[CLUE-Talk] interesting home business article - from slashdot

[G. Richard Raab]

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On Monday 28 July 2003 02:41 pm, Matt Gushee wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 26, 2003 at 02:01:51AM -0600, G. Richard Raab wrote:
> > BTW, training is another area that you can go into, but it is hard to
> > break into. But if you write your own material and approach the right
> > ppl, and offer the right price, it is doable.
>
> Interesting. Before I became human sewage, I was a developer for just a
> while. But in between *that* and being an English teacher, I was a
> technical trainer for a while. Wouldn't mind getting back into that at
> all, but I know a few out-of-work trainers, and they all say the market
> is dead ... well, obviously it's dead for them, but they seem to be both
> accomplished and well-connected people, so I would expect them to have
> knowledge of, and a good shot at, whatever opportunities are out there.
>
> So who needs what kinds of training these days, do you think?

Well, training is not really dead. What is wrong is that the top places are 
still trying to charge top dollars and can not do so. Typical prices are 
1500-2000/student/5 day course. Even with discounting, many are still trying 
to charge > 1200/student for 12 students with an on-site.
So, yeah, they are failing.

Instead, what you do, is create material like I was doing. It is HTML based, 
and allows for the students to take notes on-line. Then at the end of the 
class, I was rolling up the HTML and notes in static pages that the students 
seemed to like (nice to get your own stuff).
Skip the Power-point crap. If you are doing intro or PHB training, then fine. 
But for higher end training, it is the exercies and the instructors that 
makes the difference, not a power-point overhead that goes by too quickly.
So how do you break in? Develop the class, and then sell it differently. Sell 
it as a fixed cost. 
Max 15 students, if doing high-end work (or 20 if doing low-end).
Instructor would be paid anywhere from 3-6K with expenses for a 5 day.
Then provide a simply book (such as an O'Reilly) / student (<100 / student).

What you need to do, is get your foot in the door. Once you got it, then you 
can expand.

BTW, since it has been ~ 2.5 years with the downturn, there will need to be 
training soon. Techies always need re-tooling. and there will be a number of 
needs soon (Linux, Perl6, Python, Gnome, KDE, Qt, embedded Linux, Linux 
Kernel, Linux Security, Apache 2.0, etc).
Another advantage that you have is that the top players have been moving to 
where they thought that money was ; MS Windows and .nyet.
 That is now a crowded space. Horribly crowded with little development.
 The Unix market is slow to dieing for training and trying to compete against 
the establish ones is hard. 
But the established ones will normally miss the opportunities that are coming 
down the path for Linux. Their ppl will be Unix or MS and it will reflect 
during the class.
 Ask a good question not in the book, and you will get the answer of
1) well that is a good question and I will get back to you
2) that is a very complicated question and lets take it off-line.
etc.
(or worse, if will be wrong)
A couple is not a big deal. A number of them will kill you.




- -- 
cheers
g.r.r.
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