[OT?] Remote management service idea

[Matt Morgan]

On Wed, 09 Feb 2005 09:03:34 -0600, Brian Fahrlander
<brian at fahrlander.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-02-09 at 06:41 -0500, Leonard Isham wrote:
> 
> > A few thoughts.
> >
> > Let's see $80 install  and $240 for a year of support is $320 for the
> > first year and $240 each additional year.  The big question is will
> > people pay that even if it is billed monthly?
> 
>    If they don't, we send'em back the root password by certified mail.
> 
> > Consider the first several months will be the most support so you make
> > the least amount per hour.  After they stop needing you thay may
> > cancel...  Maybe a monthly fee for the beginners and then a per
> > support incident fee option.
> >
> > Is this per computer or per user?  Family/shared computer discount?
> 
>     It's intended as a per-machine cost.
> 
>     I'm afraid the idea is dissolving quickly though; the money's just
> not there, and I can't 'spin up' the required 68 contracts to get me
> full time with it, while working this hellish third-shift schedule.
> I've already signed on to become a truck driver; I'd make three times
> the pay that I am now, love to drive, and it'd give me that 'universal'
> skill I could take with me.
> 
>     I've been working on this for about two years; it's because I'm
> grasping at straws that I've gone public with the idea. I was hoping
> something would show up in public analysis that would make it work.

I think you should start locally, doing both ends of the job (sales
and support). I realize from your other posts that you may not live
near a huge population. But what I like about your idea is, the amount
of money you'll make scales pretty linearly with the amount of work
you have to do, even at the very low end. In other words, it's kind of
worth it even if you have just one small customer. So theoretically it
should be easy to get started and try it out.

The hardest part of individual tech consulting is finding, getting,
and keeping customers. For $20 a month, once you get them, the keeping
should be relatively easy. So I don't see a whole lot of reason not to
try it. I suggest this: pitch it to very small businesses, as a way to
take technical problems out of their hands, so they can focus on what
they do best--or something like that. They're already paying more than
$20/month for the broadband connections, web hosting, etc., so some
may see this as the next logical, affordable step in growing their
businesses. If you can convince them that you can keep their computers
working, and that they just wont' have to worry about it any more,
you'll sell them.

On the other hand, if you have to depend on other people to make your
initial contacts, I don't think this idea will work. If I was an
individual consultant, I wouldn't give up any of my customers to
someone else. I'd want that $20/month/customer for myself. I think you
have to do it all, from first contact to last.

--Matt