RE: Silicon Valley Reacts to Economy With a New Approach

From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Thu Apr 12 2001 - 12:22:02 MDT


Chris Rasch wrote,
> Subject: BIZ: Silicon Valley Reacts to Economy With a New Approach
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/12/technology/12REVI.html

This matches the model of the company my partner and I are running. We got
distracted for a few years working for IBM and the big e-Companies, but now
we are focusing on our own small consulting business again. My partner is
the CEO and runs the company from a spare bedroom converted to an office. I
also have a bedroom office for work at home and rent hotel space when I am
on the road. Our startup costs included a laptop and desktop computer for
each of our three employees. We outsource our payroll services, tax
accounting, network services, website hosting, etc. We are offering the
same services we used to offer through the big names, only now under our own
name at half the hourly rate.

We originally looked at resuming contract work as a way to fill in until we
got "regular" jobs again. We have been so swamped for contractors, and the
pay is so high, that we won't consider returning to a big company now. I
really do think this is the wave of the future.

If we didn't have family ties in Florida, I would even consider minimizing
our household effects and live only in temporary rented locations, moving
around wherever the work is. We have friends all over the country (USA) and
most of our work is online. We can work anywhere using our own laptops and
use the Internet everywhere to access our servers which are outsourced at an
ISP location. There is no need to own a home or live in a single location,
except as a personal preference.

--
Harvey Newstrom <http://HarveyNewstrom.com> <http://Newstaff.com>



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