Roaming The Net

I have spent the last couple hours browsing The Net for entrepreneur opportunities. I enjoy being a network engineer "aka Geek" but I've found myself searching for "the next big thing" that will make a difference, and of course make me money. Tonight I've learned you can get a McDonald's franchise off the ground for 600k to 1.2 M, or you can start up a e-backups.net company for $500. I'd choose the later of course. I might actually look into that one... for $500 they will help you set up a site using their back-end technology to allow you to sell monthly subscriptions (starting at $12.95 for 1 GB) to customers who wish to or have to back up their data to a secure off site location. Working in healthcare I know HIPAA and even Sarbanes-Oxley are requirements for Physicians, and I work with and around physicians and physician offices everyday. I'd have to quit my job though, as I am not allowed to provide service to a physician in my current position as that would be viewed as illegal. Basically I cannot provide any service/perks to a doctor's office because anti-trust law says I can't. If they pay us for a service that is allowed, but only under those circumstances. For example, we provide network support to the Docs that lease space from us, that is allowed - because we include the cost of at least 1 network drop and connectivity to hospital systems as part of their least agreement.

I found an article with some really great tips for starting up a business:
entrepreneur.com

In case you don't want to read the article, here's my favorite tip:

"Are you sucking down and sucking across? To make sales, most entrepreneurs suck up to people with impressive titles like CEO, CIO, vice president and director. Unfortunately, the higher you go in most organizations, the thinner the air, and therefore the harder it is to support intelligent life. Focus instead on the people who do the real work: secretaries, administrative aides, customer service people and technical support people. Suck down and suck across, and you'll reach the real decision-makers--and differentiate yourself from the clueless companies that only suck up."

Although a little harsh on the big whigs, that is a very true statement. Secretaries and support staff are the key "ins" that you'll get no where without in my oppinion too.

So I'm just searching around sucking up information on starting up my "next big thing". It might be many years or it could be tomorrow, but I'll find my niche - if I haven't already... after all I am a darn good network engineer, father, husband, brother, grandson, nephew and son. At least that's what I'm told. MJ Out. PS- I'm not conceded... I just know I'm the best.