Evolution of a Microsoft Partner Practice Part 1: Moonlighting
A very common method for IT folks to supplement their income while working full time is to moonlight. For most businesses it's ok if not explicitly authorized, mostly because the business owner or manager does not fully understand what the IT guy does, so as long as it is not adversely affecting the core performance of the IT guy, go for it! Like many, I started my business this way. It started out as helping out at the church and local NFPs or at a friend's small business who needed some help with their email. These were all simple gigs, nothing formal, and partly based on the underground economy of beer and pizza. Maybe a couple of dollars came my way, but nothing more than gas money. Soon, however, my phone was ringing quite regularly, 'Hey can you swing by and check out our router? Our Internet has been down all day, and we don't know the first thing about this stuff!' This kind of thing was happening regularly, to the point that I was running major equipment and system upgrades on weekends and running a help desk from 6-midnight every night. After a while I started making almost as much money doing that as I was in my job, and my job was not going anywhere, so I resigned and went into business for myself. No boss hanging over my head, bugging me about inane projects, no co-workers disappearing for hours at a time not contributing to projects, just me and my skills…
This is a dangerous time for EVERYONE involved. There was tons of risk and tons of liability hanging in the balance. If anything happened it could be really bad. For the IT guy, it really isn't that bad, as long as they are ethical and capable. For the small businesses that use these IT guys, it is taking a spin at Russian roulette with the health and welfare of your business. And what's more, the employees that expect that owner is making sound decisions about their business. If the IT guy messes anything up too much, there's a real chance that the business could fail and they all lose their job. That's not hyperbole, it has happened. Fortunately not for me, but I know guys who will never admit it in public but they f'ed something up and it cost the business owner so much to get it fixed that they just threw in the towel rather than paying for the work to correct the problem correctly. That is the extreme, but most business owners, who don't really know how IT systems work, are trusting the business and the livelihoods of all their employees to IT guys who have no real stake in the quality of their work. The IT Guy mentality breeds a false sense of professionalism. The fact is that the IT Guy may have a personal interest in the success or failure of something, but they also know that come next Friday they get a paycheck from their employer. I won't even go into the dangers for the IT Guy's fulltime employer.
I survived this stage of business, but just barely. And knowing what I know now, it's not the right way to start an IT Business..
Next time, Hanging out my Shinle