Computer Consulting Kit Preview Blog

Becoming an IT Consultant? Ask Your Prospects These 4 Key Questions (YouTube Video)

2010-02-12T22:23:00.000-05:00

Are you becoming an IT consultant?

Wondering how to get some great clients to get the ball rolling?

Make sure you know that not all prospective clients are created equal.

Learn 4 key qualifying questions that you must consistently ask every prospect, to build a great client list as you're becoming an IT consultant.

Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course Sample Template Video Excerpt

2009-10-20T17:04:00.001-04:00

Checking out the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course? This brief sample video excerpt on the Software Review Template for Client/Server Application helps you position yourself as Virtual CIO. Then learn more sample proven tips from the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course now at http://ComputerBusinessTips.com

Small IT Business Start-Up Game Plan for Avoiding Distractions

2009-10-20T13:56:00.001-04:00

Own a small IT business? This short video helps you fend off freeloaders that can destroy your business, so you can focus on high-paying, steady prospective clients. Then learn more proven small IT business tips now at http://SmallITBusiness.com

PC Technician Business Tips

2009-07-10T08:31:00.001-04:00

As a PC technician business owner, you really need to devote some time to working on more than just your technical skills. You must build relationships with your customers and clients so they will stick with you long term and contribute to your revenue.

Sending mailings to current customers needs to be part of your relationship-building activities and one of your marketing strategies.

Why?

The biggest reason is that your loyal customers already know you and believe in your skills as a PC technician. Your list of loyal clients already know, like and trust you – and this “know, like and trust” aspect of building relationships is the biggest obstacle to overcome when you’re trying to build any successful marketing strategy.

What should you say in your mailings to current clients?

1. Remind Clients that Their Data Needs Protecting. If you know a lot about virus protection, firewalls, passwords, data backup and power protection, mention these issues to your current clients … and remind them that they are at risk and should take advantage of your services to protect their data.

2. Offer a Discounted Technology Assessment Package. For customers that haven’t made use of your technology assessment package yet – and have just used you for emergency services break-fix services – you can offer a discounted technology assessment package. For example, if you usually charge $400, offer a special discount good through a specific date -- $299 or perhaps even $199. Think about including a bonus such as an entry-level battery backup unit or a surge protector … or just a CD or DVD of the last data protection seminar you held. Make sure you provide a free offer of some sort in your mailing that has real value to your customers. And by all means, you must impart urgency with a deadline.

Tracking marketing results is just as important as sending out mailings. So as a responsible PC technician business looking to really build relationships with clients, you need to track everything you do. Track responses to every mailing. Keep track of how many inquiries you got and how many ended up taking the technology assessment offer.

Results will help you predict responses to future mailings and make adjustments to get a better response rate if you need to. Remember that your audience of current customers is going to be more responsive than anyone else you target, which is part of what makes the strategy of mailing to your current clients so successful.

Make Your Current Relationships Stronger

When you own a PC technician business, you need to examine your existing customer relationships and determine more ways you can help them use what they own already. They probably have a lot of useful IT assets they aren’t even using, simply because they don’t know how much these tools could increase their productivity.

The important point is, direct mail and talking to your current customers doesn’t just help your customers get the most out of their current IT assets. This strategy also helps you get great long-term clients and build up your monthly service revenue base.

This article presented some tips to help you build real relationships with your current clients through direct mail. Learn more PC technician business tips that attract steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) PCTechnicianBusiness.com All Rights Reserved

How to Become a Computer Dealer

2009-06-28T09:53:00.000-04:00

Do you want to learn how to become a computer dealer in the small business space?

If so, you should understand an important reality -- most technology professionals that start small companies of their own don’t survive when they label themselves as “computer dealers.”

Why not? First of all, when you’re selling a commodity – in this case, a computer – you’re going to attract clients that are looking for “low, low prices,” and not anything particularly unique in the way of services.

You’ll run into some serious problems no matter what you do when you’re focusing on just a product sale. If you don’t offer “low, low prices, you’ll be priced out by competitors that do and make no sales. If you do offer prices that are low enough to attract the attention of small business owners, you’ll run yourself right out of business. Because as a small dealer (or any dealer), you’re already facing very low profit margins on computers in the small business space. And when your prices are barely above what it costs you to get the computers in the first place, you’d have to sell a whole lot of computers to come out ahead … probably more than you as a one- or two-person operation could possibly sell.

What’s the answer to learning how to become a computer dealer successfully? First, you need to focus on services that will add value to your overall offering. These services will include comprehensive small business solutions and on-going maintenance for your client’s technology assets, a business model supported by on-going service agreements that provide tangible benefits to your small business clients and on-going revenue. Go way beyond the product sale and offer something that will set you apart from other commodities brokers and show that you really are unique in what you do.

The following 3 tips can help you learn how to be a computer dealer profitably in the small business arena.

1. Build Real Relationships. Developing a bond and a real relationship with your clients is critical to having a successful computer business. Your relationships are your assets. Success is not about the size of your customer list or about the revenue you get. It’s about the longevity and the long-term relationships you build with your customers. Your best clients could bring you a lifetime value well in the six-figure net profit range, so really getting to know small business owners is worth your time and will pay off in the long run. Remember, the relationship isn't just about selling a box. Not even close.

2. Manage Customer and Client Expectations. If you are running a small computer business, you’ll probably be handling sales initially, so you won’t have to worry that the salesperson talking to your clients will change, causing you to have to start all over again. When you avoid impersonal sales tactics and build personal relationships with your customers, you can much better manage the expectations of your potential long-term clients from the very beginning of the sales process. You won’t have to worry that a slick, hyper-aggressive impersonal salesperson is going to try to make a quick sale by misrepresenting the actual capabilities of your company.

3. Personally Train Your Sales Staff. As you learn how to become a computer dealer offering real value-added services to small businesses and not just products, you have to watch how you grow your business with well-trained staff. When your business gets some long-term clients and you find you need to hire additional staff members to help manage the sales side, make sure you train them properly so they are learning the tactics consistent with your best practices and ethics, so they represent your company well.

In this brief article, we talked about some critical ways to go beyond selling products and add real value with small business solutions for your clients. Find out more about how to become a computer dealer and attract steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) BecomeAComputerDealer.com All Rights Reserved

IT Contractor Job Strategies for Transitioning into a Full-Time Business

2009-06-27T10:05:00.001-04:00

Are you looking for a more long-term, stable IT contractor job, but you’re not sure how to turn your one-time customers into a more lucrative, predictable business?

The truth is, you’re not going to build a profitable business on a foundation of one-shot deals and quick fixes. You’re going to have to invest some real time into building relationships with your customers and turning them into clients that need your help on a regular business. You will not make a real living off your IT contractor job if it's just a bunch of thankless, revolving-door, dead-end projects.

If you really want to be successful starting up an IT business, you need to focus on building long-term relationships with clients and really solving their complex business problems. You must get away from emergency break/fix work, software trouble-shooting and quick repairs, and move towards long-term planning with your clients to make their IT assets work better and improve their companies’ bottom line.

Where should you focus if you want to turn an IT contractor job into a real long-term small business IT consulting opportunity?

Find the right decision maker or contact person at each of your prospective clients’ companies so you can be more efficient at the lead generation.
Market directly to the larger small businesses, so you can make the most of your limited marketing budget by only going after the small businesses that will need your specific type of IT support long term.
Differentiate yourself from others in your local marketplace so you can really stand out from the crowd and attract more steady, high-paying clients … and move beyond the one-time IT contractor job mentality.
Identify the real hot buttons of clients that will be able to pay you $1,000 - $2,000+ per month regularly for on-going IT support. You've got to pinpoint exactly when to pursue an opportunity and when to move on.
Go around gatekeepers that will thwart your attempts to deliver your proposal to small businesses that could really use your expertise and solutions.
Make the most out of all opportunities to build solid relationships with small businesses that will need you next month, next quarter, and next year, so you can stop wasting time on wishy-washy prospects and focus on pursuing those that will make the best clients for your business long-term.
Determine the unsolved problems of small businesses in your area (hint, hint: survey says...), so you can dominate a niche. Get your prospects to tell you exactly what they need and develop a real IT problem-solving value proposition that will be impossible to refuse.

In this short article, we talked about ways to change your focus from short-term IT work to long-term IT support and consulting clients. Learn more about how to move away from just doing an IT contractor job and go towards building relationships with great, steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) ITContractorJob.com All Rights Reserved

Start Your Own Computer Repair Business

2009-06-17T11:03:00.000-04:00

As you start your own computer repair business in the small business arena, you might think you need to spend a lot of time learning “sexy” networking product platforms, impressing clients with buzzwords and seducing them with the latest and greatest technologies.

In reality, many businesses you will serve – especially those with less than 25 PC’s – will have extremely modest networking needs that can be met with easy-to-install, relatively inexpensive and highly mature technologies. You can profit from repairing and maintaining simple networks, both before and after the initial installation. There are very easy steps you can take to keep your clients’ systems up and running through long-term, proactive repair and maintenance agreements.

The following 3 tips can help you build strong relationships with steady clients as you start your own computer repair business by providing simple, high-margin maintenance services.

1. Prune the Weeds on the Server. Without internal IT staff, the shared folders on your clients’ servers can get pretty disorganized, bloated and inefficient in as little as a few weeks. If you take an active role as network manager and go beyond just basic repair services, you can help your clients get off to a strong start by instilling specific best practices. Encourage your clients to help you tackle disorganized file server shared folders by appointing one person in charge of server folder structure and file-naming conventions. While implementing a LAN can help your clients’ scale up their personal productivity to company-wide productivity, once there are folders being shared on a centralized file server, things get pretty complicated. Encourage your clients not to just let anyone put anything in the computer “filing cabinet” and follow a uniform structure.

2. Assign Organizational Responsibilities to Your Clients. As you start your own computer repair business, you need to make sure your clients appoint an “owner” of each shared file folder and that this person has four key responsibilities: designing and maintaining an orderly set of folders and sub-folders; monitoring storage space use (checking the MBs and GBs) in conjunction with any quota or storage management tools that you’ve already trained them to use; purging and archiving obsolete folders and files; setting up and enforcing file-naming conventions everyone can follow easily. This job is usually a good fit for a department manager, supervisor or team leader. No matter what, make sure your clients choose someone that is very well-organized and detail-oriented … even if this person is not the most computer literate.

3. Stay Proactive as You Start Your Own Computer Repair Business. You must be proactive about providing services to your clients, no matter which repair services or maintenance services you provide. A few times a year, follow-up with some informal client training on procedures for helping your clients stay organized. And be sure to review the condition of the server shared folders with the internal guru and those in charge of folders.

In this brief article, we outlined 3 tips to help you keep repair services to your clients simple and effective, while still adding tremendous value to your clients' networks. Learn more ways to start your own computer repair business and attract great, steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) StartYourOwnComputerBusiness.com All Rights Reserved

IT Service Secrets for Small Business Success

2009-06-12T09:59:00.000-04:00

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.

Copyright (C) ITServiceSecrets.com All Rights Reserved

Starting a Consulting Business with Your Right Foot-in-the-Door

2009-06-08T23:55:00.000-04:00

Are you starting a consulting business in the IT field and wondering what to charge for an initial consultation, or a more in-depth technology assessment/IT audit?

In this article, we'll look at starting a consulting business with your best foot forward, essentially your right foot-in-the-door, so you don't inadvertently sabotage yourself with your foot-in-your-mouth.

Now pricing is a very individualized decision. Some sales experts say you should scout around to find out what the competition is charging and then set your price somewhere in the middle. But the most important thing to remember is that you have to think about pricing very carefully before setting your final rates. Changing your prices is going to be very difficult later on, so you have to make sure you set them right in the beginning.

And it certainly is worth pointing out... When you're starting a consulting business, it's common to think that prospects make their decisions largely based on price. The reality however is quite different. The best qualified prospects are often a lot more tuned into being value-conscious, rather than price-driven, and often pursue a vendor who has the lowest perceived risk, because of their underlying fear of failure.

So consider these following 5 factors that should go into your pricing strategies as you are starting a consulting business, regardless of how and what you decide to charge for your solutions.

1. Geography. Generally, consultants within large cities can command higher billing rates than those in the suburbs. Many of these geographic issues can be traced to monthly overhead or a more general cost of doing business.

2. Scarcity of Skills. You might have a specialty … or be a generalist. You need to think about how in-demand you are to your potential clients as you are starting a consulting business and setting rates. In much the same way that a cardio-thoracic surgeon can charge more for an office visit than a general practice physician, a consulting firm specializing in firewalls, Virtual Private Networking (VPN) and penetration testing will be able to command higher billing rates than a firm that just installs PCs and LANs.

3. Local Demand. How booked up are your competitors? Just like the hotel industry, when consultants start approaching 80% - 85% utilization rates (about 32-34 billable hours per week), prices will get firm. As you are starting a consulting business, make sure you know how busy those in your industry and specialty tend to be. When consultants are sitting at their desks on a Monday morning twiddling their thumbs and hoping their phones will ring, they really need to think about being more aggressive about marketing and awareness-building, or tweaking their specialty to make them more marketable.

4. Overhead. You need to consider how much it costs for you to get trained each year, the cost of lab/test equipment, how much time and money you need to invest in marketing to keep your calendar relatively full, insurance, taxes, professional services (accountants, attorneys, etc.), cell phones, electricity, and everything else as you are starting a consulting business. All of these overhead items can factor into the prices you will charge your clients, so you can’t ignore them.

5. Client Size. A home-based micro small business will generally have a much smaller IT budget than a 10-person downtown law office. And the 10-person downtown law office will have nowhere near the IT budget as the 100-employee (50 PC) manufacturer. Think about the size of the clients you will be serving and what they can reasonably afford to pay you for your services before setting your prices. And if the size of business you are targeting can’t afford to pay you sustainable rates, it’s probably time to seek out a new target for your services.

In this article, we talked about 5 factors that should go into the pricing strategy for your new consulting business. Learn about starting a consulting business and getting great steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) StartingAConsultingBusinessNow.com All Rights Reserved

IT Trainer Tips for Finding Great Project Partners

2009-06-06T04:41:00.001-04:00

Are you an IT trainer? Do your clients often either directly ask, or infer, that they want you to provide more broad-based, comprehensive IT consulting as an add-on to your training?

Then you really need to think about how you can fill in the gaps of your IT trainer services as your client roster expands and your clients' insatiable thirst for more help from you grows exponentially. The best way to do this usually is through partnering with local, non-competing IT professionals.

There are a lot of different ways to investigate potential business partnerships, but the very best are the most personal ones. The more direct contact you have with a potential partner, the more likely you will be to have them on your side to help provide services to your clients.

And just to make sure that we're on the same page, when we're talking about partnering with other local, non-competing IT professionals, we're talking about informal arrangements and relationships that allow you to tap into their skills-base to supplement your own skills gaps. And the flip side? Your partners will often bring you into their clients to supplement their own skills gaps. So partnering in this sense has nothing to do with bringing on equity partners or financial shareholders in your business.

Now with that out of the way, you can find potential business partners to help you deliver comprehensive IT consulting services to your clients in a variety of ways. The following 7 IT trainer tips present some methods for locating potential partners.

1. Find Partners through Common Accounts. The absolute best way to locate a business partner for your IT trainer business is through a common client account. You might start working with a new small business that is already working with a deeply-niched technology consultant. By working together, you form a camaraderie similar to that you would have working together in an internal IT department. The partnering idea will flourish naturally from this type of personal, working relationship. Because you are already working together, you have ample opportunity to talk and will become friendly. "Hey, do you want to grab a cup of coffee?"

2. Tap into Your Word-of-Mouth Referrals. Next on the list of ways to locate potential partners is tapping into your word-of-mouth-referrals to find business partnership ideas. If you have a business partner that does basic run-of-the-mill database development, but you need someone that is an expert in hugely-scalable SQL server database architecture, letting your current partner know what you need will usually net you a few solid leads.

3. Network Directly through Organizations. You can also network directly through organizations like the Chamber of Commerce or other business networking events. When you talk to people at organizational meetings and tell them about your business, and listen carefully as they tell you what they do for a living, you can often meet some great people that could become potential partners.... even outside the IT industry.

4. Attend Reseller Channel Events. Another great idea for identifying prospective partnerships for your IT trainer business is to go to reseller channel events for the platforms or products you support. Also look into attending reseller channel events for products you don’t support, particularly if you are looking for someone to cater to a specific need many of your clients have that you can’t fulfill with your current level of expertise.

5. Take Technical Training Classes. This is another great source of potential partners. You never know who you'll end up sitting next to, or chatting with as you enjoy a cup of complimentary coffee from the training center. Of course, use this strategy sparingly, as often it can cost you money and take valuable time away from your other business duties.

6. Look to Niche and Industry Trade Groups. You can also find potential IT trainer business partners through niche and industry trade groups, trade associations and industry-specific conferences. User groups and related consultant reseller groups are also great places to meet niche technology providers. And make sure to stay on the mailing list of their newsletters, blogs and magazines, as local subject matter experts writing articles are also great sources of potential partners.

7. Peruse Vendor Web Sites. Another good way to find prospective partners is through vendor Web sites, including those of independent software vendors and independent hardware vendors. These sources can give you some great, very qualified referrals to their local feet-on-the-street partners. You can take this strategy to the next level by contacting your local field reps and getting personal referrals from people that work with a specific software or hardware vendor.

In this article, we talked about 7 tips for locating potential partners to help you provide more comprehensive IT consulting services to your clients. Learn more IT trainer tips that get you steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) ITTrainerTips.com All Rights Reserved

How to Become a Software Reseller

2009-05-29T10:51:00.001-04:00

If you are working as a technology professional in the small business space and wondering how to become a software reseller, think carefully about how you are packaging your products and services.

The truth is, most technology professionals that want to resell software and other products solely in the small business space can’t expect to see very high, if any profit margins. This is why, if you want to make product reselling a part of your business, you need to think of other services you can provide to your valued clients. This might include on-going service agreements that will have you working with small business clients on a steady basis and bringing them real, total business solutions they can’t live without.

Here are 3 ways for you to learn how to become a software reseller successfully and profitably by building up the value proposition that you provide to your clients.

1. Create Sound Pricing Strategies. Make sure you set your prices for both products and services high enough to put you in line with other high-end technology professionals in your area... and even more importantly, so that your business is profitable enough to survive and thrive. You can’t sell yourself short or give away the store by charging rock-bottom prices. While low prices might attract the attention of some penny-pinching small business owners, this short-sighted positioning strategy will not attract the attention of the right kinds of long-term-focused small business owners. If you don’t set your rates and prices right from the beginning, you will find yourself with a client list full of cheapskates and deadbeats -- essentially those that really don’t appreciate or understand the value of your comprehensive IT solutions. Also bear in mind that if you set your prices and rates wrong at the beginning, you will find the process of changing your prices and rates nearly impossible, which means you'll basically have to dump your client list and start over. So make sure you create sound, sustainable, and profitable pricing strategies right from the start.

2. Leverage On-Going Service Agreements. In order to learn how to become a software reseller profitably, you really need to leverage your long-term client relationships and make sure those relationships lead to on-going service agreements. These agreements give you predictability and financial security for your business and your family, so you don’t have to torture yourself every month with “feast or famine” and jeopardize the long-term survival of your business. If you are too stubborn to implement service agreements, you'd better scale very large very fast (8-figure annual sales or more) or you will go out of business sooner rather than later ... really! So don't procrastinate. You need clients on long-term service agreements.

3. Get Your Prospects and Customers to Commit to On-Going Service Agreements. If you want to know how to become a software reseller successfully in the small business space, you need to set a goal of getting the overwhelming majority of your clients on long-term service agreements. This means you need to get rid of those prospects and customers that are on the fence or just want to cherry-pick you. If you have a lot of customers that only call you every once in a while or just rely on you for low-margin software and other products every few years, you need to really up the ante on your business model. Reselling can be a valuable part of your overall service offering, but you can’t survive without on-going commitments from your clients to provide them with regular services that they pay for on a monthly, recurring basis.

In this brief article, we talked about 3 reasons why you need clients on service agreements if you want to successfully and profitably resell hardware or software in the small business space. Learn more proven secrets about how to become a software reseller and get steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) BecomeASoftwareReseller.com All Rights Reserved

How to Start a PC Repair Business

2009-05-27T08:46:00.001-04:00

Many IT professionals trying to figure out how to start a PC repair business find themselves wondering, “How can I provide a service that will be valuable to my clients, without giving away the store for free?”

A lot of times those trying to start their own businesses give away way too many free advice and services in the beginning as they try to attract and keep clients. There are a lot of reasons why computer repair specialists give away too many free services. Often they lack confidence in their abilities and expertise. Or, they don’t have a grasp on the true expenses of operating their PC repair business. Or they simply have never been taught any other way.

The truth is, if you want to stay alive in the PC repair business, you can’t give away all of your valuable services for free. While the “give it to them free” philosophy might seem to be a way to gain and keep attention of new customers and clients, it’s not the best way to grow a business and will ultimately end up backfiring.

The following 4 tips can help you learn how to start a PC repair business without giving away the store for free, while still building trust and great relationships with your new customers and clients.

1. Know Your Competition and the Prevailing Rates for Your Types of Services. A big mistake that many new and even well-established PC repair businesses make is setting rates too low -- usually way too low. Many of these people find themselves on the verge of going out of business very, very quickly. As you learn how to start a PC repair business, make sure that you know what your credible direct competition is charging. The truth is, if you set your rates too low or wrong at the beginning, you will have a hard time changing them. And if you are able to change your rates, you will probably end up losing a lot of your customers and clients in the process. So be sure to carefully set your rates at the beginning of your business to avoid having to totally start over again later.

2. Don’t Charge Less than Your Competitors. If you are competent, confident and know you have as much skill and talent as your competitors, there is no reason to charge less than your competitors. In fact, some people believe if you charge more, this is a sign you are really, really good. However, the point is not to see how much you can charge before you run yourself out of business. You just need to make sure as you figure out how to start a PC repair business that you don't sell yourself short. Even better, work with your accountant to develop a pro-forma Profit and Loss statement (a P&L), so you can figure out whether or not your planned rate structure is profitable sooner rather than later.

3. Do Your Homework and Provide Efficient, Professional Service. Show customers and clients that your firm’s services are worth every penny. If you build a solid reputation, and are marketing to the right kinds of small business decision makers, price will not be the main deciding factor for your target clients. With a great reputation preceding you, your customers will admire your confidence and work ethic and be happy about doing business with your company.

4. Focus on Your Company’s Service Agreement Plan. As you're thinking about how to start a PC repair business, make sure to consider how you'll develop a great service agreement plan that will bring in steady, high-paying clients and consistent revenue for your business. Even before you open your doors, you should have a plan for on-going contracts in place. A well thought-out service agreement program is mutually beneficial. It gives your clients peace of mind and you the opportunity to know where your next paycheck is coming from at all times.

In this article we talked about 4 tips to help you learn how to start a PC repair business on a solid foundation before you even open your doors. Learn more proven tips on how to start a PC repair business and get more great, steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) HowToStartAPCRepairBusiness.com All Rights Reserved

Business Plan for Computer Consulting Tips

2009-05-24T09:59:00.001-04:00

Are you working on your business plan for computer consulting?

If you're like many others starting their own computer consulting businesses, you are probably used to doing a lot of generalist work. Perhaps you've been doing some computer repairs, basic network installations, troubleshooting or answering help desk type questions.

So given that many have similar skills, what can you do in your business plan for computer consulting that will set you apart from the competition and bring you the best, steady, high-paying clients in your area?

1. Know What Being a Generalist Actually Means. Before you can set yourself apart from other generalists, you need to understand what exactly defines the term “generalist.” As a generalist, you'll probably be answering basic how-to questions; troubleshooting; designing networks; providing basic training; acting as a go-between with phone companies, Web hosts and ISP’s; making product recommendations; procuring hardware and software; managing IT assets; configuring and customizing; testing; integrating and planning big-picture IT strategy. Basically as a generalist, you will do everything. So writing a business plan that will make you unique, even when you are doing a lot of generalist work, is really about figuring out what you offer that no one else is providing. In other words, what can you provide that's of unique, compelling value? And how can you play this up in a big-time way in your marketing messages?

2. Show You Are Not a Commodity. If you want to set yourself apart from others that have just a flimsy or non-existent business plan for computer consulting, base your plan around making sure that you are not seen as a commodity by potential clients. Therefore, make sure that you never to base the value of your services on price. For example, you can’t base your uniqueness on something like, “We are different from everyone else because we offer the cheapest computer consulting services you can find.” You need to find your real strengths and base your business on the problems that you solve for your clients and the benefits that you offer your clients. This problem-solving, benefits-focused approach needs to come through loud and clear in all of your marketing materials. And ultimately this goes a long way toward attracting less price-sensitive clients that are more value-oriented and willing to pay higher hourly billing rates for premium services and results-based, ROI-centric projects (return-on-investment).

3. Focus Your Business Plan for Computer Consulting on Long-Term Clients. If you want to wonder where your business is going all the time, worry about your next pay check or scramble to make ends meet, by all means build your business around one-shot deal customers. But if you really want profitability and longevity, focus on providing long-term solutions to steady, high-paying clients. When approach with a well thought-out sales process sequence, most of these clients will ultimately sign on for ongoing service agreements and be with you for the long haul. So sell benefits that will appeal to those really looking for a long-term, technology-focused business improvement plan, and not just short-term quick-fixes. As you're thinking about the benefits you are going to offer, make sure you really consider how you can fulfill long-term needs and convince your target prospects, customers and clients of the importance of real technology planning to the health and success of their companies.

In this short article, we talked about 3 tips for building a powerful, long-term business plan for computer consulting that attracts great, steady, high-paying clients. Learn more proven secrets about creating a strong, profitable business plan for computer consulting now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) BusinessPlan4ComputerConsulting.com All Rights Reserved

How to Repair Computers Profitably by Bundling-In Training

2009-05-20T11:04:00.001-04:00

As someone learning how to repair computers profitably in the small business space, you need to know how to take relationships with your customers beyond one-time repairs.

Because long-term client relationships are what will bring you stable, on-going revenue and sustain your firm far into the future, you need to be prepared to help your clients understand the power of their computer network installations, so they can use them to their fullest.

One of the biggest potential obstacles that can prevent a client from really using your provided solutions is a lack of training. So be sure to discuss the idea of bundling-in training with your clients at the beginning of each relationship, so your firm can develop a customized training solution that will really help clients use the technology you introduce.

Not sure you want to handle the informal, ad-hoc, one-on-one training yourself? Then look for a partner or subcontractor that specializes in training to join your team. On the flip side, this same individual may be able to throw some your business your way as well.

In reality, small business end users rarely have the time or funds to take full-day or multi-day off-site computer training classes. As someone learning how to repair computers and make money doing it, you need to understand that you are many of your customers' and clients’ only chance for formal training. So anything you can do, even in the form of informal one-on-one or small group sessions, will help them greatly and also bring you opportunity for additional revenue.

Your clients really need this training to get maximum value out of their technology investments and avoid buyer’s remorse that will alienate them from calling you again for services. When you offer end-user training, you help entrench your company deeper into the account and also will see a dramatic reduction in frivolous help desk calls and repair requests.

Here are 4 simple ways you can add value to your computer repair services and make some very high-margin profit, by simply bundling-in training for your supported end users.

1. Teach Clients about the Network Logon. After you learn how to repair computers profitably in the small business space, don't by shy about sharing your newly-acquired knowledge. Teach each user about network log-on procedures. Also highlight any password requirements, such as case sensitivity or automatic password expiration. Remember, what seems intuitive for you probably isn't for others.

2. Explain Details about Printers. Review the location of shared network printers, usage restrictions and default assignments with your computer repair clients. Show how to change the default printer in the Printers folder and how to change the selection through the File, Print menu command.

3. Educate Clients about Malware and Virus Protection. Many computer repair specialists forget about the very important topic of malware and virus protection when they are figuring out how to repair computers for small business owners and establish long-term relationships. Warn users about opening unsolicited file attachments and make sure to discuss the huge risks of downloading or installing unauthorized software.

4. Teach Clients Proper Data Backup Habits. Point out where data files should be stored in pre-configured default folder paths for various software applications. Advise users on which drive letters and folders are included in nightly automated backup routines. One of the best ways to keep clients long term is to prevent catastrophic data loss. So make sure clients know how to back up important information. Better yet, make backing up as automatic and seamless as possible.

In this article we discussed 4 easy ways that you can bundle-in training, so you can add value as you learn how to repair computers profitably . Learn more about how to repair computers for a living and get great, steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) HowToRepairComputersForALiving.com All Rights Reserved

Data Cabling Companies Partnering Strategies

2009-05-17T21:22:00.001-04:00

Most data cabling companies face a choice of two distinctly different business development paths.

Some spend most of their marketing, sales, and business development resources pursuing large major bid opportunities with Fortune 1000 enterprises and government entities.

Other data cabling companies do a lot more in the small business space, where installations typically involve networks of anywhere from 10-100 nodes.

However it can be very difficult to profitably market to customers that really only need your services once… with perhaps some small add-on work a few years down the road.

This is because your customer acquisition costs can be quite high relative to the rather limited size of the job.

Think about it…. How much can you really afford to spend on marketing, sales and business development expenses when the upside potential of the projects is say $1,000 - $5,000?

That’s why for many data cabling companies that want to service small businesses, it makes more sense to partner with those technology providers that already have existing relationships with small business owners and managers.

How can you go about finding these movers and shakers that can not only drastically cut the length of your sales cycle, but also provide predictability and stability through constant referrals?

Consider these 5 ways to locate like-minded technology providers that are eager to work with data cabling companies like yours.

1. Look for Those Small Business Tech Providers that Don’t Do Cabling In-House. At the risk of stating the obvious, make sure those VARs, consultants, solution providers, MSPs, and integrators that you choose to partner with are complimentary to your core cabling skills, and not a direct or indirect competitor.

2. Check Out B2B Networking Events. Generally those technology providers that get involved with chamber of commerce organizations, lead sharing groups, and local expos are pretty receptive to building their businesses up on a variety of fronts.

3. Go Where Techies Hang Out. Often-overlooked, IT user groups can be a great way to network both with potential partners and those that routinely subcontract work to data cabling companies like yours.

4. Keep Your Ears Open at Training Events. Ever been to a reseller or channel partner event from an IT giant like Microsoft or Cisco? These confabs are often bursting at the seams with those technology providers eager for opportunity. The key thing… network with those who don’t fulfill the needs that you do.

5. Ask Your Accountant or Attorney to Facilitate Introductions. Chances are, your trusted business advisors like your accountant or attorney have clients that are VARs, consultants, solution providers, MSPs, and integrators. So don’t be shy about letting your trusted business advisors know that you’d appreciate any relevant, appropriate matchmaking. After all, you do already have one important thing in common… you’ve selected the same trusted business advisor.

Most data cabling companies are either excellent marketers or destined to starve themselves out of business. This can be an especially daunting challenge if you work primarily with small businesses. In this short article, we looked at 5 simple, proven, powerful strategies for leveraging the existing relationships of other technology providers to get an instant foot in the door. To learn more about how data cabling companies can attract more steady, high-paying clients, go sign-up for the free tips now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) DataCablingCompany.com All Rights Reserved

How to Start a Consulting Business in IT

2009-05-14T21:35:00.001-04:00

When you are learning how to start a consulting business in the IT field, you will probably have a lot of questions about how you will actually be able to sell services to clients. If you have very little previous sales experience, how can you attract potential clients that will need you on an on-going basis?

When you’re figuring out how to run your own consulting firm, you will need some basic IT sales skills to effectively get your small business prospects, customers and clients signed on for a sophisticated network solution. Because businesses are often resistant to change, you will have to be prepared to discuss the benefits of what you're proposing in bottom-line business terms. In other words unless you're selling to IT managers, avoid IT jargon at all costs.

The following 3 pieces of advice can help you learn how to start a consulting business by working on your sales techniques.

1. Know Your Clients’ Hot Buttons. When you are selling to the decision makers at your potential client sites, you need to figure out how to speak directly to the hot buttons, sometimes called points of pain, that drive them crazy about the current way their business operates. You also need to relate this message to return on investment (ROI) and bottom-line savings potential. Unsure where to start? Start by asking, "what's the single biggest Information Technology problem that your company currently has?"

2. You Don’t Have to Be a Natural Sales Person to Start a Consulting Business. While being a natural sales person certainly can help most of the time, anyone with the proper motivation and training who's starting a consulting business can certainly learn how to sell IT services effectively. If you are the type that is a little nervous about selling or not a natural, figure out where your areas of weakness are in the sales process and work on them.

3. No Matter What, Do What Makes You Feel Comfortable. As you start a consulting business, you need to adopt a sales style that you are comfortable with … even if initially you find the sales process painful. You will not be effective in your sales meetings if you are going against your personality. So you have to find your strengths when it comes to sales and focus on developing those to their fullest. For many that are a little shy or introverted, it makes sense to focus your business development efforts on connecting up with other shy, introverted decision makers... perhaps accountants, engineers, scientists or others in highly-technical fields.

In this brief article, we looked at 3 ways to get up to speed on selling IT services as you learn how to start a consulting business in the Information Technology field. Learn more about how to start a consulting business and get great, steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) HowToStartAConsultingBusiness.com All Rights Reserved

PC Repair Contract Tips for Making Your Business Profitable

2009-04-25T08:09:00.002-04:00

Do your offer a PC repair contract to your small business clients?

And if so, are you truly satisfied with the quality and quantity of small business clients that have signed-up for your PC repair contract?

If you answered "No" to either question, you need to start thinking about where the real money is when it comes to providing PC repair services. The truth is, developing a PC repair contract is almost always going to be your ticket to growing your business and attracting better clients. Having an effective, compelling, mutually-beneficial offering can make or break your business. So you need to focus on making yours as strong as possible.

If you are like many others in the PC repair industry, you might have some anxiety about implementing a long-term contract plan. You probably wonder about important issues like how you can get your clients to sign up for long-term services and which types of clients should be on on-going agreements, because after all, these contracts are certainly not for everyone.

The following 4 tips can help you make your PC repair contract offering a vital and rejuvenating part of your core business and marketing plans.

1. Leverage PC Repair Contract Agreements to Make Your Business Secure. Having a contract gives you predictability and financial security for your business and your family. This means you can stop torturing yourself each month with ad-hoc, one-shot repair services that put you in “feast” or “famine” mode regularly and jeopardize your company’s survival. You really need to get past your resistance to do the work involved initially in setting up your business model around long-term relationships. And don't procrastinate. The sooner your business can enjoy this more profitable and predictable way of operating, the better off you'll be.

2. Choose the Right Kind of Clients for Long-Term Business Growth. You need to find clients that will be a good fit for an on-going PC repair contract and target them with your marketing materials. When you properly qualify and pinpoint the best prospects for on-going services, you can focus your energy in the right places and avoid wild goose chases that lead nowhere and eat up valuable time.

3. Stop Dealing with Prospects that Just Want Freebies. When you fine-tune your business model and start only looking for those that will be interested in on-going contracts, you will stop attracting prospects that just want to cherry-pick your services and pump you for free advice. When you have a clear set of lead qualification criteria for what makes a small business prospect an ideal candidate for long-term services, you can see warning signs early enough to prevent losers from derailing the growth of your PC repair business.

4. A PC Repair Contract Will Help You See Red Flags. When you know exactly which type of client is good to work with long term, you will be able to spot hard-to-satisfy small business owners and will have the luxury to "just say no" before you get involved in a no-win deal.

In this brief article, we discussed 4 tips to help you understand why a PC repair contract is necessary for building a strong, profitable, stable business. Learn more about how to create a compelling, mutually-beneficial PC repair contract plan that will attract great, steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) PCRepairContractSecrets.com All Rights Reserved

I.T. Contract Work and How the Rules of Engagement Have Changed

2009-04-16T09:50:00.001-04:00

If you are looking for I.T. contract work you might be running into some challenges when it comes to finding viable clients. Why is this happening?

In recent years, the rules of standard I.T. contract work have changed dramatically. You can’t just slide by on being a highly-talented I.T. consultant anymore. You have to be proactive about looking for new client projects and opportunities. In this highly-challenging business environment, finding great clients is getting tougher and tougher. And unfortunately without paying clients, you really can’t build a business or a career.

Let's look at 3 ways to take charge of your IT career, so you can build stable sources of project revenue and more long-term relationships.

1. Make Finding New Clients a Priority. Finding new long-term clients should be a top priority. In times like now especially, you can longer afford to back-burner marketing and promotion. Are you prepared to not only survive, but also thrive in the coming months and years? Stop procrastinating and get to work building relationships with both peers and potential clients. This way, you can sidestep unpredictable I.T. contract work and move towards more steady, stable projects.

2. Plant the Seeds for Your Future Business Development Activities. To be a great I.T. provider, you need to focus on real ways to grow your business. This means you must engage in activities like networking and targeted marketing and stop spending all your time learning about gadgets or racking up large numbers of certifications. Success with I.T. contract work is largely about building and maintaining long term relationships.

3. Know which Goals Help You Succeed in I.T. Contract Work. In order to build a successful business based on strong relationships with steady clients, you'll need to start making a dent on getting more word-of-mouth referrals from contacts, customers and clients; looking for revenue opportunities that surround you as you do business; preparing targeted marketing materials that will boost the number of prospects you convert into lucrative clients; uncovering your prospects’ biggest problems and showing how you can solve them in sales calls, and leaving your competitors in the dust by providing stellar customer service that builds tremendous client loyalty.

In this short article, we talked about 3 tips to help you get the most out of I.T. contract work opportunities. Learn more about how you can get great, steady, high-paying projects and I.T. contract work now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) ITContractWorkStinks.com All Rights Reserved

Become a Software Reseller that's More Than Just a Box-Pusher

2009-04-03T21:56:00.000-04:00

Do you want to become a software reseller for small businesses? If so, you need to know how to do it without coming off as a box-pusher or commodity-broker.

Many that decide software reselling will be a part of the services they provide to small businesses make the major mistake of focusing on the products they sell in their marketing materials. The truth is, if you do this, you will become just a commodity to your small business clients. And you’ll just attract customers looking for dirt-cheap prices and not real solutions to their technology woes.

Your best bet if you want to become a software reseller for small businesses and make an actual profit is to make sure your marketing materials, and your business as a whole, are focused on sophisticated solutions and not just the software you sell. The best small business prospects and clients will usually want you to be an insurance policy for their technology assets. This means you need to provide long-term services, not just short-term fixes and software solutions to your clients.

The following 3 tips can help you become a software reseller that's actually profitable.

1. Play Up the Value of Your Consulting Services. To build real client relationships with steady service revenue, make sure small business owners have a way to get a one-stop IT support solution for your company . Simple software sales will not accomplish this goal. Even if you want to make software reselling a part of your business plan, you need to play up the value of your consulting services and make sure you are focusing on important issues like data protection and security when selling software.

2. Help Clients Secure and Protect their Data. If you want to become a software reseller for small businesses, be sure to weave security and data protection bullet-points into your sales presentations. You may find that some of your prospects are using peer-to-peer networks. This just isn’t going to fly if you’re going to build a dependable, secure, reliable solution for your clients. Educate prospects on the inherent peer-to-peer limitations like share-level access control, lack of granular access levels, and no meaningful audit trail.

3. Stop Using Software Reselling as Your Loss-Leader. If you want to profitably become a software reseller, focus on selling fully-integrated IT solutions and not just being a software reseller. Remember, you only have one chance to make a positive, professional first impression on your new prospects. If your prospects perceive your company to be nothing more than glorified box-pushers, it's pretty tough to overcome that limiting perception. Rather that using software reselling as your loss-leader, consider focusing your marketing activities on the problems you solve for clients as a software solution provider.

In this article, we discussed 3 tips to help you become a software reseller without becoming just a product-pusher or commodity-broker. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), BecomeASoftwareReseller.com, All Rights Reserved

IT Maintenance Agreement Tips for Smart Computer Consultants

2009-03-30T13:13:00.000-04:00

Does your computer consulting firm currently offer an IT maintenance agreement option for long-term clients? If not, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to build great relationships with steady, high-paying clients. Plus done right, these offerings grow the annual revenue base of your company, so it can last well into the future.

Many computer consultants fail to understand the importance of why you want every client to be on some kind of an on-going IT maintenance agreement. A long-term agreement helps your clients, because it gives them peace of mind... peace of mind of knowing that someone is keeping their systems running all the time, solving their big IT business problems, and making their companies more efficient and productive. But what’s really in it for you?

Here are 5 big reasons why you should focus all your business growth efforts on IT maintenance agreement clients.

1. Stability for You and Your Business. An official consultant-client agreement gives you a stable foundation on which to grow your business. Even just a few clients on long-term maintenance contracts give you great results and helps you to know that you can expect a certain amount of minimum service revenue each and every month.

2. Predictability. What’s more predictable and comforting for you as a computer consultant than knowing which clients will be paying the bills, when they will be paying them, and exactly how much they will be paying? You can’t get the same kind of predictability in computer consulting from pay-as-you-go customers and one-shot deals that you can get from those that sign on-going agreements.

3. Regularity. When you have IT maintenance agreements in place, you get clients that see you on a regular basis. This way, you can develop deep and trusting relationships with people that can be a joy to work with. Plus regular clients on IT maintenance agreements allow you to put your skills to good use.

4. Confidence So You Can Grow Your Business. Once you add on-going agreements to your business model and see the results in the form of regular, recurring revenue and strong client-consultant relationships, you will feel that final push to go grow your business confidently.

5. Immediate, Obvious Prioritization of Services. If you currently find yourself wondering how to decide which of your clients deserves premium services, wonder no more. With a well-developed IT maintenance agreement, you know which clients are truly on your side and in a relationship with you long term. And these loyal clients are the ones that will get your attention when you have several customers pulling you in many directions at once.

In this brief article, we looked at 5 big reasons why you need to add an IT maintenance agreement program to your business. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients with a well-planned IT maintenance agreement now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), ITMaintenanceAgreement.com, All Rights Reserved

IT Marketing Ideas that Attract More Great Clients

2009-03-26T17:16:00.001-04:00

Are you looking for some IT marketing ideas to help you really get noticed by potential clients? Perhaps you should start looking beyond all the generalist tasks you are doing as a trusted technology provider for your clients … and start positioning yourself as a real IT specialist.

Why? Well, the truth is you don’t need that much industry experience to position yourself as an IT specialist. But specialization can make an enormous difference in your marketing results, your hourly billing rates, your sales call closing rates, and your clients' lifetime value.

Of course, there are a lot of IT marketing ideas that can help you position yourself as an IT specialist. But the key is identifying something you enjoy doing that many small business owners in your area need. Finding a specialty helps ensure you won’t just look like everyone else providing technology services.

Consider the following 5 IT marketing ideas to help you attract and retain great clients for your business.

1. Be Choosy with Your Clients. If you are like many others in the small business IT consulting field, you are probably doing everything for your clients, including tasks like network design, procurement, project management, dealing with phone companies, Web hosts and ISPs, deciding what to buy and inspecting it when it comes in, and doing configuration, testing, integration, customization, training and troubleshooting. Wow, that's a lot of hats to wear! Your Virtual CIO role as the person that does everything certainly makes you a generalist in some respects. But who says you have to be a generalist for everyone under the sun? IT marketing ideas that really work involve you being all things to only some of the people in a particular niche. You provide true IT consulting solutions and show your clients that the buck stops with you. You become accountable for everything your clients need. But most importantly, you must limit the scope of the kind of clients you pursue, usually by industry niche.

2. As an IT Specialist, You Can Market More Cost-Effectively to Your Niche. Marketing to a niche is actually easier and a lot more affordable than virtually any other IT marketing ideas. You will know exactly where to advertise when it comes to trade publications. You will be able to stop wasting time and money on generic ads in the newspaper, phone book or on the radio. When you understand your specialty and the needs of your niche, you will be able to come up with a marketing message that speaks directly to your target audience and really resonates. All of a sudden you become very valuable to potential clients and find yourself getting a warm response to your sales letters, postcards and any seminars you give.

3. Picking a Specialty Niche Doesn’t Always Require Extensive Experience. Finding your specialty and your niche can be as simple as having two or three clients, in the same or similar industries, who you’ve been working with for a year or two. Perhaps you’ve been doing a project such as migrating an antiquated MS-DOS-based industry-specific application to a 32-bit or to a Web-based application. As you go along, you may get to know a specific applications through work with a client or two. Now that you know that specific application, you most likely stand out from other consulting firms that those that use this industry-specific application could call.

4. Size Up the Market Size When You Think About Your Specialty Niche. One of the best and most important IT marketing ideas is to make sure you do your homework before you decide who you are going to serve. As an IT specialist, sometimes you will have to turn away potential clients, which may be counter-intuitive to the idea of growing your business. However, you are not really turning away any really viable clients. Instead you are making room for, almost like a kind of de-cluttering of your client list, and honing in on a segment that will be a good fit for your solutions and bring you a good source of high-margin, long-term, steady service revenue.

5. Develop a Marketing Message that Fits Your Specialty. Don’t try to speak to the masses with your marketing materials. You can’t possibly create a message that will resonate with everyone. And if you do, you will find yourself competing on price and reduced to a commodity. A well-defined specialty helps others know exactly what you do and for whom you do it. Plus focusing in on a well-defined niche avoids those prospects that would just call 30 companies they found in the phone book, looking for the lowest, dirt-cheap price.

In this article, we discussed 5 IT marketing ideas to help you become a specialist, so you can attract more great new clients. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients with more proven IT marketing ideas now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), ITMarketingIdeas.com, All Rights Reserved

Computer Business Name Ideas for Small Business Virtual CIO's

2009-03-14T21:45:00.001-04:00

Are you trying to come up with a strong computer business name? If you are having trouble landing on that perfect way to brand yourself, think about one of the most critical concepts of running a successful computer business... your role as a Virtual CIO for your clients.

When you build your entire business around being a Virtual CIO for local companies, you get the advantage of working on end-to-end solutions that need to be maintained and expanded on over time. And when your company name reflects this concept, you help build a brand for yourself that attracts steady, high-paying clients that recognize the importance of computers to running successful businesses and will need you for many years to come.

The following 4 tips will help you understand your role as a Virtual CIO, so you can decide on an effective computer business name that reflects your unique expertise and attracts the best small business clients.

1. Know What CIO Means. If you are going to choose a computer business name based on the idea of the CIO, you of course will have to understand what this concept means. In a medium-sized or enterprise-sized company, you will almost always find a CIO or chief information officer on payroll. Although this person is not generally as important as a CEO, a CIO is still a trusted business manager, trusted for his/her extensive expertise in technology. Because you are working with small business clients that have a lot of IT challenges but are too small to have a full-time CIO on payroll in most cases, you become a Virtual CIO for your clients. You may wish to reflect this concept in your computer business name, so you immediately communicate the problem you solve for your clients.

2. A Virtual CIO-Related Computer Business Name Helps Position Your Firm in the Marketplace. You can’t make the Virtual CIO concept an afterthought when you are coming up with your full brand, including your name, logo and business plan. Why? Because how you position you and your company makes an enormous difference on the hourly billing rates you can command with your clients. A strong name based on your mission to provide end-to-end business solutions should convey that you are an expert and the only rational choice for your target small business prospects.

3. Be Prepared to Deliver the Goods as Virtual CIO. If your company had complicated financial needs that included expanding payroll, looming strategic acquisitions or expanding to a different business model, would you feel more comfortable getting advice from a freelance bookkeeper, a freelance accountant, a freelance CPA, or a freelance Virtual CFO? Of course, you would want someone that is an expert in more than just one area of finances and could give you the total package. The same thing applies with your small business clients and the whole Virtual CIO concept, which is why you need to build your computer business name around it. A small business that has a need for things like a high-end database management application, a mission-critical point of sale network, a highly-visible e-commerce site, regulatory IT requirements, and a need to integrate the systems of a recently acquired competitor needs you to be that end-to-end, one-stop solution.

4. Being the Virtual CIO Self-Selects the Best Small Business Clients. When you brand yourself as a Virtual CIO, you help create a decisive strategy for targeting and qualifying small business prospects. A name based on the Virtual CIO concept helps you show you want to be involved with your clients at high strategic levels. It also pretty much guarantees that you will work on projects with very measurable business results and ROI and command the highest hourly billing rates in your area for your services. When your name reflects the idea of truly sophisticated technology solutions, you help build a client roster primarily with those small businesses that need to retain your high-end, premium Virtual CIO services, vs. plain, ordinary break-fix repair and systems integration with no long-term potential.

In this brief article we discussed 4 tips to help you understand why you need to choose a computer business name that supports the whole Virtual CIO concept. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients with an effective, highly-compelling computer business name now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), GreatComputerBusinessNames.com, All Rights Reserved

Become an I.T. Consultant and Small Business Super-Hero

2009-03-09T10:52:00.001-04:00

Look up in the sky... it's a bird, no it's a plane. No, it's your smart and friendly I.T. consultant here to save the day and protect your small business from data meltdowns.

Are you trying to become an I.T. consultant? Are you interested in solving the problems of big small businesses and medium-sized businesses?

If you want to become an I.T. consultant for the big small business and medium-sized business market, you need to understand their needs and know what they are already getting in terms of technical support.

Big small businesses, those with 50-100 PC’s that do anywhere between 5 million to 20 million dollars in U.S. annual revenue (or your local currency equivalent), get their technical support usually from an internal I.T. person or a small I.T. department.

Medium-sized businesses usually have more than 100 PCs and are doing more than 20 million dollars in U.S. annual revenue (or your local currency equivalent). Here you will see more I.T. departments and companies that have bigger versions of those same I.T. resources you saw with the big small businesses.

The following 3 tips can help you get started as an I.T. super-hero for bigger small businesses and medium-sized businesses.

1. Know Where Most Big Small Businesses Get I.T. Support. Big small businesses will often have a full-fledged I.T. manager or director providing support, though sometimes they will just have a very knowledgeable internal computer guru. However if IT is strategic enough, you may even find a small I.T. department. When you decide to become an I.T. consultant for bigger small businesses, you will find fewer solo practitioner consultants, more small firms, and some deeply-niched specialists.

2. Pick a Specialty to Stand Out from the Crowd. If you want to be successful in bigger small businesses and you don't have the resources to compete as a larger consulting firm, you usually don't want to just be a standard generalist. You need to at the very least be marketing yourself as a specialist. Your best option if you want to work with these types of clients is to pick a few things you love to do for clients and get really, really good at them, so you can be one of those deeply-niched specialists that will help them fill out their existing I.T. departments.

3. Think About How to Complement Internal IT in Medium-Sized Businesses. With medium-sized businesses, you will almost always see an internal I.T. department and especially an in-house generalist. So to become an I.T. consultant for these clients, you need to get really comfortable with working in a deep niche. While this presents a challenge, it also presents many opportunities for you to learn how to do specialized tasks that you love to do. Just do your homework to make sure your narrowly-defined marketplace is big enough to support your tiny little niche.

In this short article, we talked about 3 tips to help you become an I.T. consultant for bigger small businesses and medium-sized businesses. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients as you become an I.T. consultant now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), BecomeAnITConsultant.com, All Rights Reserved

Virtual CIO Tips for Helping Your Clients Understand Your Role

2009-02-27T11:39:00.000-05:00

Are you trying to set yourself up as a trusted Virtual CIO for your clients’ businesses? If so, you need to know how to convince small business owners that signing a long-term service agreement is in their best interest.

You have to know what small businesses will need from you. As a Virtual CIO, you provide an outsourced Virtual IT department for your clients and become an extension of their businesses. You will have to give them the continuity of knowing you will be there every week, every month and over the course of several years (at least!) to oversee their IT needs. You will help with strategic planning as well as execution of technology plans, management, supervision and training, as well as coordinating all different types of IT vendors.

An on-going service agreement solidifies your role as a Virtual CIO and formalizes your relationships with your clients. Use these 3 steps to get clients to understand your role so you can build long-term relationships.

1. Establish Yourself as the Main Technology Contact. Your small business clients are not going to have the patience to deal with a lot of different technology vendors. As a Virtual CIO, you need to have the attitude of the-buck-stops-here, and be able to take care of everything IT-related, soups-to-nuts.

2. Use Strong Prospect Qualification Strategies. To attract clients that will be receptive to your role as a Virtual CIO, establish effective strategies to make sure they are a good fit for your services. A prospect survey is a good way to ask important questions that will weed out those prospects that will not be interested in long-term relationships. Ask important questions about the size of your prospects’ businesses, where they are located, how many PCs and servers they have, and which type of industry they are in. You can fax, e-mail or mail this survey directly to prospects, or establish an area on your Web site that allows them to fill it out online.

3. Leverage Your Rate Card. If you want to be a Virtual CIO offering on-going service agreements, you need to have a one-page rate card to show qualified customers the difference between “pay-as-you-go” and service contract rates. This rate card is both a marketing document and a reference for your existing clients. It outlines the unique benefits you provide as part of your service contracts and defines your company as their outsourced Virtual IT department. Stress benefits such as better rates, waiving some premiums, better response time and proactive monitoring to help show customers why they need to sign service agreements to protect and grow their businesses.

In this article we talked about 3 tips to help you sell yourself as a Virtual CIO to local small businesses. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients as a Virtual CIO now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), VirtualCIOKit.com, All Rights Reserved

Computer Company Tips for Overcoming Sales Objections

2009-02-21T09:39:00.002-05:00

When you’re approaching your computer company clients with network upgrade proposals, often they will dwell on cost. They don’t think about the great cost to them of failing to invest in a network: lost employee productivity; downtime when they don’t think about fault tolerance and additional service costs from computer consultants when dead-end or impossible-to-support solutions are chosen just because they are cheap.

No matter how great you are at explaining your solutions to prospects, customers, and clients, inevitably some sales objections will crop up before you can get authorization to proceed. One minor concern can derail a whole sale, which is why you need to know how to overcome objections so you can close the deal on big network installations.

Use these 3 strategies to overcome common computer company sales objections, so you can be less emotional and defensive, and better prepared when you are trying to turn non-paying prospects into paying customers and clients.

1. Overcome Apathy. Apathy is a formidable force in the sales process. If small business decision makers have an apathetic outlook toward implementing a network, they might take weeks, months or even years before they feel a sense of urgency about your proposed network. Maybe these small business owners don’t see any problem with their peer-to-peer network. Luckily for you, sometimes all it takes is just one little disaster for those who are apathetic to see the light. Maybe a person working on the PC acting as a server accidentally hits the reset button with his/her knee, or maybe the server inadvertently performs an unannounced shutdown and restart due to a software setup issue. Situations that cause catastrophic data loss or interrupted business can be great ways to combat apathy. Suddenly a small business owner will be very receptive to your suggestions and solutions. You can also overcome apathy by discussing your prospect’s or client’s competition (without naming names), citing examples of those you are working with that are buying into more sophisticated computer solutions and changing the landscape of the industry.

2. Overcome Unrealistic Expectations. You may not think there is such a thing as a prospect being too enthusiastic about jumping headfirst into a major IT project, especially if you are a new computer company owner. However, too much enthusiasm can be dangerous. Succumbing to hype is essentially the exact opposite of succumbing to apathy. Be careful to manage client expectations regarding undue optimism … as soon as possible. As an example, maybe a small business owner returns from a trade show with a glossy brochure for an industry-specific application and is incredibly excited, seeing it as the next big thing. While the small business owner may have been really impressed by the demo at the trade show, you need to overcome the hype surrounding the application and save your client from making huge investments in anything that will not be best for his/her business. Part of your responsibility as a computer company owner and outsourced Virtual CIO is to make sure your clients don’t squander scarce IT budgetary resources on ill-advised solutions that fail to deliver as advertised.

3. Overcome Denial. A big question you might get from prospects, customers, and clients, when you’re trying to sell a major project is, “Why do I need something as big and powerful as the system you’re recommending? We’re just a seven-person company and our network works great … most of the time …” Also popular is, “My staff has been with me for years, is very careful about sensitive data and I trust them completely,” as well as “It could never happen to me!” The truth is, in order to overcome denial, you have to sell fear. Be ready to tell horror stories about catastrophic data loss, employee betrayal and other security disasters. Small business owners rarely think about issues like IT security until it’s already too late. You need to get small business prospects, customers, and clients thinking about sensitive files such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, trade secrets, payroll data and annual employee reviews. You need to get them thinking about the big picture and why your solutions will help protect them, so they can understand the pieces of their business that are at risk, and what you can do about this risk. This helps you overcome the “it could never happen to me” denial.

While you will encounter more than just apathy, unrealistic expectations and denial when it comes to small business sales objections, those are three big obstacles you need to be prepared to confront and overcome. In this article we talked about 3 tips to help you overcome computer company sales objections. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients to your computer company now at the attached link.

Data Cabling Jobs Done Right Lead to Long-Term Clients

2009-02-15T19:16:00.001-05:00

Many in the data cabling industry believe that if you do a good job for your customers, you'll be rewarded with repeat business and a nice flow of word of mouth referrals... with lots of profitable data cabling jobs.

How true is this conventional wisdom? Is it just wishful thinking?

Well, it all depends. Obviously it kind of goes without saying, you need to exceed your clients' expectations with all of your data cabling jobs if you want to even have a chance at repeat business or word of mouth referrals.

That alone however is no guarantee of either repeat business or word of mouth referrals. It just means that you don't strike out over something silly and totally under your control, in most cases.

So what can you do to get more repeat data cabling business and more word of mouth referrals?

The simplest approach to getting more repeat business is to diversify your service offerings and broaden the scope of what you deliver.

For example, if you or your staff feels comfortable configuring simple routers and Ethernet settings in workstations and servers, that's a very easy add-on sale when you're pitching a data cabling job.

What if you don't have those skills in house? Or what if your clients want even more diverse, related IT services to go along with your data cabling work?

Or what if they want the holy grail -- the single point of accountability for anything and everything related to their IT needs?

That desire for a single point of accountability is actually a lot more common than many think.

Why?

Because when a small business has no internal IT staff, the non-technical small business owner or manager has absolutely no desire to deal with 5-6 different, potentially conflicting, IT vendors.

As a result, smart small business owners and managers look for a single point of contact.

Is it a cabling problem? A router problem? A device driver problem? A telco problem? An ISP problem?

Who cares?

Non-technical small business owners and managers sure as heck care. They have no ability or patience to referee 5-6 different IT vendors that are all pointing their fingers at each other.

These non-technical small business owners and managers simply want to make a single phone call to their main IT service provider and know that the problem will be taken care of.

No hours of enduring music on hold ...

No struggling to understand the language dialects of outsourced tech support reps in far away places ..

And no feeling like a human ping pong ball.

Now what does this all have to do with data cabling jobs?

It's really simple; if you want more repeat business with your clients, you need to take the lead as their outsourced Virtual IT manager.

Does this mean you or your staff needs to be skilled on every possible piece of hardware, software or peripheral device that could possibly be found in a typical small business environment? Of course not.

However, it means that you do need to build a team of competent, dependable, local, non-competing technology providers to serve as your project partners and subcontractors for your projects.

And it means you need to manage the projects and coordinate all the related tasks and vendors.

Is this a lot of work?

Absolutely. But by going beyond simple data cabling jobs to take on the role of outsourced Virtual IT manager, you'll take customers that in the past may have only spent $1,500 with you once... and now all of a sudden these clients are on annual service agreement commitments with minimum spend levels of $12,000/year each for many, many years to come.

Is it worth it?

Only you can decide. But if you want a lot more repeat business spinning off from your data cabling jobs and you want to position yourself to get a lot more word of mouth referrals, it's high time to broaden your way of thinking to go way beyond simple data cabling jobs.

In this article, we looked at how you can turn one-shot-deal data cabling jobs into clients with much larger long-term lifetime client value and a lot more potential for word of mouth referrals. To learn more about taking your simple cabling projects to a whole new level of profitability, go sign for proven tips on Data Cabling Jobs now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), DataCablingJobs.com, All Rights Reserved

PC Repair Showstoppers: 10 Things that Can Derail Your Business

2009-02-12T10:11:00.001-05:00

If you want to run a successful PC repair company, you have to know how to provide end-to-end solutions to your clients and build real relationships. This involves learning to spot and address potential problems proactively... before they turn into total catastrophes that will destroy your business.

First of all, you have to keep communication lines open with your clients if you want to be an effective project manager. During major projects, keep in touch with the main contact person at the client site at least once or twice a week, so you can give and get feedback, and report on project developments.

But which issues can ruin client relationships and derail your business? The following is a list of 10 potential show-stoppers for your PC repair business, so you can identify and learn how you can side-step each of them.

1. Ambiguous Software Licensing, Ownership or Poorly Documented Configurations. If your client is getting new PCs, make sure your client has the media and the right number of licenses. Especially in the case of software installation with non-standard configuration, make sure the proper configuration settings and procedures are well-documented and accessible.

2. A Client that is a Control Freak. You can’t afford to just sit back and take it if your clients want to boss you around. Unless your PC repair clients want to pay for your training, non-billable downtime, overhead, taxes, insurance and fringe benefits, clients need to know your firm’s staff are not their employees.

3. Data Not Transferred from Old PCs. Small business end users often think that years-worth of stored data files will be magically transferred from their existing PC’s to new server folders or computers. Because they believe in this supernatural phenomenon, they hardly ever mention all or any of their data files when talking to you about their IT problems. You need to be responsible for scouring local drives for stray data files as part of your initial assessment.

4. A Project that Drags in the End. With problem clients, you might find yourself embroiled in follow-up work and tweaking for weeks or more. When you are first planning a project, you need to know and define which tasks are in scope and which are out of scope. If you’re not sure, refer to the latest revision of your time budget. Don’t be afraid to use change orders if necessary.

5. Hardware Incompatibility. Be wary of non-standard hardware not provided or recommended by your PC repair firm. It can derail you... big time!

6. Lack of Server Data Backup. Be certain you have a complete and verified backup of all data on your clients’ existing server in case you need to roll back to original configuration settings or find data.

7. Delays on Products or from Service Providers. Because you will be acting as a project coordinator/virtual CIO, you will often be coordinating telco or ISP account activation or product shipments from multiple distributors. And you might run into unanticipated delays. Most small business clients will be content just to be kept apprised of the situation as long as the delay is not too bad. Get scheduling commitments from all subcontractors and write the proper contingencies into your project plans to protect you and clients.

8. A Project Timetable that is Too Rigid. You might think you should print out your project plan and set it in stone, delivering just one version to the client. However, this is dangerous. Make your timetable an amendable, living document. You’ll probably update your timetable on a weekly basis to reflect progress and problems or delays.

9. Skipping the Planning Phase to Save Time or Money. Do you think it might be wise to skip some of the preliminary needs analysis and planning because they seem like wastes of time? Never skip these critical tasks. When you skip important planning and needs analysis steps, you run the risk of overlooking key elements of projects.

10. Incompatible Software. If you want to be perceived as a PC repair professional, make sure you don’t take software compatibility for granted! Ask and test sample configurations to make sure everything works as advertised.

In this article, we outlined 10 potential showstoppers for your PC repair company. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients to your PC repair business now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), PCRepairBusiness.com, All Rights Reserved

Data Cabling Business Tips for Attracting Great Clients

2009-02-01T11:02:00.002-05:00

Do you own a data cabling business that caters to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)?

If so, one of your biggest challenges likely is attracting repeat clients that have a high lifetime value. After all, without repeat business, it's very tough to properly invest in client acquisition.

Could you afford to spend $500 on a display ad that only attracts an $800 one-shot-deal customer to your data cabling firm? Of course not!

With that in mind, let's look at 4 ways for you to attract more great clients to your data cabling company.

1. Partner with Consultants, VARs, Integrators, Solution Providers, and Managed Service Providers that Don't Offer Data Cabling. Why spend your whole marketing budget and all that time chasing after one-shot customers, when you can spend your time courting those that already have great relationships with small business owners and managers?!? Take time to be-friend consultants, VARs, integrators, solution providers, and managed service providers that don't offer data cabling. Brainstorm about opportunities for you to help other build your client lists.

2. Provide More Comprehensive Virtual IT Services. Besides data cabling, could your existing staff handle adding workstations to networks and configuring routers? If so, why not add-on some additional premium services that position your company for a more long-term, more profitable client lifecycle. And if you don't have staff with those skill sets, consider hiring and managing subcontractors that can. Remember, the real money is in owning the client account for long-term, repeat business.

3. Play Both Sides of the Fence with WiFi. The harsh reality is that WiFi is basically your biggest competitor to selling traditional data cabling solutions. How can you profit from this undeniable competitive force? Make sure you have staff or subcontractors that are also adept at installing, configuring, and supporting WiFi based networks, or networks that include a mix of traditional twisted paid data cabling and WiFi nodes.

4. Consider Adding VOIP Phone Services. One more way to easily attract more great clients, with higher lifetime value, is to get involved in reselling and supporting Voice-Over-IP based phone solutions. Again, you have two basic choices. Either train an employees on the required skills. Or subcontract out the work to a qualified contractor that can function as an extension of your data cabling business.

In this article, we looked at 4 simple ways to attract more great clients to your data cabling firm. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients that need data cabling solutions and on-going services now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), DataCablingCompany.com, All Rights Reserved

Computer Contract Planning Tips for Busy IT Consultants

2009-01-23T11:44:00.001-05:00

Does your IT consulting business have a well-designed, compelling computer contract program?

If you are a computer consultant, you probably feel overwhelmed most of the time as you juggle keeping track of your clients’ needs, building relationships with new prospects and customers, and taking care of the many daily tasks involved in running a business. Many small business IT consultants feel like establishing a computer contract program for long-term clients will just be one more thing to add to their already overloaded to-do lists. But a well-crafted long-term support plan can actually help much better manage the solutions you provide for your clients.

Why?

Consider the following 4 reasons why building a computer contract program is so instrumental to the profitability of your IT consulting business.

A Computer Contract Program Is Key for the Busy Computer Consultant. A well-crafted program for on-going maintenance and service can help you manage your time when you have a lot of clients that all need IT support at the same time. You will be able to maximize your utilization rate and still have enough time to handle client emergencies as they arise.
You Are Prepared for Emergencies. When you have a lot of clients that need emergency service at the same time, you can’t possibly be everywhere at the same time. A computer contract program and support plan helps you prioritize your client list. You know exactly to whom you are obligated – long-term, paying contracted clients – and who you need to put on hold.
Force Customers and Clients to Make a Decision. Having a computer contract-based business model forces the people you serve to make a decision. Are they in, or are they out? By insisting that those that want you to provide them with on-going services sign a formal contract, you weed out those that aren’t serious. Once you know who is really committed to you and who is not, it's easy to know who gets priority service.
Manage Prospect, Customer and Client Expectations. A computer contract plan helps you manage everyone’s expectations effectively. Those who have signed an agreement know they are your top priority, and those who have not know you are obligated to those that have committed to you long-term.

Before you decide that a computer contract program is too much work for you, think about the long-term benefits it can offer your business. Do you want to continue to struggle with fly-by-night, non-committal customers? Or do you want to enjoy the benefits of knowing you have stable, on-going service revenue to sustain you long term?

In this short article, we outlined 4 reasons why a computer contract program can help you grow a profitable IT consulting business. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients with a well-crafted computer contract program now at the attached link.

IT Service Level Agreement Tips for Getting Great Clients

2009-01-09T20:33:00.001-05:00

Do you want to offer an IT service level agreement to your clients, but you don't know where to start?

If you are a small business computer consultant, your most profitable clients will be those on service agreements. Besides knowing your own skills and being qualified to solve important business problems, you need to look carefully at the size and type of companies you intend to serve.

How can you plan your IT service level agreement, so you get more steady, high-paying clients? The following 3 tips can help you build a profitable service agreement business.

Choose the Right-Sized Businesses to Target with Your IT Service Level Agreement. When you are just starting your service agreement business, start small. Start with a client size that you can approach comfortably. This will probably be a business in the 10-50 systems range with one or two servers. They will typically not have wide area network connections and will have basic needs when it comes to business software applications. When you start by targeting smaller small businesses, you can set the stage for larger small business clients.
Keep Up Communication with Clients. In order to develop successful IT service level agreement relationships, you need to remain in constant contact with your valuable clients. Keeping communication lines open through e-mails, phone calls, or drop-ins will help you manage client expectations. If the service agreement is set up properly, you and your technical staff will be at each client site at least once or twice per month. Staying in touch on a regular basis is extremely important if you want to build quality client relationships, and manage and even exceed client expectations.
Surveys Can Help You Evaluate Your Progress. Send surveys out to prospects, customers, and clients as a part of your plan for a profitable IT service level agreement package. Surveys, particularly with clients, work best when sent a couple months before you are ready for contract renewals. You can adapt that schedule to twice per year or even quarterly for more interim feedback. Surveys can be informal, but you need to make sure you keep asking for feedback on a regular basis.

In this article, we looked at 3 tips for building relationships with a compelling IT service level agreement program. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients with your IT service level agreement now at the attached link

Copyright (C), ITServiceLevelAgreement.com, All Rights Reserved.

Software Reseller Tips for Growing a Stable Business

2008-12-20T13:12:00.000-05:00

Are you a computer consultant that breaks out in hives when you think about being a software reseller?

You might be confusing the low-margin sales of desktop PC’s, notebooks, or servers with actually integrating software and other products into comprehensive business solutions for small businesses. If you plan carefully, you can profit from your clients’ need for full-service support from their software reseller.

The following 3 tips can help you learn how to incorporate being a software reseller into your more profitable IT services business and attract great clients.

1. Embrace Your Role as a Technology Influencer. An IT consultant that also acts as a software reseller knows that smart selection of products can make installation, support, troubleshooting and upgrading work a breeze. Choosing the right software for systems can dramatically boost system reliability, which helps keep your valued clients happy. If you rely on someone else to choose software, you increase the chances of your solutions being less effective. When software acts up or is incompatible with existing hardware, clients get really frustrated and might actually end up blaming you for problems. As a software reseller, you can enhance the overall solution you bring to clients and give them a single point of contact. This in turn eliminates frustration and nurtures trusting, long-term relationships.

2. Pay Attention to New Advances in Technology … But Be Wary! There will always be new software and hardware on the horizon, but that doesn’t mean you have to jump to incorporate all of it into your small business clients’ solutions just because you want to stay up to date. A successful small business software reseller keeps an eye on new products for clients, but is always mindful of overall solutions and what will work best and most cost effectively. You can’t let your love for new gadgets and bleeding-edge technology get in the way of responding to client needs.

3. Know Where the Real Profit Opportunities Are for a Software Reseller. IT consultants do have a big opportunity for profit from software sales, but often not in the actual profit margins of the software applications themselves. Software resellers are successful when they act as their clients’ primary technology influencers. If you are going to add software sales to your repertoire, you need to not think of yourself as a purveyor of products, but rather as a professional that will recommend what to buy based on end-to-end small business solutions.

In this short article, we looked at 3 tips to help you profit from being a software reseller and build a steady client base. Learn more about how you can get great, steady, high-paying clients as a software reseller now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), SoftwareResellerSecrets.com, All Rights Reserved

How a PC Repair Shop Gets More Repeat Business with Less Effort

2008-11-24T11:08:00.003-05:00

If you run a PC repair shop, you have probably already encountered some major challenges when it comes to selling services to small businesses. And you are probably wondering if there are ways you can maximize your marketing results without taking time away from running other components of your business.

The key to getting more repeat business for your PC repair shop with less effort is figuring out how to frame benefits to your clients in your marketing materials and related pre-sales efforts. Which benefits can you give your clients that will be different from the benefits offered by your local competitors?

In this article, you will learn about 4 tips that will help you stress the benefits of your PC repair shop solutions, so you can rise above the competition and get more repeat business.

1. It’s All about Location. As an example, say XYZ PC Repair Shop and Consulting Services moved into a new location in a 27 story building full of successful small businesses that meet the qualifications for great repeat clients. Should they play up the proximity? Of course! If you are very near to your ideal prospects, customers and clients, you can basically own the neighborhood. Your unique benefit, the benefit that sets you apart from your competitors, is that you are right there, in the heart of the action. You can get things done better, faster, and cheaper than anyone else who is not right there. As a result, it's a lot easier to sell your services to potential clients. Location can be a major benefit for small business owners and could be the primary reason they choose your PC repair shop over all others.

2. Sell Your Unique Benefits. If you own a PC repair shop, think about focusing on long-term clients. Long-term clients will make or break your business. If you are located nearby your small business prospects, you can sell more long-term relationships with less effort by leading with a response time guarantee. When you are located in close proximity to your clients, you can afford to make bold promises and say you will be there within 60 minutes of a server down emergency during regular business hours. If you are really located close by to your clients' offices, you can add weight to your solutions and benefits by offering a discount to clients (basically a late-penalty to your firm) if you are even a minute late beyond the 60-minute promised emergency response time. If you have enough clients in your immediate area, there will be almost no travel time involved. Staff utilization rates will increase tremendously and you will avoid the hassle and expense of driving, traffic, and parking.

3. Identify Local Businesses and Conduct Surveys. To identify local businesses and start a proactive marketing campaign, conduct a survey. Mail something out to every owner in your immediate area. You can include a bribe and give them a gift certificate for a dozen bagels, lunch-for-two at a nearby restaurant, or some other incentive to return the survey. The survey should ask basic questions about your prospects’ business such as how many PCs they have and how many employees. Also make sure to ask how these prospects currently get IT support and whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with current solutions. This survey can help further qualify prospects in your area and provide extremely valuable market research, making related marketing campaigns much easier for your PC repair shop.

4. Get to Know Those that Know Everyone. You should get to know people that are involved in the daily lives of your prospects. Befriend the local plumber, electrician, pizza delivery person, package delivery truck driver, and mail carrier. This will help you gradually network yourself into the area. Because these types of people are in and out of your prospects’ offices all the time, they can often point you in the right direction and help make the job of getting more clients for your PC repair shop easier than if you just relied on cold-canvassing or stranger-marketing methods.

In this short article we discussed 4 tips to help you get more repeat clients for your PC repair shop with less effort. Learn more about how you can get great repeat business for your PC repair shop now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), PCRepairShopSecrets.com, All Rights Reserved

Computer Business Names that Attract Great Clients

2008-11-12T08:07:00.002-05:00

Many technology professionals starting their own businesses underestimate the sheer power of computer business names, as a marketing tool for more easily selling IT services to steady, high-paying clients.

Choosing the right name for your company can be challenging and must be well thought out before you open for business. There are many factors to consider as you are thinking through computer business names. To target the best, steady high-paying clients, your marketing materials and branding must communicate exactly what you do to solve small business technology problems.

Use the following 4 tips to decide on an appropriate computer business name that showcases your unique value proposition and target client base.

1. Think About Your Specialty and Niche Market. Do you have a specialty? Perhaps you are an expert at accounting or medical software. If so, you can use this specialized knowledge to your advantage when building your company's identity. Also think about how your specialty relates to any niche market. Your proficiency with accounting software or experience working with accountants in a previous job might lead to you marketing yourself as an expert in that particular industry. If you choose a specialty and niche, make sure your name reflects this to attract the clients that will most benefit from your services. For example, you can add the term “accounting solutions” or a similar phrase to your computer business name.

2. Consider Your Location. Often your location can be a real benefit to prospects, customers and clients. When you are geographically close to your small business clients, they know they can count on you for important benefits such as faster response time, service guarantees, and a more competitive rate structure. As you are thinking through computer business names, seriously consider adding location to better communicate your identity and the strength of your services. This also helps to pre-qualify your potential clients. As an example, computer business names such as “[Your City or Your Region] Technology Solutions” will let your prospects know more about you and who you serve than simply “Technology Solutions.”

3. Keep Your Computer Business Name Short and Descriptive. When you are thinking about names, remember to make your company name short and descriptive. To get maximum impact with marketing materials and make yourself memorable to prospects, you should choose a name that can be easily made into a domain name for your Web site and become part of your e-mail address. That way when prospects are trying to get in touch they only have one thing to remember.

4. Make Sure Your Computer Business Name is Unique... At Least Locally! In most cases, a simple fictitious name search for similarly- or identically-named business entities or DBA's in your city, county, or state/province is adequate. However to truly cover all bases, or if you have national (or even global) aspirations, consult with a qualified legal expert on trademarks and servicemarks. This will usually be an intellectual property attorney or solicitor.

In this article we talked about 4 critical tips that can help you think through different computer business names. Learn more about how you can get great, steady, high-paying clients and find the best computer business names now at http://www.GreatComputerBusinessNames.com

Copyright (C), GreatComputerBusinessNames.com, All Rights Reserved

Service Contract Clients Protect Your Company's Future

2008-10-31T14:18:00.002-04:00

While most IT consulting companies would like to have a very stable, steady client base, very few IT consulting businesses have solid, compelling service contract offerings that lure in their customers and clients effectively and consistently. How does your firm measure up?

Is every prospect, customer, and client of your IT consulting business moving towards a service contract?

And, do you have a marketing plan that effectively and consistently seduces your customers and clients with irresistible, must-have service contract benefits?

If your answer to either of these questions is “No,” you really need to work on your service contract offering ASAP and know what it is all about before you start delivering services to long-term clients.

The following 3 steps can help you build a strong service contract package, that will keep your clients happy, and help you build predictable, recurring service revenue for your own IT consulting business.

1. Plan Ahead. The best way to build your confidence as an IT professional at any stage of your business is to make sure you always plan ahead. As you are planning and strengthening your support contract package, take stock of what you can do today and make a skills inventory list. Then look at what your competitors are doing and figure out where the skills gaps are. Which of your services would be most useful to small businesses with client/server networks? What are your competitors offering in terms of services and solutions? Once you determine the answers to these critical questions, you can start to make a plan of attack. Work on delivering irresistible, must-have service contract benefits, that no one else can offer. This way, your target prospects will have an easy-choice when they pick you to fulfill their long-term IT needs.

2. Don't Worry About Certifications. Remember, most small businesses are a few years behind the technology adoption curve. They are typically “non-technical” and more often than not focus on business problems rather than the technology that bolsters their infrastructure. Your job, through ongoing client service contract arrangements, is to translate their technology needs into easy-to-use, dependable, and scalable business solutions with strong, positive return on investment (ROI). With that in mind, don’t obsess over keeping up-to-date on the latest software versions the moment they come out, because your clients are most likely still working with older platforms. Any skills gaps can usually be quickly remedied with qualified partners and subcontractors. All you will need in the small business arena is some basic certifications and a working knowledge of popular software and hardware. Most small business owners will not be able to differentiate between simple and advanced certifications. And those that can, will frown upon the idea that they might have to pay you more because you are too advanced to fulfill their more modest IT needs.

3. Remember that a Service Contract is What Makes Your Business Profitable for the Duration. You can’t really put your “all” into providing IT consulting services if you are constantly waiting for the phone to ring, or putting in a few hours here and there for non-committal customers and those in a panic over IT emergencies. If you really want to find the right types of clients that will buy into long-term hand-holding, oversight and the security of a real, outsourced IT department, you need to have a strong service contract offering with highly-compelling, must-have benefits. The ideal clients will expect you to take care of long-term projects and upgrades and be available to coordinate important aspects of building a network and a stable IT plan. When you have a well-defined service contract package, you give clients peace of mind and a reason to work with you long term. And in return, you will be paid regularly, which will help you build your much-needed recurring service revenue.

This short article introduced you to some of the more important considerations when packaging and marketing your service contract offering for your IT consulting business. To learn more about how you can get great steady, high-paying clients, go sign up for free proven Service Contract tips now at http://www.ITServiceContractSecrets.com.

Copyright (C), ITServiceContractSecrets.com, All Rights Reserved.

The Computer Consulting Kit Audio Training Program: Learn about the Course with the Quick Start Guide

2008-10-07T16:41:00.002-04:00

Many computer consultants just like you have totally changed their way of thinking about their business – and enjoyed amazing changes in revenue and relationships with clients – thanks to their investment in the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course.

As part of your Computer Consulting Kit investment, you get amazing resources from the audio training program. The Quick Start Guide audio training program features TWO hours of detailed help navigating the information in the course.

The Quick Start Audio Training Program offers …

1. Advice on how to get the most out of your training investment as you familiarize yourself with the HUGE collection of powerful, field-tested, PROVEN small business computer consulting tools and resources.

2. An outline of how you can get the most impact from the time you invest studying up on the Computer Consulting Kit materials.

3. A jump-start overview of eight critical business development concepts so you can start using them right away and get ahead TODAY through training, even before you finish reading the first Module of the course.

4. A structured method for tracking your self-study progress so you can stay organized and use what you learn easily as part of your own business.

To learn more about how you can get this audio training program and make the decision to invest in the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course, visit the attached link.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Forecast Your IT Consulting Cash Flow with Easy-to-Use Templates

2008-10-02T12:51:00.000-04:00

When you are running your own IT consulting business, templates can really help keep you efficient and consistent to improve your credibility and the level of professionalism you exhibit to your prospects, customers, clients and potential partners.

If you want to really streamline your IT consulting business, you need to watch your cash flow and make sure you are getting the most out of your relationship investments with prospects and clients. Once you get paying customers and clients, you will find yourself busy with billable hours and in need of important templates to help you manage what’s coming in and turn it into profit for your business.

The Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course offers IMMEDIATELY downloadable templates to help you with cash flow. That means you can get started NOW with managing your client relationships and your cash flow – before you get overwhelmed and find yourself up against obstacles you cannot overcome.

As soon as you pay for the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course through our Verisign Class 3 Server, you can immediately get access to the tools that so many consultants JUST LIKE YOU worldwide have used to really jump-start their businesses. You get ALL the sample document templates, audio training programs, Module workbooks and special bonuses (including the cash flow templates) so you don’t miss a beat while you build your IT consulting company.

To learn more about how you can get templates like the cash flow forecasting worksheets on a slew of different subjects relevant to your IT consulting business, visit the attached link!

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Marketing: Learn More about Marketing in Tough Economic Times with Audio Training Seminars

2008-09-23T23:21:00.001-04:00

Whether you live in the United States … or any other part of the world, you know we are living in a time when the economy is less than predictable and IT marketing can be difficult when people are unsure about investing. If you are running your own IT business, you need to be able to plant the seeds for your future business development activities no matter WHAT the state of the economy.

Now more than ever you CANNOT afford to procrastinate finding more clients with a well-crafted IT marketing plan if you are serious about growing your business. That’s why the Computer Consulting Kit offers an information-packed audio training seminar to help you with your lead generation activities with over a dozen field-tested, low-cost, high-impact techniques that can help you find great clients even when times are tough.

IT Marketing Tips You Will Learn:

1. How to get more word-of-mouth referrals … even if you have been out of touch with contacts for months and YEARS;

2. How to find the huge service revenue opportunities that are around you on a daily basis;

3. Why preparing IT marketing materials the right way will help you boost the number of prospects you can turn into great clients;

4. How you can avoid making rookie mistakes during sales calls;

5. Where you can get much, MUCH more help with your IT marketing campaign.

To learn more about this IT marketing audio training opportunity, visit the attached link!

Submitted By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Audits: A Sample Client Questionnaire

2008-09-17T17:00:00.001-04:00

Small business IT audits are incredibly important to your computer consulting business. Not only are they typically the first paid services you provide for new customers, but they are the gateway to determining if your customers will make good long-term clients.

Many new computer consultants might feel overwhelmed by the process of IT audits. Which questions do you need to ask and answer to get the most thorough picture of what assets your new customers have? How can you make sure you don’t miss anything so you can come up with the best long-term solution?

The sample client IT audits questionnaire template from the Computer Consulting Kit helps you quickly and efficiently pull together key IT asset information and gives you a MUCH clearer picture of what your new customer currently has and what he/she is missing so you can figure out which tasks need to be done right away and close much larger and more profitable sales.

This template gives you a logical way to survey shortcomings, potential problems and accidents that are waiting to happen so you can start new relationships off on the right foot with your IT audits.

To learn more about IT audits and ways to streamline other important elements of your computer consulting business, visit the attached link, where you can find additional information on other templates you can enjoy by signing up for the Computer Consulting Kit.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Small Business Computer Consulting: Make the Leap with Audio Training

2008-09-09T16:03:00.002-04:00

You need to have very special skills if you want to have a successful small business computer consulting business. Even if you’ve been in computer consulting for years working for a large corporation and decide to start your own small firm, you probably need a refresher course on the strategies you need to get started.

The Computer Consulting Kit offers an hour of training in mp3 format to help you start your small business computer consulting firm right so you can be successful long term!

Here are just some of the things you will learn:

1. How to decide which services to offer so you can save a LOT of time and money;

2. How to set your small business computer consulting rates right THE FIRST TIME so you don’t charge too little and doom your business to failure;

3. Ways to size up your local competition so you can better position your business;

4. Methods for establishing your credibility and your business so you can be successful;

5. Filling up your calendar with PAID services so you can start earning a profit.

Of course, there are MANY more topics covered in this valuable resource. To learn more about this small business computer consulting audio training to help get you started, visit the attached link.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Audits: A Template for Your Summary of Findings Report

2008-09-04T17:00:00.000-04:00

When you work as a computer consultant for small businesses, IT audits are a very important gateway to selling long-term support contract agreements to your customers. And it is your CLIENTS on support contracts that give you predictable, on-going revenue for your business and help you provide services that keep both you and your clients happy.

Having strong templates in place for your IT audits and tasks BEYOND them can help you more efficiently run your business. The Computer Consulting Kit offers many templates to help you conduct successful IT audits, including a template for your Summary of Findings Report.

This template for your IT audits process helps you quickly and easily package your IT audit into a sophisticated, long-term solution with very high perceived value. What does this IT audits template do?

1. Helps you organize your deliverable so you can set the stage for selling additional consulting work that stays consistent with your initial findings and recommendations.

2. Provides the framework for turning endless free questions into tangible, BILLABLE IT audits and long-term technology projects.

To learn more about templates for IT audits and other important components of your computer consulting business, visit the attached link.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Consultants Speak: Case Study MP3’s from People Just Like You

2008-08-26T20:47:00.001-04:00

Do you ever wonder how much more you could learn if you could just call up a few competing computer consultants in your own town and pick their brains for an hour, asking them anything and everything about what it takes to succeed in the business?

Unfortunately, you can’t really do that. As you probably have discovered, computer consultants aren’t (and shouldn’t be) that forthcoming about their biggest business secrets, especially not when it comes to their direct competitors.

But now, the Computer Consulting Kit gives you just that opportunity by providing you with THREE recorded case study interviews from computer consultants just like you in different geographic regions throughout the world. All of them have different levels of experience and come from very different occupational backgrounds. So you get not only the perspective of the experts at the Computer Consulting Kit but also some insider tips from three other successful small business computer consultants.

To learn more about what these computer consultants have to say along with how you can get access to this audio resource and many more, visit the attached link!

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Support Contract Templates: Your Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

2008-08-19T12:12:00.001-04:00

As a computer consultant working with a support contract business model, your time is very valuable. In fact, depending on your location in the world, you are probably charging $100 per hour or more to provide your brand of unique, comprehensive, total business solutions.

The Computer Consulting Kit offers a variety of support contract templates that can help you streamline your business and save HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of hours of time so you have more billable hours and can earn a greater profit and increase your bottom line significantly. These templates are immediately downloadable and easy –to-customize, so there’s no excuse not to invest in them and start using them, no matter where you are located or how much time you THINK you have.

An important part of support contract relationships with clients is the non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which can protect you and your clients in many ways and add real value and weight to your contracts.

What does the non-disclosure agreement do?

1. It protects the confidential information exchanged between each individual within the support contract relationship (both you AND your small business computer consulting client.

2. It helps you avoid major misunderstandings and potential economic loss down the road (in other words, it contributes to a healthy relationship by enabling clear communication between you and your client).

To learn more about how you can protect your valuable support contract relationships with the NDA and other important templates from the Computer Consulting Kit, visit the attached link!

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Marketing: Find Great Clients -- Even During Difficult Times -- with Special Audio Training Seminars

2008-08-12T17:08:00.003-04:00

In today’s challenging economy, as a small business computer consultant you need to have the IT marketing skills to recruit new clients no matter what the climate is.

The Computer Consulting Kit offers an hour and fifteen minute-long audio training seminar to help you with your IT marketing skills so you can attract the best clients possible for your business. You need to make sure you know how to constantly look out for new client business opportunities and contribute directly to your future IT marketing activities.

This information-packed IT marketing training seminar helps you organize your lead generation activities with over a dozen field-tested, low-cost, STRONG techniques for finding new clients in challenging times.

Here are just a few things you will learn:

1. Getting more word-of-mouth referrals, even if you haven’t been in touch with your contacts in months or years;

2. Uncovering service revenue opportunities that are in your everyday environment;

3. Preparing IT marketing materials that will really boost your prospect numbers and help you convert more of them into long-term clients, committed to your computer consulting firm;

4. The number one mistake consultants make during sales calls and how you can avoid it;

5. Rising above your competitors using very simple customer service techniques that will help you gain loyalty and trust with new clients.

Today we talked about IT marketing audio training from the Computer Consulting Kit and how you can learn how to boost your client acquisition strategies even during the most challenging times. To learn more about this topic and how you can access lots of valuable audio training seminars, visit the attached link!

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Audits: A Sample Worksheet from the Computer Consulting Kit

2008-08-06T16:34:00.002-04:00

IT audits are an incredibly important part of the sales process if you want to get more long-term, steady, GREAT clients on support contracts and on board with your computer consulting business. They’re your first paid “gig,” so you want to make sure you’re doing your job right!

But many computer consultants don’t know how to run IT audits efficiently and effectively so they can accurately assess which assets their prospects and customers have and come up with a comprehensive, sophisticated IT solution.

The Computer Consulting Kit presents a sample worksheet to help consultants get through IT audits so they can quickly AND efficiently gather key IT asset information. This small business worksheet gives you a better idea of what your new customer currently has and what the customer is missing so you can easily decide, “What needs to be done right away?” and “What can wait a while for a long-term plan?”

When you know what to do during IT audits, you can close much larger, MUCH more profitable sales and get to those value-added remediation services that are really going to make your clients happy.

The worksheet for IT audits provided by the Computer Consulting Kit provides you with a very logical way to assess shortcomings, potential problems and accidents BEFORE they happen.

To learn more about the template for guiding you through IT audits and to get more templates to help make your computer consulting business efficient, visit the attached link!

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Sales: Overcome Sales Objections with Audio Training from the Computer Consulting Kit

2008-07-30T15:00:00.000-04:00

At the Computer Consulting Kit, we often get questions from IT consultants about how they can overcome those “but”’s they get from prospects during the process of IT sales that can lead to “No”’s if left unanswered.

If you are like most computer consultants, you may come across some IT sales objections from your prospects … and you might not quite know what to do to help overcome them. With audio training that specifically addresses these objections from the Computer Consulting Kit, you can learn about the FIVE most common small business IT sales objections and a systematic, controlled way to easily overcome each hurdle as it appears.

This audio MP3 training program is easy to listen to during any down time, whether while driving to another client, at the gym or anywhere else. You’ll discover simple, POWERFUL and most importantly PROVEN ways to help you overcome the common “but’”s that prospects deliver. You will also learn more about WHAT a sales objection is, how it fits into the big picture of IT sales and why so many computer consultants fail before they even step in the door.

To learn more about some common IT sales objections – and the audio training program that can help you – please visit the link!

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Consulting Kit Templates: Need Credit References?

2008-07-24T19:10:00.001-04:00

IT consultants come by the materials of the Computer Consulting Kit for different reasons; but many are looking for ways to make their businesses run more efficiently and to develop better relationships with their clients.

Templates are a great way to make your business more efficient, and the Computer Consulting Kit offers them in spades. One of the challenges many new consultants face when starting their own businesses is establishing credit so they can get paid ON TIME and easily by clients.

But before you set up credit with clients, you have to make sure you establish that they have the kind of credit you can use, and this requires you to get references and the green light that says you can trust them when the time comes for bills to be paid in full.

The Computer Consulting Kit offers a sample credit reference template that makes the process of investigating, validating and predicting whether or not a new customer is likely to pay bills on time so you can avoid losing money!

To check out the credit reference template and learn more about other very useful templates from the Computer Consulting Kit visit the attached link!

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Consulting: Going from "Big" to "Small" -- An Audio Training Seminar

2008-07-18T17:00:00.000-04:00

Many that decide to go into small business IT consulting for themselves are coming from a full-time IT job. A lot have even been working in the computer consulting field for years and in big, corporate settings.

These people that have a great deal of experience in the “big” world might wonder, “What’s in the world of small business computer consulting … and how can I get there?”

The Computer Consulting Kit offers a helpful audio training seminar for IT consulting professionals looking to decipher the world of small business computer consulting and translate it into business strategies that can work for them.

Some Things You Can Learn from the Computer Consulting Kit IT Consulting Audio Training Seminar

1. What services to offer … and why you need to choose the right ones if you DON’T want to waste a lot of time and money.

2. How to determine an hourly billing rate … and why this process is critical for small business IT consultants if they want to succeed long term.

3. How to assess your local competition to close more IT consulting sales.

4. How you can go from even a big-time corporate IT consulting position and create a totally “legit” small business that can get you paid and make you happy.

5. How you can determine a niche or specialty that can set you apart from the competition.

6. Much, much more!!

To learn more about how you can go from “big” IT consulting to small business work through the Computer Consulting Kit audio training seminar, visit the attached link.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course Templates: The Simple Employee Questionnaire

2008-07-09T14:22:00.002-04:00

When you sign onto the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course, you get a wealth of resources at your disposal, including a wide range of tips, tools and other things to make your life easier as you grow your small business computer consulting company.

Have you always wanted to streamline your processes so you can spend less time creating business documents … and more time working one-on-one with clients, doing what you love to do with IT? Then you need to get access to the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course templates right now!

One of the templates you will get is the simple employee questionnaire, which will help you learn more about your clients needs so you can offer the very best solutions and have more success. The simple employee questionnaire is a resource that outlines some basic questions:

1. Find out what your clients’ end users think about all things related to IT;

2. Shape your project priorities so you can have an easier time selling support contracts and long-term relationships with your best prospects and customers;

3. Get concrete and objective evidence to show how your proposed solution really fixes acute and well-documented problems.

Learn how the simple employee questionnaire and other important templates from the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course can help make your business – and your clients’ businesses – more efficient by clicking on the attached link right now!

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

The Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course: An Audio Training Introduction

2008-07-01T21:55:00.001-04:00

Get a personal tour guide to the tested and PROVEN resources of the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course!

The Quick Start Guide Audio Training Program helps you get great value out of your investment and shows you what’s in store for you when you use the field-tested, proven small business computer consulting tools offered by the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course.

What will you learn?

1. How to get the most out of the time you spend.

2. 8 VERY important business development concepts that will help you make progress with your computer consulting business RIGHT AWAY, before you even start to read through the multitude of resources offered by the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course.

3. How to structure and track your self-study progress so you can keep organized and get the most out of the materials offered by the course.

To learn more about the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course and many, many audio training programs that can help you get the most out of it, visit the attached link.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Contractor Agreement: Use a Template for Better Business

2008-06-27T22:15:00.000-04:00

Do you want to establish more meaningful, longer-lasting relationships with any IT contractor that you choose as a partner for your computer consulting business? Templates that help you hire, manage and screen any IT contractor using tested and proven methodologies and best practices are one click away with the Computer Consulting Kit!

What does a well-crafted IT contractor agreement do for your computer consulting business?

1. Takes care of details ahead of time so you can establish good communication and so you can work well with your subcontractors towards mutually-beneficial relationships.

2. A good template manages expectations the right way and establishes your professionalism so you can create healthy boundaries and expectations.

3. An IT contractor agreement template can save you many dollars in legal fees; you go to your attorney for a review, and you already have a good idea of which business issues you need to focus on to establish the best subcontractor relationships.

Stop wasting time and money … and get your act together with a good IT contractor agreement template from the Computer Consulting Kit.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

The Computer Consulting Kit: The FAQ Telecast Audio Training

2008-06-17T11:20:00.001-04:00

Learn how to grow your computer consulting business with the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Telecast audio training seminar from the Computer Consulting Kit!

This Computer Consulting Kit resource includes double the information with 2 hours and 10 minutes of tested and proven business development tips. You can reinforce your computer consulting business development training with this telecast, recorded live.

It covers questions on …

1. Prospecting, marketing and business development,

2. Sales calls and initial consultations (very important to your overall business strategies),

3. Support contracts/service agreements and recurring revenue,

4. Management of complex projects,

5. Partnering and subcontracting … and why you need to know this to help your business.

What else will you learn? Here are two teasers:

1. Field-tested, PROVEN techniques for “working the crowd” at networking events so you can get great prospects that will be most likely to become steady, high-paying clients for your computer consulting business;

2. The four main ingredients of your marketing collateral “recipe for success” that will attract the best, highest-paying clients in your area.

For more information on how you can get this audio training Computer Consulting Kit resource and many others, visit the attached link!

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Consulting Kit Cash Flow Templates

2008-06-11T23:11:00.000-04:00

Do you want to improve your company’s cash flow? The Computer Consulting Kit offers resources for IT professionals that want to get even their most difficult clients to pay on time so they can better manage their own needs and stay in business long term.

Learn how to establish and manage effective credit and collections and truly control your cash flow with Computer Consulting Kit templates that can help you avoid cash flow problems and get more steady cash flow.

Cash flow templates from the Computer Consulting Kit help with these issues:

1. Learn why profit and cash are not the same thing … and why if you confuse them you risk your whole business!

2. Discover how you can be sure your growing client list doesn’t eat up your time and cash and wipe out your business.

3. Find out what the biggest cash flow mistake is for computer consulting business owners and how you can avoid it.

4. Figure out secrets to improving profit margins on sales of hardware, software, etc.

If you want cash flow secrets and many more templates from the Computer Consulting Kit, visit the attached link!

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Computer Consultants Case Studies from the Computer Consulting Kit Audio Training Program

2008-06-06T11:13:00.001-04:00

Have you ever thought it would be great if you could get some insider tips from other computer consultants just like you that have been working in the field to get great clients? Unfortunately, it’s pretty hard to do this, as no one really talks to each other, especially not local competitors.

If you tried to call up a competitor to get the inside scoop, you’d probably be laughed out of town or get the cold shoulder.

At the Computer Consulting Kit, as part of the Audio Training program, we give you three tales from successful small business computer consultants working in different geographical areas with different levels of experience and from totally different backgrounds.

Some Information You Can Expect to Get from Computer Consultants Case Studies

1. Which types of backgrounds, personality traits and technical skills successful computer consultants have when they start their businesses.

2. Careers successful small business computer consultants have before they start their own businesses.

3. Which steps successful small business computer consultants have to take when they first launch their businesses.

4. What successful small business computer consultants see as their “defining moments” when they are getting started. When are you really “in business?”

5. The biggest keys to on-going small business computer consulting success.

6. Much, much more!

Today we talked about computer consultants
and case studies you can use as part of the Audio Training Program from the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course. To learn more about this topic and much more, visit the attached link!

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

The IT Partnerships Planning Template from the Computer Consulting Kit

2008-05-29T21:52:00.002-04:00

The Computer Consulting Kit offers many different resources for those interested in IT partnerships, including a very important planning template that can help all small business computer consultants get the most from their relationships. When you work with subcontractors and other partners, sometimes figuring out who needs to do what when it comes to a project is a challenge.

The IT partnerships planning template helps clear up who does what when it comes to large projects, before you even start the projects or even go into the first prospect, customer or client meeting about your overall plan. And, you need to understand responsibility if you want to be consistent, logical and together with your clients and keep all your credibility points!

What does the IT partnerships planning template do for you?

1. Ensures you and your partner are in the same place when it comes to goals, beliefs and approaches. Because, who wants to risk losing a mutually-beneficial partnering relationship that could last many years into the future? And when you work out big business issues in IT partnerships before you start doing projects, you avoid a lot of legal fees and wasted time.

2. The planning template also helps you ask the right questions during the pre-sales process with your mutual prospect, customer or client … because who wants the embarrassment of going into the big meeting with inconsistent ideas?

3. The IT partnerships planning document also helps you mitigate risks by avoiding common problems that can derail most partnerships.

Today we talked about planning IT partnerships with important templates from the Computer Consulting Kit. To learn more about IT partnerships, visit the attached link!

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Sales Training to Help Grow Your Business

2008-05-21T10:53:00.001-04:00

One of the hardest parts of IT sales is overcoming objections with prospects that can, when not addressed from the get-go be a barrier to continuing, mutually-beneficial relationships. The Computer Consulting Kit offers a special mp3 audio training session devoted specifically to IT sales, including an illustration of the five most common small business IT sales objections and a proven plan of attack for overcoming them.

The strategies presented in the audio training have been tried, tested … and PROVEN to work to show even the most questioning prospects how valuable IT solutions can be to their businesses.

Computer Consulting Kit IT Sales Audio Training Topics

1. What is a sales objection?

2. How do sales objections fit with the entire sales process?

3. Why do a lot of small business computer consultants lose the sale before they even start an IT sales call, and how can you avoid doing the same thing?

4. Which strategies can you use to handle common objections to sales?

5. How do you get prospects to tell you their REAL objections instead of just going on and on about irrelevant subjects?

The Main Idea about IT Sales Audio Training

Today we talked about some of the resources you will find in the Computer Consulting Kit IT sales audio training mp3s. To learn more about how you can get tested and PROVEN IT sales strategies to help get more steady, high-paying clients for your business, visit the attached link!

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

IT Marketing and the Computer Consulting Kit: The New Client Sales Call

2008-05-15T21:12:00.001-04:00

The Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course offers many templates to help you with IT marketing and sales. One important element of computer consulting is your sales call with a new client.

While you might not think having a template to guide a phone call saves that much time, it has many benefits that can help keep you efficient and consistent with your IT marketing campaign.

Benefits of Using a Template for Your New Client Sales Call

It helps you look professional.

It keeps your sales presentation organized so you don’t accidentally get blind-sided by excessive client questions.

It helps you guide the conversation from free to fee so you can tell when you’re moving into “paid technology assessment” territory.

It creates clear boundaries for your prospects to distinguish between an IT marketing sales call and an actual professional consultation, so you can tell for sure when it’s time for them to start paying for services.

The IT marketing initial sales call template helps maintain a structure so you can stop the call from going on too long.

The Main Idea about the New Client IT Marketing Sales Call Template

Today we talked about how you can benefit from creating a template for your new client sales call. To learn more about how you can use this valuable IT marketing tip, visit the attached link.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Marketing: Get More from Those Direct Mail Postcards!

2008-05-01T07:35:00.000-04:00

A big problem that can happen when computer consultants put together a direct mail postcard campaign as part of their IT marketing plan is a lack of urgency. Without urgency, prospects – even those with a need and interest in hiring you – will have no reason to do so right now. Your card will get filed away indefinitely.

However, if your prospect receives a postcard that says your company is offering a free system analysis to the first 25 people that respond in your greater area, there’s much more of a reason to act on that IT marketing postcard. They might think to themselves that their computers ARE really screwed up and that free system analysis with no obligation is a really great deal. They’ll be more likely to call you NOW.

IT Marketing: You Need to Limit Your Response

If you don’t want to limit the number of people that respond to your IT marketing postcard, limit the date by which they have to respond. Urgency and scarcity are critical to a high response rate. If you want someone to act NOW, you need to give them a clear deadline by which to respond.

The Experts Know Best

If you need help designing your IT marketing postcards, talk to an expert. This will be a copywriter or someone retired from working with direct response vehicles for a large company. If you ask for advice from just a general business owner, you’re not going to get very far. You need someone that comes from a mail order background, direct mail background or that does a lot of online advertising, has worked for an advertising agency or has dealt in direct selling with measured response.

The Key to IT Marketing

Remember – your direct mail postcard campaign is about creating a sense of urgency, scarcity, deadlines and having compelling headlines and a handle on a source of pain. Motivate your potential clients to act NOW or NEVER!

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Marketing: Do You Know the Decision Makers?

2008-04-26T17:46:00.001-04:00

If you want to really grow your computer consulting business, you need to get out and do some IT marketing in the community through networking. You need to meet other people that are decision makers for small businesses.

If you’re targeting the small business owner and manager, you will meet a lot of branch managers from banks (just as an example) … but these won’t really be the decision makers you want to target. You might also meet executive directors from non-profit organizations, but they will not have very much money to spend on IT services. You might also meet people that work for Fortune 1,000 companies with branch offices in your area, but again … these won’t fit your needs.

You need to target the right decision maker with your IT marketing efforts to get the most out of the trade groups and organizations in which you participate.

IT Marketing and Partner Programs

If you want to increase your community presence, join a partner or reseller program. You can join the Microsoft Certified Partner Program, for example. But if you do, you need to be proactive, particularly as a small firm.

Find out who your local field representative is and shake hands, exchange business cards, etc. Make a connection with your field rep. by checking in regularly, sending emails every couple weeks and giving them updates. You should feel free to ask the person questions and brainstorm. Get together for coffee a couple times per year to talk to them about industry and market trends and opportunities as part of your IT marketing efforts.

IT Marketing and the Real Problems

Ask your field rep. if there are any big problems right now that are going around. Does your rep know of any ways you can help with these problems? Or are there any people that belong to channel programs that might like to partner with you? Take full advantage of relationships with local channel representatives to help you find opportunities within your community and develop a truly targeted IT marketing plan.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Sales and Your Unique Offering

2008-04-20T20:30:00.000-04:00

You need to offer unique benefits to your prospects, customers and clients if you want to be good at IT sales.

Proximity and IT Sales

As an example, say ABC Consulting moved to a 27-story building stocked with high-end firms and near many other buildings that are all within a two-minute walk. In this case, the obvious unique benefit would be proximity. This company would be able to respond quickly and get things done better, faster and cheaper than others that are farther away.

Your Unique Benefit and IT Sales

You need to sell service agreements and lead with a guaranteed response time if you have the proximity benefit. You can afford to make a promise to be there within 60 minutes of a server down emergency during regular business hours and even offer something like $100 off the bill for the month if you are even a minute late. You can do this because you have no travel time and no reason NOT to be there.

How Would You Find These Businesses?

If you are in the situation like ABC Consulting, you need to identify local businesses. Do a survey that you mail to every owner or CEO in the building and in neighboring buildings. You can also offer a “bribe” of a gift certificate or something of value to get them to return the survey promptly.

Survey Questions to Help with IT Sales

1. How many PCs do you have?

2. How many employees?

3. How do you currently get IT support?

4. What do you dislike and like about your current support?

5. What is your biggest business challenge?

6. What is your biggest IT challenge?

You need to use the survey to get people to tell you what they want and also get an idea of who will be interested in your services and responsive to IT sales.

IT Sales and the People that Know People

You should make nice with the local shoe repair person, the Chinese or pizza delivery person, the mail carrier, UPS person and FedEx driver. If you know everyone, you will be able to easily network yourself into local offices through the people that see people every day. Your contacts will already be in touch with the people in charge.

Stress your unique benefit as an IT company to get more IT sales.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Consulting Staff: Which Skills Are Necessary?

2008-04-13T22:10:00.000-04:00

What do you do if you or any other members of your computer consulting staff don’t have advanced technical skills? All you need to do is devote a little time to self study in order to best serve your sweet spot clients.

Break What’s Working

One technique you can do to help build skills with your computer consulting staff is to get a hold of not-for-resale (NFR) copies of products you want to sell, install and service and then work with the product in your “lab.” Go through some basic installations and broken installations with your computer consulting staff (particularly lead technicians and engineers) and get them comfortable with the software.

Installations Are Fairly Easy to Handle

In previous years, it was harder to install things like Novell small business suite or the IBM equivalent … even the 1997 introductory Microsoft Small Business Server. But now these programs are easier to install than ever, and your computer consulting staff will not have to have incredibly advanced skills in order to manage them.

Which Skills Does Your Computer Consulting Staff Need?

In order to best serve clients, your computer consulting staff needs strong PC hardware skills, the ability to deal with P2P setups, an understanding of TCP/IP, an awareness of POP3 and SMTP. Additionally, your computer consulting staff needs to know how to work with basic SOHO routers.

Make sure you share the knowledge among your employees and that everyone is cross training each other. This way, no one can ever extort money from you, blackmail you, try to get huge raises or bonuses or take your clients. Your company’s internal know-how will all be equal and this will keep everyone on your computer consulting staff happy and loyal.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Should You Buy an IT Consulting Franchise?

2008-04-05T14:29:00.001-04:00

How do you decide whether or not to buy an IT consulting franchise? Your decision depends upon weighing the pros and cons!

The Pros of an IT Consulting Franchise

1. You get the convenience of being part of a larger company.

2. You have an immediate peer support network as part of the company.

3. Your franchise comes with pre-set tools and resources.

4. You have people set up to help with problems.

The Cons of an IT Consulting Franchise

The biggest problem with entrepreneurs when it comes to a franchise is that there is a lot of money required for startup. On top of this amount, you need to pay a percentage of your revenue (a royalty) every month to your franchiser. And you will have some restrictions when it comes to the direction and scope of your business.

IT Consulting: A Business of More Time than Money

Starting a regular IT consulting business will typically be a low overhead investment … but it will require a lot of time and effort! You may take up to six months (or more) to get enough contacts, prospects and projects in your sales funnel to get to a 50 or 60% utilization rate (20-24 billable hours weekly).

When Will You Get IT Consulting Revenue?

Even when you put forth substantial effort with marketing, three to six months is a good guess of how long it will take you to get some cash flow to sustain you. If you decide to have staff members with good technical expertise, you might need years.

You need capital to start an IT consulting business so you can pay your expenses. Keeping a low overhead can eliminate a lot of stress, which is why you should think long and hard about whether or not a franchise is right for you!

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Marketing and Participating in Organizations

2008-03-30T20:30:00.000-04:00

Personal referrals are really powerful tools when it comes to IT marketing because they are pre-sold; they already trust you. When you are building an IT marketing campaign for your computer consulting business you need to know that trust is incredibly important.

How Important is Trust to Computer Consulting?

People will use similar techniques to look for computer consultants that they will use to find a good dentist, attorney, accountant or internist. Some people might go to the Yellow Pages or look in coupon packs or on billboards, but most people will put a lot of weight on word of mouth referrals from people they trust when it comes to choosing key people to advise them on important health, business or financial matters.

You Need to Be Known in Your Community with IT Marketing

You can reach decision makers in small businesses by increasing your personal and business profile in your local community with your target market. This will take some time, but is very possible.

Networking is an important IT marketing strategy that can make or break the success of a computer consulting firm, and it is all about relationships. Your business is a people business … not simply a tech business. It’s about interpersonal skills and trust.

How Do You Get MORE Recommendations with IT Marketing?

Many computer consultants wonder how they can get more personal recommendations. The answer is in knowing more people. You need to join organizations and attend events regularly. Don’t go to every single event – every networking breakfast, luncheon, business after-hours function, etc. – but you have to be ACTIVE and go to many functions throughout the year in order to meet a lot of people and get great referrals that will boost your IT marketing campaign and lead to more long-term clients.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Computer Consultants: 7 Profit Secrets

2008-03-22T12:36:00.002-04:00

As computer consultants, you will need to rely on strategies to help you maximize your profits. Focusing on profits might seem simple, but it is something that is based on business know-how and can often be a problem for computer consultants. Many owners fall in love with technology and get sucked into channel programs. But, your computer consulting company is a business, and you need to follow specific techniques to keep it running.

The following are 7 profit secrets that can send you on your way.

1. Be motivated computer consultants. You don’t want to be labeled as just a “geek,” so you need to act like a virtual CIO for hire that is concerned about his/her clients’ complex problems.

2. Dedicate yourself to constant improvement. Computer consultants need to work very hard to get the best clients, so you need to think about lifetime customer value, not just one-shot deals. Remember that your solution needs to be long term and be well-plotted.

3. Get creative with clients. Small businesses need to typically follow strict budgets. Your solutions have to work without the need for an in-house staff, which means you might have to think creatively.

4. Look at how clients’ systems are working today. You need to look both at paper- and technology-based items with your clients. Your role as a virtual CIO is to figure out how clients are meeting and not meeting present and future needs, so you have to look at everything.

5. Think about what your clients’ clients will need from them. You have to have good people skills and empathy for your clients’ business problems. But you also have to truly “get” what your clients are up against when it comes to THEIR clients.

6. Keep up to date with new versions and advances. Computer consultants need to advise their clients about which tools can best help their businesses grow. Don’t let research and development and training take up all your time, but stay ahead of the game.

7. Summarize information and share it with clients. The main point of your research and development and training should be to find out whether or not a new platform or tool will really add value to your clients’ present or future installations. And computer consultants need to summarize findings in a way their business-minded clients can understand.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Get Going with Computer Consulting!

2008-03-15T23:31:00.001-04:00

As you are getting ready to get started in computer consulting, you need to exercise careful planning. Pick a company name, get your business cards printed, think about which types of customers you want to chase and where you will meet them. How can you accomplish all this?

Business Cards

When you are starting out in computer consulting, you need to print business cards. They probably won’t last you forever, because you may decide to change your company name, phone number or address. Just get them reprinted! But having business cards in the beginning can motivate you as you pass them out to all your friends and family members.

Talk about Your Computer Consulting Business

When you are out and about and meeting people at kids’ soccer games, church, synagogue or simply standing on line at the movies, you may have the opportunity to talk about your computer consulting business and hand out business cards. These informal networking opportunities can give you future business as these people can become a part of your extended sales force.

Get Involved!

You need to get active in local organizations designed for small business owners. Look at three or four trade groups and start attending meetings. Examples: chamber of commerce; user groups; trade groups; industry-specific trade groups.

Computer Consulting: What Do You Know?

A lot of times it makes sense to choose a specialty in computer consulting that matches your background. You can always expand your services as your business grows, but if you start with a niche you already know, you will be competent and increase your credibility. You will also be more likely to develop a strong marketing message and be memorable to prospects. You will not be like everyone else your prospects might find in the phone book or anywhere else.

Are There Enough Prospects?

You need to make sure there are enough prospects in your computer consulting niche before you start to market to it. As an example, if you have a nursing background, you may focus early activities on small doctor’s offices. Just make sure there are 500-1,000 prospects within an hour of where you are located. This will help you target your message and get attention.

Think about branding your company with your industry focus by putting it in your computer consulting name, i.e., add “health care systems,” “medical office systems” or some other hybrid as part of your company name.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

Using Small Business Server

2008-03-09T23:44:00.001-04:00

Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) has gained real momentum in the small business world in the past decade. Because of this, a lot of computer consultants and IT professionals have decided to push Small Business Server as an integral part of solutions for clients.

But before you start to rely on Small Business Server, think about three important tips to help maximize your profits:

1. A lot of small businesses, if not most have never heard of Small Business Server. There may be hundreds or even thousands of small businesses in your area that could benefit from the program, but don’t assume they know what it is! Make sure you pitch solutions and not commodities. Pitch your unique expertise before you start talking about Small Business Server.

2. The money that can be made through Small Business Server is not reselling the product itself. It comes from selling a relationship with small businesses. Stress your existence as an outsourced IT department for your clients. No small business owner will decide he/she NEEDS Small Business Server. So you need to focus on relationships and sell it later.

3. Microsoft is not totally sold on the value of computer consultants. What does this mean? Well, the truth is, the first version of Small Business Server was planned in 1996 to release in 1997 and was code named “SAM” because it was meant to be sold without the help of computer consultants at Sam’s Club warehouse clubs. The product team decided to make the product so simple that any non-technical small business owner could buy Small Business Server at the warehouse and have it running without outside help by day’s end. While this seemed effective, Microsoft eventually realized that reaching small business owners with Small Business Server was better accomplished through resellers. Microsoft is not thinking so much of its consultants when it tries to sell Small Business Server. So you can’t sell the product … you need to focus on the relationships that are integral to your business!

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

How Can a Computer Repair Business Help Your Small Business?

2008-03-02T14:09:00.000-05:00

A lot of small businesses rely on a local computer repair business when they need help with something that has broken. However, there is a lot to be said about having a long-term, proactive relationship with a local computer repair business.

Get Advice!

A local computer repair business can give great advice about how your technology assets can be better used to help improve your business. It can also help you with a specific computer-related problem. If information technology (IT) and computer systems are really important to you, outsourcing computer needs to a professional on a regular rather than an occasional basis is often a good idea.

Hiring a Computer Repair Business

Many computer consultants specialize and end up becoming important to your specific niche. These types of computer repair businesses will often know as much about your industry and its unique business challenges as you do.

Multi-Tasking is Fine … But Don’t Get Blinded!

Occasionally a small business might know exactly what its computer-related needs are when calling in an outside computer repair business. There are a lot of reasons to bring in a professional instead of just dealing with someone who just acts as an occasional repair person:

1. A computer consultant is an expert in the field;

2. You will get access to an expert for much less than the cost of hiring that level of professional full time.

3. A computer repair business will be able to troubleshoot a problem better (more quickly and efficiently) than any of your internal employees.

A New Perspective

A computer repair business will be able to bring a new perspective to your business. You will get a fresh set of eyes to look over your IT infrastructure. Over time, your non-technical employees will start to see the same things over and over again within their own companies. A good computer consultant will see things in a light and move beyond the norm to visualize the future.

How Can a Computer Repair Business Help?

A good computer repair business will do many things to make your company do well with its technology. It will often provide personal coaching, training, strategic planning meetings and many other things that resemble what a CIO (chief information officer) would do.

A really great computer repair business will not come in with a set plan. It will work with you to cater to the needs of your unique company.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Challenge Your Computer Repair Business Staff

2008-02-24T17:04:00.001-05:00

You should encourage your computer repair business staff to constantly improve themselves and learn about more complex solutions. Higher-end solutions are going to be worth more per hour. Most of your computer repair business staff will already know how to set up small LANs, do troubleshooting duty and basic cleanup jobs and desktop rollouts. But you need to encourage and challenge them by booking up some of their time to work on more sophisticated, long-term projects.

It’s about Professional Gratification

When you put your staff on more advanced projects, its members will get more professional gratification. Those with technical minds and a love for technology like to work on tech projects that are challenging and test their knowledge. Your computer repair business staff will get incredibly frustrated working on simple, repetitive tasks day in, day out.

If you Challenge People, They Will Stay with You!

When your computer repair business staff is experiencing gratification working at their technical peak and getting more challenges with each project, you will have a better chance at keeping their interest for the long haul. When you keep technical staff working on projects beneath their knowledge, you might start losing them to competitors.

Try Sophisticated Networking Projects for Longer-Term Client Relationships

When your computer repair business staff is able to take responsibility for creating long-term client relationships, its members will be much more gratified. Staff members will get to work with clients over a period of time and get to know clients very well. They get to be actively involved in building the relationships that sustain your computer repair business. They get attached and if they are loyal can be a great asset to your company.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Sales Means Getting Past the Gatekeeper

2008-02-17T22:22:00.001-05:00

If you want to make IT sales, you have to connect to the person that can get you an “in.” But getting past gatekeepers to find this person is not simple.

IT Sales Cold Calls

Cold calls are not easy, and you are probably not going to get past a gatekeeper/call screener that just takes your name and number but says she/he is not interested. Your best bet is to try a new method of gaining clients. But if you have to make cold IT sales calls, you need to get beyond the brush off.

Techniques for Successful Gatekeeper Circumvention

1. Call before the gatekeeper leaves or gets in (the person probably works from nine to five, eight to six or eight to four).

2. Send an e-mail.

3. Send a fax.

4. Mail a letter.

5. Send a postcard (this works fairly well because it is already an “open” piece of mail and will have a better chance of being seen).

6. Send a Fed-Ex marked “personal/confidential.”
While these “gimmicks” can sometimes work, they have been around for a while, and a lot of people will see through them.

IT Sales: What’s Even BETTER than “Gimmicks”?

The best way to get attention and get past the gatekeeper to the important people is to make a name for yourself in your area. Get to know other professional services providers like accountants and deeply-niched solution providers. Speak at events, hold your own seminars, volunteer and invest real, quality time in networking.

When you earn a reputation in your local community for being good at what you do and paying attention, you will gain the “know,” “like” and “trust” necessary to make IT sales. Trickery is not going to get you the long-term relationships you need to build your business.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Computer Repair Industry: What Are Your Responsibilities?

2008-02-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

You have a lot of different responsibilities when working with clients in the computer repair industry. Which should you include as part of your services?

Coordinate Telecommunications

When working with sweet spot clients in the computer repair industry, you will most likely be working with the local telephone company, whether a CLEC or ILEC in order to get a leased line for your clients. You will have to research which connections you need to use and probably even dial-up networking recommendations. You may also have to work on tech support with ISPs.

The Computer Repair Industry and Testing

Your firm will probably end up working with vertical industry applications. You might bring these in or else just test the application out for your clients before they make the final investment. Your client will want your firm, as part of the computer repair industry to figure out how to fit in vertical applications with a network.

Train the Guru and Other Users

Your firm, as a representative of the computer repair industry will have to be involved in training (even if you don’t like it!). You may do some formal end-user training where you take small groups aside to teach about a new application. You might also engage in more informal training with the internal guru (the person within a small business that everyone comes to with questions). The guru can then train others on more routine aspects of applications.

There Will Be Some Disasters

When you work in the computer repair industry, you will be involved in disaster recovery planning, testing out data backup systems, antivirus software, power protection and general security. You also need to engage in proactive maintenance.

The Computer Repair Industry and Responsibilities

You will have the most value to your customers when you exhibit excellent problem-solving and strategic-planning skills. You need to be able to deal with clients’ IT needs, put them down on paper, organize solutions and figure out which need to be done right away and which can wait until later.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Business Opportunities: Provide Services to Other Businesses

2008-02-03T09:11:00.001-05:00

If you want to seize more computer business opportunities, you have to start thinking about providing services to businesses rather than just “consumers.”

Customers that think in terms of retail stores and prices will not need to take your computer business opportunities as an IT services firm. This means, they will not want to sign onto extended services. However, businesses will be interested in this proposition. If your goal is to produce $200,000 annually in pure services revenue, you have a couple choices:

A. Offer business to consumer service (B2C). A person taking these types of computer business opportunities might spend about $250 per year (or a product margin) at your shop. This money will typically go towards a hard drive upgrade, a repair, a Wi-Fi installation or running a Cat 5 cable in a home office. You will need a lot of customers at $250 each to get to that goal of $200,000. In fact, you’ll need 800.

If you are just selling products and don’t really offer after-sale support, the customer volume might appear to be easy to tackle with just a small staff. However, retail customers with these types of computer business opportunities will need to be guided very closely through every process. And the cost of advertising, promotional and marketing dollars to get 800 customers interested will be sizable.

In terms of labor costs, you will need a lot of technicians and system engineers to offer appropriate “free” or “paid” support to customers, with hourly rates being on the very low side.

B. Offer services to business customers (B2B). These clients will commit to spending approximately $1,000 per month every month, adding up to $12,000 annually PER customer.

If you do the math, you can see that these types of computer business opportunities are ideal in comparison to B2C work. You will only need about 16 or 17 of these customers to get to your goal, which means you can manage the task with just one or two high-level technical consultants.

When a business is spending $12,000 annually, it will not be based on the transaction or the one-shot deal. When a business makes a commitment to spend $1,000 annually, that’s a real, bona fide client! And you will have less non-billable time.

Option B, that B2B service, is really your best bet for grabbing great computer business opportunities.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Marketing and Focusing on Benefits in Your Sales Letter

2008-01-27T13:14:00.000-05:00

Regardless of your specialty or niche, you need a sales letter for your IT marketing plan that stresses benefits to clients. While you may have been told previously in your life that business letters need to be short and sweet, this is not always the case.

Use Long Sales Letters for IT Marketing

1. To build urgency.

2. To stir up your pot.

3. To get prospects to take action.

4. To take prospects through the suffering that occurs when they do not do data security right.
5. To help prospects see how great it can be to make their staff more productive.

6. To show prospects how they can benefit and grow their companies 150% to 200% without really adding much more staff.

Address Points of Pain with Prospects

If you are new to writing IT marketing sales letters, you can hire an advertising or marketing consultant or a freelance copywriter to help you. But, regardless of how you approach the letter, you need to understand your prospects’ painful points when it comes to technology in your particular niche.

Provide a Free Offer

In order to get demand up with IT marketing, you may have to send out a letter with your business card that offers a free “bribe” – a free one-hour needs assessment or another service of value to your prospects. Make sure you limit the freebie with a deadline – limit it to the first X number of businesses or put a deadline on it.

If you are considered an IT expert for your niche, your IT marketing letters and calls will be better received. Your expertise will be communicated in the headline and throughout the letter, and you will be offering something completely relevant that most professionals will want.

Your sales letter needs to talk about work you’ve done with other firms like the prospects’ you are addressing (testimonials are important!) and how specifically you can help them. The trends and problems of the industry will mean a lot during this phase of IT marketing.

The goal with your IT marketing sales letter is to move your prospect to the next step, which will most likely be an in-depth IT audit.

Submitted By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

LAN Service Contracts Offer Opportunities

2008-01-20T19:52:00.000-05:00

If you have sufficiently researched computer consulting and LAN service contracts, you probably have serious information overload. You need to follow specific steps when starting your own computer consulting company.

What are the steps you need to follow for starting with LAN service contracts and your own company?

Select Your Date

You need to pick a real launch date for your business and write it down in very specific terms. This process gives you a chance to work towards something concrete. Put it on your calendar and keep it as a real goal, whether it is six months or six weeks from this very moment.

Set Your LAN Service Contracts Business Priorities

You need to limit the list of things to do to the top 10 most important.

Sample Top Ten Priorities List

1. Get an accountant meeting

2. Obtain your business resale license

3. Open a distributor account

4. Choose your company name

5. Get your business card designed and printed

6. Get your Web site domain name registered

7. Shop insurance options

8. Get your Web site domain

9. Get your business voicemail set up

Keep in mind, there could be 30, 40 or 50 items on your list. You need to narrow the list down to the ten most important.

Organize Your List

Before you do anything with your LAN services contracts business, you need to rank your to-do list into an organized list of items that makes sense. Work on two items per week. If you like to analyze and work on screen, you can do this exercise in Excel or Word. Of course, you also need to get them into a list of the top 10 to prioritize.

Your Timeline is Critical

If you are launching your LAN service contracts business in five weeks and you have ten things to do, choose two things per week. This list will be more doable when you set up a very specific time frame.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

IT Marketing and Public Speaking Events

2008-01-12T17:56:00.000-05:00

You can use public speaking events to help with your IT marketing efforts and connect to prospects.

Speaking at the Meetings of Other Groups

When you use other people’s meetings as IT marketing opportunities and speak you get a captive audience. The people there are already at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast or a Rotary Club meeting, and someone else has already sparked their interest and drawn them to the meeting. Your job is to show up and be a compelling featured speaker.

IT Marketing: Speak to Your Audience

You want to talk about a topic that is universal and general enough to appeal to business people. Don’t use IT marketing speak and keep it low-tech, even if the speech is about technology issues (and it should relate in some way).

Make sure the business organizations you choose for furthering IT marketing have similar characteristics to those within your sweet spot. Talk to an executive director or manager to find out before you connect!

Use Free Seminars

You can also get your name out by doing a free seminar on how to protect computer systems from viruses, security breaches and blackouts or some other important topic.

Seminars can be challenging to deliver and execute. Make sure you feel comfortable with the delivery and if possible share the seminar with another speaker within your company to split it up and make it more interesting and varied for attendees. Don’t make the IT marketing seminar longer than 45 minutes.

Get People to Attend Your IT Marketing Seminars

You can generate demand and the RSVPs for free seminars by doing a direct mail piece to a targeted list or a Chamber of Commerce or other organizational list. An effective and low-cost way to mail them is by combining them with a Chamber of Commerce mailing and putting in a flyer when it goes out. This way of spreading the word and generating demand can be a really great IT marketing technique.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Which Computer Skills Does Your Staff Need?

2008-01-06T01:55:00.000-05:00

If you don’t have really advanced computer skills, you needn’t worry. You just need to devote some time each week to studying. Which computer skills do you need to best serve your clients?

Break Something That Works

You can get a not-for-resale copy of a product you intend to sell, install and support and work with it in your lab. If a member of your staff has a spare half-hour or an hour, walk through the basic installations, then break them and reinstall the software until you increase your comfort level. Most of the products are mature enough that they will not require you to have a lot of technical skills.

Easy Installations

Many years ago, products were more difficult to install. But companies such as Microsoft have now made their products a lot easier for those that do not have advanced computer skills.

Which Computer Skills Do You Need?

1. Good and strong PC hardware skills.

2. Familiarity with a P2P setup.

3. Knowledge of TCP/IP.

4. Comfort with POP3 and SMTP.

5. An awareness of how to work with basic SOHO routers.

If your staff has these computer skills, you are at a good starting point for working with small businesses.

Knowledge Sharing

You need to make sure you cross-train your employees and vice-versa. This way no one gets ahead of anyone else and is tempted to blackmail, extract huge raises or bonuses or walk away with the entire client roster, or go to the next competitor.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Virtual IT: What is It?

2008-01-02T16:28:00.000-05:00

Do you run a computer consulting company, and have you been hearing about the term “virtual IT,” but don’t quite know what it is? Most computer consulting companies don’t understand the concept of virtual IT, so you’re not alone!

Why Do Companies Get Virtual IT Wrong?

Most computer consulting business owners make work too hard because they get wrapped up in technology and put their small business clients in second place.

If you don’t focus on your clients, you are getting virtual IT ALL wrong and will guarantee that your computer consulting company is known as clueless. You need to know that recruiting and retaining small business clients is your first priority, and that keeping up with technology should never be put first in the mission of your company. Don’t let hardware, operating systems or applications woo you; instead love business opportunities and how you solve your clients’ biggest business issues with your sophisticated solutions.

Computer Consulting Should Mix with Virtual IT

In order to understand a successful computer consulting company, you need to know about virtual IT. Virtual IT lets your company be an integral part of your small business clients’ companies. You become an outsourced IT department, and your role will be like that of a CIO, CTO or IT manager.

Like any good IT department, your virtual IT business will need to set up complete solutions that include help desk, desktop support, network administration, engineering, security, training, procurement, asset management and anything else you can think of. The goal is to provide a complete virtual IT solution that will deliver on time and under or at budget for your clients.

The Main Virtual IT Concept

Most computer consulting companies don’t understand how to truly set up a virtual IT plan. Make sure to focus on clients – don’t just fall in love with technology – and provide complete solutions for your important accounts.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Consultants: Why is Self Employment So Great?

2007-12-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

What are some of the benefits to computer consultants of working with small businesses?

Choose Your Own Work

When you work as computer consultants, you get flexibility that allows you to not get bored and to potentially have a lot of fun. You get to choose with which technologies you want to work and the platforms and products you want to support. You will never get stuck working with products you don’t enjoy.

Find Many Clients in Your Area

You can be located anywhere where small businesses are and you can build a great business servicing and supporting their technology needs. Being computer consultants is not just about the financial rewards; it’s about working near your own home and enjoying the freedom of controlling the future of your business.

Freely Choose Your Destiny

When you have your own business as computer consultants, you get to choose bosses, clients, colleagues, partners, vendors and any and all contractors.

Choose Your Schedule

As computer consultants with your own businesses, you gain better control of your working hours and get to select your own clients. This process allows you to work more realistic hours.

Build Your Self Worth

You will work with small businesses without an IT department that desperately need you. You are their main, part-time virtual IT person.

The Main Idea about Computer Consulting

When you work as computer consultants, you get to choose a range of clients and projects that give you the best experience ever. You will enjoy work every day!

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Sell IT Consulting Services Instead of Products

2007-12-28T00:30:00.000-05:00

In order to be successful with your IT consulting business you need to sell services rather than products. When you are starting an IT consulting business, you can’t afford to be a reseller or a dealer for someone else.

If you think selling some products will be helpful to your business, you can add them as part of your business … but you cannot make them the focus. Your IT consulting business is about services and real business solutions.

The second you align yourself with a specific product dealer and publicize it on your Web site and on all your business materials, you become a non-salaried employee for that company and most likely a commodity to your prospects, customers and clients.

IT Consulting: An Example

For example, if you are working in the medical field, which is your software vendor? You need to figure out if the medical field is really your IT consulting niche before you choose it. Do you have expertise in this area? Do you have paying clients?

If you are working full time in a niche currently and providing PC support for someone that makes medical practice management software, it makes sense to continue to focus on this area. Chances are you have a great deal of knowledge and credibility already.

Get Experience in Your Niche of IT Consulting

If you are just starting from scratch with IT consulting, you need to get experience in your niche before you make any huge investments with vendors or products. You should get some clients or a part-time job that helps you work in your chosen area before you start building your entire business around it.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Computer Consulting: Identify Prospects

2007-12-22T00:06:00.000-05:00

You need to look for signals when you are first talking to sweet spot computer consulting leads. These businesses will be doing a seven-figure annual sales volume with 10-25 employees. But how do you pick the best clients from this group?

Computer Consulting and Good and Bad Signs

Some industries are more focused on IT than others, and you have to figure out the industries that will most likely need your computer consulting services. What are the good signs and the bad signs?

A good sign is if you go to meet with a prospective computer consulting client and find out the person is working with another solution provider in your area already. This means the person is dissatisfied with current services and looking for someone new and also willing and able to pay for services.

A bad sign is if the prospect is working with a moonlighting computer consulting or a “free” friend or family member. This means the business is not ready or willing OR able to pay for professional services and any quote you give will seem high and unreasonable.

Sweet Spot Clients Hang out Together

Sweet spot computer consulting clients willing to spend $1,000 - $2,000 per month on services will have relationships with other business advisors within your community: accountants; attorneys; management consultants. Sometimes they will be working already with niched technology providers. This will help you with referrals to their contacts.

Learn to spot the qualities of a sweet spot computer consulting client to save yourself time and more quickly turn prospects into clients.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Marketing and Referrals

2007-12-18T19:27:00.000-05:00

Referrals are a great IT marketing technique. But how do you ask for them?

The Question about Referrals

One of the best IT marketing questions to ask clients is, “Is there anyone you know that could benefit from your services?” Keep this question in mind at all times and get VERY used to asking it. Ask about friends, family members, business associates, colleagues, vendors … anyone that might benefit from your services.

IT Marketing Techniques: Teach Clients to Know Referrals

You should train your best clients to identify the signs of someone that might need your services. If a client is on the phone and hears someone complaining about slow computers or problems with e-mail, this is an excellent opportunity for a referral. Show your clients you are also appreciative.

Client Surveys

If you want referrals to add to your IT marketing campaign, you can also survey your customers once a year and ask them to list people they might know that would be interested in your services.

You can also send out something more regularly – statement stuffers, etc. A statement stuffer is a card or flier you put in with invoices that talks about how you appreciate referrals and which types of businesses you serve.

IT Marketing and Referral Rewards

If you want to get referrals going, you can start a sophisticated referral program. Let them know you will reward them for referrals they bring you that turn into customers. You can offer rewards such as $100 credit on a client’s account, a $100 gift check or $100 donated to the charity of the client’s choice. Rewards really get referrals, but you have to ask for them often as part of a comprehensive IT marketing campaign.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Consultants: Your Relationship with Desktops, Notebooks and PDAs

2007-12-16T13:34:00.000-05:00

Are you one of the many IT consultants that is nervous about selling low-margin desktop PCs, notebooks or PDAs? If so, you might be missing something. How can you profit from your clients’ needs for full-service desktop, notebook and PDA support?

IT Consultants Are Technology Influencers

Smart PC hardware selection can make installation, support, troubleshooting and upgrading work easier, which means if you select the right PCs and peripherals for clients, you can help keep both you AND your clients happy. Choosing wrong PC hardware means being blamed for IT-related problems and getting on your clients’ bad side, which can’t be good for your bottom line.

Technology Advances

Despite many advances in technology in the past few years, notebooks, desktops and servers continue to be the top sellers in the hardware universe. Both Palm and Microsoft have created competing handhelds, but IT consultants still continue to see many more desktops, laptops and servers.

IT Consultants Can Profit from Hardware Sales

IT consultants are their clients’ main technology influencers. They recommend what to buy, which presents a huge business opportunity in terms of desktops, notebooks and PDAs.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Marketing: Seminars and White Papers

2007-12-11T18:29:00.000-05:00

If you want to use IT marketing to sell a solution, you have to make others aware they have a problem. Then you have to show people you have the ability to solve the problem in a pain-free, affordable manner that will improve efficiency and bring in a good ROI.

IT Marketing: Seminars

Seminars are great IT marketing strategies because they build awareness. You don’t have to send out salespeople all over town. Instead, you get to talk about the fundamentals to a room full of people at the same time.

Low Pressure

Seminars are much less intimidating to your prospects. If you follow up correctly and put good registration in place and a good method for inviting people, you can do a lot of business from seminars on technology issues that affect your niche.

White Papers and IT Marketing

Publishing a white paper or an e-zine is a great way to capture leads and follow up as part of a comprehensive IT marketing strategy. If you are running a direct mail campaign, one of the best ways to elicit a response is to offer a white paper that has a high perceived value.

You can develop the white paper yourself or outsource it to an experienced freelance writer. You can also adapt something from a reseller program to which you belong. If you regularly do seminars, you can just offer an edited transcript or white paper based on a previous seminar.

Spread the Word with IT Marketing

You can advertise a white paper when doing a display ad or direct mail piece. You give people an excuse to call or go online and request something. And when they request something, you can capture their information and use it as part of your IT marketing procedures.

The Main Idea about IT Marketing

To show prospects how valuable you are, you can make them aware of their problems and how you can solve them through seminars and white papers.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

IT Marketing and Stating Your Specialty

2007-12-09T15:33:00.000-05:00

There are two IT marketing techniques you can use to reinforce your specialty to targets and prospects. Case studies and Web sites can paint you as the best solution to prospects’ and clients’ problems.

Case Studies

A case study is a dressed-up testimonial. Typically, it is a picture of the client with a logo, full name, address and contact information. It’s an IT marketing strategy that consists of a few short paragraphs during which your client will talk about the benefits you’ve presented through your relationship with them and an endorsement signed by the client with your contact information at the bottom. If you have two-to-four case studies, they can prove to be a really powerful IT marketing tool.

Web Sites

If you put the right content on your Web site, it will have maximum impact as an IT marketing technique. Don’t advertise features of your business; instead advertise the benefits your bring and your specialty at solving your niche’s biggest IT issues.

Address a Niche with Each Web Page

If you are targeting three niches with your IT marketing campaign, you should have a separate Web page for each. The page should talk about industry-specific issues and the solutions you provide.

What are your niche’s hot buttons? Which software packages will move people to understand your competency? If you know the specific benefits you need to present to be compelling, you will know how to best create your IT marketing campaign and your Web site.

Emphasize Service with IT Marketing and Your Web Site

Your Web site traffic will come from one of two places: demand you’ve generated somewhere else; competitors looking for information. With this in mind, prospects should be clear that when they get to your Web site, you are emphasizing services and the problems they solve for small businesses.

Use case studies and your Web site as integral parts of your IT marketing activities and introduce yourself as a true specialist.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

PC Troubleshooting: When in Doubt, Reboot!

2007-12-04T10:39:00.000-05:00

Most small businesses would do well finding a good local computer consulting company to handle complex PC troubleshooting and other IT issues. However, a lot of computer problems are easy enough to fix for anyone, even with no technical background.

The thing to remember is – when faced with the need for PC troubleshooting, always reboot first.

This advice may sound simple, but a lot of people don’t think of rebooting when panicked with the need for PC troubleshooting. Whenever you are thinking about calling your professional computer consultant, always try a simple reboot before picking up the phone.

The PC Troubleshooting Reboot Process

1. Exit out of all files and programs.

2. Run a standard Shutdown/Restart sequence to reboot your computer.

If you think your computer problem may be related to hardware – a network card, modem, mouse, keyboard or sound card – go one step further with PC troubleshooting:

1. Go to your Start menu.

2. Shutdown your PC.

3. Turn the power off for a minute or so, if your computer did not power itself off by itself.

4. Turn your PC back on and see if the problem resolved itself.

The Main Idea about PC Troubleshooting

While rebooting a PC may seem like an obvious solution to computer problems, about 10-20% of the time it will fix what is wrong.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

How On-Going IT Support Can Help a Small Business

2007-12-02T09:26:00.001-05:00

A lot of small companies only ask for IT support when something important breaks. But establishing an on-going IT support relationship with a local presence offers a lot of benefits.

Get Advice from an IT Support Firm

Chances are as a small business owner you will need occasional advice about how you can better use your computers or you will run into computer problems. If your computer systems are important to your industry (as well as other technology!) outsourcing technology care to a local IT support firm is a much more proactive solution than just using a computer consultant for emergencies.

Hiring an IT Support Professional

A lot of computer consultants specialize and can be really important to a specific area or niche of small business. These types of IT support firms will often know as much about your business needs and industry as you know. Hiring a computer consulting business to give advice and take care of long-term, on-going technology needs is just a way of being proactive about business growth and success.

Don’t Multi-Task Yourself Blind!

Sometimes small businesses already know what their computer needs are when they look for IT support from an outside source. But there are several reasons hiring outside help can be beneficial as opposed to trying to rely entirely on someone within your company that has another job besides handling IT needs and just wears the occasional computer person “hat.”

A critical reason to look for outside IT support is that a computer consultant is a true field expert. So you get a part-time expert for far less than the cost of hiring that level of professional on a full-time basis.

Most of the time, a professional IT support person will be able to work through a problem much, much faster, more efficiently and more permanently than an internal guru.

New Perspectives

A professional IT support company can offer a new perspective for your business. Because having a fresh set of eyes to look at your IT infrastructure and how you run your business is important, you need outside support. Non-technical small business owners and managers can get short-sighted over time and stop seeing things within their companies. A good IT support firm can offer a fresh perspective and visualize the future of your business.

IT Support: How Can It Help?

An excellent IT support firm will be ready to do a lot of things to help your company get the most out of any business or technology challenge. They can offer training, personal coaching and strategic planning support. An IT support firm becomes a part-time CIO.

Really good consultants will not come into your company with a plan devised. They will custom-design a plan that works with the needs of your company and will have other consultants on staff that can determine the ever-changing needs of your company and create cost-effective solutions.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Being an IT Specialist Means Branding Your Company

2007-11-27T10:25:00.000-05:00

When you are an IT specialist, you can set yourself apart from the crowd of other consultants by branding your company. You want to sell your company name by adding an industry-specific twist.

You don’t need to advertise certifications and vendor logos as an IT specialist, because this practice will make you into just a product. These items can be a part of background information and a discussion point, but you don’t want to lead with them. Talk about the value and benefits you can bring to small businesses.

You Can Meet Unfulfilled Needs

Setting yourself apart as an IT specialist also means finding an underserved local niche and really taking it. Just ask around to find one that works for you.

Your Industry “Twist”

When you are at chamber meetings or other networking meetings and talking to prospects or at B2B expos, keep your eye out for a big problem that no one is solving. If you can think of a solution to a previously unresolved problem and there are enough people in the area that need that solution, you can make yourself stand out as an IT specialist.

Don’t Expect Your Clients to Agree about Problems

You don’t want to sell solutions to problems people don’t realize they have. You need prospects to understand the issue you are bringing up, or they will not be interested in buying the solution.

What is Your Competition?

You also have to know your local competition in order to be a successful IT specialist. Study your biggest five competitors by looking at their Web sites and brochures to see what they are doing. If they all look the same, you can probably figure out how to make yourself different as an IT specialist.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Emergencies and Planning

2007-11-25T17:48:00.001-05:00

There will always be IT emergencies in the computer consulting world, and handling these situations is very important if you want to keep your customer base. They also provide an excellent opportunity to build new relationships. So how do you best handle IT emergencies?

Don’t Over-Book Your Staff

You want to schedule staff at about 75 percent capacity when you’re dealing with staff that don’t have sales or management duties. This will allow you to keep 25 percent of time open for non-billable work, IT emergencies and marketing towards new targets.

There will be peaks you cannot meet, and this is a time when you will need to have everyone’s cooperation to make sure you can appropriately do triage. If you book someone in the field for a full day, schedule him/her eight to 11 a.m. and then do an afternoon appointment from one p.m. to four p.m. You need to leave time open in case something happens.

What Are IT Emergencies? Explain Them Well to Clients

Clients that are engaged in long-term relationships with you will understand when IT emergencies crop up and will be amenable to rescheduling maintenance appointments. They would want you to do the same for you if they had IT emergencies, so they will be very accommodating.

If you have to call long-term clients and tell them you are stuck at a client emergency – a server’s down, lightening struck, a fire broke out – they will probably be okay with lateness. You just need to keep communications open, stay in contact with people, make best use of your resources and don’t over-schedule routine tasks.

The Main Idea about IT Emergencies

Your project work will be predictable because you will know in advance what needs to be done. But make sure you build in some time for IT emergencies.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

When to Offer Retainer Agreements

2007-11-20T17:36:00.000-05:00

A good time to propose retainer agreements for customers is right after an emergency service call. This is when you are on great terms with customers.

Because customers must know, like and trust you in order to agree to long-term retainer agreements, you can really take advantage of emergencies. After an emergency, they love you because you have saved the day. They know you because you’ve probably worked with them closely for the past 16 hours non-stop. And they trust you because you came through with what you promised.

Damage Control and Retainer Agreements

After you’ve handled an emergency, customers will be receptive to listening to how they can in the future prevent the same situation. Offer a proposal that includes retainer agreements for on-going maintenance – support contracts.

IT Audits Are another Opportunity

After IT audits, customers will want to know what comes next. If they have asked for an audit, they will be more likely to be looking for a regular support person to look out for their needs and plan long-term maintenance and protection of their investments.

In order to get a customer to sign onto retainer agreements, you need to make sure he/she is PAYING. Once you have a paying customer with a retainer agreement, he/she becomes a client and beyond a transaction-based customer. You are dealing with a long-term agreement.

The Long-Term Approach

You may also confront a long sales cycle that can take a couple weeks to a couple months. Your customer will realize at some point he/she is not happy with a current tech provider for some reason and will actively shop for a new consulting firm.

At this point, you can gather notes and then propose that you come back for an IT audit. This can lead to retainer agreements.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Services Contracts: Follow through with Promises

2007-11-18T09:30:00.000-05:00

You may have just started working with the IT services contracts business model. And you might very well be worried about how you can live up to the promises you make as part of your IT services contracts agreements. For example, perhaps you have eight clients commanding $165,000 annually in revenue. So how can you support these clients on a short-term basis?

Planning Ahead Increases Your Confidence

With IT services contracts and your business, you need to gauge what you can do today. Set an inventory skills list. Look at what your competitors are doing and find out where there are gaps in your solutions. Which of your services would be useful for those clients that have a real LAN and network? And then look at how competitors make up for their own clients’ deficiencies. You can use this to your advantage when designing attractive IT services contracts.

Certifications?

Most small businesses are a two or three years behind the technology curve, so if your technicians don’t have large numbers of complex certifications or experience with new software, your clients most likely won’t either.

Here are some basic certifications you should look for: a basic MCP; the Microsoft Certified Professional; anything that helps them work with basic desktop operating systems that you will find in small businesses.

Most sweet spot small businesses will not be focused on certifications and will not be able to tell the difference between advanced and entry-level certifications. The important idea is to really think about how you design your IT services contracts and plan ahead.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

IT Businesses: Spotting Potential Prospect Problems

2007-11-13T09:25:00.001-05:00

When working in IT businesses, you need to be mindful of potential prospect problems by looking for early warning signs.

IT Businesses: Do Prospects Respect Your Time?

If you have a meeting with a prospect looking for IT businesses and the prospect makes you sit around for 15 or 20 minutes, you can expect that unless there is an emergency, if you take this person on as a client, the wait time isn’t going to decrease. You can predict that you will show up on time and have to wait – probably every time – and you’ll be unproductive because the prospect is disorganized.

The Value of a Pleasant Disposition

If a prospect is late, really obnoxious, abusive or nasty or if you find out that the owners or managers don’t respect employees, these are clues that this prospect probably won’t work too well with IT businesses either.

If you get an early warning sign during your first meeting, don’t walk out the door. Instead, put it in your notes and think later about whether or not you want to take this person on as a client.

It Goes Both Ways

The initial meeting with a prospect and IT businesses is a two-way interview. You are interviewing the prospect, and the prospect is interviewing you to see if you will work well together. Every prospect needs to know where his/her business is going and how IT can be incorporated.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Project Management: How to Overcome Small Business Sales Objections

2007-11-11T09:11:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest issues for those selling computer networks, IT-related products and services to small businesses is project management; and a more specific challenge related to project management is the process of overcoming sales objections that your prospects have.

Where Does this Project Management Problem Begin?

Typically, when you start trying to sell a network upgrade, a lot of small business prospects, customers and clients start to focus on cost. But what they are not thinking about are the soft costs involved in NOT installing a network. They don’t realize they can experience loss of employee productivity, downtime because fault-tolerance is thought of after the fact and services costs that result from bad solutions selected simply because they don’t cost a lot.

This is where you have to think about how to approach this from a strong project management perspective. Even if you are very thorough with your initial consultation, IT audit, site survey, reports, etc., some prospect, customer and client objections can come up right before you get the “okay” to proceed with the project.

Project Management: Overcoming Sales Objections is Critical

A minor concern can stop an entire sale, so you need to have great project management skills and be ready to address concerns when trying to close the deal. If you’re aware of the most common objections, you can anticipate them ahead of time.

The First Sales Objection: Apathy

Apathy is very difficult for those even with the best project management skills to overcome. When small business decision makers are apathetic towards installing a network, the process of selling might take weeks, months or perhaps even years. But if you can figure out the root of the apathy, you can move the process along much faster.

For example, you might come across someone that sees no problem with a P2P network. But a few big problems can cause the small business owner to see how wrong he/she is. For example, the server might be totally reliable until someone working on the computer acting as the server accidentally hits the reset button. Then everything goes down and there can be lost data and other major problems.

If you want to have great project management skills and overcome more of the common sales objections, you have to have a store of horror stories and know when to deliver them.

Network Reliability, Project Management and Overcoming Sales Objections

PC/LAN network reliability can be problematic when the P2P server “accidentally” performs an unannounced and unscheduled shutdown and restart because of a prompted reboot from a software program.

Using P2P networks means protecting data is not a concern right off the bat. If the server is not protected with hard drives, a tape backup drive, a server-class UPS and antivirus software, the P2P network is susceptible to failure. Often, some “divine intervention” in the form of a storm and blackout can make clients see the light when their “server” shuts completely down and they cannot retrieve important data.

The Fear of Catastrophic Data Loss

Catastrophic data loss is an excellent motivator for surmounting apathy and can help prospects, customers and clients see the importance of your suggestions for better project management techniques. You can show them how important centralized data protection and control is to their businesses.

The Main Idea

If you are selling IT-related products and services, you have to hone your sales skills and project management techniques in order to overcome common sales objections.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

A Good Contract for Maintenance is about Practice

2007-11-06T11:25:00.001-05:00

After you have the idea to start a contract for maintenance of your clients’ computer systems and put all your clients in it, you may have some questions. Are you afraid you won’t be able to deliver all you promise?

A Contract for Maintenance: Experience

You want to start off offering and selling services and proceed slowly until you gain enough confidence to go further. You won’t get real confidence through training, reading a report or preparing a template. You need to actually start selling one contract for maintenance after another and doing the work.

You should start with small accounts and work your way up to larger accounts. If a larger account falls into your lap, don’t turn it away automatically if you aren’t to that point yet. But just make sure to start with accounts that are small enough for you to manage efficiently in the beginning.

Prepare in Advance

When you don’t manage the sales process and take a prospect through it from sales call to IT audit, you will not be successful at selling a contract for maintenance. You need to have a concrete plan and a clear end goal. Otherwise, you will find yourself handling only emergencies and not developing any long-term relationships. A good contract for maintenance will connect you with your clients like a marriage.

Do You Want a Profitable Business?

You can’t really succeed all the way in IT services if you just wait for customers to come to you or just do a few hours here and there. When you establish a good contract for maintenance, you will find clients that need long-term relationships with you, oversight and the security that only an outsourced IT department can provide.

The Main Idea about a Good Contract for Maintenance

Without a clearly laid-out contract for maintenance, you will always be wondering when and if you will get a call from customers and whether or not they will enter into long-term relationships. A well-crafted contract for maintenance guarantees a long-term relationship that will sustain your business.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Don't Just Engage in Partnering with Other Computer Consultants

2007-11-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

When looking for partnering relationships, you shouldn’t just seek out other technicians. Many not involved in the IT business – management consultants, etc. – will be able to refer a lot of business to clients.

Accountants and Partnering

Accountants can refer you to small businesses that can be excellent clients because they are already trusted by most small businesses like attorneys, management consultants and advertising consultants.

Accountants probably do a lot of QuickBooks installs because of their job and might be getting some questions from customers about how to back up and protect their systems. Accountants won’t want to be involved in this process and can refer clients to you for a partnering situation.

With Partnering, You Become More Valuable

You can use your partnering relationships to put you ahead of other larger companies when it comes to support and services. You want to move up the value chain and provide services that will be hard to beat, particularly for companies like Dell and others that are often based on commodities. Partnering can help you enhance your personality, communication skills and ability to manage great relationships.

You Have Many Partnering Options

There are a lot of ways to take advantage of partnering – partnering with professionals like accountants and attorneys or with ISPs and other companies. You will help build your business if you explore many different partnering options.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Basic Computer Consulting Tips

2007-10-30T12:09:00.000-04:00

If you want your computer consulting business to succeed, you need to offer a sophisticated and total business solution. You have to have a good support contract agreement in place and an IT audit checklist. You also will need partnering agreements and the ability to take your prospects through the sales process until they become long-term clients.

Support Contracts

If you don’t suggest computer consulting support contract agreements to customers, they are not going to ask for them. You need to set a precedent for how you work with other clients; you build mutually beneficial relationships and become your clients’ outsourced computer department.

Get to Paid Services

You need to take prospects from “free” to “fee.” You shouldn’t spend hours on a proposal, because a computer consulting proposal has no value and makes you a commodity. You want prospects, customers and clients to make an investment in your firm.

Take it Step by Step

You should pick one goal per week for the next several weeks and just start working. Maybe you want to come up with a few marketing ideas or a support contract structure that you can start marketing to your clients.

Regardless of what you choose as a focus for the week, you need to start planning and building a network. Get everything ready so you are ready to go when you need to be. Your goal shouldn’t be to reach everyone; you need to define your targets and figure out how to reach a specific group.

You Are an Outsourced IT Department

You need to think about five or six different functions that small businesses need and build your computer consulting business around these functions. When you think of growing your business in these terms, you start to build the foundation for an outsourced IT department. You give your client a single point of contact for all their computer consulting needs.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Marketing: A Little Bit about Your Elevator Pitch

2007-10-28T16:30:00.000-04:00

Your elevator pitch is an important part of your IT marketing assets. Basically, the elevator pitch is a 10 – 20-second introduction to you and your company that you use whenever you encounter a prospect at an event.

What should go into your IT marketing elevator pitch? It should talk about what your company does, what makes you unique and why the prospect might want to consider working with you.

Your IT Marketing Elevator Pitch: A Definition

The concept of the elevator pitch comes from the following situation:

You get into an elevator with someone on the 20th floor of a building and have until you get to the ground floor to talk about you and your company. Your pitch should go quickly enough so that in this situation, the person you are talking to would also have time to give YOU an elevator pitch. It needs to be very reflexive and ready-to-go whenever appropriate.

You Need to Practice Your Elevator Pitch

You should write your IT marketing elevator pitch out on an index card that you keep in your pocket. You can look through it when you’re in traffic or before you’re going into IT sales calls. You need to be comfortable delivering it.

When you start to go out and get involved in expos and seminars or at Chamber events, you will probably be tired of using your elevator pitch. But you have to practice being enthusiastic about it every time you give it as part of your IT marketing activities.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Marketing and Mail to Your Current Customers

2007-10-23T10:35:00.000-04:00

Starting a fresh IT marketing campaign can start with a mailing to your current customers.

Mail to Those That Know You

When you engage in IT marketing efforts to your current customers, you already own the list. And the recipients of the mailing will already know, like and trust you, so you will have overcome one of the biggest IT marketing obstacles.

What’s Your Customer Pitch?

If you already feel good talking to small business owners about important technology aspects such as virus protection, firewalls, passwords, data backup and power protection, then you are well on your way to successful IT marketing of IT audits and data protection.

You can present a very discounted audit deal to sweeten your IT marketing efforts towards your customers. If it’s regularly $400, for example, offer it for $299 through a set date. You can also include little extras such as an entry-level battery backup unit or surge protector. Make sure it’s something of value.

IT Marketing Means Tracking Results

Make sure you analyze the responses you get from any IT marketing mailings. So, if you get five percent inquiries and half end up taking the audit, you can compare this to other lists and mailings (from non-customers and customers alike). Of course, you’ll usually have a more interested audience when you are mailing to your current customers than you will for any other IT marketing campaigns.

Customers Can Use What They Have

You should explore your current customer relationships to figure out how people you work with can more efficiently use what they already have. You will probably find that customers have things that have been purchased but never used. Or if these items are being used, they are not being used to their fullest.

Solidify Your Relationships through IT Marketing

IT marketing mailings to existing customers are a great chance to help you improve your relationships. You can show customers how to better use what they already own while getting more service revenue. You also increase loyalty and the strength of relationships that are vital to the future of your business.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Sales and the First Sales Call

2007-10-21T15:43:00.000-04:00

You have to think about the first IT sales call as a lead qualification step. You can’t afford to waste time on clients that may not be serious about hiring you, but you might do just that if you are not careful with how you handle the first IT sales call.

Stop the Game of “20 Questions”

When you get into the initial IT sales call, you will inevitably get hit with a lot of questions. Prospects will start drilling you on what you know and don’t know and trying to get free information out of you.

Eventually, you need to cut off this process to get to the next step. Any more than an hour will give you more than enough issues to discuss with your prospects and tell them what comes next in the IT sales process. When you’re done with the IT sales presentation, move onto suggesting that you, a systems engineer or a technician comes back and spends a couple hours on a site survey.

The Importance of the Site Survey

The site survey is a great next IT sales strep and is a way to inventory problems and analyze them. You and your prospect can decide which steps will come first, third, second and fourth and have a good starting point. Make sure you provide a report as part of this process and document where the prospect stands with security, software licensing, data protection, etc.

The Main Idea about IT Sales

Once you feel the IT sales presentation coming to an end, ask if the prospect would be interested in a site survey and explain how it can help them. This will be your first try at closing the sale and will stop you from wasting hours of time only to find the prospect didn’t necessarily intend to hire you in the first place.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Consulting and a Balanced Portfolio

2007-10-16T10:55:00.000-04:00

You should be able to target 70% of your business in the small business computer consulting market cornered with a balanced portfolio. Keep a very small amount of your business with home networks and consumers and then have 5 or 15% of your business geared towards larger businesses. While this plan does work for many computer consulting businesses, success really depends on where you want to focus.

Diversify

You shouldn’t have a single client that accounts for more than 10% of your computer consulting revenue. If you do have a client like this and you lose him/her, you will find yourself taking a huge revenue hit.

Just Get Rid of Bad Clients

Even if it makes you nervous, firing your bad clients can be really smart for your computer consulting business. Some clients will not be worth all the money in the world and will drive your computer consulting staff insane. You’ll see people taking sick days and trying to get out of going to see these problem clients. If you’ve diversified properly, getting rid of these terrible clients should be a lot easier.

What Are Some Reasons to Fire Clients?

Besides bad behavior clients, you may have some computer consulting clients that are not meeting their contract commitments. When this happens, you should be able to cut them loose without losing a lot of revenue.

A lot of management consultants say you should fire your bottom 20% of your customer list each year. While you don’t need to follow this exact rule, you will have to think about getting rid of the clients that put crazy demands and unnecessary strain on your business.

Your Ideal Clients Are Critical

You can’t stand for computer consulting customers that abuse you, harass you and stress you out. Other clients will be great to you and make the process of providing tech services a dream. When you diversify your client base, you will know how to replicate the good clients and fire the bad ones.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Emergencies Require Preparation

2007-10-15T01:02:00.000-04:00

You have to be ready for IT emergencies. This means you need to have online resource access, telephone support lines set up, tool kits available and checklists to track everything.

Are Your Abilities a Match?

To properly handle IT emergencies, you have to make sure your skills match the basic needs of your clients. What kind of hardware is your customer using? Which applications are used and how do these things affect their businesses financially and from an operations standpoint?

Assessment prior to going onsite is essential to taking care of IT emergencies.

Can You Really Fix the Problem?

You may find that a customer’s IT emergencies involve Linux and that you don’t have any experience. Therefore, you shouldn’t start a relationship with them based on this type of scenario. You need to be prepared to and capable of handling the IT emergencies you agree to address.

Prepare Your Company for IT Emergencies

New customers might be using familiar hardware and software, but they may be using a random hub, switch or router. Learning to fix this item will take you longer and cost you more money than the money you will make from fixing it. Therefore, you should encourage customers to replace the items with things you can support. Stress that streamlining products will make support issues in the future easier for both of you.

The point is, you are providing better service in less time when you focus on a single type of server, backup software program or anti-virus solution. You can save time during IT emergencies especially when you are not too busy keeping up with an array of renewals and new products.

The Main Point about IT Emergencies

If you can prioritize during IT emergencies, you will truly impress your customers and make them consider being long-term clients. IT emergencies are excellent opportunities to increase loyalty and build long-term client relationships.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Consulting and Appropriately Tracking Your Time and Invoices

2007-10-12T15:08:00.001-04:00

When you are working with a new IT consulting business, you need to carefully think about your time tracking and invoicing procedures. If you avoid the common mistakes, your IT consulting company will be in a much better financial position, even when money is tight. Keeping close watch on invoicing and time will also help you get more control over your business.

Time Tracking, Billing, etc.

Time tracking, billing issues and invoicing become real challenges for those involved in IT consulting. Which software should you use for time tracking and billing? Well, if you are just thinking about software, you are probably missing an important point – keeping track of time and billing is beyond the type of software you use.

You should use software that is easy to manage and makes your IT consulting job simpler, but no software will fix any issues you have with organization and management.

Manage Your Services

Your loyal IT consulting clients will see you as an insurance policy. A steady client will pay bills on time if you follow through with your promises. Your policies should make clients afraid that when they forget to pay their invoices on time, they may be forgotten during an emergency. You want to follow systems with time tracking, billing and invoicing that encourage IT consulting clients to behave well and really work well with your business.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Where Do You Find IT Marketing Prospect Lists?

2007-10-10T10:47:00.000-04:00

When you finish your long IT marketing sales letter, how do you know where to send it?

IT Marketing Tool #1: Advertising Lists

When you are looking for IT marketing lists, there are many you can choose. For example, in the U.S., the most popular are Zap Data and InfoUSA and are good places to start. When you need to rent mailing lists not in the U.S., go to Accountable List Brokers in Australia, List Angels in the UK or InfoUSA Canada listings.

If you want to get even more lists, you might consider going to your local chambers and industry trade groups or even newspapers and business journals to get IT marketing lists.

IT Marketing Tool #2: Trade Groups

As you build your IT marketing client list, you may end up with two clients that are in the same field, such as dentistry. If you have experience installing LANs and setting up networks for dentists as a result, going to places where prospects just like your current clients are will be easy.

IT Marketing Tool #3: Where Do Your Clients Hang Out?

Look for trade groups that those within your chosen specialty/occupation/industry would go. Then you can go to their meetings and conferences and take out a table at expos. You can become active as a panelist on something technology-related or write an article for one of their industry publications.

Keep It Modest

You should keep your involvement in organizations modest as part of your IT marketing campaign. Don’t join more than two or three industry organizations at a time. Get involved and be reasonably active, but don’t let it get in the way of your job (ie., don’t join the Board of Directors or anything with too much responsibilities). But do go to the meetings and look for word-of-mouth referrals.

With IT marketing, you need to focus on finding potential customers. Build your prospect list by buying or renting advertising lists and going to industry events.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit