To Those Interested,
I've heard from several of you on this idea of a
business
venture to provide tech support. That's encouraging.
Now what do we do?
I have some ideas to throw out and I'm not sure
whether to
present these on the HAMLUG email list or have an
in-person
meeting about it. It's not exactly HAMLUG business,
it's an
offshoot. However, in the interest of saving time and
getting
the ball rolling... and since the HAMLUG email list is
not
seeing much other traffic lately, I'll put some ideas
out here.
I'd like to have some ongoing discussions about this,
both
on-line and in person to brainstorm and see what we
can come
up with. This is not strictly HAMLUG business. And it
is not
my intention to steer HAMLUG into this direction.
However,
1. Our group represents a tremendous pool of IT
talent
in many areas which should be valuable to businesses
if they could find us. ( The IT talent pool
represented
by HAMLUG is, perhaps, the best kept secret in
Central
Jersey.)
2. Some of us do become unemployed from time to time
(especially in the current economy), and those
working
are often not secure in the jobs they do have.
3. One of the original ideas, when the group began,
was
for the group to offer tech support to the community
(community organizations) especially in the area of
Linux - as sort of an outreach aspect of the LUG.
Given this, I felt that an offshoot project of
providing tech
support or system/network administration as a business
might be a
timely thing to do.
One of the business ideas, or business models, that
intrigues
me, in the present economy, is to offer part-time or
outsourced IT
support to companies that cannot, or will not, afford
an in-house
IT staff. There is an untapped market of companies,
small
businesses, small offices, who need support of various
kinds.
They cannot afford full time IT people but may well
use the services
of a company who will provide IT support on an
as-needed basis.
The possibilities are numerous.
With regard to IT support that is part-time,
as-needed, outsourced
and cost-effective, the HAMLUG group (plus technical
friends and
associates) may be an ideal pool to draw from since
many of us are
available some times but not all the time. (Some of us
pop into
consulting contracts and later pop back out again.)
(Come to think
of it, full time jobs are getting like that too.)
The work itself, in addition to providing personal
income, could
bring money into the LUG itself (depending on the
relationship
between the consulting business and the LUG).
It would provide a part time income to those in
between bigger
jobs, offer an opportunity to learn new skills, and
(if done well)
could provide positive visibility within the
community.
I think the market is ready for what we are ideally
suited to
provide. It simply needs some business organization
and some
marketing to make it happen.
These are nice ideas, but the devil is in the details.
Business
administration is needed and some real marketing work.
I'm wondering who has a serious interest in this and
who is
willing and available to do some work on it?
Wayne
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