There is one factor working in your favour here: fear of computers. This illogical phobia will open doors for you because what is perceived to be extremely complicated may be a walk in park for you.

While I'm talking about starting up on your own, this need not mean you will always work for yourself. You can do, but you don't have to. The primary aim here is to get a track record, first and foremost. Then you can decide what to do.

Starting up as an IT consultant is a sizeable topic in itself, but that doesn't mean to say it is not easy. You just need right information.

The important thing to remember is this: don't listen to anyone (and I mean anyone) who says: you need qualifications; experience; capital; contacts or any of that rubbish. It's simply not true. Sure, all these things help but they are not pre-requisites for you to make a blazing success starting on your own. I started my own consultancy from scratch and I had no money, no contacts, no computer consultancy experience, and worse of all, I was heavily in debt.

Nowadays - after 5 years experience - I have contracts that pay me over $200 per hour. This is a far cry from pitiful wage I used to earn before I got into IT.

What does it take to get into IT by starting up on your own?

Two things: Knowledge and Action.

Action Action is easy part. You just do it! Of course, you need motivation to get going, to overcome your inertia. But once you start seeing results, you get pulled along by it all. Your results give you motivation to take action and action brings more results. You get caught in an upward spiral.

Knowledge Knowledge is more difficult. The reason is simple: everyone is full of good sounding advice and it's difficult to know who to listen to. After all, if you listened to most people they would put you off starting in first place. That is self-defeating.

My recommendation is to only listen to those who have been where you want to go. Talking with someone who runs their own business will give you great insight into what it is really like. Talking with someone who has never run their own business will teach you nothing.

Best of all, speak to someone who is in industry you want to get into. The information will be 100% relevant and therefore quite likely to be effective. Don't take everything they say as gospel truth. They may want to help you out but will not divulge their closest kept competitive secrets for fear of losing business to you. This particularly applies if you are local to each other and may therefore cannibalise each others area.

How do you get this information? Again, there are many methods, some easier than others. You could phone up a small business (1 to 5 employees) outside of your locality and ask if you can take boss out for lunch. Be up front that you want to get into same industry and would like some advice. I had one guy ask if I would help him a few years back. I was happy to and took great pleasure in it. Now, he is earning a very healthy living doing what he enjoys.

The alternative is to buy related books and materials where you can get in-depth information "How to do it" style.

Conclusion

It does not matter whether you have experience or not. If you have some reasonable computer skills and you want to get into IT, you just have to decide to do it. There is so much opportunity in this rapidly changing industry that your chances of success are very high indeed.

Take those vital first steps now!

Jon Lawrance