First, have the kids realize they have to go to a state University unless they get scholarships. I had my son's live at home with me and go to the local University but if they had scholastic troubles they could have also gone to the Community college for even less money as a prep school and got their associates.
OK I am being a bit presumptuous here but I really just wanted to get you to think in terms of not putting unrealistic expectations on yourself starting a new business.
If you do this right, you can have a business ten times better than any career you might have had with more long term personal security working for Podunk corp.
However, if you sabotage yourself in one of a dozen ways you will start, fail and move on to another choice without really giving success a chance or even realizing that is what you did.
Second, to your point..... Are you opening a shop? Where are your customers comping from? how will you advertise? Do you have an idea of your hourly rates?
This is constantly changing but right now most of my sales come from yellow pages. I have about $700 per month yellow page ad in each of the two major phone books in my area and in 2008 I had 1100-1300 in each book. Yellow pages equal 50% of my ad budget.
Now more sales seem to be coming from web searches than 3 years ago. If a computer is broke they simply go to a smart phone, wife's computer, kids computer or Google me from work computer so the google thing and others are coming into their own.
90% of my customers call the first 2 hrs of the day. If I didn't take them as they call, they would find a competitor by the time 5pm comes around So how are you going to manage the calls?
This from an operational standpoint. People tend to put on their TODO list to call you tomorrow morning or right after work. You can pickup the after work crowd but its by far the smaller group of the two IMO. This is ok for first but won't bring you revenues you need when you go full time.
Doing work for friends, family and coworkers or putting ads in church and community bulletins might help you as well as. Get out of the bad habit of doing discounted or free work for family and friends they have to pay someone, if they owned a grocery store they wouldn't or couldn't give you free groceries, why should you be any different?
Working part time-Not everyone is your customer so rather than contorting yourself at first, take what you can who are already in the same mode as your operations.
However before you make the big step to make this side job pay your full wages you are going to have to give 110% and be there when the calls are there. I always tell my clients that if you can reach me, evenings, Sundays, Christmas......I'm coming out. If I don't come when their crisis occurs then I don't deserve their business. Not many people will think t heir home computer failing is a crisis to come out on Sunday.
I built successful (aluminum seamless guttering) business and when I got into computers, gave it to my baby brother. He picked up the guttering easy, the pricing easy, the bidding easy. I told him, work whenever the customers wants you to work.
He didn't follow through or understand me as I would go by his house and he would be mowing his lawn and cleaning and waxing his car and truck on Saturdays. I asked what about work? He said I do my work jobs M-F 9am-5pm or 6pm. So he was still in employee mentality. His business failed miserably exclaiming "the market had changed" from when I was doing very well.
Don't waste your time with certifications that is for employees that want a better job. But taking the course to prep for the certification tests is valuable. You can download decent training from Ebay for $40 or less sometimes. You really need supporting Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP. Two of the three should get you buy. You are going to have a steep learning curve as no one makes a how to be a DIY tech. You cannot escape the hardware even though its only 10% of it, you need to know the difference between a virus mimicking a hardware failure and a failure. Still 90% of hardware failures are obvious Power supplies and hard drives, then Ram and after that it gets tricky for the newly initiated.
OK, again I am being a bit flippant here. One in 50 or 100 customers asks if I am certified and I respond by saying those who can't certify and those who can do. Then I tell them what credentials I have. Obviously to those who feel it important to ask its important. I find that the more professional I present myself the less inquires like that I have. Since we opened our shops I can't remember anyone asking. So the shops give a sort of built in credibility. Certification doesn't hurt you, it doesn't help as much as you think accept. So don't spend $1600 you don't have worrying about getting them. However, getting the skills needed to pass the tests are very helpful.
Don't know exactly when and where you will see each network problem but you will run across them. If you are beginning a training regiment than start with what will be most useful. I'd start with Win7 Pro workstation and if you are very eager pay the $200 to get the MCP for that OS then go ahead. I find that certifications sometimes help the techs to feel more secure in asking for their price and getting it. It helps your confidence.
If you have time once you get Win7 out of the way, look through the Tng DVD's on vista just to see where they are different but there are very few differences from one year to the next despite all MS's announcements to the contrary. You definitely do not need two workstation certifications but if you feel that is a strong selling point of your business and taking tests is your strong point then that is not a bad strategy.
With Windows 7 Pro firmly in your grasp, maybe the next thing I would devote a lot of time to would be Network+ materials followed by Windows server 200-03 or 2008 which every you can get your hands on. The reason I say Net+ is because they do a better job or explaining networking. MS stuff just teaches MS stuff and can leave you lost in the big picture. You can read the N + in one day or over a weekend so its no big deal. You can even spend a day at the library and not put out the cost to buy the book.
When you get to windows server, Most modern Server products can be downloaded for 90 days evaluation without a penny or even a visa. So that is a great way to get hands on. you can download it now as you study and then format the drive and reload it for another 90 days. Much of the Windows server training media comes with a 90 eval copy included.
By the time you are done, you may not need to worry about XP as there is enough cross over skills that you should be very competent in all windows workstation platforms.
You need to be comfortable talking to people, sales, customer service, marketing, accounting, invoicing and know your value so as to get paid what you are worth. Its a tough time to start in this industry without any business experience as there are hundreds of one man out of his home types out there. They all think they will drive business with a fantastic website and ad-sence.
If you can do IT you can learn most other things you need to learn like accounting, finance, paying bills is the same as paying home bills just use a separate checking account.
What is your personality like? Do you like talking to strangers? Do you feel comfortable negotiating? If you rather get a root canal than buy a new car then you may not have the personality or interpersonal skills to manage relationships with hundreds of paying customers.
Take a realistic appraisal of your likes and dislikes. You can learn to do it but you need to learn to like to do it if you plan to do this for the rest of your career.
In my Computer business I find it easier to hire a salesman and train him to be a workbench technician than the other way around. People drawn to IT tend to be lousy at interaction, reading peoples faces and tones of their voices in making on the spot adjustments in what they are saying (all required for successful interaction with clients). We all do this to some extent but some people know they suck at it and avoid those situations. Starting a business you are heading directly into this situation so bone up on that if you can.
