being a freelance IT engineer

[asteroid]

when I was doing support Tech support for Novatech we had lots of people who were working for themselves doing freelance repair and upgrades work.

Ive done a few paid jobs in the past, mainly when I was out of work, Im now looking to do this an addition to my current corporate support job as could do with some extra cash, Ive always wanted to be self employed one day anyway, :)


could we have a dedicated section for people who do this?

Like to get ideas on advertising (prob going to put postcards in shops) favourite software for testing and diagnostic checks, faultfinding, etc

IMHO, reckon I could quite a bit of work just removing spyware.

plus, with the vast amount of lovely free and open source applications that are around these days, like Mozilla Firefox, Open Office, Skype, Audacity, Google Earth, no organisation I know of does actual training for these, so doing one to one training for home users on using these apps I think could be a nice business idea.


feel free to post below if this your job, with any ideas

[DoCtOr_oCtOr]

I used to do a bit ... never really made enough money to go full time ... far too many people take the **** when it comes to paying up ... I found that I spent all my time doing the family and friends things and didn't have enough time left over for a life (or for paying customers)...
Now I cherry pick what I want to do ... if it sounds like fun I will do it ... I will always build someone a pc in exchange for a bottle of Scotch...

[Nosher]

I Think there is a big market out there for this sort of work, but have never had the bottle to go full time, always doing the odd private job. I think all the home users a not able to go to expensive shops to get there computer repaired they just have not got the money, most companies now charge £70 an hour, Too Much! So to have a mobile unit going around to homes a small business would be a big success, as you say most of the time we are removing spyware or something like that.

[Millay]

Hi I already do this= behindthestorm IT Support and Internet Hosting/Design (http://www.behindthestorm.com)

My tips for anyone who is thinking of doing this, be sure of your abilities. then you need to get professional indemnity insurance and public liability insurance.

Some software I wouldnt be without:

Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/) does what it says on the tin and can get you out of many holes when it comes to diagnosing and fixing problems.

Then get yourself a nice big USB Key on here I owuld put:

AVG Antivirus Free adition (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1) Then download the updates once a week and keep them on the key.

Portable Firefox (http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/browsers/portable_firefox) this app is great and runs straight from the key, brilliant when IE is the cause of problems...

The rest of the space on the USB key can then be used for backing up files of a client PC in emergency.

I also carry a laptop and PDA with 3G this can help when your stuck Internet Connection less at a clients but need to read something up online, or download a fix etc...

Hope this helps its only a basic list and other people may find other things I have forgotten.

[Nox]

Family and Friends only for me now - and they take up enough time :)

My job used to involve tech support too, its changed at the moment, data migration and server decomissioning, not sure what will happen in the future.

I keep getting told, (as does everyone I expect) 'there is a market, IT companies charge too much' and alsorts of things like that, but if IT companies charge too much, you have to charge less, a lot less, and all of a sudden, is it worth it?

Nox

[Soul]

Millay try http://www.free-av.com

Avg sucks at removing virus and this little program is used by alot of people due to it's ability to tackle most virus without problem, and like AVG it has free and Premium additions.

give it a try what you got to loose.

If you dont trust me ask Any of the techs at Novatech i itroduced it to them a couple of years back and most them use it, barring any recruits in the past couple of months!!

CS

[Soul]

sorry bout the spelling!!

[Danno]

Millay try http://www.free-av.com

Avg sucks at removing virus and this little program is used by alot of people due to it's ability to tackle most virus without problem, and like AVG it has free and Premium additions.

give it a try what you got to loose.

If you dont trust me ask Any of the techs at Novatech i itroduced it to them a couple of years back and most them use it, barring any recruits in the past couple of months!!

CS

ill agree with that, free-av is so much better than avg.

[lucan]

Heh Soul...

What you been upto, and why dont you ever respond to me... I know im a phoney Scott, but thats no excuse. ;op

How you been anyway mate?

[Soul]

Eh!!

Respond to what matey, i've never got any mail from you!



Im doing fine. working hard im all over the south coast. (Heard your busy as well)

Just been sooo busy

Hope your good, you have my Gmail address send me some love you dodgy scott ;0) cc it to my techemail address just incase! i seem to have a personal filterer on my e-mails if you know what i mean!

(for anyone reading this he dont have a scottish name i.e. no clan, so thats where the fake/dodgy scott comes in, no offence meant to anyone)

[IBMGuru]

I've been working freelance now for just over 1year and that is only in my spare time outside of work.

9-5 Mon-Fri im working for ibm as a desktop supoprt analyst currently on the zurich contract but outside of 5pm and weekends im a full time IT engineer who visits various clients and provides different kinds of solutions to home users and small businesses ranging from VoIP phones over broadband to simple home networks so that kids have a pc in their room.

I know your now thinking, "this guy dosn't have a social life" but heres where it differs. I've still got a social life.

I play ice hockey wedesnday evenings and sometimes sundays.
I regulary go out down the pub on a friday night and spend time with my GF.

The trick is to build up a big enough customer base to be able to support a second person part time.

I pay my mate cash in hand for covering me on nights off.

If anyone wants any tip's or you'd be intrested in helping me kill some work load give me a shout via my email or pm me. Always got plenty of work ranging from PC build's to Website design and graphics repro.

PS: Novatech are my #1 stop for on the fly spares and parts :)

[Pjbracer1]

I also provide support to people less in the know than others and this does seem to be quite a few people althought most do not like to spend any money!

Mainly Friends and associates along with referrals from previous cusotmers.

I really should advertise and perhaps I might get a constant stream of work.

I work in IT support and do try and plug my services to end users but alot of them are too far away for profitable work.

I always carry spybot search and destroy (good for virus and spyware killing).

Full range of Windows, SP's and Office version disks

A copy of Zone Alarm free firewall (if they do not have one already)

Set of 6 XP boot disks for that occasion when you cant boot from USB or CD

Nero (to test CDR/dvdr capability)

To test Broadband goto http://www.metadas.com/metadas_broadband_checker.php

Seems a good bench marker

Copy of MSconfig for older os's that do not have it http://www.perfectdrivers.com/howto/msconfig.html

And I always take my one keyboard and mouse, HDD and graphics cards in the event that its a hardware failure.

My laptop is duff so I need a new one at the mo but a laptop with a portable broadband modem and standard dialup just incase there is something you need!

Normally most of my clients are just having issues and a good clean up, defrag and regedit etc... and a nit of coaching as to why the problems occured and how to prevent it will normally do.

I would recoomend a large USB Disk/cradle so that in the event you cant sort it and it needs a rebuild you can take data that is required and then just do a fresh install as sometimes this is the most cost efficient way of solving the problem otherwise you could be there for a long time!,

I would be interested to know what others use as I'm all for an easy life! And it always seems other peoples problems are not as diffiuclt as mine.(I suppose this is the mechanic syndrome if a mechanic has a sh*t car then hes good at his job and spend more time on customers cars but if he has sporty hotted up looking number you know where his priority lies!)

Cheers

Paul