, so most of them are checking out Gawker and Drudge :(.
Just be like me and don't keep your flash player or browser up to date - thus avoiding both "beta" and videos like that.
Did you come to Slashdot today with anything substantive or useful to say, or just to let us all know that you hate MS?
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Same here. One of my biggest gripes in IT is the "for someone with a hammer, everything is a nail" philosophy. For example, a MCSE wants to toss everything on a MS solution.
The exact same criticism could be turned on an open source fanatic. For them, every solution HAS to be open source (or at least non-proprietary).
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
I'm a sysadmin / network admin who has traditionally made my living in a windows environment. At the size of companies I worked for LInux networking and system monitoring tools just made way more sense then anything in the MS ecosystem. I started learning Linux because I like to learn and I can deploy it to test without cumbersome licensing issues. I also dabble in system forensics and Linux is an obvious choice for your toolkit.
WIthin the past couple years I've transition to mostly LInux system administration. I find there are less jobs out there, but the wheat to chaff ratio is much better. Employers respect and pay Linux Admins better, and the average Linux Admin is, IMHO, more likely to have the love of learning and curiosity that differentiate between the good and the great.
I still get dragged into the windows world, because I understand both and I have alot of citrix experience, which translates into a pretty good understanding of AD and GPO.
I only see Linux growing, more companies seem to be embracing a mixed environment, even if they start with unpatched virtual appliances.
Cheap storage VM.
Theoretically, it means when we encounter an issue outside our area of expertise we collaborate with experts in those technologies.
FTFY
Cheap storage VM.
... to starting a small business is accepting a vow of poverty.
FYI we actively embrace open source in our solutions. Our main web content management platform is the open source version of DotNetNuke (www.dnnsoftware.com) and we use lots of open source solutions when crafting a solution for a client. "Microsoft centric" means that is where our expertise lies. It doesn't mean that's all we sell or support. Our goal is to build a stable solution at a reasonable price for a client, and if an open source solution makes sense we'll go that way.
I had to go to the desktop version on my phone to see the actual video. Another Slashdot win I guess :) Video appears to be hidden if you are in the mobile version of the site.
Fucking Hell. I didn't even know the video was playing until I got to this comment and scrolled up. (Headphones plugged in, but not on my head.) Evil. If you are a slashdot editor, you are now complicit in working for evil.
Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
I get the bad feeling that Lee Drake has a problem interrupting people when they are doing other things, has social insensitivity, and has problems with appropriate behavior in an office setting. Oh wait, sorry that's just Slashdot.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Wanna know how I can tell you don't know Exchange? There was never an Exchange 2008, you either mean 2007 or 2010. Perhaps that was why the company had to hire a H1B, because they couldn't find anyone with Exchange 2008 experience.
I have 15 years in IT and could do most of what you have there. I am not an especially good programmer, but programming shouldn't be needed in systems work.
I do agree though, it is the difference between a systems administrator and a systems engineer/architect, and perhaps that is the issue, understanding that there is a difference.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Seriously, slashdot? I open the page and it automatically starts playing a video advertisement with no way to kill it except to close the whole page. You know better than that.
I concur. I don't come here often anymore, and now that I have, an ad starts playing that I can't stop without closing the webpage? FFS. That's it for me. Somegeek out.
And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..