There's Gold in them Hills

Background III

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:58:26 +0100

So, after Christmas, I returned to the process of 3 days at my previous company, 2 days gardening and any other time spent on The Plan.
I felt that my experiences had focused me on where I should concentrate my efforts - making direct contacts to whom I could introduce to my skills, preferably in a working context. I intended to use my previous employer as a conduit for this.
I also had some ideas on marketing on the job IT tuition which would give me some useful avenues into new companies.

With these concepts in mind, I returned from a holiday in March ready for the Big Push.

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Background II

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:48:40 +0100

I was getting a little nervous at this point but still had confidence that my battle plan would come to fruition.

The plan was simply to get myself and my service known to as many companies as possible. As mentioned, my existing contacts had already been notified, without any demand being created, so my goal was to tap into the vast amount of companies in the region via Cold calling, leaflets and emails. This, in hindsight, I did with a distinct lack of va-va-voom. It was late October, the gardening was dwindling and depressing, I had not heard from my previous employer (despite half-expecting some repeat business in an IT capacity from them) and I STILL had not generated any leads. No excuse admittedly, but still enough to knock wind from the most rejection-hardened entrepreneur's sails.
This process continued without development until I was poised to return to a temporary role back in Purchasing.

I then received a call from my previous employer just before Christmas. The offer was for 3-days a week assisting (among some of my previous tasks) in software implementation. The dream was given a life-line and I had bought some more time.

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Background

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:14:05 +0100

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.

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Intro

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:35:21 +0100

Hi, my name is Colin and I'm starting this to record the progress of setting up my own IT business. The reasons for this are threefold:

1. I'm hoping it will motivate me to do something productive towards my copmany goals daily, or at least regularly (if only to give me something to write on the blog). Hopefully this discipline will also help me organise my ideas, leads etc. more effectively too.

2. As an exercise in recording the logic behind decisions, I hope it will become a useful reference for marking personal progress.

3. I have always harboured a secret ambition to publish humourous anecdotes.

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