[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Danny Faught) writes: > William R Ward wrote: > > Sure, if it's made worth my while financially. But I'm also working a > > full time job, so I can't do it often (I have to take vacation time to > > do it). > > I have a colleague who insists on working full-time while doing training > on the side. I honestly don't understand how that business model works, > but he seems to be happy with it. Probably evening or weekend courses > done in installments like I'm guessing you're doing. That would have to > be all local gigs. Apparently he even does consulting work. Several > folks I've seen hanging out in alt.computer.consultants.moderated try to > get a consulting practice off the ground this way, though the negative > reaction we've seen on this list is also common there.
One thing to keep in mind is that full-time businesses require full-time income to stay afloat. A part-time business doesn't need as much, so it makes it easier to start off slow and build momentum. If I quit my job to train full-time I would need to bring in a lot more money just to pay the bills, and would need to sell a lot more classes right away, with little name recognition at this point. Besides, my "day job" is very important to me, and I'm not willing to sacrifice that. But I do have time on the weekends and evenings, and am starting to use that time to develop additional income. I do have plans for growing the business but I'm not comfortable discussing those in a public forum. However I will mention that my business partner (aka wife) is in the process of learning sales, and that it is not my intent to do all the teaching myself in the long term... > > But finding such gigs is even harder, I would think. > > If you sign on with a training company that markets nationally, then > you'll probably have to travel. Being open to travel makes things > easier, opens up many more opportunities. Of course, you'll have to > play by their rules, even if you use your own material. It wouldn't > work for you if you're really an independent spirit. Since I'm located in the heart of Silicon Valley (rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated) I have tons of potential customers all around me. Since word of mouth is a big part of how I intend to get new customers, I am focusing my energies on the local market. Having a happy customer in Peoria won't help me nearly as much as having happy local customers, I believe. But I love to travel and would be very happy to do so. I went to Germany last summer to teach a training course (for my former employer, where I was Manager of Training for their software product) and loved it. But it's difficult to reconcile that with the other priorities in my life at the moment. > Most of what I've been doing for the last six months or so is just > conference tutorials. It doesn't pay very well, but I've been told it's > a good way to market myself for more serious gigs. And of course I get > to practice my skills, and I get free admission to the conference and > partial travel reimbursement. It's pretty cool seeing my picture on the > brochure that's going out to like-minded folks nationwide. How do you get your name on the program? Don't you need to have already established your name recognition first? I'd love to do that. Another approach that could work is to write a book. I'm sure that a big part of Randal's business comes from the fact that his name is on the cover of the Llama book. However the market for Perl books is pretty well saturated by this point... --Bill. -- William R Ward [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.wards.net/~bill/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMAZING BUT TRUE: There is so much sand in northern Africa that if it were spread out it would completely cover the Sahara Desert!
