josepablomir
IS-IT--Management
Since quite time now I’ve been handling an idea that I’d like to tell you about to obtain some useful feedback (in fact it is not my idea, as you will see).
And it is not a plan or a complete strategy; just a thought which needs to be grown or discarded.
Here it is:
We, freelancers, are a huge number of professionals, which provide a vast amount of services to the IT sector in general. And I’m not only talking about software development or network support; you name the need and I’m sure you will be able to find many more reliable freelancers than you’ve expected.
The good: Our reduced size gives us adaptability to technology and market changes, as well as reduced operative costs.
The bad: Growing becomes the instrument to loose our edge in reduced structure (adding costs) and speed. But not growing means difficult to reach better projects and bigger profits.
The ugly: We are letting the big players to take “our” market share. We give them our help to market their products. We even fight each other in public forums about the goodness of Win2000/2003 versus Linux or NetWare, or .NET versus J2EE. We sell the package, keep a modest, if any, fee for it hoping to sell our services, and after working hard deploying the product we will spend the earned peanuts paying to those same “big players” to take some certifications on their products, which, by the way, “we” sell for “them”.
Many of us keep 9 to 5 slavery in Corporate America, working for more peanuts (this time unsalted) in projects we could be doing by ourselves with a little extra help.
One possible solution: To find a way to collaborate one another to properly achieve common objectives and mutual benefits. I’m not talking about a Union; I think it could be more like a voluntary compromise to show a Common Face and some kind of Corporative Identity.
I think there is not project big enough or too complex to be performed by us, normal freelancers, if we find the way to properly and responsibly work together.
Do you know what it means? Let your imagination fly, and I’m sure you still will be short in the magnitude of the tasks we can achieve. We can obtain a very important synergy.
Can it be done? I have no doubt about it.
How to do it? I’m not sure.
Is it easy to accomplish? No way!
But we shouldn’t let the Microsofts, the IBMs, the HPs, the Novells, the Red Hats and the CISCOs of the world dictate the size of the crumbs we will receive for our expertise while helping them to make indecent amounts of money.
They call us “partners”, but we are more like tools to them. They even have charts about our “expected group responses” to their initiatives.
I am really interested in your feedback.
I’d like to know how many of us read this forum, and I’d like you to give me a brief idea of your particular field of interest. Don’t worry I’m not selling or promoting anything but some kind of wish in building some kind of strategic alliance between individual professionals to transform our tiny market share in something much more interesting.
What do you think about it?
Do we have any hope?
Jose P. Mir
pm@pablomir.com
Note: This is not limited to any geographical area.
_________________
Pablo Mir
pm@pablomir.com
NJ, (973) 699-2043
And it is not a plan or a complete strategy; just a thought which needs to be grown or discarded.
Here it is:
We, freelancers, are a huge number of professionals, which provide a vast amount of services to the IT sector in general. And I’m not only talking about software development or network support; you name the need and I’m sure you will be able to find many more reliable freelancers than you’ve expected.
The good: Our reduced size gives us adaptability to technology and market changes, as well as reduced operative costs.
The bad: Growing becomes the instrument to loose our edge in reduced structure (adding costs) and speed. But not growing means difficult to reach better projects and bigger profits.
The ugly: We are letting the big players to take “our” market share. We give them our help to market their products. We even fight each other in public forums about the goodness of Win2000/2003 versus Linux or NetWare, or .NET versus J2EE. We sell the package, keep a modest, if any, fee for it hoping to sell our services, and after working hard deploying the product we will spend the earned peanuts paying to those same “big players” to take some certifications on their products, which, by the way, “we” sell for “them”.
Many of us keep 9 to 5 slavery in Corporate America, working for more peanuts (this time unsalted) in projects we could be doing by ourselves with a little extra help.
One possible solution: To find a way to collaborate one another to properly achieve common objectives and mutual benefits. I’m not talking about a Union; I think it could be more like a voluntary compromise to show a Common Face and some kind of Corporative Identity.
I think there is not project big enough or too complex to be performed by us, normal freelancers, if we find the way to properly and responsibly work together.
Do you know what it means? Let your imagination fly, and I’m sure you still will be short in the magnitude of the tasks we can achieve. We can obtain a very important synergy.
Can it be done? I have no doubt about it.
How to do it? I’m not sure.
Is it easy to accomplish? No way!
But we shouldn’t let the Microsofts, the IBMs, the HPs, the Novells, the Red Hats and the CISCOs of the world dictate the size of the crumbs we will receive for our expertise while helping them to make indecent amounts of money.
They call us “partners”, but we are more like tools to them. They even have charts about our “expected group responses” to their initiatives.
I am really interested in your feedback.
I’d like to know how many of us read this forum, and I’d like you to give me a brief idea of your particular field of interest. Don’t worry I’m not selling or promoting anything but some kind of wish in building some kind of strategic alliance between individual professionals to transform our tiny market share in something much more interesting.
What do you think about it?
Do we have any hope?
Jose P. Mir
pm@pablomir.com
Note: This is not limited to any geographical area.
_________________
Pablo Mir
pm@pablomir.com
NJ, (973) 699-2043
