Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Tired of donating blood and sweat to the "man"...

murp0837 · 05-19-2004, 06:33 PM

A couple of coworkers and I are contemplating starting a IT consulting business. We, however, have a dilemma. Should we try to initiate the business with a narrow range of services (namely small business systems administration), or should we aim high and offer a turn key solution for businesses which would include everything from the aforementioned systems administation to database management to web developement (Internet or Intranet) to inventory management?

I'm 25 years old and I am tired of seeing my company profit from my labor while I just barely survive (after paying student loans, rent, car payment, etc). I work for a consulting firm who contracts my services out to a large corporate client (there is a team of 10 - not including help desk personnel) and I know that my company is making about 750,000 (per person) a year in profit after they pay my salary. Obviously, I understand that businesses have overhead costs, but even if you budget an additional 100k a year, the numbers are still very uneven. I think that if each (the new business partners) of us can maintain about 10-15 hours of billable time per week, we can keep this thing afloat with little personal financial impact.

Okay, now I am beginning to ramble so I will stop....

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

05-19-2004, 06:33 PM	#1 (permalink)
murp0837 Upright Location: Buffalo, NY	Tired of donating blood and sweat to the "man"... A couple of coworkers and I are contemplating starting a IT consulting business. We, however, have a dilemma. Should we try to initiate the business with a narrow range of services (namely small business systems administration), or should we aim high and offer a turn key solution for businesses which would include everything from the aforementioned systems administation to database management to web developement (Internet or Intranet) to inventory management? I'm 25 years old and I am tired of seeing my company profit from my labor while I just barely survive (after paying student loans, rent, car payment, etc). I work for a consulting firm who contracts my services out to a large corporate client (there is a team of 10 - not including help desk personnel) and I know that my company is making about 750,000 (per person) a year in profit after they pay my salary. Obviously, I understand that businesses have overhead costs, but even if you budget an additional 100k a year, the numbers are still very uneven. I think that if each (the new business partners) of us can maintain about 10-15 hours of billable time per week, we can keep this thing afloat with little personal financial impact. Okay, now I am beginning to ramble so I will stop.... Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.