IETech was started in 1990; mostly as a means to diversify employment opportunities. It also served as a means to learn technology and use it to develop applications. And, finally, it was at the core of small business consulting for 15 years.
I was Living in San Francisco, I was approached by a few friend for help with the companies they worked for. Upon providing assistance, it was apparent the need was greater than originally thought. Sharing office space with another company, my services then extended to two companies. Having started IETEch several years earlier I had a platform to continue this consultancy. My business model was easy. I provided all tangibles to my clients at cost and only billed for me hours. Though I had 4 clients during the 15 years of consulting it was 2 which required most of the attention. I had originally set them up with Microsoft servers, but after years of unreliability, I decided to transition them to Linux. From my research, I knew Linux had a ‘steep’ learning curve, but popular testimony was that it would be worth it. Of course the transition was pressure packed as I needed to keep my clients operational through it all, while not incurring additional hardware costs. I went from systems crashing daily to no crashes. In fact, several years after moving on from these clients, they were still using the system I’d set up for them. That’s over 10 years. Needless to say, I’ve been a Linux fan ever since. So, you might ask: “Why isn’t my consulting business still my primary source of income?”. Believe it or not, it is exhausting being the goto for everything. ‘Everything’ for which a corporation has multiple departments and personnel delivering the same service. As technology broadened so did my learning curves. Throw in a marriage and I decided it was now time to go back to work for someone else. But, I will look fondly back on the experience and friendships that only small businesses can fulfill.