The real trick is to be a chameleon.... IT is a crazy place, companies generally pay to keep their employees skills current, its much harder for a contractor/consultant to do the same. I have been doing this (first solo and now running a consulting business) for about 17 years, the skills I sold 17 years ago in no way resemble what we sell now. Jobs have gone to India and China, so we have had to change the business model again. We don't just do EDI anymore, we have remade our company into a full service IT services company for small business. All businesses need IT services, most don't need full time people. Our skills are varied from EDI, programming, servers, desktops, card access systems, camera systems, paging (for warehouses), cabling, and telephony etc. We have found that small business like dealing with a single vendor they can trust and we don't have to work with other vendors in getting a project done. My people are very diverse in their skills. It seems to work for us, but in 5 years who knows what we will look like. The only constant is change. cjg
Carl J. Galgano EDI Consulting Services, Inc. 770-422-2995 www.ediconsulting.com 600 Kennesaw Avenue Suite 400 Marietta, GA 30060 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Susan Stecklair Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 3:15 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [EDI-L] Consulting or Permanent Hi Chris -- It is difficult to totally assess without understanding your financial situation, # of kids in your family, and your customer base. Are you the sole support? With that being said. Most of the consultants I was competing with about 7 or 8 years ago have disappeared, left consulting, or took full-time work. If you are considering consulting: * Do you have several clients that will continue to give you a stream of work? * How will you market yourself? * Will you be able to prove 3 jobs in a year to comply with many big companies requirements for a consultant (& not a W2 temp) * Are you willing to work onsite & travel? Feel free to call me if you'd like to discuss further. Regards, Susan 2a. Consulting or Permanent Posted by: "Hodges, Chris" [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:chodges%40cswg.com> cjhodges12 Date: Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:09 am ((PDT)) All, I am wondering if I can get some opinions from this list on the benefits and downfalls of consulting/permanent EDI work. In the current marketplace is there a need for 'road warriors' or is the market saturated? How does one break into this world? Is it worth the risks/rewards? Or, should one be happy that one has a decent permanent job and stick it out for the next 30 years? All responses are welcomed and appreciated. Thanks, Chris -- Susan Stecklair, President Electronic Commerce, Inc. <http://www.ecommerce-inc.com <http://www.ecommerce-inc.com> > Your Leader in EDI/B2B Integration Services and Products Visit our new blog <http://www.ecommerce-inc.com/trends <http://www.ecommerce-inc.com/trends> > on eCommerce Trends, Issues and Outsourcing ( 408.996.7492 Business Office [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ... Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
