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Growth Job Sector: Freelance Technical Support
Posted by
michael
on Fri Jul 25, 2003 11:10 AM
from the making-cable-ends-meet dept.
from the making-cable-ends-meet dept.
An anonymous reader wrotes: "Over at World New York, they've posted excellent advice to the geek masses: If you're out of work and know how to use a computer, you can make a killing doing freelance technical support." Update: 07/25 20:00 GMT by M : The author has asked that we link to the article on homepage.mac.com due to server overload. :)
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Only in theory... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Only in theory... (Score:5, Funny)
You're new to tech/user support, I see...
Parent
Re:Only in theory... (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole "the Universe or human stupidity" thing.
Parent
Re:Only in theory... (Score:5, Funny)
they build a better idiot.
Parent
Er? (Score:5, Funny)
They don't charge you anything, you charge them, ideally by the hour.
Parent
Re:Only in theory... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Only in theory... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Only in theory... (Score:5, Insightful)
"So easy to use, no wonder it's #1!" Yes. Easy is good when something is cheap, it becomes automatic. But when the price goes up, people are willing to do more work to save a few bucks.
I think the adage should be "A fool and his money are soon parted...but fools don't get that much money to begin with." Managers excepted.
Parent
Re:Only in theory... (Score:5, Informative)
Generally, the first thing you do when you call support is ask a question that you know couldn't possibly be answered in their checklist, and ask to be transfered up the Support Chain.
Parent
I'd rather (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'd rather (Score:4, Interesting)
You can make a killing in tech support -- assuming you don't kill yourself before your first paycheck.
Parent
Re:I'd rather (Score:5, Insightful)
Why yes I would. I can't even stand to give technical support to my family and I love them.
Taking angry calls from people who think ie is the internet and trying to fix some computer completely loaded with spyware over the phone sounds like a 40 hour a week root cannel to me.
Parent
slashdotted already (Score:5, Funny)
Liability (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Liability (Score:5, Insightful)
1) get a million dollars worth of liability insurance. Cheap enough really.
2) Form your service as a Limited Liability Corporation that has no assets.
So, if you do get sued, and they do gain ownership of your LLC; they get nothing. And, you can happily go off, form another LLC and continue business.
Remember, your dealing with idiots, and when dealing with idiots you can't do enough CYA.
Parent
Free Lance Technical Support? (Score:5, Interesting)
That market is saturated pretty bad if you ask me.
Re:Free Lance Technical Support? (Score:5, Funny)
My fave consulting story: he begs me once that he needs me to help fix someone's printer. Mac couldn't print. After some convincing (I was jealous he was doing it and I knew i was too lazy to get off my ass) I went over. Tried some basic stuff, didn't work. Went to core simple things:
Printer plugged in? yep, light on and everything.
Cable plugged into Mac? yep.
AppleTalk turned off on serial port? yep.
Printer cable plugged into printer? ummm, nope.
The kid also had a PowerCD, essentially a CD player you could use as a portable or hook to the Mac (i told you this was years ago). Kid wanted to show me some games, so to show me, he shut the computer down, removed the CD and restarted it. My jaw dropped slightly. "Umm, you know you can drag the CD to the trash can to eject it". "Wow, just like a floppy?" "yeah," I said "just like a floppy". I asked my 'consultant' friend why didn't he teach the kid that. He said "well, I didn't want to confuse him." Oh, so to not confuse him, you show him an alternate way of ejecting a CD instead of showing its just like all removable media. Umm, OK.
Hmm, then again this is the same guy who's car was on fire, didn't notice it, and when a cop pulls him over to kill the flames, pulls into a gas station.
Silly thing is, he got a lot of clients, including one of The Kennedys. He's going to her house, in her car, and she says "I have to stop by work for a second." Pulls up to the Merchandise Mart, at one time the only commercial building in the US with it's own ZIP code (they've since sold off their interests). he goes "wow, you work there?" "Kind of, I own it." Goes to show, sometimes you don't need to be smart, just have to look smart to the people paying you.
Parent
Re:Free Lance Technical Support? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's me.
Except that some of my clients have grown, and my business has grown with it. In 7 years we went from
Me - fixing windows 95 CD-ROM drivers.
to
Me and four other people - making accounting packages with PostgreSQL and XUL, installing OpenBSD firewalls/WAN, FreeBSD file-servers, making KDE apps that are served with Linux, and all sorts of other fun stuff.
All the while making a shit-load of money.
Parent
A few extra factors (Score:5, Informative)
1) Health Insurance
2) Liability
3) Accounting
Not that these factors can't be dealt with, but they are, amongst other things, stuff you normally don't have to worry about as an employee of a company.
Re:A few extra factors (Score:4, Informative)
check out the Working Today Freelancer's Union [freelancersunion.org]. They offer Individual and Family Health & Dental Insurance plans [freelancersunion.org] for freelancers in tech-related jobs in the greater NYC metropolitan area.
Parent
Re:A few extra factors (Score:5, Informative)
Get catastrophic health insurance. I'm paying about $75/month for a $2,000/year deductable ($500/year deductable for prescriptions). Basically, unless I get hit by a truck, get cancer, or some other catastrophy, I don't bother the insurance company and they don't bother me (or my docs, etc). The cost diff between that and Blue Cross is more than enough to pay routine expenses, even after having to pay them with aftertax dollars (which is the real reason why health insurance is employer paid: tax deduction).
2) Liability
Get the obligatory Nolo's Quick LLC [amazon.com] book. Setting up a LLC will protect your personal assets. But yeah, there's a lot of lawsuit-happy morons out there. My homeowners association has been sued by a few fellow homeowners who don't realize that suing an association of 300 members that they are a part of is really, really self-defeating.
3) Accounting
I'm still working on that one. Actually, I'm working on getting a master's in accounting, now that the job market for software engineers is shot to hell. But my prof told me about how he just spent serious money getting someone from Rent-A-Geek (I kid you not, they drive around what appear to be repainted Slashdot Cruisers, remember those?) to fix his wireless network. $75 for them to come out plus over $100/hour on top of that. (The diagnosis? The Linksys WLAN card was DOA. Shock.) Since I was the guy that tech support came to when they got stuck on Wintel platform issues at my last job, doing home/small business freelance tech support sounds plausible to me. Maybe I'll give it a try.
Parent
i did tech support 5 years ago (Score:4, Funny)
Grandmothers (Score:5, Funny)
Yup (Score:4, Interesting)
That's how I got my current job ~2 years ago. Configuring 2 Cisco PIX firewalls on a contract basis. Now I'm full time and love it.
Tech Support is Easy! (Score:5, Funny)
Me: Yeah, hi, I have a cable modem through you and...
Drone: You have a what?
Me: I have a cable modem, its not
Drone: You have a what?
Me: I. Have. A. Cable. Modem. High. Speed. Internet. You. Know? Its out, flashing lights...
Drone: Oh, you have broadband. Unplug your modem for 5 seconds, and then plug the network cable directly into your computer if you have a hub/router (obvious they have no clue what either is, its probably just in their script as such).
Me: I've already done that, and no, its not the hub, the hub works fine.
Drone: Let me send out a technician.
Me: ARGH!!!!
God I hate them. Thank you Speakeasy! At least they laugh when I tell them how much I hate the cable companies!
Great Opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
The MILFs of Geeks (Score:5, Funny)
LARGE HARD DRIVE
Maybe this is the road to riches they are thinking about.
myke
Parent
Mmm, freelance! (Score:5, Interesting)
I would see signs/ads, everywhere (literally), begging to have people hire them at prices that reached into the hundreds per hour. I'm a simple guy, without too many expenses, I buy a ton of games, and for me, $20 dollars an hour was great. I got to choose my own hours, and make myself profitable.
As for the "idiots to techs" ratio question, some people obviously haven't worked in the tech field [long enough]. Until the day they make a computer completely crash/idiot-proof, there will always be a need for a technician.
My two cents...
Re:Mmm, freelance! (Score:4, Insightful)
The hourly rate one can charge depends entirely on what skills one has and the type of work being done for whom. If I had to go it alone, being a Unix System Admin, I wouldn't dream of charging less than $100/hr, and mostly likely closer to twice that. I also would try to concentrate on the Fortune 5000 types of corporations, as those are the guys with the money to burn. Of course, I'd only work about 30 hours a week as a result, but much of that would likely be 2nd or 3rd shift. Those are the hours critcal work is best done, and leaves the regular staff (if any) available for the 9 - 5 routine.
Parent
Re:$20/HR....ooohhh...plumbers start at $50/hr (Score:5, Funny)
Kintanon
Parent
Hell No (Score:5, Insightful)
Everybody is already doing this (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides, people aren't willing to pay the amount of money it takes to take care of stoopid Windoze problems- a reload on an average system can take 4-6 hours (with backups, new drivers, etc.)
Hard to get more than a couple systems a day through, then you've got to figure on all the time and energy spent on trying to get clients.
I'm making more money (sadly enough) as a convenience store manager than as a geek nowadays.
And now, as well, with even programming jobs being shopped overseas, the market for geek skills is even tougher.
Changing careers may be a better option than chasing after elusive (and non-existant) tech money.
peace,
r.
Can't see this making much money. (Score:4, Informative)
Ive been doing this for quite some time. (Score:5, Interesting)
Bonus! (Score:5, Funny)
If you're out of work and know how to use a computer, you can make a killing doing freelance technical support.
In addition to making a decent wage and setting your own hours, you can decide how to respond to each customer without having to worry about what The Boss thinks of your approach:
Caller 1: "Hello? My computer won't work anymore!"
You: "When did you first notice the problem?"
Caller: "Oh right after I took it apart and washed all the components with warmy, soapy water. It was getting really dirty."
You: "You fuckin, fuckin, moron. No help for you!"
Caller 2: "Hello? I'm having trouble getting the floor pedal to work. How hard am I supposed to be stepping on it?"
You: "Floor pedal? What the fuck?"
Caller: "You know. That hand-shaped device with the rubber ball imbedded in it!"
You: *click*
Caller 3: "Hello? I can't get Microsoft Outlook Express to work with my AOL account."
You: "Well, Dude, it sucks to be you. If you were using pine on a Linux box I might be inclined to help you. But nooooo, you wanted to help Microshaft and AOHell strengthen their monopoly. Well, have fun with their tech support lines 'cause I sure as hell ain't gonna help your monopoly-strengthening lazy ass!" *click*
Yeah, I can see the freedom to provide the appropriate response a real bonus to this job!
GMD
Typical Freelance Support Call (Score:5, Funny)
"Oh, hello, Jim. How're things at World New York? ...oh...I see...hmm...well, let's see what we can do.
"First off, what do you see on the screen? ...Nothing? Is the server plugged in? Mmm-hmm...it is? Okay, that's good. And the power is on? ... you press the little button, but nothing happens. OK. And are any lights on? No. Hmm.
"It sounds like you may have a hardware--what's that? Really? Well, that's not good...yes, it does smell rather bad when that happens. *laugh* Yes, I can see how having the extinguisher right there came in handy...
"Well, I'm afraid...huh? Your backup just went, too? That's odd. That only ever happens when--hang on. *clickity tappity clackety CLACK*
Oh.
"Jim, have you ever heard of a website called 'Slashdot'?
You forgot one thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Alternate Link, and Full Text, From The Author (Score:5, Informative)
Here's an alternate link:
http://homepage.mac.com/monickels/techjob.html [mac.com]
And the full text:
By Grant Barrett @ World New York
This article by the New York Times suggests that people are becoming technically adept by necessity, and that, as happened with radios and automobiles, eventually all technology will take care of itself and be as mindless to operate as toasters are today.
I see that day as decades off. Computers are still complex to make, complex to learn, complex to integrate with other gadgets. More importantly, they still have more than one knob or lever. Until that day of machine self-reliance, I see a golden opportunity: an under-served market waiting for the ambitious to step in.
The following is a small excerpt of a manuscript, modified to suit this topic.
Technical Self-Employment Is A Fat Paycheck Waiting to Be PocketedBy Grant Barrett @ World New York [worldnewyork.net]
This article [nytimes.com] by the New York Times suggests that people are becoming technically adept by necessity, and that, as happened with radios and automobiles, eventually all technology will take care of itself and be as mindless to operate as toasters are today.
I see that day as decades off. Computers are still complex to make, complex to learn, complex to integrate with other gadgets. More importantly, they still have more than one knob or lever. Until that day of machine self-reliance, I see a golden opportunity: an under-served market waiting for the ambitious to step in.
The following is a small excerpt of a manuscript, modified to suit this topic.
Technical Self-Employment Is A Fat Paycheck Waiting to Be Pocketed
Last year, at a Christmas party held by a client of mine at a very nice restaurant in Manhattan, I ran into a friend of a friend. I don't know him well, but we've socialized once or twice, and have had solid geek conversations in the past. He does Active Directory management for big corporations.
I should say, he used to do that. He's been unemployed now for more than a year.
After we shook hands I could see his face change from a friendly howdy-do. He dropped down into commiseration mode: the corners of his mouth drooped, his head ducked, he took a Hapsburg stance--his feet angled, his left foot perpendicular to his right, heel against arch, his torso yawed a few degrees off center, his hands lightly on his hips--and waited expectantly.
I knew what he wanted. I make my living with private computer consulting: client-site tech support, mostly, but pretty much any of the little computer-related tasks small businesses have. I knew he wanted to talk about the tech business. And he wanted me to start, so I complied. "How's business?" I asked.
He jumped in according to the script. "Oh, it's not been going well at all. Awful. I've been out of work. I can't find anything. How're you doing?" He anticipated a long bitch session of headhunter mistreatment, interview mishaps, finicky clients, resume failure. He relished the chance.
"It's great," I said. "I've got more business than I can handle. I'm giving it away. I've probably handed off or turned down enough business in the last six months to employ another person full-time. In fact, I've just turned over a second $30,000-a-year piece of business to another tech so I could concentrate on other clients."
He looked at me in amazement. His eyes bugged out. I saw doubt, then self-doubt, there, and eventually he just walked away.
My theory: If you are reasonably adept at using or setting up a computer, there's no good reason to be unemployed.
Forget the boom-time Nineties. They're gone. I'm sorry.
This idea is right on... (Score:5, Insightful)
Recently read a book saying that any sort of repair-related career does fine during a recession. Reason should be obvious: people can't afford to buy a "new" whatever, or are scared to put out that kind of money, so they spend money keeping up to speed whatever they already have.
Also, think about the huge demographic of baby-boomers retiring or about to retire. All those parents, grandmas and grandpas about to have a huge chunk of free time on their hands. Maybe they're not so mobile anymore and hanging out at home a great deat. Most likely they're going to be buying a computer and getting on-line, for email, to do their amateur photography, etc. A huge target market. Plus they may be sitting on a nice pile of retirement money.
So I'd propose starting a up a consultant type business where you repair people's computers, do tech support, maybe even help people pick out computers to purchase, and target older retirees. Focus on house calls, and of course, super friendly customer support (say "yes sir, no ma'am"). Oldsters eat that stuff up.
Just as long as I'm the boss and you do all the house calls...
Life is a bitch (Score:5, Insightful)
A friend of mine, was a freelancer support geek, he supported ppl with no idea of computers , install windows here, reconfigure a driver there, fix the Internet connection over here, stuff like that...
AND HE MADE TWICE AS MUCH MONEY AS I DID....
Move your guns away from my face,i am not complaining here, my point here, is that it is irrelevant...you can be doing really complex things in a very large firm and another guy with half the work load you have gets paid twice as much just because of his connections and ofcorse (his spare time being unemployed)..
Not as bad as you might think. (Score:5, Insightful)
1: 'Certified' was in italics on the lower left hand corner. All by itself. Alone. One word. Certified in WHAT? If you have applicable certifications, explain them genuinely. If you don't, describe your actual knowledge instead.
2: Let the prospective customer know you stand behind your work - but at the same time, don't put yourself in a bad position to be liable for anything. Say that your liabilty is limited to one free hour of additional service, should you determine that an oversight on the initial visit wasn't sufficient.
3: Offer what you know. This sign I saw in the store said they offered -computer detailing- service, anti-virus and OS installation... and that was about it. If this person knew more, they'd have said it.
4: If you have a logo... don't use stock clip-art. This sign used the lined-pyramid default image on every default MS Publisher template as his logo. Depressing.
I've been doing this for quite a while... (Score:5, Informative)
The main problem with this plan is the plan! (Score:5, Insightful)
Consultant one: Well, you have a small shop and don't want a dedicated IT guy, so I'll set up Microsoft SBS (Small Business Server) so you'll have any function you can possibly need.
Consultant two: I don't know what that other guy was thinking, but it's pointless! You could have just bought (insert single application here) and saved a TON of money!
Something broken? Obviously the guy who worked on it last/set it up was a moron. Needless to say that this gets much worse depending on how many different guys you use. And not having a company-to-company relationship can really hurt when the e-mail server is down and John won't return phone calls.
Apparently I live in a different reality (Score:5, Informative)
The upside was that I could make a bunch of tax deductions for running a home business and get some of my money back from the government.
The downside was that it was a money-losing vebture from the start. A small ad in the weekly paper ran me about $90/month.. unless I got 5 calls in a month (which was rare) I was already in the hole.
Friends would ask me "man why arent you charging way more money?"... the simple explanation was that no one would ever pay it. When everyone has "a friend who knows lots about computers" why would they pay someone $75+/hr to come over when they could get it for free? I gave it up when the costs kept rising and the calls got scarce, even raising my price to $25/hr wasnt enough to pay any bills. I guess the population base isnt high enough to provide enough computer-idiots to make a living on. Now I see at least 3 other people around here trying to do the same thing.
I've been unemployed for almost 7 months now and I've enrolled in the military to get a steady job. Granted I'm in Canada but it's gotta be pretty similar in the US. Dont you just love IT?
I'm doing this right now (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better job, sure it has it's headaches, and some weeks the work is sparse, but I wouldn't trade the flexability it gives me with my kids for anything.
Geek Squad (Score:5, Informative)
They have an image and attitude. Their company cars bear a "Geek Squad" logo. Their people wear white shirts and ties and pocket protectors. They even have a black SWAT van for major problems.
It's too bad they're still a small company. They should be everywhere, like Roto-Rooter(tm).
They're hiring.
some problems (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you stock your own supply of spare parts? Can you purchase them at cost, or do you have to pay retail for them?
Finally - you'll always eventually hit some problem that you simply can't find answers for, either in expensive documentation - or PAID (cha-ching$$$) support calls to a vendor. Where you get endlessly jerked around. Personally, I could do every facet of this job, except this one, and love it. When I get stumped - and I know the answer's in there, but for a lack of good documentation, you're just plain stuck - as a freelancer.
Hell, even when I've worked for Big Software Company Dot Com, and we had clout with Microsoft - I would hit problems that even Microsoft developer support could not explain. That's a crappy position to be in, and exactly why I am a believer in Open Source. If you can't find someone who understands their own f0cking source code, then you can at least go in and look yourself.
I'm just saying - as a standalone freelance technical consultant, you don't have clout with the vendors, and you can't get the truly nasty problems fixed. Period.
On the other hand, getting $100/hr taking apart iMacs to get CD's out of froze-up slot-loading CD drives ain't a bad way to make a living.
Well you *USED* to be able to make a killing. (Score:5, Funny)
Is this the first time an entire job market has been slashdotted?
Re:no no no.. (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:no no no.. (Score:5, Funny)
Customer: Who is it?
Techie: Tech support.
Customer: I didn't call for any tech support!
Techie: Yes sir, I know. I am in the door to door tech support business. Can I interest you in some high quality tech support? My rates are very reasonable!
Customer: No, thanks. Goodb...
Techie: Are you sure you don't have bugs to troubleshoot?
Customer: No, really, thanks for coming, but....
Techie: Perhaps I could install some peripherals for you?
Customer: No!
Techie: Maybe I could run anti-virus software and defrag your hard drive. That's the special of the day!
Customer: No!
Techie: Any mysterious crashes I can diagnose, and then tell you you need to put in some more RAM and reinstall your operating system?
Customer: Well... wait, NO!
Techie: Maybe I could just open and close all your windows. I offer that service for only a dollar!
Customer: Go away or I'm calling the cops!
Parent