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Eric, Market yourself ALL THE TIME. Go to Church, and let everyone know discretely you are contractor and willing to 'help' for pay. Go to networking do-good organizations and do the same. Kiwana's is big in this area. Others have JrChaimber of Commerce, etc. Stay active in opensource projects, and don't be afraid to hang out a shingle saying you will help customers use it (a former employer did this with Asterisk VOIP systems, did well and had a direct line to 'developers' for priority support, as well as a way to give back. Employer sold white-box type VOIP systems. Business cycle dried up, so did my paycheck. Still I liked the business model). Get business cards, nice but cheap, and hand them out like popcorn. When meeting a receptionist, give them 2, on for their 'file' and another to pass in to whomever you meet. Yes, we all hate this, and most get trashed. But if 1 helps make a sale you have paid for a case of them. If you have some slow/no pay customers, you MUST FIRE YOUR CUSTOMER before they drag you down. Even suggest a competitor that could serve them, so leave them smiling, just not over taking your nickels. This all goes to keep track of expenses, payables, recievables, etc. Get a line of credit, and use it just enough to keep it active. Paying interest to someone else is the last thing you need. Be prepared to take credit cards (Paypal or Square, allow you to have a 'free' swipe on your smart phone.) Don't overly encourage it just to keep your overhead down, but if it is between taking their money and not, take the money. Make friends with lawyer, banker, insurance dude, CPA, realtor, SBA SCORE advisor. They can help make a 'core team' to get good long term advice from. Pay them, you will need them all on your side long term (SCORE advisor is free). CPA can also act a a tax guy but other financial advice (whether you can 'holdem' and stay in business or it is time to 'foldem' and find a gig under some other employer (sorry for the bad refference to the GAMBLER song)) can be worth lots of gold. But they have to be people you trust to work FOR you and not for their own bill padding (yes, I get cynical, but being sceptical is not a bad trait). Make friends of your competitors. Know what they can do. Sub to them when over-booked, and get on their 'prefered sub' list. Even head hunters can be your friend and you can work (at a reduced rate) under their shingle, if you don't have other stuff going on. A old consultant friend of mine said he spend 50% of his time billing, but no more. The rest is in schmoosing, 'marketing', drinking coffee, passing out LOTS of business cards. Get a MINIMUM of a cheap domain and web hosting just to have a place to put your picture, and get 'private domain' email. GoogleOffice was free for small companies, now they charge a little. It is OK, but you can do similar by bolting your own 'office tools' together. Still you want someone else (even Godaddy or similar) to 'host' the domain. You need to stay busy with 'solving customers problems', not fixing yours. You can get incorporated cheaply online, but you still have local/state fees that must be and stay paid. Places like 'LegalZoom' (not a recommendation, just a sample off the top of my head) provides cheap paperwork to file, but no legal advice. Some lawyers will work with you and that, some won't. Consider at least an LLC if not full Corporation, and keep your corporate veil in place, it works. Yes, I have started and stopped a few times over the years. As always YMMV, and we all wish you the best of luck. Also, go to SBA.GOV and to SCORE.org to get their perspective. MA probably has some resources too!
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