Help me make some decisions...

[lukemg]

I am wary of your support skills, they are worth buttons these days, you need to maybe leverage up into team manager (tends to be perm + not many about) OR maybe Service Delivery (personality backed up with some tech skills/support - you need ITIL v3 really to compete with established people).
Get on jobserve and bounce some very targetted CV's about (change to closely match job) If you get a response, you have some skills that might be in demand. MAKE SURE you say you are available or they wont evn bother considering.

Good luck

[TheFaQQer]

Keeping fit is one way of bettering yourself. Payasyougym is your friend. On a contract I try to visit the local gym twide a week and do 20 mins on the rower each time.

Nothing with the word "gym" in it is my friend.

Unless it's "sodthisimnevergoingtothegym" - he's my friend.

[qwaz01]

Thanks everyone for advice.

With regards to current company, it's a long story but I joined the other company as IT Manager but still had lots of clients from previous support job calling me, so they suggested starting the IT company and it's grown from there. It's partly my fault I'm in this situation as I was young and stupid not to ask for a share at that point. The reason they may hand it over is that if I left most of the customers would follow anyway, not one customer knows any one of the Directors. I'm going to suggest asset stripping the company and then handing it over, the other option is I start a new company and they a come anyway.

The contracting option was a backup plan to the above but when researching salaries look good and I like the option of going home and turning off with no stress. I agree that I lack enterprise knowledge, things like Cisco, VMWare and Citrix are just not used in my sector. However I'm still doing regular Server migrations, Exchange/ Office365 migrations etc and look after a couple of companies around the 150-200 user mark.

Anyway, I'm hoping to have the big chat at the end of the month so will update either way but may become a contract and forum regular soon

[MattZani]

Thanks everyone for advice.

...if I left most of the customers would follow anyway...

Big selling point when looking for a permanent role at another firm.

[Magpie252]

Big selling point when looking for a permanent role at another firm.

Until he discovers the restrictive covenants’ in his contract of employment and his now ex-directors sue him for every penny he has………….

If you’re going to play hard-ball with the directors then you have to be prepared to walk, be aware that they might get pissed off & dump you anyway. Be clear on what you can do ‘legally’ in either case

[sal]

If you have a successful business practice with several employees and multiple loyal clients that you believe will follow you if you have to start your own company and regular jobs for mid-sized businesses of 150-200 users, why would you want to go contracting? Can't you just gradually expand your clientele/practice to larger clients? The thing is that most of the contractors i know are eventually dreaming of doing what you already have, why would you want do what in most eyes is a step back?

[northernladuk]

Until he discovers the restrictive covenants’ in his contract of employment and his now ex-directors sue him for every penny he has………….

If you’re going to play hard-ball with the directors then you have to be prepared to walk, be aware that they might get pissed off & dump you anyway. Be clear on what you can do ‘legally’ in either case

Totally this. Stealing customers is a minefield.

To the OP.. Nothing you have said really gives me a lot of confidence with regard to a contracting career I am afraid. The number of users, the generic aspect to your role etc. None of these are going to appeal to a big corporate with highly complicated matrix structures and 10's of K users/CIs, specific industry and skills experience etc. All this and being a newbie contractor is going to be a massive hurdle to overcome. You could get lucky but wouldn't be comfortable in your situation. Just getting a permie job in a new company could get you another 10k rise and experience that could help future contracting.

[BlasterBates]

You need to look on jobserve that will give you an idea.

Generally support is not well paid, and it would be difficult to get a managerial role in a big company which would pay better if you work in a startup.

Considering it's a startup and your age and experience the pay sounds quite reasonable.

If you want to move into a role in a bigger co, you'd have to go down a step.

I think if you start to look at the job specs on jobserve you'll see a lot or role specifications you don't match for the better paid jobs.

You probably need a longer term strategy i.e. go and get some more experience somewhere else.

[MattZani]

Totally this. Stealing customers is a minefield.

Unless there's a non-compete clause in the OP's employment contract, I don't see the problem.

If the customers drop their current company to do business with someone they trust, that seems to me like a legit and legal business decision for those customers.

But I'm no lawyer so I don't know for sure

[northernladuk]

Wait until you go and the directors start threatening you with legal action (which i would do if you were stealing my customers). You might be in an ok position legally but his old company will be happy to pay for a load of lawyers out of the business funds. Where is the OP gonna get his lawyers fees from. Not a nice position to be in whoever is right.