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Jim

wrote:
On Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:25:10 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:53:32 -0400, wrote:

I have people trying to get me back into the computer business from
time to time but I would rather do just about anything else.
There is certainly a lot of opportunity but it is not hardware, it is
just integrating PC software. Plenty of windshield and telephone time,
frustrating support structures and buggy applications. I would rather
work on a shrimp boat. ;-)
Maybe. :-)

My diesel mechanic used to own a small fleet of shrimp boats at FMB
but gave it up mostly as a result of low priced imported shrimp taking
the profit out of it.

I think the best computer opportunities are with networking and
security but I'm kind of enjoying retirement.

Here in SW Florida there is a crying need for small system
integrators. Small businesses have a kludge of PCs running systems
that do not talk to each other. If you could assemble a suite of small
business software that also included POS, security, inventory, payroll
maintenance logs and scheduling, there are about 200 gated communities
who would beat a path to your door.

Maybe. But it's doubtful they would pay the price.
A "professionally" integrated system and supporting it is very costly,
if you mean writing and supporting software.
There's alway resident PC "experts" to knock down any such idea down and
say they can cobble together various cheap software packages to do the job.
And they do.
Might not be elegant, and might be troublesome.
Guess what. So are "professionally" designed integrated systems.
They just cost a lot more, and the price usually just increases as the
customers demand "customization."

Intuit's Quickbooks does a lot of what you mentioned.
You could fairly easily work out an integrated system with stock
Quickbooks within its customization scope, writing work procedures for
integration of module data where necessary, backups, security, etc, etc.
Then try to demonstrate and sell the installation, work procedures,
support and training to the small business.

There's licensing issues to consider, but that looks to be the business
owners responsibility.
You can probably get by with a relatively simple contract.
For one thing it would have to spell out you won't be responsible for
expenses caused by Quickbooks bugs. I can guarantee they'll crawl out.
Maybe DePlume could be your lawyer.

I have the feeling that if that was a profitable use of time, plenty
of out of work IT people would be attempting it.
But you should knock it around at your wife's company.
Might be doable.

The biggest impediment to selling personal software services to small
business has always been the resident PC "experts."
Always has been. Seen it in my own family with business owners.
You do your best to keep overhead low and pro software people are
expensive. Even the bad ones.

Hey, there's plenty of resident PC "experts" right here.
Just ask Harry.
Everybody's an expert now. It's the Age of Experts.

Jim - Don't ask me. I don't know. Ask an expert.