Computer Consulting Kit Preview Blog

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

Marketing IT to the Right Small Business Decision Makers

2009-04-11T18:53:00.001-04:00

Are you new to marketing IT to prospective small business clients ... and not quite sure where to start?

Many professionals that own their own small business IT services firm don’t really know which kinds of business owners they should be targeting. A lot of this confusion happens because of the failure to create a well-defined business and marketing plan. And if you don’t understand your own business, or have a clear plan for the scope of services you will offer, how can you possibly expect to figure out a consistent profile for what makes a great client?

Consider the following 5 marketing IT tips that attract great small business clients that best fit your services and your company's growth plans.

1. Look for Clients That Support Your Own Business Goals. If you really want to make a decent living and build a successful, viable IT business, you must know which characteristics define your ideal small business clients. In most cases, this means narrowing down your focus and developing a keen intuition for spotting the best small business accounts.

2. Know the Size of the Overall Small Business Market. While there may be thousands -- or at least hundreds -- of small businesses in your local geographic area, not all of these will be ideal client candidates. But many will. In order to come up with a reasonable market share goal, you need to pinpoint just how many prospective future clients should be on your radar screen when marketing IT.

3. Learn Which Businesses to Target and Which to Ignore. If you don’t learn early on which businesses to target and which ones to ignore as potential client candidates, your business will suffer. You need to know where to find the best target businesses and know when to say “no” to businesses that come your way that don’t fit with your goals and plans.

4. The Best Clients Bring You Career Satisfaction and Profit. Once you figure out the process of marketing IT to the right kinds of future prospective clients, you will have a much more professionally gratifying experience. You will get a lot of career satisfaction working with clients that truly benefit from your specific IT solutions. This satisfaction is probably a huge reason you decided to start your own business instead of sticking with a more traditional corporate IT career. Great clients will also prove to be more lucrative for your business long term. All small businesses are not created equal, and you want to focus on those that will be a stable source of recurring service revenue. You are not running a charitable organization, so you need to focus on delivering services profitably.

5. Balance Small Business IT Needs with Your Own Best Interests. You certainly need to have empathy for the customers and clients that you support and do a great job for them. But you also have to look out for your own business interests to make sure your company will survive and thrive, so you can continue taking care of your clients' needs for the duration.

In this article, we talked about marketing IT to small business clients that will fit in with your business goals. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients as you are marketing IT now at the attached link.

Copyright (C) MarketingITSecrets.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

Small Business IT Consensus-Building Tips for Project Managers

2009-03-20T11:18:00.001-04:00

Do you provide small business IT services?

One of the best way to be successful in small business IT is to survey your prospects, customers and clients to find out about their true needs. This way, you can propose IT projects that will solve their biggest problems.

But how do you convince your customers and clients that they need the major projects you’re proposing? And how do you get them to agree to enter into long-term relationships with your firm?

The following 3 tips can help you understand why getting buy-in from customers -- and building consensus -- is so important to the success of major small business IT projects.

1. Know the Dangers of Not Getting 100% Buy-In. If a small business owner is totally gung ho about a planned project, but every other staff member is bitterly resistant, your life will be a complete nightmare. If not everyone is on board from the beginning, you also run the risk of having the owner pull the plug mid-project. Then you’ll have to either eat some non-billable hours or risk alienating a client with aggressive collection efforts. Either way, you're much better off investing the time to ask the right questions, so you can uncover their true needs and build consensus right from the outset.

2. Take Precautions Up-Front with New Customers and Clients. You can avoid major aggravation if you work hard at talking to all important people at a client site before starting any major small business IT projects. You want to make sure you talk to the owners/partners, internal gurus, mid-level managers/supervisors, power users and novice/beginner users. These talks will be your last chance to probe newly-discovered topics that need to be addressed and to ask for additional clarification. Make sure you completely understand their expectations and that they understand yours before proceeding. Remember, building consensus if crucial to your success as the project manager.

3. Keep the Small Business Owner Involved in the Project. Make sure every client stays actively involved with any project you do. If the problem you are tackling is not urgent or important enough to demand the small business owner’s attention, or if the small business owner becomes disengaged, these are red flags that you may be headed for trouble. With small business IT projects, your clients can’t completely outsource decision-making, oversight and responsibility. You need periodic feedback and guidance at certain key decision intervals. Projects typically fail when the owner wants the project done immediately, but has no time to explain what is needed. You need to make sure your client is delegating responsibility to someone within the company that is authorized to make decisions.

In this brief article, we discussed 3 tips that help you improve the success rates and client satisfaction rates of your small business IT projects. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying small business IT clients now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), SmallBusinessITSecrets.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.

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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.

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Computer Repair Service Form Tips for Clients that Change their Minds

2009-03-06T11:52:00.001-05:00

Do you have a consistent set of computer repair service form templates that help you organize your business?

If not, one of the most important forms you will need, especially if you intend to engage in long-term, complicated computer repair projects with clients is the change order form. If you’ve ever had a client that, no matter how well you planned ahead of time, always had a way of asking, “Oh, by the way, could you just …” in the middle a project, you know how important change orders can be. While relatively simple in concept, the change order mechanism can protect your project timetable and budget, your client relationships, your profitability... and perhaps most of all, your sanity.

Clients that change their minds often can be real budget breakers, schedule wreckers and general project management nightmares if you don’t have a solid change order template within your computer repair service form package.

If you’ve never experienced this type of client aggravation, you’re lucky. But the longer you are in the computer repair industry, the more “Oh by the way …” moments you are likely to encounter, and the more you will appreciate having a change order form at your disposal.

The following 4 tips can help you use change orders to manage and protect your valued client relationships.

1. Know Exactly What a Change Order Form Is. A change order is an important part of your computer repair service form package. It brings a semblance of order to what often can be a chaotic request from clients to do things differently once a major project has already started. Without a document from you that proactively confronts requests from your clients, you might as well just accept a state of chaos and give up on gaining control over the situation. A change order is a one- or two-page document that takes a casual “Oh, by the way …” and turns it into a clear outline of how much additional time and cost will be necessary to alter a major project in favor of a last minute request. A change order form is mandatory for you as a computer repair professional because it helps you ensure that you are fairly compensated for disruption, rescheduling and last minute cancellation and discourages clients from making sudden, impulsive decisions that can drive you insane.

2. Change Orders Can Make or Break a Project. It may not seem like it at first, but change orders can really make or break a project. At the bare minimum, change orders generally require anywhere from minor to major revisions to any time and materials budgets in proposals and price quotes. Changes in project details can drastically impact major milestones and completion dates, so you need to establish how you will deal with client requests of this nature before you start engaging in large projects with anyone.

3. Make Sure Your Change Orders Are In Writing. A change order should always be written up and is subject to appropriate authorizations from both parties. The change order must be mutually acceptable … or revised to be mutually acceptable. If this important computer repair service form is not acceptable to both you and your clients, you could jeopardize important client relationships and compromise the future of your business.

4. Break Major Projects into Pieces to Help Manage Changes. In order to keep large computer repair projects on schedule, you need to break them down into digestible phases and tasks with their own interim deliverables and client sign-offs. This way when you need to use the change order as a computer repair service form during the project, you will have an easier time because you will have been building consensus and agreement all along. This is part of being a great project manager and should never be neglected when you are building important client relationships.

In this short article, we talked about 4 tips to help you develop your computer repair service form package with a solid change order policy. Learn more about how you can attract and retain great, steady, high-paying computer repair service clients now at the attached link.

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