Thread: I think im gonna be sick......

You probably wouldn't stay employed for long, but in all honesty, who cares? Start your own competing business while staying employeed as long as you can. When shit does hit the fan, for 50k, you could probably freelance with your skillset and/or get another oddjob (serving?) to match, or get close, to what you are currently making. This would probably give you more time and flexibility to start the business.

It sounds like a misfortune that could be the catalyst that drives you. You know the industry and you know in what areas your current employer is lacking in. Crush him.

Originally Posted by biggeemac

Will it be possible for me to remain employed AND steal some of his disgruntled customers? I would think it would be difficult, but not impossible.

I think the interesting part of this business is that this guy owns the domain where the system runs.

That is very clever.

Branding all over the place. His. How are you planning to overcome that?

The healthcare industry is, in general, very conservative.

You will probably need to provide very strong arguments to overcome the "safe/secure" feeling they have by using your boss' service.

Doable? Heck yeah.

But I think it goes well past beyond the "better customer service" approach.

Also, how are you planning to finance the infrastructure needed to have this system running? Bandwidth, servers, power, cooling, all these will cost you money. In your shoes, I'd probably go with a cloud-based provider (AWS comes to mind, but there are others) just to get started. Pay as you go, otherwise your infrastructure cost will be a high barrier to entry into this line of business.

How do the clients find him? Is he a "market reference" already? (meaning, people send him clients even without advertising or going knocking on doors to solicit business)

All in all, I think you have identified a great opportunity, but you need to clarify the point that will make customers go with you instead of his business.

Oh, and I agree with MJ, his brother? No go. Blood is thicker than water, he is right. It sounds to me his brother is simply jealous, but at any point he can turn on you.

Good luck.

Ok, wait one second.....branding? lol, I already said that this company is very half-assed. Safe and secure? You've got to be kidding. The customers are dependant on an undependable service and they know it. We dont even have reliable backups running. Many single points of failure throughout the network....and this is with me working on infrastructure upgrades while doing tech support calls all day long. Every single aspect of the business is lacking....even billing. The prez just sent the brother to the largest client in the company with six months($150k) worth of back invoices, with no follow up....no apologies....nothing. The clients CFO nearly shat his pants. And the presidents response to the brother after the brother got chewed out....."well its all legitimate".

Also, I am not really concerned about focusing only on healthcare. I want to grab more than just that niche. I want to grab any companies that cannot justify hiring a full time or part time I.T. department. I think I have a pretty good model ready. I'm just working on getting everything down and documented so i have a kick ass product to offer.

Originally Posted by biggeemac

.branding? lol, I already said that this company is very half-assed.

What I mean is, your boss is finding clients without even looking for them, as he is well known as "the" provider of this service.

Originally Posted by biggeemac

The customers are dependant on an undependable service and they know it.

Are you capturing the contact info for these unhappy customers, and have identified what specifically is the concern/complaint for each?
That will be extra valuable info for you in the future.... as each customer will have different concerns, this is very important as a sales argument for them later.

My boss is not actively seeking clients.....he knows that the environment is broken. The problem is he is expecting me to take break/fix phone calls....and fix the infrastructure issues. But I get so many calls that I hardly get anything done. What should have been done in 2 months time, still isnt done after 8 months.

I know the clients and I know why they are frustrated. Its understandable.

hmmm sounds to me it is time to slow down a little bit and spend more time talking to the customers.

After all, the boss pays you for 8 hours of work, no more, so provide what you get paid for and start focusing more in your business when you get home.

I know I'm a couple months late but I saw this link off MJ's site. My advice?

"Walk softly and carry a big stick."

Work until you are ready then strike so aggressively and accurately that you can't fail. Your employer seems to have violated the psychological contract and is a tyrant. Like the other dude said, crush him.

Best of luck.