Mad-Mike
February 11th, 2006, 05:17 PM
I don't know weather to think I'm nuts or within the right frame of mind right now. On top of it being my b-day on Thursday, I also lost my new job before I even started (on top of several other horrid things), and now I'm toying with going back into business for myself, except instead of freelancing, I'm considering getting tax ID's and all the other normal Business junk started this time so I can maybe make more of it than as "that guy who fixes computers". Good part is I can get some capital from doing installs.
Why do I want to do this? Well, I don't call myself Mad-Mike for nothing that's for sure. I always come up with crazy ideas and make em' work, it's just hard to figure out if I want to take the risk or not. I remember freelancing as one of the most fun things I ever did with computers, because while building friends and clientel by word of mouth, I was also doing what I enjoy, making older hardware do stuff other people thought was either impossible, and often saving them more money. I still provide support on most of the systems I built and serviced back then over the phone and internet.
So I came up here looking to get to the 9 to 5 grind with a reputable company, but I've learned a LOT about how big business in Seattle differs from some dude in a run down building in Auburn Alabama., which has me thinking about taking what I've learned and applying it to my advantage. My last job was a call center, and the one before was warranty repairs on-site. Between those two, I learned how much big-business sucks the life out of you, as well as how much having "middlemen" can hinder progress. I've grown to see big corporations as being huge monsters with everyone including the CEO as a slave to it due to the stupidity of our legal system (all these clauses and legal forms for everything from employment to data backups), to the stupidity of people in general (dress codes, tardy policies, mission statements, and all that other crap), which has made me appreciate the home grown way more. Half the reason I was so successful as a freelancer was that Middleman issue.
See, when I worked for warranty repair, there was a middleman between the technician and the company. Take for instance, my warranty repair issues, it's bogged down by having too many parts in the system. Instead of someone just calling me, me getting right up, and taking care of business right away. Instead one company would send the work order to another company, who would send the orther through 3-4 departments for processing, for me to pull it up on the internet the next morning, schedule the call in with everything else, and run out and take care of it, often times putting up a huge escalation risk because no 2 customers have a primary problem. I can't even list the number of times I ended up having to replace a noisy case fan before I go replace a hard disk just because the hard disk came later on, even thought hey were a BUSINESS customer and need less downtime, and I had no access to see that the call even came in.
With me, it was simple. Customer calls me up, I put down whatever PC/guitar/whatever project I'm doing at the time if I'm not already working somewhere, then drive/walk over to the location, take care of it, and it's done, the customer paid their moolah and the machine works great, so they're happy, and I got my money, got to "play" with computer parts, and got another satisfied customer due to fast service (and maybe a friend if not already), easy as that. It's done, no queues, no BS, just take work order, get it done, and move to the next. Just throw in the normal record stuff, and I'm fine. No aggrivating co-workers, no lateness policy, I can go out in a T-shirt and jeans (which was more than often apropriate), and most of that is moot anyway because I tried for NO downtime if possible.
However, this ain't Alabama. Instead of grandma and her old 386 SX, you have reasonably skilled Businessman Bob and his Pentium IV 3.8 GHz Dell that just came off Warranty, and a LOT more competition. Instead of Willie Bob's PC's and Sandwhiches down the street who sells you a 5.25" drive bay to 3.5" floppy adapter for $5, you have 8 different businesses to compete with, more places to buy parts at a more expensive cost. So it's a different level of work than I'm used to rather than tossing in a super socket 7 motherboard w/ K6 CPU and RAM, throwing in a copy of Win 98 SE, and setting it up all for around $80 total complete with hookup back to their Charter high speed internet.
I'm just getting tired of "settling" for something lesser, when I have the potential to do much more. Call centers are pretty automated and easy anyway, assuming you can login to the tools you need (GRRR, real BS), Warranty repair is great if they give you the information out front. I don't think such a line of work exists where things are direct, to the point, have flexable hours, a NORMAL (eg. non business casual dress code) and allow for upward movement.
Why do I want to do this? Well, I don't call myself Mad-Mike for nothing that's for sure. I always come up with crazy ideas and make em' work, it's just hard to figure out if I want to take the risk or not. I remember freelancing as one of the most fun things I ever did with computers, because while building friends and clientel by word of mouth, I was also doing what I enjoy, making older hardware do stuff other people thought was either impossible, and often saving them more money. I still provide support on most of the systems I built and serviced back then over the phone and internet.
So I came up here looking to get to the 9 to 5 grind with a reputable company, but I've learned a LOT about how big business in Seattle differs from some dude in a run down building in Auburn Alabama., which has me thinking about taking what I've learned and applying it to my advantage. My last job was a call center, and the one before was warranty repairs on-site. Between those two, I learned how much big-business sucks the life out of you, as well as how much having "middlemen" can hinder progress. I've grown to see big corporations as being huge monsters with everyone including the CEO as a slave to it due to the stupidity of our legal system (all these clauses and legal forms for everything from employment to data backups), to the stupidity of people in general (dress codes, tardy policies, mission statements, and all that other crap), which has made me appreciate the home grown way more. Half the reason I was so successful as a freelancer was that Middleman issue.
See, when I worked for warranty repair, there was a middleman between the technician and the company. Take for instance, my warranty repair issues, it's bogged down by having too many parts in the system. Instead of someone just calling me, me getting right up, and taking care of business right away. Instead one company would send the work order to another company, who would send the orther through 3-4 departments for processing, for me to pull it up on the internet the next morning, schedule the call in with everything else, and run out and take care of it, often times putting up a huge escalation risk because no 2 customers have a primary problem. I can't even list the number of times I ended up having to replace a noisy case fan before I go replace a hard disk just because the hard disk came later on, even thought hey were a BUSINESS customer and need less downtime, and I had no access to see that the call even came in.
With me, it was simple. Customer calls me up, I put down whatever PC/guitar/whatever project I'm doing at the time if I'm not already working somewhere, then drive/walk over to the location, take care of it, and it's done, the customer paid their moolah and the machine works great, so they're happy, and I got my money, got to "play" with computer parts, and got another satisfied customer due to fast service (and maybe a friend if not already), easy as that. It's done, no queues, no BS, just take work order, get it done, and move to the next. Just throw in the normal record stuff, and I'm fine. No aggrivating co-workers, no lateness policy, I can go out in a T-shirt and jeans (which was more than often apropriate), and most of that is moot anyway because I tried for NO downtime if possible.
However, this ain't Alabama. Instead of grandma and her old 386 SX, you have reasonably skilled Businessman Bob and his Pentium IV 3.8 GHz Dell that just came off Warranty, and a LOT more competition. Instead of Willie Bob's PC's and Sandwhiches down the street who sells you a 5.25" drive bay to 3.5" floppy adapter for $5, you have 8 different businesses to compete with, more places to buy parts at a more expensive cost. So it's a different level of work than I'm used to rather than tossing in a super socket 7 motherboard w/ K6 CPU and RAM, throwing in a copy of Win 98 SE, and setting it up all for around $80 total complete with hookup back to their Charter high speed internet.
I'm just getting tired of "settling" for something lesser, when I have the potential to do much more. Call centers are pretty automated and easy anyway, assuming you can login to the tools you need (GRRR, real BS), Warranty repair is great if they give you the information out front. I don't think such a line of work exists where things are direct, to the point, have flexable hours, a NORMAL (eg. non business casual dress code) and allow for upward movement.