Running an IT consulting business has its perks. You can set your own hours (except when a server goes down). You get to play with the latest technology (but you’ll also have to maintain systems that are sometimes over a decade old).  You get to be your own boss (and sometimes you realize you work for an idiot).

Actually, you have to work really, really hard sometimes.

If you’ve dreamed of owning your own consulting business, I’ll be the first to say “go for it.”  I do love this work.  But there are days, weeks even, that I wonder how I’m ever going to get it all done, and wonder why I’m still out at a customer site at 8:00 PM, and wondering if it would have been better to stay with an ol’ 8-to-5 job.

As with any job, there are pros and cons.  The pros of IT consulting are the freedom and flexibility, and the work pays pretty well.  The cons are long hours and being the one they call when things go bad.

My goal in this is to improve the parts that don’t work as well as they should, and keep improving the parts that are good.