IT Service Secrets for Small Business Success

Do you provide IT service to local small business owners and managers?

If so, then you need to understand a very important point: not all small businesses are created equal.

Many IT service providers make the mistake of thinking they can just say, “I’m going to serve small businesses” with their marketing materials. The problem with this is that it is not specific or unique at all and really just means, “I’m going to provide services to anyone and everyone.” It will not help set you apart from the many other choices small businesses in your area have for IT service and support, and you will almost certainly get lost in the shuffle.

But it doesn't have to be that way when you have a more proactive way of engaging with local non-technical small business owners and managers. Here are 3 things to keep in mind when you are targeting for small business success.

1. Know How a Small Business is Defined. One thing that's very often overlooked and only embraced by those completely out of touch with market realities -- most small business owners won’t identify themselves as small business owners. Why? Small business owners tend to identify themselves by their occupation or industry, such as public accountants, attorneys, florists, locksmiths or health club owners. As you are trying to find the best IT service opportunities, you have to realize that there are hundreds, if not thousands of different kinds of small businesses. These small businesses are typically broken down by industries or vertical markets. Not withstanding this tremendous diversity, most IT service firms will choose to simply focus on selling their services to small companies, regardless of their industry … and this can cause them to look just like any other old IT service firm, which does not bode well for attracting attention and standing out from the crowd.

2. Realize There Are Vast Profitability Differences between Various Sizes of Small Businesses. There are big differences when it comes to profitability for your IT service company between different size categories of small businesses. This means your targeted marketing efforts and focus needs to be like a “Goldilocks” approach to marketing or segmentation: big enough that the small business has a need and budget for outsourced IT services on a regular basis; but not so big that the company has a large in-house IT department. The middle ground of “not too small” but “not too big” is typically referred to as the “sweet spot” of small business IT service... or what we trademarked back in 2004 as Sweet Spot Clients(TM). It’s where you will find companies with anywhere from 10-100 employees, 10-50 PC’s and an annual revenue of anywhere from $1 million - $10 million (USD or your local equivalent) in annual revenue.

3. Understand How the Difference between Small Businesses Translates into Your Opportunity. You need to know that very small businesses with one or two or just a handful of PC’s will be too small to afford many of your recommendations and will be very difficult, if not impossible to profitably market to or service. The turning point where a tiny small business starts to need professional IT service on a monthly – if not semi-monthly or weekly – basis is when that tiny small business invests in its first dedicated server. At the other extreme, when a large small business with 50+ PC’s starts seeing its outsourced IT service professionals on a weekly or nearly daily basis, a light bulb will go off about the potential to save money and get faster service by hiring a full-time IT manager. In this case, your role as an outsourced generalist will become obsolete. So, there is a fine line to walk in your client recruitment efforts between “not too small, but not too big,” which is why targeting is so very important.

In this brief article, we talked about 3 tips to help you distinguish between different sizes of small businesses as you build a small business IT company. Learn more about providing stellar IT service to steady, high-paying small business clients now at the attached link.

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