Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)

[Amos Shapira]

On 15 November 2011 04:12, geoffrey mendelson
wrote:

>
> On Nov 14, 2011, at 6:48 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>
>>
>> Simply because "price per hour" is a quantitative metric. The fact
>> that it is meaningless is meaningless.
>>
>
>
> It's the bogo-mips of consulting. :-)


+1 :)
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Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)

[Etzion Bar-Noy]

It doesn't matter. Because a customer needs a method of estimating a work,
does not make you his bitch(tm). You can estimate your work, but you seldom
work in a vacuum. You are working on his servers, on his setups, his
storage devices, around his network equipment. Under most cases, when I get
delayed, it's because of the customer, and not me.

Example. One of the newer cellular suppliers has demanded that I install a
large system in their new server farm (16 blades and a storage). I have
prepared the system, and on the delivery day (which was very time-pressed
due to the customer), I have discovered that they had not installed 220v AC
there yet. Can't do anything with the servers. The funny thing is that
during that time, two or three weeks since, the system is just sitting
there, when the server room is being "built" around it.

Ez

On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 4:33 PM, Nadav Har'El wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 14, 2011, geoffrey mendelson wrote about "Re: [OFFTOPIC]
> Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)":
> > Long ago I got out of the PC repair/support business when the 50 NIS
> > an hour people took over.
>
> Am I the only one bothered by all this "per hour" talk?
>
> What prevents a 50-NIS-per-hour consultant from telling you he worked
> for 4 hours on your problem, which it actually took him just one hour in
> his lab?
> Or a 200-NIS-per-hour consultant from finding your problem in 10
> minutes, because he solved exactly this problem a week ago or wrote the
> necessary code already?
>
> So how is the "price per hour" a meaningful variable when comparing two
> consultants?
>
> --
> Nadav Har'El|Monday, Nov 14
> 2011,
> n...@math.technion.ac.il
> |-
> Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Cats aren't clean, they're just
> covered
> http://nadav.harel.org.il   |with cat spit.
>
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>
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Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)

[Etzion Bar-Noy]

True. However, the best support can be given by a pro who has a cooperation
of the hosting company. Most of them will never cooperate, as they earn
better (despite their awful quality of work) with an external
person/company. So, your main channel - the hosting supplier, will probably
not like you using it as a marketing channel, and you can hardly ever know
(without some extensive search or cracking skills) which hosting service
holds which customers.

Ez

2011/11/14 Hetz Ben Hamo 

> Hi,
>
> I'll give you one: Supporting hosting customers.
>
> Explanation: there are over 40 businesses here in Israel which provides
> VPS and dedicated server renting solutions.
> Most of those businesses (including mine) provide the machine to the
> customers as "unmanaged",
> which means: the support you'll get relates *only* to network (if your
> VPS/Server) can communicate to and from the server
> The other part of support: shutting down/restart/pause/reset the server.
>
> Anything else - you're on your own. You can purchase a bank of hours for
> support or you can get emergency support for a higher price.
>
> There are, of course, some hosting businesses which will give you managed
> service, but in most case I would strongly recommend to get a freelance who
> will do the job for the client.
>
> Why? because they *SUCK AT IT* ! spreading root privileges all over the
> place, changing permissions of directories and files to 777, opening the
> internal firewall (if it exists, most of the time it's not) to everyone+his
> dog, and other nonsense stuff, and I'm also talking about the *BIG*
> providers which are also ISP - they suck, period!
>
> I think that this niche is mostly empty and people can get some
> jobs/contracts with such customers.
>
> If anyone want to register himself, I have a neutral forum for that. see
> here: http://hosts-forum.com/index.php
>
> Hope this helps,
> Hetz
>
> On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 3:02 PM, Omer Zak  wrote:
>
>> We need some process for identifying the next niche to pursue, taking
>> into account current skill set, customers/contacts, and effort&expense
>> incurred in acquiring the competencies relevant for the next niche.
>>
>> Did anyone blog about such a process?
>> --
>
> *חץ בן חמו
> חץ-ביז
> *השכרה ואירוח של שרתים פיזיים
> מעוניין להשתמש בשרותים שחסומים לגולש הישראלי? Hulu? NetFlix? Pandora?
> Google Voice? אם כן, היכנס לכאן .
>
>
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>
>
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Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)

[geoffrey mendelson]

On Nov 14, 2011, at 6:48 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:


Simply because "price per hour" is a quantitative metric. The fact
that it is meaningless is meaningless.



It's the bogo-mips of consulting. :-)

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson,  N3OWJ/4X1GM
My high blood pressure medicine reduces my midichlorian count. :-(














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Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)

[Dotan Cohen]

On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 16:33, Nadav Har'El  wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 14, 2011, geoffrey mendelson wrote about "Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding 
> the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)":
>> Long ago I got out of the PC repair/support business when the 50 NIS
>> an hour people took over.
>
> Am I the only one bothered by all this "per hour" talk?
>
> What prevents a 50-NIS-per-hour consultant from telling you he worked
> for 4 hours on your problem, which it actually took him just one hour in
> his lab?
> Or a 200-NIS-per-hour consultant from finding your problem in 10
> minutes, because he solved exactly this problem a week ago or wrote the
> necessary code already?
>
> So how is the "price per hour" a meaningful variable when comparing two
> consultants?
>

Simply because "price per hour" is a quantitative metric. The fact
that it is meaningless is meaningless.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com

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Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)

[Nadav Har'El]

On Mon, Nov 14, 2011, geoffrey mendelson wrote about "Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding 
the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)":
> Long ago I got out of the PC repair/support business when the 50 NIS
> an hour people took over.

Am I the only one bothered by all this "per hour" talk?

What prevents a 50-NIS-per-hour consultant from telling you he worked
for 4 hours on your problem, which it actually took him just one hour in
his lab?
Or a 200-NIS-per-hour consultant from finding your problem in 10
minutes, because he solved exactly this problem a week ago or wrote the
necessary code already?

So how is the "price per hour" a meaningful variable when comparing two
consultants?

-- 
Nadav Har'El|Monday, Nov 14 2011, 
n...@math.technion.ac.il |-
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Cats aren't clean, they're just covered
http://nadav.harel.org.il   |with cat spit.

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Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)

[geoffrey mendelson]

On Nov 14, 2011, at 3:45 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:


I can vouch for this. I am not a CS major and I consider myself a
Linux amateur, but I have worked supporting various Linux servers for
locals. Of course, I was making nowhere near the level of income that
Shahar discusses on his blog, experience wins hands-down in that
department.




The problem inherent in support jobs is that the majority of customers  
are unable to tell the difference between someone charging 50 NIS an  
hour for support and someone charging $50 an hour or $100 an hour.


It's especially common among "creative" people who think that they are  
unique in their field and charge top dollar, but think that you are an  
idiot who can be replaced with another idiot who charges less.


I subscribe to English language lists populated by anglo olim, and  
always see questions for who is the cheapest as in cell phone  
companies, satellite TV companies, ISP's and every vendor you can  
possibly imagine. I never see anyone asking "who is the best?", "who  
provides the best service?" and so on.


Long ago I got out of the PC repair/support business when the 50 NIS  
an hour people took over.


So the trick is not just being able to support people better than  
anyone else, it's as Omer said, finding a salesperson to convince them  
to believe it.


Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson,  N3OWJ/4X1GM
My high blood pressure medicine reduces my midichlorian count. :-(














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Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)

[Dotan Cohen]

2011/11/14 Hetz Ben Hamo :
> Hi,
> I'll give you one: Supporting hosting customers.
> Explanation: there are over 40 businesses here in Israel which provides VPS
> and dedicated server renting solutions.
> Most of those businesses (including mine) provide the machine to the
> customers as "unmanaged",
> which means: the support you'll get relates only to network (if your
> VPS/Server) can communicate to and from the server
> The other part of support: shutting down/restart/pause/reset the server.
> Anything else - you're on your own. You can purchase a bank of hours for
> support or you can get emergency support for a higher price.
> There are, of course, some hosting businesses which will give you managed
> service, but in most case I would strongly recommend to get a freelance who
> will do the job for the client.
> Why? because they *SUCK AT IT* ! spreading root privileges all over the
> place, changing permissions of directories and files to 777, opening the
> internal firewall (if it exists, most of the time it's not) to everyone+his
> dog, and other nonsense stuff, and I'm also talking about the *BIG*
> providers which are also ISP - they suck, period!
> I think that this niche is mostly empty and people can get some
> jobs/contracts with such customers.
> If anyone want to register himself, I have a neutral forum for that. see
> here: http://hosts-forum.com/index.php
> Hope this helps,
> Hetz

I can vouch for this. I am not a CS major and I consider myself a
Linux amateur, but I have worked supporting various Linux servers for
locals. Of course, I was making nowhere near the level of income that
Shahar discusses on his blog, experience wins hands-down in that
department.


-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com

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Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)

[Hetz Ben Hamo]

Hi,

I'll give you one: Supporting hosting customers.

Explanation: there are over 40 businesses here in Israel which provides VPS
and dedicated server renting solutions.
Most of those businesses (including mine) provide the machine to the
customers as "unmanaged",
which means: the support you'll get relates *only* to network (if your
VPS/Server) can communicate to and from the server
The other part of support: shutting down/restart/pause/reset the server.

Anything else - you're on your own. You can purchase a bank of hours for
support or you can get emergency support for a higher price.

There are, of course, some hosting businesses which will give you managed
service, but in most case I would strongly recommend to get a freelance who
will do the job for the client.

Why? because they *SUCK AT IT* ! spreading root privileges all over the
place, changing permissions of directories and files to 777, opening the
internal firewall (if it exists, most of the time it's not) to everyone+his
dog, and other nonsense stuff, and I'm also talking about the *BIG*
providers which are also ISP - they suck, period!

I think that this niche is mostly empty and people can get some
jobs/contracts with such customers.

If anyone want to register himself, I have a neutral forum for that. see
here: http://hosts-forum.com/index.php

Hope this helps,
Hetz

On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 3:02 PM, Omer Zak  wrote:

> We need some process for identifying the next niche to pursue, taking
> into account current skill set, customers/contacts, and effort&expense
> incurred in acquiring the competencies relevant for the next niche.
>
> Did anyone blog about such a process?
> --

*חץ בן חמו
חץ-ביז
*השכרה ואירוח של שרתים פיזיים
מעוניין להשתמש בשרותים שחסומים לגולש הישראלי? Hulu? NetFlix? Pandora?
Google Voice? אם כן, היכנס לכאן .
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