[AccessD] OT - Starting On My Own

"don't be reticent to walk away from a project you are unsure of,
 especially when starting out" Marty

...solid advice ...knowing what NOT to do may be more important than what to
do when starting off ...competition is fierce and you can't survive
competing on price alone ...someone hungrier will always come along ...but
in order to compete successfully with them while charging more, you have to
build a reputation that says you're worth more ...and that HAS to come from
your very first client ...you must be willing to swallow sand to make that
first client VERY happy with your work ...and that takes it back to Marty's
advice ...if you have any doubts, walk away ...which can be damn hard to do
sometimes but will pay enormous dividends later ...if you can build your
clientele through word of mouth you've got 80% of your work done ...the rest
is writing code which is the easy part ...there are a LOT of very good
programmers out there who are not working because they think small business
database consulting is about writing code ...it is, but its only a small
part of a successful consultant's repertoire ...marketing, managing,
budgeting, and a long list of other things that you'd not believe at the
moment are at least as if not more important than your individual coding
skills.

William Hindman