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| Working for yourself advice. |
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| PaulAm:
Contacts are the biggest problem. I ran a one person company for close to 30 years. The first jobs came out of contacts I made while working for a smallish university. Other clients came from those and networking from friends. For many years I had a contract with a large university, but those again came out of personal contacts. When my contacts dispersed, as happens, so did the contracts. You need something to get the attention of your customers to differentiate you from the crowd and get you in the door. Being buried in a back room lab is not great preparation for that. Selling services is easier than selling products (unless maybe you're selling into the hobby market). For services, you just need adequate professional liability insurance and a good contract lawyer. For products, you need an entire legal staff :-DD Oh, and recessions can be brutal. In the '08 meltdown I lost half my client base to death, retirements and business closures. Things got a bit sticky back then. |
| jonpaul:
Bonjour à tous Agréé with notes of Paul Am, it's not what you know, its who you know. Our network started with university alumni, coworkers, friends. 1970s..1980s joined a local consulting referral, PATCA, in Silicon Valley. By 1985, 2 pages ad in EEM component annual directory, for our parts. IN 1994, wrote and set-up first website (HTML, 24 hours HTML café). Since 1990s, original research, published papers and gave présentations at industry conferences, eg AES, SMPTE, NAB. Our work specific for data transmission, HV or magnetics, so these mémoire may not apply to the OP situation. Hope this note can spark some feedback and ideas! Bon courage et bon chance from France. Jon |
| Wilksey:
Thanks for all replies, good advice about doing it as a side hustle, i've been doing that for a number of years now for a bit of pocket money on the side. I mentioned looking at automation companies and those that install the automation equipment as they may well be an opportunity for a design partner, cold call / email them, we don't really have networking events local to us, there is the chamber of commerce but I've been to a few of those and it seems quite close knit to those already members and you try speaking to a few but then they go back to their gathering and you feel like a spare part. |
| SiliconWizard:
--- Quote from: Bud on September 27, 2022, 09:23:39 pm ---Do not forget banks will treat you differently if you are self-employed. Specifically, difficult to get a mortgage. --- End quote --- Yeah, that's one of the downsides. The trick would be to get it while you're employed and switching to self-employed after that. |
| tycz:
--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on October 02, 2022, 12:41:27 am --- --- Quote from: Bud on September 27, 2022, 09:23:39 pm ---Do not forget banks will treat you differently if you are self-employed. Specifically, difficult to get a mortgage. --- End quote --- Yeah, that's one of the downsides. The trick would be to get it while you're employed and switching to self-employed after that. --- End quote --- I'm self employed and had no trouble getting a mortgage. I asked the bank about it and they said it would only be a problem if I couldn't provide the previous two years' tax records. |
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