Steps To Be A Self Employed It Tech

So you’re uninterested in your boss? Are you sick of Hawaiian shirt days, office politics, being beneath paid and continually getting a crappy gift from your companies secret Santa? So become I. So I give up. I had an idea about going for walks with my very own IT guide corporation for a long term, but the notion of no longer understanding where my next meal changed into going to return from always dissuaded me. Fortunately, once I started my enterprise and learned some lessons, I by no means had to fear approximately my price range or the quantity of business I had. In fact, within 3 months of beginning, I turned down customers because I became just too busy. So I’m going to inform you of the stairs I took to start and develop my very own IT guide employer.

Get Licensed

The first matter you may need to do whilst setting out in this area is get certified to your state to do enterprise. IT work does not require any unique bonds or even a business license in my kingdom and city. Your country might also range. I did, however, sign up for my organization name and include the kingdom. This is wanted for our next step.

Open up enterprise bank accounts.

The subsequent element I did was to open up a 2d bank account totally for enterprise purposes. It is usually an excellent concept to have a separate checking account out of your private bank account for tax purposes. However, accountants and the IRS do not like it while you mix business with private, which brings me to my subsequent factor.

Have an exit strategy

Before I even started working for my first client, I knew exactly how a whole lot I needed to make within the first month and the way lengthy I become inclined to stay off of Top Ramen earlier than I would call it quits. I additionally laid out a full plan of what agencies I might observe to paintings for if worse got here to worse. Doing this allowed me peace of mind, knowing that if I made a big mistake (which I did now not), I would still meet my fundamental needs.

Set monthly dreams

You want a whiteboard. You can choose them up from any standard save together with some dry erase markers for $15 to $20. Now write down your intention for the month. When I began my business, my purpose turned into finding three agencies and 10 domestic clients a month. After a few months, I then began to set a dollar quantity that I wanted to earn, and after everyone takes a look, I could start subtracting from that quantity. Trying to make that variety go to 0 stored me influenced and reminded me that I become, of course.

Announce yourself to the arena

Now to the juicy stuff, it’s time to open up the store and start marketing your offerings. The first thing before you do something is to cross all the way down to a Kinkos and spring for a few commercial enterprise cards. Yours ought to say corporation name, your call, smartphone variety and things consisting of “Computer Repair” “Networking” “Troubleshooting” “Virus Removal” and many others. If deciding between now not get business cards, forestall analyzing properly now because no matter what different kind of advertising and marketing you do, if a small business cannot well document your call in a Rolodex and look for it beneath “Computer problems,” you may not be getting a name back.

You wouldn’t believe how many humans will name you from this, mainly if you stay in a main metropolitan area. Because my business cellphone becomes my cellular cellphone, I would usually be using it down the road whilst the man or woman behind me would name it. I could ask them if they would love to tug over to talk about what their problem was that they in which having and nearly constantly using the end of the communication I might have a brand new purchaser. Sometimes these customers could be small commercial enterprise proprietors that are exactly the clients you want. Normal domestic clients are true for a quick dollar, but commonly they’re a massive ache in the ass and usually need to haggle over fees. If you could, continually try and construct your small business client base. Once you have some small commercial enterprise customers, you may use my subsequent step.

Small business bookkeepers, your new nice friends

Small business customers are higher for repeat enterprise, the extent of enterprise, the simplicity of the paintings, and the quantity of repeat enterprise. I actually have never had a single small business “shop around” on me. Ninety-nine % of all small organizations fee competency over rate in terms of computer paintings. Mostly because your offerings are a tax write-off for them.

Once you have a small enterprise consumer, find out without delay which the booker/accountant is. Whoever the person is who enters inside the month-to-month charges and handles elements of payroll, they may be your new great friend and the most important character within the business enterprise to you. Find out their call, their character, what they do for amusing, in which they may be from, what they love to do on the weekends, what number of children they have, wherein they live, what they had for breakfast, if it’s “boxer’s or briefs,” if they located Jesus, what’s their preferred coloration. Everything you can discover approximately them to help you pal up to them, you want to discover.

This is how I constructed my enterprise. I have in no way in my career met a small commercial enterprise bookkeeper that failed to work for a minimum of 2 different small corporations. And odds are, if the business enterprise you’re at right now is having problems with their computer systems, and the bookkeeper failed to refer the IT guy from the other businesses they work for, that other IT guy both sucks, or they do not. Exist… In either case, it is good news for you because you found 2 greater customers.
Networking

Put down the CAT 5 cable you need; it is no longer that kind of networking. Nope, it is time you study some people skills, and here’s what I did. Every month purchase five or 6 of these Hickory Farm sausage, cheese and crackers blend packs. Then, drop using every single commercial enterprise customer you have and drop one off at 10 AM or 3 PM. I observed that those unique instances accrued the maximum emotional reaction from the agencies because the human beings were the maximum unsleeping and remembered that they which had a computer problem (now you look like Johnny immediate) or at three PM you are the brand new saint to everyone who forgot to get lunch or needed a sugar rush to get them via the relaxation of the day.

Next to those containers of cheese and crackers is a massive stack of your enterprise playing cards that they can then hand out to their pals and family. And they WILL hand them out. So what I actually have determined is that subconsciously human beings experience responsible approximately taking something for nothing, particularly meals, and feel that if they get you a new client, they can wolf down all of the honey mustard spread they need.

I hope that what I actually have written will help you in your new adventure. I had the time of my lifestyle once I commenced my IT aid enterprise. I met several fascinating humans and got to do some inspiring work. I do not forget a few months once I started my enterprise, I sat down with an Ethiopian own family for afternoon tea, got paid through a small nearby wine corporation with a case of their best Merlot, helped a vintage female build a church quilting website, and mounted a brand new Linux report server for an animal rescue all inside the same week. So I encourage any individual who has the technical know-how to inform their boss to shove their motivational posters. The solar-do not-shine and begin their very own IT assist the company.