[TriLUG] Re: need an employee --- scratch that -- need a business partner

[Greg Brown]

A note about the apartment complexes (condos) I referred to that a few
people have brought up:  In both the cases I mentioned the property
management company is footing the ENTIRE bill for ALL units - i.e. this is
not a "per unit adoption cost of $13/month".  All 320 units in the first
case and 45 in the second will paid for in a single bill each month by the
property management company to the company contracted for the work.  Crazy
sounding I know, but this is the way coastal rental facilities are going
these days.

Condo and home rentals, especially those in "touristy" areas are expected to
have wi-fi these days as part of the rental cost.  This day and age it is
just expected.

Greg



On 4/5/07, Greg Brown <gwbrown1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ok, people, my desperation level is reaching new highs regarding
> wireless.  There is NO WAY I'm going to be able to do the work I have on my
> plate by myself.  Here is what I have coming up:
>
> 1. medium town in NC.  They want FULL MUNICIPAL wi-fi coverage.  This is
> going to be a big one, and I'm not sure I even want to tackle it.  I know I
> don't want any part of it on my own.
>
> 2. one 320 unit condo unit on the crystal coast (salter path, nc area).
> The competition is going to charge these people $13 per unit, PER MONTH.
> Folks, that is $4160 a month, over $49,000.00 per year!  Half of that,
> even with eating the hardware costs up front, is $2130 per month.  Once you
> are a  place like this YOU ARE IN.  You can't tell me that a new company (me
> and whoever) making over $25, 000.00 per year on one contract, our first
> one, is a bad thing.   Granted I might come in even a little lower, just
> because I know where the competition is doesn't mean I'm going to gouge
> them.  Besides, I know the owner of this property owns other properities as
> well.
>
> 3. 45 condo unit on the outer banks (speculative, but quite possible)
>
> 4. TWELVE APARTMENT COMPLEXES IN GREENVILLE (speculative, this is in the
> very early states)
>
> What I'm saying people is this could be a great money-maker as a side
> business until it grows to the point that it could be full-time.
>
> Who am I looking for?
>
> Must know and love all things open-source (even if you just like open
> source, it's okay, but be prepared to get to know OpenWRT very, very well).
> Must know wi-fi *REALLY* well, including amplification and issues
> associated with amplification
> Capture and release portals would be a good thing to know
> payment systems would be fantastic..
> ordering of provisioned circuits: T1s, T3s, high-speed Internet over
> fiber, etc.
> networking (of course)
> knowing a good bit about construction doens't hurt either, a lot of
> antennas get mounted externally through walls
>
> The bad news is a lot of the work, site surveys, etc, will be done one
> weekends, at least for now.  How far can this be taken?  I don't know.  It
> may end up just being a good money-marker on the side for both of us.  Maybe
> it will become a profitable company.  It might totally suck and we both end
> up hating it and walk away.  I don't know.  What I do know is I'm over my
> head.  I'm either going to find someone who shares the passion for this as I
> do or I'm going to walk away from a lot of money and jobs.  And I don't want
> to do that.
>
> Reply to me off-list of you are interested.
>
> Greg
>
>
>