Advice on providing IT support as self employed

[JJanisch]

I've been working in IT Support for schools for a couple of years now and have been thinking about going self employed and taking on a few schools in the local area as my own little startup. Fortunately I think I could persuade 3 schools to be on board from the get-go. In my current position (IT Manager) I work by myself and provide support for three primary schools, however I am starting to notice a change in direction from my main employer which I might not be very happy with. I'd like to take things into my own hands a little bit and provide my own services as well as expanding on my web development for schools.

 

Is there anyone on here that does this or knows someone who does something similar? I would love to ask a couple Q's and get a feel for it.

 

Cheers.

Edited December 4, 2014 by JJanisch

[southhamster]

Hi JJ,

i do exactly this. Worked for the LA for 8 years supporting school ICT as a field based tech.

Left about 4 years ago and had 4 local schools approach me for curriculum support.

I also work part time 1 1/2 days week for a largeish primary academy and also support 4 small businesses.

I aim to work about 3/4 days a week roughly.

Make sure you have appropriate public liability insurance - a common amount is £5m.

You may(should?) need to get a CRB check depending on the schools policy.

Do a clear document saying what you will and won't do, your charges (including mileage/travel time)

Decide who is responsible for admin and backups and keep clear recored of what you've done.

Spiceworks and logmein remote are excellent for finding out/resolving issues.

Think about what spares/tools etc you are able/willing to carry eg spare server, 48 port gigabit managed switch (ebay finds), fibre and MAC's cables, spare HDU's,PSU's. etc.

The more you can fix quickly and cheaply the more the schools appreciate the service.

I always keep as local as I can and don't overstretch myself.

The HMRC run useful seminars about tax/NI etc which I found useful. Register with HMRC as self employed for tax returns - you may need an accountant to help with tax returns.

Try and get the school to buy parts - partly for the hassle of invoicing etc, but also if it goes wrong it's the school's stuff to deal with.

Life can be bit precarious and a bit lonely at times (Thank Deity for edugeek....) but having the regular day and a half a week at the academy is great.

Whatever you decide good luck - it can be fun as well, but don't think you'll get rich on it, unless you really work at it, and then get overstretched..