Start & Run a Rural Computer Consultant Business. John D. Deans

Чтение книги онлайн.

      The journey that led me to being Washington County’s rural computer consultant was not a planned one. If someone had told me back in 1995 that in ten years I would not be designing and building large enterprise-level computer networks supporting thousands of users, but rather be performing a wide range of computer support services for businesses in small towns, I would have called them crazy. Furthermore, if they had then informed me that I would be grossing more than $164,000 a year for these services working out in rural central Texas, I would have called them insane.

      When I left Paranet in late 1998, I had enough from the Sprint buyout to last a while, but I honestly had no idea what I was going to do up in Brenham. All I knew was that I had to get out of the city and away from the computer industry that had treated me well but had also burned me out. I basically fell into doing what I do today. I was fortunate enough to see the growing need for computer support in our small town and to turn it to my advantage.

      Falling into the Niche

      As I’ve already described, after buying my ranch in 1997 and permanently moving there in late 1998, I discovered I had to give up the idea of making a living from farming and ranching. By the fall of 1999 and on the eve of Y2K, I was getting depressed about my professional future — having found nothing that interested me or that was modestly profitable. I was even starting to miss the computer support world since I had not troubleshot a network or fixed a nonfamily computer in almost a year.

      An ex-Compaq colleague now working for Extreme Networks asked me if I wanted to take on a consulting project to upgrade more than 1,000 Gigabit Ethernet switches at Compaq for $110 an hour during non-prime-time hours. This would keep me out of the Houston traffic, and as I was so bored, I accepted it. Since I had to create a corporate entity like a limited liability company (LLC) in the State of Texas to start working as an independent consultant, I thought I might as well try to get some local customers here in Brenham. (This idea had first been suggested to me by our local vet while he took care of our just-born colt back in early 1999. The doctor said there was a lot of business potential in Washington County and many small businesses needed computer support. I blew him off since I was still recovering from industry burnout, but that recommendation did echo in my head.)

      And so I started Deans Consulting, LLC, and have never looked back. Getting new local clients was slow at first but this eventually gained momentum as the years went by and my reputation grew — as it can in small towns, one way or the other — quickly.

      I had only two Brenham clients in 2000, but that increased to five by 2001, 12 by 2002, 25 by 2003, and by mid-2004 I had more than 50 rural customers. I had to stop taking on new clients due to a booked billable calendar until mid-2005.

      This business niche in the IT industry that’s here in the country has made my life very enjoyable. I look forward to going to work at my client sites every day. They greet me with a smile and are glad to see me. Being in my early forties, I can see myself doing this work for another 20 years since it is so satisfying, low stress, and financially rewarding.

      What we need to find out now is if being a rural computer consultant is for you.

      What It Takes to Become a Rural Computer Consultant

      First of all, you need to have a decent amount of computer support experience or skill sets to be able to hit the ground running. As we will explore in depth later, the recommended (if not required) basic skills are in desktop and server support, with a good knowledge of computer networking. If you are specifically a programmer or even a highly paid Cisco certified networking guru, you still need to be the jack-of-all-computer-trades and have a healthy working knowledge of many computer industry services, for instance, website authoring, upgrading PCs, installing and managing MS Windows, and other PC-related day-to-day activities.

      Below is a list of just some of the skills that are required:

      • Desktop support (both hardware and software)

      • Server support (both hardware and software)

      • Network printers and plotters

      • Hubs, switches, routers, and firewalls

      • Fiber and copper cabling for both data and voice

      • Windows installations, tune-ups, trouble- shooting, optimization, upgrades

      • PDA and cell phone integration

      • Website design, migration, and management

      • Data-backup configuration and management

      Additionally, here is a short list of the higher-level services that a successful consultant working in rural areas would want to provide:

      • Project management for large IT buildouts, moves, upgrades, or migrations

      • Computer security audits

      • Network health studies

      • Request for Proposal (RFP) development and management

      This sounds like a very wide skill set, and it is. I wrote this book to give a realistic presentation of the requirements for having a successful and profitable rural computer consulting practice, and real skills are required. It is not for the faint of heart or for someone who has held just one or two narrow job roles in the vast world of IT. I would not recommend this for anyone with less than seven or eight years in СКАЧАТЬ