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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Teach Clients about Small Business Networking Terms

You need to talk to your small business clients about networking terms and “buzzwords” so you can make sure you are both speaking the same language when it comes to technology support. You can even give them a reference sheet based on the definitions below in order to help you with small business networking pre-sales.

(For some contact information to help answer your questions, please visit the attached link).

Small Business Networking Terms

1. 802.11a is wireless Ethernet standard that allows you to transmit data at up to 54 Mbps and works in the 5-6Ghz range.

2. 802.11b is the most sophisticated of the available wireless Ethernet standards. It allows you to transmit networking data at up to 11 Mbps and is also called “WiFi” that works in the 2.4 Ghz range.

3. 802.11g is a work in progress. It’s an Ethernet standard that will allow for data networking transmission speeds of up to 54Mbps and operates in the 2.4Ghz range.

4. CAT5 is a Category 5 Cable and a copper, unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable that can transmit voice and data communications at up to 100Mbps and 1000Mbps for Ethernet networking.

5. A Client/Server Network has a dedicated server that is uses to share information.

6. Ethernet Network Adapter is a general term for network adapter or network interface card.

7. IDE stands for “integrated drive electronics” and is a lower-cost interface than SCSI. It connects internal peripherals such as hard drives, CD-ROM drives and tape backup drives.

8. LAN stands for “Local Area Network” and is a set of computers and peripherals that are connected together so they can share resources and have instant communications. Small business LANs are usually connected physically with Ethernet network adapters and CAT5. They can be extended to other geographic locations making them metropolitan area networks (MAN) or wide area network (WAN).

9. A Network Integrator is a computer services business that designs, installs and maintains computer systems and software. A lot of computer consultants are also network integrators.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Sunday, July 29, 2007

IT Consulting: How Can You Identify a Sweet Spot Client?

There are no absolutes when it comes to figuring out whether or not a business will work well with your IT consulting firm, but there are some signs you can look for to help your search for sweet spot clients.

Is the Company Growing?

If you notice a business is opening another office and it needs PCs, servers and telecommunications lines, you have a real IT consulting opportunity, especially if they have no provider in place.

Look at a Company’s Communications Technology

If the company has a PBX system or other type of phone system, you can help establish relationships with local phone retailers that could lead to referrals and partnering in IT consulting.

If the company has an e-mail domain and is looking to implement spam blockers, filtering and firewalls, you also will have a big IT consulting opportunity. Also look to see if the company has a dedicated server and dedicated internet, as these are signs of someone operating within the sweet spot.

Are Online Sales Important?

When a company gets beyond micro small business status and has a real server, they will have much more advanced IT needs than before and will be a good sweet spot IT consulting clients. See if the company has to do things online with vendors, customers or regulators.

If online sales are important and a company’s system goes down, it’s going to lose money. You want clients that depend on IT in this way and can’t afford to lose a second of uptime. These type of people will know how important IT consulting is and follow what you recommend.

Which Industries?

Good industries for IT consulting are healthcare, financial services and natural services. By no means exclude other industries, but these are just some that will have a good pool of sweet spot candidates.

Multiple Locations

If a company has a branch office or remote locations, it will need very sophisticated IT setups, such as VPNs or remote access. This gives your IT consulting firm a great chance to jump in and provide solutions.

Is the Company Used to Paying for IT?

If the company has used tech providers or professional IT consulting firms previously or worked with Bars, solution providers or integrators, the company will probably be more receptive to paying for your services.

The Bottom Line About Sweet Spot IT Consulting

If you check for signs that a company will be a good match for IT consulting services, you will have an easier time finding great clients for your business.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Technical Staff: Find the Right People to Protect Your Business

You need to be cautious when you decide to hire expert technical staff as part of your computer consulting business. You can’t afford to train and support someone that might one day become a competitor.

As an example, you might hire a technical person and pay for advanced training – Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix, etc. This same person could gain immense amounts of skills and then get some great experience in the field.

Eventually, your technical staff person might decide not to work with you and to start his/her own computer consulting business. This same person might also decide to take the clients gained through working at YOUR firm with him.

You Should Be Ready for Disasters

Don’t rely on one salesperson or technical staff person to bolster your whole company. You need to find a way to stay involved in the sales and service delivery process, even if you decide not to be the main person that does the work, and even if your technical skills are not incredibly strong. You must find a way to keep your best clients happy and loyal to you. This means being in some way involved in all aspects of your business.

The Importance of Contracts

Be sure to protect yourself by making technical staff sign contracts including non-compete clauses and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Talk to your attorney about how to make these fool proof before you hire anyone.

The Main Idea About Technical Staff Hiring

You need to be mindful of your business even after you hire technical staff to help support you. Have a clear plan to deal with potential problems before you come up against a real business crisis.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Computer Consultant: How Do You Get to Be One?

If you want to be a computer consultant, you will need to have a basic understanding of computer systems, good problem-solving skills and a strong desire to help others. What business opportunities are available for computer consultants? There will always be a need for great computer consultants, so you need to know what you have to do to be good at your job.

Do You Want Higher Income?

A regular IT job has limited earnings potential and career advancement possibilities because of factors you can’t control, including incompetent peers, bad management, etc. When you decide to become a computer consultant, you eliminate these problems and gain control over your career.

If one of your clients is being difficult or not following advice and ruining his/her company, you can go find a new client. And if you’ve ever felt unappreciated, being a computer consultant for yourself is the way to go. Clients willing to pay your firm $100 an hour or more for your services will do so because they trust you and believe in the work you do. And your wallet will be happier as a result.

Computer Consultant Business Opportunities

If you want to be a computer consultant, the market is varied and constantly expanding. Every company needs IT help, so you will be in demand. And because a lot of people are starting to see the value of being a computer consultant, you will not be alone.

But why should you be a computer consultant if everyone else is doing it? Competition is great for computer consultants. If there weren’t any other consultants out there, you wouldn’t want to be involved in the industry. Why be in an industry that is not profitable? Many computer consultant businesses have a problem satisfying their customers and clients, and this fact becomes an opportunity for you to be the best thing that happened to small businesses.

Because technology is constantly changing, there are never-ending opportunities. You can constantly reinvent yourself and never run out of clients to serve as a computer consultant.

Computer Consultant Skills

To figure out what you will need to be a computer consultant, you should start by listing your current technical skills. Do friends and family come to you for computer problems? Are you the IT go-to person in your office?

You probably already have skills you need to be a computer consultant. You don’t need to be an expert in every area of computer use (and this wouldn’t even be possible with the amount of technology that is out there). You can find partners and subcontractors that can fill in what you don’t know.

How Do You Go from Employee to Consultant?

If you are an employee within the computer industry, making the transition to being a computer consultant is a good decision. It can expand your income while allowing you to do the same work you are already doing.

If you start with moonlighting, you can test what being a computer consultant is all about while still keeping the safety of your full-time job. Moonlighting can also help you set up a steady client list and reference accounts so you will get a head start on building your business before you even start it.

Non-Technical Skills

To be a computer consultant, you need to have some skills beyond your ability to work with technology. You need to be self motivated and able to drive to work just as though you had an employer watching you. You need to be able to wear multiple hats – control the many different aspects of a business. And when the time comes, you will have to be able to delegate some tasks to trusted staff.

The Main Idea

Becoming a computer consultant is not a simple decision. But it works for hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs throughout the world and can be a fantastic business opportunity.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Where Do Sweet Spot Small Businesses Get Their IT Support?

The definition of sweet spot small businesses is basically businesses that have between ten and 50 PCs and have between $1 million and $10 million in annual revenue. But where to sweet spot small businesses get their IT support?

Typically businesses in the sweet spot have internal gurus – people within the businesses that know slightly more about PCs than others. They are usually the first people to respond to IT support issues.

Internal Gurus Have More Important Jobs

Dealing with IT support issues is not an internal guru’s primary function. However, people within the business typically yell at him/her when something goes wrong, whether it’s a jammed laser printer, corrupted accounting software or a failed Internet connection. And internal gurus are expected to leave their more important jobs as office managers, admin people, comptrollers, bookkeepers, etc. in order to deal with the IT support issue.

Some positions within a sweet spot small business make for better gurus than others. When you are looking to help small businesses, these are the people you will have to befriend to get involved. Sweet spot small businesses still love their internal gurus, and often love moonlighting IT professionals when it comes to getting IT support.

Where Else Do Sweet Spot Businesses Get IT Support?

Often small businesses will work with valuated resellers, VARs, solution providers, network integrators, professional full-time consultants and small consulting firms. They also may work with ISV independent software vendors. Niche ISV’s become incredibly important when small businesses are in need of specific types of software support in different industries.

Many times small businesses will get IT support from accounting firms that combine IT support with accounting support. While these firms can help you with referrals, they can also be your competitors for providing IT support.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Saturday, July 14, 2007

IT Sales: How Desperate Are Your Prospects Needs?

Your goal with the first IT sales call is taking a prospect to the next step, preferably something like a site survey. Sometimes prospects will want to sign up right away. Other times they will put you off. You should never get told “I’ll get back to you.” In order to get to the next step in IT sales, you need to find out how desperate a prospect’s project is.

What Are Prospects Telling You?


If prospects tell you they would like to move from DOS-based fax software to 32-bit fax software in order to fax to PDAs in the field, or they want to do something else complicated or simple, you have to figure out if their idea is impossible at the moment, a true possibility or something they really, really want to do. Basically, you need to know how important the project is in order to get prospects to the next step of IT sales. Ask the following questions to get a clearer idea of the desperation of a proposed project:

1. “If everything looks fine, when would you like to get started?”

2. “How important is the project to you?”

3. “When do you want to start?”

4. “What is stopping you from starting the project now?”

5. “Why has this project not been done previously?”

Changing Needs

Perhaps your prospects have looked into a project previously but thought it was too expensive. Or maybe they decided it was impossible. It may be a bigger challenge than originally expected.

Be Direct

If you still get resistance after trying to gain IT sales, ask direct questions that aren’t too aggressive, such as, “When is a good time to follow up with you?” You can also ask, “When do you think you’ll be readier to start discussing this project with me again?”

The Main Point with IT Sales

Don’t take “no” for an answer with IT sales. Learn as much as you can about prospects, their problems and their level of desperation for solutions in order to make “No” today into “Yes” tomorrow.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

What's the Difference Between Subcontracting and Hiring Employees?

You should always consult with a lawyer when figuring out the difference between subcontractors and employees. However, the following are tips to follow when you are establishing a subcontracting relationship.

Qualify Your Relationships

The following is a list of requirements for subcontracting relationships. Check the IRS page for proper details, but this list represents some things you should look for when setting up subcontracting situations.

1. Subcontractors should own their own tools/equipment.

2. Do not provide subcontracting partners with laptops, protocol analyzers or anything else that would be expected of someone that works with network integration or other computer services.

3. Give subcontractors control over their work. They should not be treated like regular employees.

4. Give them enough clients.

5. Make sure subcontractors can sustain a loss.

6. Any subcontractors you use should market to the public or have a public telephone listing.

7. Don’t pay subcontractors by the hour.

8. Write the check to your subcontractors’ company and not them individually.

The Bottom Line About Subcontracting vs. Hiring Employees

Working in subcontracting relationships means following many rules. Make sure you pay close attention to detail when setting up these types of partnerships.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Sunday, July 08, 2007

IT Sales: Turn Prospects into Paying Clients

When you are trying to get IT sales, there will come a point that you will have to make a decision about when you stop offering advice for free. Your first IT sales meeting should see you offering some free advice, but you have to know when to stop and move prospects to the next phase of the process.

“Could You Just Look at This for a Second?”

During the course of your initial IT sales consultation, you will probably be asked to look at something. The prospect might say, “We’ve been having a problem with this router. Could you just look at it for a second?”

Don’t Risk Your Future Relationship

If looking at a router only takes a few minutes, you might think there can’t possibly be any harm. However, if you find you can’t fix it in the few minutes as you expect, you might find yourself in a lot of trouble. You are dealing with a non-paying prospect, and you are risking a slow fix time and potential damage. Neither of these realities will get you closer to IT sales.

Just Step Away

You should be really careful about sitting down at prospects’ PCs, looking at their server or laptop configurations or at anything else that could cause major trouble before you have a plan to do a paid IT audit. Make it a policy to not do free work, and you avoid any potential problems in this area.

Even an IT audit requires caution. You need to just limit it to low-risk exploratory work so you don’t break anything by accident. You are working with those you want to be future clients, and your reputation is on the line.

The Main Idea About IT Sales

Your job as part of an initial IT sales consultation is to close the deal, not do free work. Move clients from free to fee by getting them quickly through the sales process and offering only limited advice.

Created By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Is Partnering the Proper Strategy for Your Project?

The best situation for partnering is when you have projects that you don’t have the skill set to finish yourself. Decide if the project can be done by you and you alone by figuring out how much of it can be managed in house.

Should You Inform Clients of Partnering?

You can tell your clients when what they need falls outside your firm’s realm of expertise. You can also inform them of your partnering situation, and suggest that they work with you and your partnering firm on a project by explaining the success you’ve had in the past with the other firm. Ease their concerns and keep control of the project by explaining to them that you will be coordinating any work that is done.

Look at the Bigger Picture

You need to get a good idea of the whole job before you make partnering or any other decisions about project management. Make a to-do list of different components that need to be done, and what you can do for your client. If most of the job will have to be sent out, it’s probably not the right job for your firm.

How Much Should You Do Yourself?

You may wonder if there is a rule for how much of a big project you should take on yourself. The general idea is to make sure you can do at least half of it. You need to feel like most of the project can be done without partnering so you are seeing your clients regularly and building a strong relationship.

How Much of Partnering is Billable?

You need to also ask yourself with partnering if there will be a lot of components to the project that will need non-billable training time that will not be skills you will use in the future. If the job is small and requires a lot of training time, you might want to pass on it to save your profit margins.

What is the Size of the Project?

If you have a larger project on your hands – a project with $15,000 potential or even more – and you think someone can do 95 percent of it in-house with half a day of training, the job might be worth it.

The Bottom Line About Partnering

If you don’t have most of the pieces of a job presented to you already and have to do a lot of finagling to make it work, it might not be right for you. Think about whether you want to take it or pass on it. However, if you establish good partnering relationships now, you will be more prepared for very sophisticated opportunities when they arise.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Computer Data Backup Necessities: Don't Forget to Test!

Most small business owners don’t pay attention to computer data backups. Although everyone knows they are important, most don’t do them religiously.

Neglecting Computer Backups Can Be Dangerous

When you don’t back up, you risk a very dangerous situation. You should ideally have a local computer service company to depend on for selecting and maintaining computer data backups. But if you are like most small business owners, you can’t afford to put a full-time PC support person on payroll.

The following tips can help with computer data backups and are based on 15 years of working with small businesses to protect computer data files.

Test Your Computer Data Backup Files Regularly and Monitor Log Files

Computer data backups are not effective unless they are very automated. Jobs have to be consistently launched the right way. This automation must be combined with continued proactive vigilance over the computer data backup system to make sure it keeps working the right way.

Most small businesses don’t watch their computer data backup systems until something fails. People generally set automated computer data backup systems and then leave them to fend for themselves. You need to keep testing or risk losing critical information.

Test Once, Test Again

Any time you install a new computer data backup system, you have to make sure everything works right. Don’t just assume that the system will keep working over time. You need to restore folders and files from backup media to prove that everything is working.

If your automated computer data backup system is configured regularly in order to have a verify run attached to each backup job, testing a sample restore function should be enough to guarantee functionality. If you don’t want to risk it, you may want to do a restore job once weekly.

Moving Parts and Open Design are Hazardous

If your computer data backup system is so reliable and high-functioning, why should you take so many precautions? A tape drive or any other type of system usually has moving parts, unlike other components of a server or PC. Because of these moving parts, it will be more likely to experience mechanical failure. Because a backup device is open and not sealed like a hard drive, dust buildup can also cause a problem.

Sample Restore Jobs and the Cleaning of Tape Heads

When you test a tape as part of a routine sample restore job, you should take the opportunity to clean the heads of the computer data backup system as well. Restore up to 300 MB of data to a scratch directory and then run a head-cleaning tape. This process should only take 15-30 minutes. You should always restore data to another server folder path so you don’t disturb the use of shared folders.

Build a Computer System Backup and Restore Procedure Checklist

The most important issue during a crisis is how quickly you can put data back onto your system without hurting it. As you are creating a computer data backup system, keep track of your test procedures through an organized checklist. This checklist can also help train other employees and help prevent emergency panic. A hard copy of this checklist should be kept offsite as well with any backup media.

Keep an Eye on the Log Files of Your System

Before running test restore jobs, carefully look at computer data backup system files on a daily basis. After initial installation, learn exactly how log files look under ideal circumstances so if anything goes wrong, you can more quickly figure out how they went awry.

Operating system suites have become much more evolved and now allow you to monitor backup system log files remotely and more regularly. They are most typically regular text (.txt) files. Also, there are a lot of third-party tools and utilities, such as those included with Microsoft Small Business Server and BackOffice Server that will automatically send emails or fax backup system logs at scheduled times.

Automatically, Remotely Monitor Log Files

Computer consultants often set up systems to have small business clients’ log files emailed to them daily so they can watch systems carefully. You don’t have to be a professional consultant to monitor computer data backup systems. You can do it on-site or remotely usually automatically. You can also set up an e-mail alias so your computer data backup system log file is sent to you or the second-in-command and also a computer consultant just to stay abreast of the situation.

The Main Idea

Your small business probably is greatly dependent upon its computer data backup systems to keep data safe and keep everything running smoothly. The above computer data backup system tips can help you be more proactive about your business.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg