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There is a lovely line in a John Lennon song, “Beautiful Boy” dedicated to his son Sean that says; “Life is what happens to you whilst you are busy making other plans.” What makes it such a great line is that it contains an essential truth that has also previously been expressed as; “Man proposes, but only God disposes.”

In simple terms, we imagine in our lives that it “will be this” and instead, it turns out to be “that” instead and for me throughout my life, this has often been a repeating pattern although at the age of 64, 65 at the year end, I had expected to be left to quietly grow old, disgracefully or otherwise in this little seaside town on the Bristol Channel but, I suspect not.

My Initial Thoughts

After my Mother died and me being realistic about both my age and the current economic situation, I was prepared to live a “humble life” but I think that is changing.

The “Romantic” in me would like to chill out and somehow earn a modest living as a photographer and printmaker who sells limited edition prints but whilst my passion for photography will continue, earning a living via IT and computers which was my last “Trade” some 6 years ago, is very likely more achievable and lucrative for me so, I must be realistic about this.

If I were honest, this train of thought started with when I spoke to my Uncle – Nuncky, in the States (my Mother’s younger brother) and his point because he did do something similar himself at my age, was for me to play to my strengths and ignore my age. As he said; “I don’t know what you do but people who do know, shipped you 4,000 miles to the USA to do it and paid you well so, you must be good at it, do more of that.”

When I thought about it, I knew he was right but I needed the right package to sell and it was only the other day that the idea or approach fell into place.

Before coming to Burnham to look after my Parents, I was very successful in doing certain kinds of IT projects, what are called ‘hardware & software rollouts’ and it so happens that one of the very best technical people in terms of doing it and getting technical things done, lives not 50 miles away from me and is available so, I can sell a “Team Package” to potential clients, both the technical and business models can be assessed properly.

How To Reach the Potential Clients

A friend was coming to help me with my decorating over the Easter weekend but having spoken to his wife the other day, I realised that he was not feeling that well and told him not to come as I had some computer work to do. This is not actually a lie because I am working on one of my web sites to make it my “work related” web site because I had a flash of inspiration and suddenly spotted a commercial opportunity which I intend to pursue so, I want my “updated web site” to be available from as soon as possible.

The main problem is that as an IT Contractor, most jobs come through specialist employment agencies, most IT Directors can’t to be bothered to recruit directly, they want an agency to sift the wheat from the chaff. I have met a number of nice agency people but, “Agency work” is pretty much the same in any agency such as being an Estate Agent, low basic with a high commission and attracts the same kind of people. Whilst you do come across some very knowledgeable people in terms of understanding the IT market, the majority don’t have a clue.

The problem with this is that if one of their potential clients says that they want “Pink Elephants with frilly knickers”, that is the only thing they look for because they don’t understand that perhaps whilst a Giraffe in pink frilly knickers certainly won’t do, a Hippo of a “certain age” might be perfectly acceptable !

The Direct Approach

Essentially and rather than approaching this as previously, an IT Project Manager looking for a contract, I will be presenting myself as a “Service” rather than an individual contractor and target potential clients directly.

The next step is simple in one sense: Research the big companies in the Bristol area, find the ‘right person’ within those organisations and email them the ‘link’ to my web site. However and of course, just who is the “right person ?” In some companies it could be the Financial Director, CEO and even the IT Director but the truth is that you will never know for sure and therefore the wasted number of ‘potential contacts’ will be very high and the ‘campaign’ per company, will need to be sophisticated and persistent to compensate for that.

In addition, there will be some organisations where what we have down here is a “Branch Office”, the real decisions are made elsewhere but, that is just the luck of the draw.

Why This Route ?

Basically, I doubt whether I have ever written a decent CV in my life and it is probably just as well that most of the jobs and roles I have ever had, came by personal recommendations rather than through ‘recruiters’. I suspect that I will have to attach PDF downloadable summaries on the web site if only because it is a dark grey background with white text – a real pain if you want to print it out !

Will it work ? No idea but I’ll soon find out.