>
>A second thought. There's always the 'pre-install over the internet
>business'. If you did it right, you possibly stay in business. I think that
>part of the problem with Linuxcare and VALinux was that they started out too
>big, and moved too quickly. They didn't grow with the market, they over-grew
>and consumed all of their resources too quickly.
>
The grew too fast part is right. Preinstall over the Internet, though,
is probably a no-go.
I have a close friend in Baltimore who does very well builidng and
supporting (primarily) Linux boxes and networks. He started with an
email to a LUG list, too. Here is what has happened with Joe over the
last four years:
1- He began by assembling desktop/owrkstation computers with
pre-installed Linux at home, with no overhead. His margins were thin. He
added laptops (as a reseller) and made hardly any more margins on them.
He managed to earn enough money to support himself (single guy)
modestly, buy new tires for his wheelchair when the old ones wore out,
that sort of thing, but was generally a little ragged financially. Most
of his "support" was free for friends, and he had some good friends who
worked at NASA and such he could call on when he got stuck himself, so
it was almost like he formed his own little mini-LUG.
2- Joe got asked to bid on a contract for some fairly exotic hardware
for a local University, namely a server with multi-terabyte storage
attached. His bid was about 1/4 of HPs, much lower than any big
players'. It was about a $20,000 job. He had to borrow money to buy
parts, but (remember the free support for friends?) that wasn't a big
problem. He also needed help on some assembly, but again, he had
friends. He also needed to do some interesting mechanical engineering to
modify a stock enclosure for his purposes, but Joe's good at that sort
of thing, and even though he's a decent metalworker he decided to have a
local machine shop do the work. They did a great job. He also had to
writes some drivers, and Joe is very good there. This last was the
biggie; he was able to save a lot of money on the controllers by writing
his own software.
3- This server worked well and looked good. The latter was important,
since it was a "showoff" piece of equipment for a bio research project
dependant on grant funding, and potential supporters trooped through the
lab regularly. One of the donor foundation guys looked at the price for
the unit and was impressed, hooked Joe up with another project -- not in
Maryland -- and Joe got another exotic "one off" job.
4- The Army wanted a one-off piece for some sort of simulator at the
Desert Warfare Training Center in Yuma, AZ. It was a "single source"
contract with reduced paperwork. Joe got the job. Then the guys in
Orlando called him, and some Navy people, and so on. These were (still
are) tiny projects by gov't standards, generally under $40,000 each, but
hey!
5- A local hosting service asked Joe to bid on some stock servers for
them. Essentially they wanted a "Cobalt killer" built to their specs.
Joe worked a "build to order" deal with them, where they paid for the
parts and he'd slap the things together within 48 hours on request,
always kept 5 or 6 prebuilt in stock for "right now" pickup, also did
service on the hosting people's existing and new units.
6- A loft space almost next to the hosting service opens up. The
building is partially owned by the guy who owns a bar Joe goes to a lot
(how he got hooked up with the hosting service, BTW), and Joe gets a
very, very good lease. Business moves to formal digs.
7- Joe hires a friend (from the LUG) to work with him full-time. He
keeps getting more work. Hires another guy to do nothing but assembly
work. Joe's ex-wife's brother, Finn, who was always his partner but
generally just came in part-time to handle paperwork and contract
submissions, comes in full-time.
8- Very little "retail" work at this point; it's almost all
commercial/government, at much higher margins. Joe starts hosting both
LUG and systems administrators guild (SAGE) meetings. Dumps ancient,
troublesome Oldsmobile, gets nearly new, bright red extended cab small
pickup with cool doors that make it really easy for him to sling
wheelchair behind the front seat. Balks at buying new hand controls
(they're not cheap), so a couple of us help him shift the set from the
Olds to the new pickup. The machine shop has been getting enough work
from Joe on crazy/custom case and chassis deals that they do the mods on
the controls to fit the new vehicle for free.
9- Joe (this shocked a lot of us) picked up a girlfriend along the way
who has stuck with him, and now his business is stable enough that he
has time to spend with her and money to take her out once in a while.
10- The future is hard to predict.
Note that Joe has made his money by finding several niches he could fill
that hardly anyone else could. He also does "stock" commercial networked
equipment for local businesses (and not so local ones), with support.
His support is almost entirely through remote SSH logins, and is mostly
handled by John Jasen, the first guy he hired.
Note too that almost all of this was through personal contact or word of
mouth, and that Joe never made much money selling retail computers to
individuals, with or without Linux.
Third note: Linux distribution companies -- even Red Hat, who you'd
think would know better -- are not good at dealing with small VARs.
You'd think they'd love to support someone like Joe, work out a reseller
deal with RHN and some sort of "master support" contract that would give
him tier-4 help once in a while (he doesn't get stuck often), but for
some reason none of them have ever been good to little local guys, not
even VA when Joe had some jobs he could have done better/faster/cheaper
by buying some of their products instead of building his own.
- Robin
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