Lots of people dream about starting their own Internet-based Business. I was not one of them…

It was December 2000. I was European IT Manager for a billion-dollar American company serving the Semiconductor industry. I had been with them nearly 4 years and had a blast.

I had standardised and expanded our IT infrastructure from 4 sites to 12 across Europe, and our company staff had tripled.

I had set up a European Helpdesk service with 4 team members, and I was earning a decent salary, enough so that my wife Lynne, who is a Teacher, could stop work to spend more time with our first child.

In January of 2001 I was hired as Director of IT Europe for a low 6-figure salary by another American firm, to help them achieve similar growth in line with their aggressive European expansion plans.

By May of that year, I was out of a job, my department downsized in the wake of the dotcom crash.

After 9/11, my offical career of employment in IT was over. I have never worked as an employee since.

In fact, I have now worked longer for myself than any other company I have worked for, since my first day of employment at age 16, straight out of school in 1976.

In those (more enlightened) days we had Apprenticeships, and I was learning my trade both in the workplace, and at further education on a full and part-time basis.

I was training to become an Electronics Engineer.  It had been my passion for years and I was always making electronic circuits, even designing and etching my own circuit boards.

I started off as an Audio and TV Engineer, then by a lucky break got into Computers and the world of Digital - very different to analog.

Along the way I worked for computer systems manufacturers like Plexus Computers, Concurrent Computer Corporation, Olivetti, HP, and had experience of Unix servers, IP networks, Client-Server computing, Windows PC's and application software.

I had experience of engineering, technical support, and sales support in all areas of the channel, from Manufacturers, Distributors, Resellers, End-Users, Corporate and Government customers, and internal company staff.

When I took over European IT single-handedly in 1997 I had to transition to IT Strategy, Budget, Supplier, Project, Infrastructure and Staff Management responsibilities.

Without realsing it, I was effectively running my own business, since what I wanted was always what the company needed - cost-effective IT systems that enabled the company to do it's work at profit.

When I was laid off in 2001, I then had to try and make my way in a landscape where every IT job was being chased after by 300-440 people.

After a year, I'd had enough and decided that the time had come to do it all for myself…

See the next entry to come:

"What are you going to do now?"

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