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John Bradley posted a new Starting A Business thread on 2/5/2010

Starting a Computer Consulting/Support Business Advice

Currently I work as an IT Manager for a Shipping Company, my duties are but not limited to Maintaining Domain Servers with Windows 2003, Exchange 2003 Environment, Antivirus Solution, monitoring Firewall, VPN connection from our Office to Greece and Belgium Offices, suporting Citrix Environment, in all 3 Office, I have traveled and setup the Servers in Greece, Belgium and United States, The entire Domain was setup 6 years ago by me, I have been in this field self taught for the last 16 years, U.S office has 8 Servers, 1 Windows 2003 Server, 2 Citrix Servers accessed thru Citrix access Gateway appliance which I also setup, 1 Exchange Server 2003 with 3 sites. 1 SQL 2005 Server, 1 Backup Domain Controller, 1 Utility Server, and 1 Websense Server, bottom line I am able to support solely a small business environemnt and users, I am looking to do this on my own starting and when needed to contract people to fill in the gaps when I am busy with other clients. Now to start this and get rid of my fear of starting as I am currently employed full time, but one never knows how long so this will be started after work, weekends, any spare time until I am sure it can support me and my bills, I realize this will take some time, but I am at the point that that time needs to start, I am looking for advise from anyone doing this tye of work and pointers to get started, I will be applying for an LLC in the next few weeks.
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Chris Silvey Responded on 2/5/2010


Hi John, I am delving in a similar field. Yes your first step is to get your LLC which can be done online in most states.

After you have established your LLC, go and sign up at the Microsoft Partner website - https://partner.microsoft.com/us/partner?countrycode=en-us

There are several programs, benefits and competencies you can enroll in. You may want to investigate the Hosting Solutions and the SPLA program.
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Dan Dugal Responded on 8/26/2010


Hi john,

Good advice by Chris on joining Microsoft Partner Program.

Also, form partnerships with IT companies that provide essential services you can earn recurring income from, like Remote Data Backups (http://www.remotedatabackups.com).

Here's an article I hope you find helpful:
http://www.remotedatabackups.com/company/IT-Consultants-Thrive-on-Residual-Income.htm

Best of luck to you.
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Cynthia Chung Aki Responded on 9/2/2010


John,
I am starting out new at business in consulting as you are. I found out I need liability insurance, and like you, I will need at times to contract for additional help and do not want to go the employee route. Hartford insurance has given me a quote of $472 per year and for every additional person covered would cost $125. I am asking our colleagues to help us in this area; where to get basic liability insurance.

You also need to be sure to complete an I-9 employment verification on each sub contractor and cover yourself with verification form (your state can provide an example) that you checked the documents within 21 days of new hire. No one has ever told me about this, but I found out and would like to pass this on to you. Furthermore, be sure you have a contract with your sub contractors as IRS is hard on fines for wrong classification of employee vs independent contractor status.

CA
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