I want to start my own IT business - much advice needed!

From someone who has done this very thing

DO NOT DO IT


Seriously

I quit a pretty good job 3 years ago and went IT self employed

2nd Jan this year I went and got a full time job (thank god I got a job)

It seemed like a good idea at the time

Oh , and I broke even within 1 year , profit in year 2 and 3
With a 30% growth and I still quit
 
I wouldnt, if you are not going to go in full force. Have the capital, contacts and more behind you, in an already saturated market. Its going to take a lot of effort to kick this off, especially if working full time aswel, your going to need a wide area.

What will you be able to offer to businesses that other professional and established companies can't? A lot of people are careful these days on who they let near their IT systems

For someone who does local work on the side. I done a company IT systems who were a startup, Inc workstations, network, server, backup solution and remote support. That's one business customer. They became a royal royal pain with requests, what happens when things go wrong during the day and they want support, and your working in your other job?

I don't bother with business setups really after this. Not with a main job that I need to focus on, if they want a server or workstation built, fine I will do it. If they can't sort an issue out or their guy who apparently looks after can't sort. I will go in (in my own time) and resolve as a 3rd line consultant but I no longer do anything else

Residential customers will be slim pickings, and you feel really bad taking too much money from them.

I would rethink, it will take a lot to get up to a stage where you can life off it! But then you will most likely have to do then work to get to that stage, whilst also holding a job

If its a question of you having lower pay, I would suggest looking for another higher paid job.
 
Last edited:
Plus residential support would be soul destroying? How many times would you reinstall Windows, or set someone's printer up, or trouble-shoot some lame wireless issue before you go insane? Plus you wouldn't learn much or make a career out of it. Technology is ever changing and if you don't keep up, you're dead.
 
WalderX said:
Most of our clients at work primarily deal with me and often only want to speak with me so if I left a few of the smaller clients may well be happy to move over to me, and I could undercut the monthly costs they pay to my current employer pretty easily...

I have a lot of connections and as I said, most clients call asking to speak to me as they seem to feel I deal with things better than other staff members and I get on with many of them very well, they would certainly not be happy to see me leave the company. I have already copied up my Outlook mailbox and address book for future ref ;)
Click to expand...

And how do you think your current employers will react when they find out you're stealing their clients? Pretty sure you can expect a lawsuit if you do that.

That aside, if you start your own business you're going to end up working twice as hard as you do at the moment for a similar amount of cash. If I were you I'd just get a new job and commute/move.
 
planty said:
And how do you think your current employers will react when they find out you're stealing their clients? Pretty sure you can expect a lawsuit if you do that.

That aside, if you start your own business you're going to end up working twice as hard as you do at the moment for a similar amount of cash. If I were you I'd just get a new job and commute/move.
Click to expand...

If they find out it could be a disaster, lawsuit and possibly jail time

In my old job i was asked to investigate a security breach, where an old staff member of a business, after handing in his notice, he had no access to any systems. Everything was taken from him, somehow got hold of one of his colleagues VPN logins. And logged in from home, stealing client details.

A few months after leaving this company started noticing clients going missing, it was only after investigations they found out where to, this guys new business

They filed a lawsuit, where I had to cooperate with the police and send details of him logging In, as they managed the servers they done their bit. Guy went to court a few times and ended up doing some jail time for it
 
Flukester said:
No it's not impractical, it's called tax fraud... Being self employed you can track and account for every bit of cash to the penny very easily
Click to expand...

I really can't. It's easy if you have all payments by electronic transfer going into one business bank account, on the other hand it's not practical to work out the value of every bottle of wine you are given for doing a relative a favour or track every £20 note.

Just because lots of people do it doesn't make it ok
Click to expand...
It's ok because it's insignificant and impractical to follow, not to mention the tax is spent in a corrupt manner anyway and so much tax is wrongly charged, a few cash in hand jobs doesn't cover the amount of tax that you shouldn't be paying in the first place!

DJMK4 said:
If they find out it could be a disaster, lawsuit and possibly jail time
Click to expand...

Jail time is for criminal matters not civil ones.
 
Last edited:
Fraud is criminal, not civil. Stealing clients from a previous employer is probably civil.

Self employed software developer works. Self employed computer fixing person would be rough going.

The answer appears to be moving. Working hard at a crappy business with no customer base won't make you successful, it'll make you exhausted and destitute.
 
Doesn't accessing an un authorised system controlled by security measures to steal client information make this criminal?

I would think it would, but maybe I'm wrong

Even still

The whole thing of steeling clients is wrong
 
Last edited:
DJMK4 said:
Doesn't accessing an un authorised system controlled by security measures to steel client information make this criminal?

I would think it would, but maybe I'm wrong

Even still

The whole thing of steeling clients is wrong
Click to expand...

Yep, under the computer misuse act IIRC.
 
Hi guys, thanks for the responses - I was hoping to start a discussion and that's exactly what has happened :)

Firstly, I agree that stealing clients is wrong and I like the current company I work for, no grudges or anything. I was just highlighting that a few of the clients could well move over to me under their own decision if they knew I had set up a company and could undercut prices slightly - could still be 'seen' as stealing clients but I wouldn't feel like I had done anything wrong.

I also didn't mean I would still work here whilst running another company, just meant that I could do the majority of setup whilst working here, before handing in my notice. e.g registering company, getting vat registered, setting up website and social media platforms, leafleting local area etc... I am not so naive that I think working full time and running another company without anyone finding out being possible!

Perhaps I should just concentrate on looking for another job, I am only 26 so plenty of time left but I've had this nagging feeling of giving my own business a go for about 2 years now so I think it will always be there in my mind, resulting in me never being truly happy working for someone else...
 
On a different note, you say you're outgoings are £600... but you don't include food - you need to include that too and other incidentals that you haven't thought about so add at least another £200 to that. Which in total is nearly 70% of your current take home pay. Just be aware that if you have a couple of slow months you're likely to be in trouble.

Also, once you are self employed, how are you going to learn new skills? Surely it would make more sense to move to another company, or ask your company to get some additional training or ask to take on more work/different roles/responsibilities. Have you spoken to your boss that you want to expand your horizons?

You might have to take the bullet and work in a bigger town if you're after a bigger wage.
 
So the general advice is don't do it!

Brighton is 25 miles away and has quite a few IT jobs on offer most of the time - perhaps I should go down this route for now...

'Expanding horizons' at my current company just isn't going to happen. We have not hired any extra staff in 5 years, spend £0 on marketing/advertising and don't have any sales staff. I get on well with my bosses though, they just have a lax attitude and my impression is they would rather let things tick over without too much work involved lol. You could argue that I should push to change things but I really think it is time to move on in one way or another.
 
Too much negativity in here.

OP if you feel you can make it work and have a solid business plan then go for it! It only gets harder as you get older with more and more responsibilities holding you down.

Decide on your target market and find a niche to make your business appeal. For example everyone is crazy about "the cloud" without really understanding what it is. Resell cloud services to small businesses and then offer them a complete IT support package once you have your foot in the door.

Dixons nearly went under a few years ago and the only thing that saved them was the monthly payments for product insurance / knowhow services. In this market sod all profit is made on the product, its all about the service attach.
 
nick.lidgett said:
OP why become VAT registered before you consistantly cross the VAT threshold? Once the VAT man gets his claws into you, escape is very difficult.
Click to expand...

ehh ?, because if you buy goods to sell (eg computer parts), being VAT registered is a good thing.. you won't remain competitive selling to other business otherwise as your prices will be too high.

Why escape the VAT man... treat VAT as HMRCs money and you never will have a problem, it's all win.


Back to the whole business idea... I'd say this kind of business is in a way too saturated market which is on the decline on the whole. :(
 
It is not negativity. I applaud people who try and do it and make a success - but if he has no savings to fall back on he'll be in trouble. The whole point is that he wants to progress and develop himself and his career, and get more skills. It's laudable that he is interested in running his own business, and I think he should, but he needs to balance it with what is achievable.

It depends on what is more important to him - career development or just making some money.
 
DJMK4 said:
Doesn't accessing an un authorised system controlled by security measures to steal client information make this criminal?
Click to expand...

The op isn't proposing to do that. He said he has copied his contact list which he has authorised access to.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom