The minimum you will require will be employers' and public liability insurance. If you are supplying goods you may also need indemnity insurance in case one of your products goes on fire and closes down one of your customer's businesses or injures someone, for example....Insurance? - What type/for ?
getting the work is the easy bit, getting paid can be the hard bit. 50k at 25 is a good salary and I'd be wary of giving that up at this stage, it will take you a while to get anything near that when you set up your business
why not try it out on a part time /weekend basis for a while ? start with home repairs - just a couple of ads in local papers/notice boards etc will get you up and running.
As you say there are plenty of competitors in your market place so use this to your advantage. Ring a load of them up as a potential customer and find out the rates, services they provide, annual fees etc etc. Do a full comparison of them all and then decide where you slot in. If you are aiming the SMB market then find a good networking group and start surveying small businesses to find out they needs and see if there is a gap in the market place for a specific niche.
Be realistic/pessimistic on your business plan try to include as much costs as possible.
Good luck!
Do up a business plan first, before you start buying letterheads etc.
Consider;
1. How are you going to fund advertising and your salary. (You'll be going from €50k to zero, lose PAYE tax credit and get shafted on PRSI.)
2. Who's going to buy this and how much are they going to pay? - most SMEs (under 10 employees) simply do not have an IT budget and many will not value your service.
Don't forget compliance issues as well, accountant fees etc.
Mambo, You say that you have IT services experience but do you have sales and marketing experience? These will be key for finding and securing clients.
I suggest you read E-Myth by Micheal Gerber, you need to be careful not to confuse the skills needed to run a successful business versus the skills needed to be a good 'technician' within the business. So many people make this mistake when starting a business and this leads to high failure rates.
All the business planning and trying to predict sales on paper is all very well but will be practically worthless when you get started.
You need to devise a way to get customers and try it out and perfect it before you quit your job. Otherwise on day 1 of starting your own business you will have no guarantees of getting any clients.
Can you perhaps take unpaid leave from your job, or reduce your hours to part time? This will give you the safety net whilst you get your business going.
Good luck.
You need to devise a way to get customers and try it out and perfect it before you quit your job. Otherwise on day 1 of starting your own business you will have no guarantees of getting any clients.
....I plan to offer SME business IT services which would include the like of PC and Server Installations, network setup, email servers, backup and restore, maintenance .etc consulting (auditing, solution architecture) and also Website Design and any other niche areas that I can find.
I personally have experience in all of the above and am fully confident that I can provide these services to a very high quality. ....
Why do you think these area's are profitable. I wouldn't have thought these areas have significant margins. Theres nothing in hardware, and its hard to paid for the time this kinda work takes. I've seen people start business like this many times and it can be an uphill task. You have to do everything, which spreads youself too thin. I've only seen it work where someone takes on some sort of specialist product as a reseller or agent etc. Maybe you've a new angle on it though.
You really need to do some financial planning, to see what you need to do in order to make it viable. Plan the first 2 yrs. Have some milestones and objectives, so you know what you have to hit, and realise when you achieved it or not.
...
I know this might be a big ask, but if possible could you put me in contact with some of these people to try and see where they failed and pitfalls to watch
thanks for the advise
Unless & until you have specific prior experience of this type of work and definite contacts upon whom you can depend for work in the early stages, I think you would be mad to throw away a €50k job in order to become self-employed - particularly amid the current economic uncertainty.
I would have to agree with this.I think you would be mad to throw away a €50k job in order to become self-employed - particularly amid the current economic uncertainty.
All the business planning and trying to predict sales on paper is all very well but will be pratically worthless when you get started.
You need to devise a way to get customers and try it out and perfect it before you quit your job.
I would have to agree with this.
Why not ring up an SME or two, and ask them what their budget for this stuff is?
Okay, that was probably an unfair comment, without knowing your personal circumstances. Maybe running a business is far more important to you than (immediate) gain, and you don't mind the work and risk involved.I guess the fact is that I want to work for myself and set up my own business. So what do I do, not do it because I'm on a decent wage. Never do it ? If I was earning 30K would it be ok to do it.
I guess the fact is that I want to work for myself and set up my own business. So what do I do, not do it because I'm on a decent wage. Never do it ? If I was earning 30K would it be ok to do it....
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