As a Purchasing Manager working extensively with IT consultants during a software implementation, I began to wonder whether I was in the wrong job.
I enjoyed Purchasing, and had been in Supply Chain my entire career but had several year's previously begun an OU course in IT for which I have a natural affinity. From a very early age, I had developed a relationship with the personal computer that bordered on the unhealthy. As a 6 year old, I had regarded our Spectrum Zx with a deep respect and wonder - a feeling that arises still when I succeed in reducing some hideously time-consuming and error-prone task to a few clicks. Simple pleasures, and ones not regularly found in the world of Purchasing - a thankless and dry sector where being a nuisance can be your best asset.
And so, with the assistance of a self-help book and a supportive wife, I took the first step towards self-employment as an IT consultant by handing my notice in after the May Day Bank Holiday 2006. I regarded the timing as auspicious due to the first day of my working life occuring exactly 9 years previously.
To ensure an income stream at this time, and to buy time to build up a customer base, I took over my brother's gardening business which gave me two days a week of guaranteed work. Combined with this, I had agreed to a staggered notice period with my previous employer which meant that I still worked 2-3 days a week there. In the evenings and weekends, I put work into a website and seemingly endless To-do lists of ideas and plans for the IT business. this unholy alliance of tasks continued in varying proportions for much of the summer.
In August, my notice period and some additional work with my previous employer had dried up and Autumn's arrival was accompanied by a corresponding dip in gardening work. Despite the best efforts of my To-do lists, the exhaustion of my contacts and extensive marketing of my website - I had yet to generate a single IT customer.
