Sunday, September 27, 2009

How would it be

There is nothing I would rather do than quit my job and work for myself but when I consider the benefits I have at my current job, it is hard to imagine myself giving it up. Health insurance alone is worth hundreds each month and the 401K is also worth a lot too. It would take a lot of balls for someone like me to quit their job and start a business. I would be giving up a decent wage and all kinds of benefits. I can see how starting a business when you're young would be the best time to do it. The chances of your business failing are very high. You would most likely be begging for your job within weeks or months. I have seen it happen with some of the guys I manage at work. One guy has tried it twice. Once with a window washing business and another time with selling insurance or something.

I have done a few side jobs in the past two or three months and can't imagine replacing my job. It sure would be nice to work for yourself but I am under no illusions of how it would be. I would be working twice as hard for less money. I have a lot of respect for people who start their own business. It would have to be the right blend of luck, hard work and a damn good product or service. The type of business I would start would be a computer business (shocking I know) Almost everyone who has a computer needs work done but most just wait until their machine fails instead of doing maintenance over time to make it last. I could make a computer last for as long as possible. I have one now that is in better condition as when it was new in 2005. It's slow by today's standards but I could still be using it.

What's the first thing most people do after their computers fail? They go to Best Buy or RC Willey where they can get a sub par product and get it financed. What they should do is upgrade over time and do regular maintenance so they get everything they can out of it. This takes a lot of knowledge and time however. That's where I come in....I could provide this service (cleaning, upgrading, and maintaining) and it wouldn't cost too much. With the proper advertising, I think this type of service could succeed.

A small business could provide a better product and service but certainly could not provide financing and advertising would be the main problem. I guess it's back to work for me on Monday but how would it be to work for yourself. It might not be the best thing for me. My job keeps me out of trouble. It sure would have a lot of good points and be a lot of work.

That's my thought of the week/month

Saturday, September 19, 2009

End of summer! Yahooooo!


I have been slacking lately. I've been very busy. These are fun to read months later.

I have been working and then working some more after work on building and upgrading computers. I have built one system for a guy at work and upgraded 4 others. I have been surprised how many people need work done. I have also been into cleaning viruses and malware. Some people are better off just saving their music and pictures and having me restore the computer to the state when they bought it new. Most need new ones but this helps and it's not expensive. Anyway, I have just finished building a computer for a rich guy. The picture is of some parts for that build. (Intel Corei7 - one of the fastest CPUs made and Mushkin RAM - some of the fstest RAM made) I am installing Windows right now so I'm almost done. I hope I can get a side business going. In plan to try.

I am at the point now where I can do just about anything hardware related. I still struggle with the software a little bit.

The statistics are amazing when you hear them.

The average life of a computer is 3.(something) years. If yours is more than 3-4 years old, it's at the end of life and you had better start looking.]

It all depends on what type of use you are however. If you just use a couple of programs and use e-mail and Internet, you can really stretch the life out a bit. A good rule of thumb is if your machine starts getting errors or can't do what you need....it's time. Always save your important pictures and music, documents, etc.

This has been my thought of the day/month.