IT Specialist: Information Gathering is a Must
IT Specialists must reach their intended audience to be successful with their marketing. As you’ll learn in this article, your first step needs to be gathering information about your niche.
IT Specialists Should Study What their Niche Clients Do
For instance, to reach small medical offices, get up to speed on the business issues that impact the decision makers in these small medical offices. Get subscriptions to industry publications, e-mail newsletters, and other industry publications that you know medical office managers are going to read. For instance:
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Medical Economics
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Financial Management Strategies
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Medical Group Management Association publications
These resources happen to be all U.S.-based, but there are others. The key thing is to start reading the publications so you understand what’s keeping medical office managers up at night, what’s driving their decisions, what their biggest points of pain are, what the biggest security issues are, and what the biggest IT issues are right now so you can become an IT specialist in their field.
Learn What Solutions You Can Give Your Clients
Find out how small medical offices are using technology to change the way they do business, to get reimbursed faster by insurance companies, to make scheduling more efficient, and to keep track of charts more effectively. Whatever industry it is (architects, graphic artists, veterinarians, etc.), make sure that you understand big picture trends that are going on right now. As an IT specialist, your prospects will expect you to be the expert.
An IT Specialist is a Virtual CIO
Then, when you go in to meet prospects, you’re not just the consulting firm that sells PCs, or installs LANs, or fixes software problems. But you’re a true virtual CIO. You can analyze their special business needs, make recommendations, create long-term planning strategies, put it all together and make it happen on-time and on-budget.
IT Specialists Are Not Commodities
When done right, you’re not just the tech people. As an IT specialist, you understand your prospect’s business. And your prospects know that they are not going to spend six months training your firm because you can hit the ground running. It will be obvious you’ve worked with lots of other offices their size and you’re definitely the right people for the job. Their only questions will be, “So where do I sign?” and “When can you start?”
Spend Time Reading Your Clients’ Trade Publications
Instead of just reading the consumer and IT trade publications to keep up from a techie perspective, make sure that you understand the business issues and specifically the business IT issues that impact the niche that you’re targeting. You won’t become an IT specialist in that industry by paying attention to general-interest publications like PC Magazine or CRN or conferences like COMDEX.
The Bottom Line on Information Gathering for IT Specialists
In this article, you’ve learned about information gathering for IT specialists. To learn more about IT specialists, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.
Software Maintenance Contracts: Keeping You Protected
Software maintenance contracts that counteract viruses are being pursued aggressively these days by people from all walks of life. Whether it is a personal computer at home or a networked computer in the office, viruses are debilitating and can shut down operations entirely. The only real way to avoid them is to be proactive in preventing them. As you’ll learn in this article, once you’ve gotten a computer virus, you need the help of software maintenance contracts.
Keeping Pace with New Computer Viruses
It seems that almost every day, we hear about some pernicious new computer virus. Indeed, they are so common and so destructive that they often make the newspaper headlines, as business stops to address fast-spreading tech problems. To this end, many web sites are devoted to educating people about how to avoid viruses. People engage ongoing software maintenance contracts to maintain their vigilance on their infrastructure.
Follow the Recommendations
The most straightforward advice that consultants offering software maintenance contracts have is to delete email from unknown parties without opening it, and to never, ever open email attachments you were not expecting. In addition, consultants offering software maintenance contracts recommend that you update your virus protection software on a regular basis. This means at least once a week if you really want to be on top of things.
Some Computer Viruses are Unavoidable
Despite these efforts, most of us will get zapped by a virus at some point. The good news is that computer virus help in the form of software maintenance contracts is widely available these days. A quick search for consultants offering software maintenance contracts usually provides links to consultants that can walk you through the process of debugging a sick computer. Although prevention is clearly ideal, consultants offering software maintenance contracts are your best bet once you’ve got a virus.
The Bottom Line about Software Maintenance Contracts
In this article, you’ve been introduced to software maintenance contracts and how they can protect your from viruses. To learn more about software maintenance contracts, click here now to get access to free tips and an audio training excerpt on software maintenance contracts.
IT Specialist: Why Narrow It Down?
If you’re trying to grow your business, why would you turn away potential clients? In this article, you’ll learn that as an IT specialist, your marketing efforts are less about turning away other clients and instead about finding if you have enough prospects to market to.
If you know that your best clients are small accounting offices, do a quick search to find out how many small accounting offices there are in one hour radius of where you’re located. If you don’t know where to easily get your hands on that data, either contact one of that industry’s leading trade groups, or talk with a mailing list broker.
IT Specialists Can Market to a Niche
Marketing to a niche is so much easier, too. You will know exactly which trade publications to advertise in. Don’t spend a lot of your time and money putting generic ads into the newspaper, radio or the phone book. You are an IT specialist, so concentrate your marketing efforts directly into your niche. Once you develop expertise, as an IT specialist, all of a sudden you’re worth even more to those potential clients. Your marketing message will resonate with the person that’s picking up the phone, that’s looking at your long copy sales letter, that’s looking at your postcard, or that you want to get to attend one of your seminars.
Don’t Try To Speak to the Masses
Don’t try to come up with a message that resonates with everyone. If you do, you’re going to end up competing on price. You’re going to end up being a commodity just as if prospects opened up the phone directory and they called 30 companies looking for the dirt-cheap, lowest price.
Put Your Name Where Your Clients Will See It
If there’s a newsletter or a magazine that these prospects all read from the local association, think about putting a targeted ad in there, or writing an article, or becoming active in that organization by volunteering or speaking at that group’s events. In each of these instances, be sure to at least mention how your company provides great IT solutions for that particular niche or industry.
The Bottom Line on Being an IT Specialist
There are many different ways to penetrate the circle, but the key thing is to identify something that you enjoy doing and that’s lucrative enough that it’s worth trying to get more clients just like that. This simple targeted marketing strategy works for IT specialists across most different industries. Finding a niche is really important. Otherwise, you’re going to look just like everyone else.
In this article, you’ve learned about marketing as an IT specialist. To learn more about being an IT specialist, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.
Network Support Contracts : Delivering Ongoing Assistance in the Workplace
Network support contracts are often provided in the workplace as a means of streamlining business operations and helping business owners maintain an efficient technology infrastructure. However, networking capabilities are just as necessary for students and for those using their laptops for personal purposes. In this article, you’ll see how, for these people, it may take a few extra steps to get networking set up and this demonstrates the importance of network support contracts.
Maintain Uninterrupted Service
The beauty of networking is that it keeps you connected. Network support contracts are designed to keep your network up and running on a constant and uninterrupted basis. Using a solid network infrastructure means that you can access files left at work and indeed save yourself a trip to the office altogether on some days. For these reasons, many companies take responsibility for setting up networking capabilities and all employees must do is log on to have all needed materials right at their fingertips. Using professional consultants as part of network support contracts is a great way to implement and monitor such systems.
Network for Personal Use
Similarly, people using computers at home may wish to set up personalized networking options, but find that they must fly solo in this endeavor with the help of some network support contracts. Although many people possess the skills necessary to navigate this process independently, most people find that they actually do need the help of network support contracts. Thankfully, network support contracts are not hard to find these days.
Search Online For Support
For people in academic and government environments, there is often free network support contracts set up to assist across campus or departments. Similarly, other individuals seeking to set up networking can do quick searches for network support contracts in order to find Internet resources. Typically, online network support contracts are an excellent means of getting step-by-step instruction and can be augmented with in person guidance as needed.
The Bottom Line about Support Contracts
In this article, you’ve been introduced to support contracts. To learn more support contracts, click here now to get access to free tips and an audio training excerpt on support contracts
IT Specialist: Better Than a Generalist
Now how do you become an IT specialist, when to provide virtual IT you need to be a generalist? As an IT specialist, you will still need to provide a lot of different services. You may be:
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doing network design
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helping clients with procurement
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managing relations
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dealing with the phone companies, the Web hosts and the Internet access ISPs
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deciding what to buy and inspecting it when it comes in
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doing the configuration, testing, integration, customization, training, and troubleshooting
You’re doing everything. So yes, that is being a generalist. But there’s nothing that says that you want to be a generalist for everyone under the sun. As an IT specialist, you will find your marketing efforts easier.
Be Choosy With Your Clients
You should be all things, to some of the people by providing the soup-to-nuts complete solution. You provide true virtual IT, one-stop shopping… the buck stops here. You take full accountability of everything that your clients need, but limit the scope of the kind of clients that you go after.
Take Real Estate, for Example
If you’re specializing in real estate, you’ve probably done a lot of work with commercial real estate firms and you’re one of the top IT consulting firms in this niche. You can have the testimonials and references to show that you have indeed done work for these firms. So you’re coming across as an industry IT specialist.
Specializing Doesn’t Require Extensive Experience
Finding a niche could be as easy as having one or two clients that you’ve been working with for a year or two and you happen to have gotten involved in migrating an older DOS industry application to a 32-bit, or to a Web-based application. Over an extended period of time, you get to know the line of business applications. Often, that’s a big differentiator between you and anyone else that they could conceivably call.
The Bottom Line on Being an IT Specialist
So the point: it doesn’t take that much industry experience to position yourself as an IT specialist within that industry. But that specialization will make an enormous difference in your marketing results. In this article, you’ve learned about becoming an IT specialist. To learn more about being an IT specialist, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.
Support Contracts : Maintaining Your Website Presence
Network support contracts can relieve some of the stress related to managing a website on a full time basis. Making sure the content and links function correctly is a job by itself. If you are distracted by hosting problems, it will make the task that much tougher. Take the hassle out of this necessary task by engaging network support contracts.
In this article you’ll learn how, by relying on a third party who offers network support contracts, website will always remain active. This allows your company to focus on marketing efforts and increasing sales.
Mission Critical Up Time
Having a website that is always live is essential, regardless of whether a company uses it to market and sell its products, or just provide information. Having network support contracts in place can help you to maintain this presence. Although the actual hosting may never cross the mind of the customer, being able to see your site at any time of day is mission critical. So for you it is important to select a company that has a proven track record and history of flawless network support contracts delivery.
The Faster, The Better
Faster is always better and this is especially true of any website. Being able to quickly and easily navigate through the site can turn prospects into clients and bring them back for more. Purchasing extra servers or acquiring more bandwidth may solve this problem but cost thousands of dollars. Instead use consultants who offer credible network support contracts. They can analyze your existing systems and recommend ways to improve your system without it having to cost you a fortune.
Inexpensive Development
When choosing to outsource network support contracts it is important to find out how the company operates. A hosting support company who offers reliable network support contracts is always working to improve its service. This is the company you want to opt for.
The Bottom Line on Support Contracts
In this article you learned of qualities to look for in companies that offer support contracts. To learn more about support contracts, click here now to get access to free tips and an audio training excerpt on support contracts.
Computer Maintenance Contracts: What to Look for in a Provider
Computer maintenance contracts can give you some stability in a volatile industry. If you have ever tried to navigate the buzzing underworld of computer repairs, you may have already learned the value of good professional computer services who offer computer maintenance contracts. In this article, you’ll learn how to find a company that provides quality computer maintenance contracts.
How Do You Identify Professional Computer Consulting Firms?
The professional computer consulting firms are the ones with a physical address, an incorporated tax status and a current registration with the IRS. Put simply, the professional computer services are the teams that carry some accountability should anything ever go wrong within their computer maintenance contracts.
Why Do You Need a Guarantee?
Why is such a traditional guarantee within computer maintenance contracts important when it seems like there are any number of qualified free-lancers out there who take cash in return for a discount? The most important reason is that the one man operators rarely have the right tools or right experience for the job. The result is a piecemeal approach to repairs in which everyone uses whatever they have on hand and your computer comes back somewhat different from the way you sent it.
Cheaper Is Not Always Better
There are a few expensive possessions most people own that simply do better when quality work and ongoing maintenance is done by professionals. Computers are one. Get the help you need the first time through ongoing computer maintenance contracts and you will never have to wonder if you might have done more harm than good.
The Bottom Line in Computer Maintenance Contracts
Of course the professional computer services who offer computer maintenance contracts also throw in a host of other benefits, including virus removal, software fixes and more. When you deal with the pros, you can be assured of getting quality, lasting work done each time you visit as part of rigid and structured computer maintenance contracts. If you are someone who relies on the preservation of your computer data for your livelihood, the safest thing by far is to stick with the people who have legitimate businesses. Look for a business that can offer you computer maintenance contracts that they can proudly stand behind.
In this article, you’ve learned about computer maintenance contracts. To learn more about computer maintenance contracts, click here now to get access to free tips and an audio training excerpt on computer maintenance contracts.
Computer Consulting: Take Some Action
Before you open the doors to your computer consulting business, you need to get your ducks in a row. You’ll need to pick a company name and get your business cards printed. Then you’ll need to consider what types of customers you want to pursue and where you can meet them. In this article, you’ll learn how and why you need to accomplish these steps.
Get Your Business Cards Printed
Get your business cards printed, even if you don’t think they’ll last you forever. If you decide to change your company name, phone number or address 6 months down the road, that’s okay—you can get them reprinted. At least in the mean time, you can start getting momentum going by handing out a couple of business cards to all of your friends and family members.
Get the Word Out about Your Computer Consulting
Whenever you’re in networking situations, whenever you’re meeting people at your kids’ soccer games, or church or synagogue, or you’re standing on line talking to people at the movies, you’ll have the opportunity to tell them about your business and hand out your business cards. These people can then become part of your extended sales force.
Get Involved in Your Business Community
Get involved in some local organizations where small business owners meet. Look for three or four good local trade groups to get involved with. One might be your chamber of commerce, related user group or trade group, and possibly an industry-specific trade group.
Start Where You Know
Many times it makes sense to pick an industry focus where you come from. There’s always opportunity to branch out into other places. But at least if you start with a niche, you’re already familiar with, you’ll already have some credibility. You’ll find it easier to come up with a marketing message that hits home. You’ll find it easier to be memorable, because you’re not looking like everyone else who’s in the phone book or everyone else who could conceivably do the job who doesn’t have expertise in that particular niche.
Evaluate Your Computer Consulting Niche for Enough Prospects
With a nursing background, for example, you could focus some of your early marketing and business development activities on small doctor’s offices in your local area… as long as you have a fair amount of confidence that there are at least 500 or 1,000 prospects in a one hour radius of where you’re located. Your knowledge should be a big hit with both the key decision makers and the individual PC users.
You may even want to consider branding yourself by putting your industry focus in your name. For instance, you might add health care systems, medical office systems, or medical office technology as part of your computer consulting company name.
The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting
In this article you’ve learned about some first steps to take before opening your computer consulting business. To learn more about computer consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.
Software Service Contracts : The Great Unknown
Software service contracts are quite often value components of a package deal purchased by a new computer user. However, few new computer owners know about software service contracts. In this article you’ll learn how helpful software service contracts can be to consumers.
Don’t Waste Your Own Time and Money
Generally the purchase of a new computer system includes all the hardware, software, and peripherals you need to accomplish the functions you want from your computer. The most basic, "bare bones" system comprises a CPU, monitor, hard drive, modem, keyboard and mouse, plus a suite of software that includes word processing and internet access. Systems can be bought as a package or assembled from components. Rarely is there any mention of software service contracts or other maintenance type agreements. However, often it is software service contracts and other maintenance contracts that can actually save new users plenty of money and plenty of time.
Training and Upgrades Are Included
The vast majority of consumers prefer to buy a prepackaged system and tend to get excited thinking about the prospect. There are many different systems to choose from, even within one specific brand. Upgrades are also usually available to increase memory, speed, gaming capability, etc. Monitors, which used to be included in most packages, are now usually purchased separately. However, new computer owners should also consider software service contracts which allow them ongoing software support, assistance and training for a pre-determined period of time.
The Bottom Line about Software Service Contracts
The advantage to buying software service contracts is clear. You don’t need any special technical skills, you con obtain as much training as you need and you are assured of any software upgrades during the term of your software service contracts. Considering that many computers now are virtually "plug and play," you should also take the hassle out of your software management as well.
In this article you’ve learned more about Software Service Contracts and how they can save you time and money. To learn more about software service contracts, click here now to get access to free tips and an audio training excerpt on software service contracts.
Consulting Firms: Should You Be a Product Reseller? In this article, we’ll explore the two schools of thought on whether computer consulting firms should resell products. Pure Computer Consulting Firms Defined Some consulting firms want to be pure consulting firms. They believe that they are never going to make a penny off product margin and that there are potential conflicts when reselling products. So these kinds of consulting firms don’t choose to resell hardware, software, or peripherals. As consultants, these companies will help clients decide exactly what to buy, what the specs should be, and show them where they can buy the recommended products. Purchasing Agents Are Almost Pure A variation on this scenario includes becoming the purchasing agent for clients. In this case, your firm does the purchasing for clients and your firm bills clients for a couple of hours for that function. Your firm gets and reviews quotes, places orders, tracks orders, and carries the purchase through to completion. Both of these (the referral role and purchase agent role) are more of a pure consulting model. Hybrid Consulting Firms Are another Option With a hybrid-consulting model, your consulting business resells some products. A lot of computer resellers do what’s known as white box PC reselling; selling what’s known as PC clones. A computer reseller offering white box systems is typically selling non-branded desktops, non-branded servers and in some very limited cases, non-branded notebooks (called white books). To Resell or Not to Resell in Consulting Firms? The strategic decision of whether to resell or not depends on where you want to be spending the bulk of your time. Do you want your firm to try to pick up some incremental profit off of product sales? Or do you want most of your consulting firm’s income to come from pure consulting dollars? Regardless, if you really want to be in a strong sales position for your consulting business, you really should not be leading off with a product sale. Are Products Sales a Good “Foot in the Door?” Now many new computer consulting business owners wonder: Should you sell inexpensive PCs, cheap software and cheap peripherals to get a foot in the door to sell the consulting services? The answer in most cases is no. Why not? Because then, all of a sudden you’ve shown customers that you want to be their commodity broker. Will customers hire their commodity broker for consulting? Not likely. They’ve got your firm pegged as the cheap, low-cost source. If you want to resell products, resell products to people that you have consulting relationships with. And make sure your consulting firm makes an ample profit margin for the time, capital, space, staff and overhead that you must devote to reselling products. The Bottom Line on Reselling and Computer Consulting Firms In this article, you’ve learned more about how you need to be careful with being a reseller in your computer consulting firm. To learn more about consulting firms, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.
LAN service contracts give you peace of mind in a world where the options are simply endless. When you think of computer services, you tend to think of it like servicing your car - that is, you need to do maintenance and sometimes repair. There are, however, hundreds and hundreds of companies that offer computer repairs and LAN service contracts. In this article you’ll learn how to narrow down the possibilities. How Do You Choose What You Need? The field of computer services is very, very wide so how do you choose what you need - LAN service contracts or otherwise? There are many branches of computer services that don’t involve screwdrivers or soldering irons. Information Management Consulting, System Architecture and PC Troubleshooting are just some examples. These services involve developing the best system of computers and networks for businesses and often involve offerings like LAN service contracts. Other consultants provide database administration, network administration, and the development of custom applications as part of these LAN maintenance contracts. So Many Variables within Contracts Extreme programming is one of the fastest growing fields in computer services now. In traditional programming, clients set forth a plan stating what they want, and the developers go away and create that as part of LAN maintenance contracts. Extreme programming, however, is interactive. The programming begins with a plan, but can be easily modified at every step of the way, remaining usable while it is being refined. This can still be conducted under the umbrella of LAN maintenance contracts. Of course, with all the constant innovation in the technical world, training is an important service that is always in demand as part of LAN maintenance contracts. A consultant might come in for an afternoon to train eight workers how to use their new software, or an entire company might change over to a new system that will require major re-education. Many computer service companies can also provide temporary staffing and outsourcing resources as part of their LAN maintenance contracts. The Bottom Line about LAN Service Contracts In this article you’ve learned more about LAN Service Contracts and how to narrow down your different options for service. To learn more about LAN service contracts, click here now to get access to free tips and an audio training excerpt on LAN service contracts. Building a computer consulting business requires a lot of time. It involves going out to meetings and it’s shaking a lot of hands. You’ll need to make a lot of follow-up phone calls. Display ads and direct mail drops and similar marketing efforts do not replace calling up a potential client to try to establish a person-to-person connection. Because of the required hands-on time, you should be realistic about what it takes to get your computer consulting business going. Franchises Don’t Serve Silver Platters Even with a franchise operation, the franchiser is not handing you a client list on a silver platter. If you want to be handed a client list on one, don’t buy a franchise: you need to buy a current business. And of course, buying a current business is even more capital intensive than a franchise. To buy even a small, thriving IT consulting firm could cost anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to a few million dollars… pretty much some multiple of its annual sales. What Are Your Computer Consulting Business Start-Up Costs? On the other hand, you can start your own consulting firm generally for as little as a few thousand dollars. What do you need? You need a business phone number and voice mail. You need a cell phone. You need business cards and legal licensing registrations. And you probably want to meet with an attorney and an accountant. You’ll need some insurance. In many cases you can get started working out of your home office. Start-up costs are certainly higher with a franchise. Franchises Aren’t for Control Freaks Another downside of franchise can be a loss of control. You have to do things a certain way and according to the established rules. And you can’t step too far outside of that. Again, your company would be paying the franchiser a percentage of your company’s revenue indefinitely. And you won’t have as much flexibility in taking your business in a lot of different directions that you may want to. The Bottom Line on Computer Consulting Computer consulting has a few different options for start-up. You can start an independent business, buy a franchise or buy an established business, depending if you want to start from scratch or be handed a client list. A start-from-scratch computer consulting business requires more sweat equity than money. In this article, you’ve been introduced to the options for starting your business of computer consulting. To learn more about computer consulting click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business. Maintenance contracts for LANs allow you to ensure that your network will deliver the services you need to serve your clients. Whether you are a small business owner about to install a networked computer system or a large corporation who already has an excellent system, you can make use of LAN maintenance contracts. In this article, you’ll learn how and where to find someone who can deliver the support you need. Taking the Stress Out Of Network Implementation Where to Look For a Professional When you visit their sites, you can search their membership database of consulting firms by using skill keywords or location. You can post a description of the work you need and have members respond to you. This way you can find a consultant that offers LAN maintenance contracts that suit the work you require. Certifications and LAN Maintenance Contracts In order to be certified, an applicant must go through a rigorous educational and testing program. Members can be certified as either a Certified Computing Professional or as a Vendor. The former is the more rigorous program. Those who hold the Vendor certificate have specialized in one particular version of software or equipment and can generally offer LAN maintenance contracts to monitor and maintain your networks for you, no matter which platform you are running. The Bottom Line on LAN Maintenance Contracts Even if you are just starting out your computer consulting practice with rather basic desktop support level technical skills, make sure that your computer consulting firm gets some paying clients who are at your current technical skills comfort level. In this article, you’ll learn which types of clients to pursue first. Start out by working with home offices and very small stand-alone businesses and companies with really, really small peer-to-peer simple networks. At least you’re getting some paying clients and some reference accounts. Make The One-Shot Deals a Stepping Stone Recognize however, that you need to move beyond that. You want to be able to have a successful small business computer consulting practice that’s built on recurring revenue retainer agreements and sophisticated kinds of dedicated server solutions. When you’re first getting started with your computer consulting business, there’s certainly no reason why you can’t take on some of these smaller, one-shot deal accounts. Just recognize that you need to be moving towards more sophisticated, more profitable, long-term client accounts. Continue Learning If you feel that your lack of technical training is holding you back from clients that need more sophisticated solutions, put aside some time each week for training (even if its just two or three hours). Go through tutorials and resource kits. And install your not-for-resale (NFR) software. Then, break the installation and troubleshoot the setup process. Then, reinstall the applications until you get more and more comfortable with setup and troubleshooting. The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting In this article, you’ve learned about how to find your first clients for computer consulting. To learn more about computer consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business. A great way to see if you and potential clients are a good fit is by first trying "proving ground projects." In this article, you’ll learn how proving ground projects are essential before signing any long-term agreements for computer consulting. Proving Ground Projects Defined Proving Ground Projects are the first projects computer consulting professionals complete with a new customer who hasn’t yet become a client or a steady client. During this time, consultants are proving they know their stuff, are dependable and personable, and provide good value. At the same time, the customers are proving to the consultant that they have reasonable expectations, a compatible personality type, and that the customer is willing to PAY for professional IT services at the going market rates. Be Observant During Proving Ground Projects If all goes well for the consultant, he/she is on the right track toward having a new, steady client by successfully completing the computer consulting proving ground project. However, all too often, consultants aren’t observant enough during the proving-ground project. They end up starting a long-term relationship with someone who proves to be a nightmarish client. This is usually because they were so enamored at the prospect of landing a new computer consulting customer, that they missed the obvious warning signs. Some of these include when clients: The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting Proving Ground Projects Don’t rush into a client relationship without determining you are a mutual fit by first trying computer consulting proving ground projects. Proving ground projects ensure that both parties have realistic expectations about each other in the computer consulting relationship. In this article, you’ve been introduced to computer consulting proving ground projects. To learn more about computer consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business. If you’re not really careful with how you hire the expert technical staff on your payroll, you could end up training and nurturing a future competitor. In this article, you’ll learn how to minimize your risk. Consider this example Your firm (ABC Consulting) hires a technical person and pays for their Microsoft, Cisco, or Citrix training. This person gets really skilled and get lots of great field experience. Now, one day the employee wakes up says, “You know what? I don’t think I want to work for ABC Consulting anymore. I’m going to start my own consulting company out of my spare bedroom. And take ‘my’ clients with me.” Be Prepared for Potential Disasters That’s one reason you shouldn’t rely on just one salesperson or just one technical person to carry the entire weight of your company. Figure out a way to be more actively involved in the sales process and service delivery process. Even if you’re not the main person who does the work all the time and even if you don’t have the strongest skills, having some finger in the pie will be very important for keeping your prized client accounts loyal and healthy. Don’t Forget To Have Technical Staff Sign Contracts Make sure that you’ve covered your bases by having technical staff sign documents such as non-compete clauses and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) when you hire people (talk with your attorney about these). Keep your eyes open and have a plan so that you can deal with these issues before they become business crises. The Bottom Line about Technical Staff In this article, you’ve learned about ways to avoid turning your technical staff into future competitors. To learn more about technical staff, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business. Computer skills are important for your virtual IT business. But with so many possible skills, which ones do you really need in your business? In this article, we’ll address which computer skills your competitors may have so you know what you’re up against. Necessary Networking Platforms Most of your competitors who are doing well with sweet spot clients know the following networking platforms: Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) Novell Small Business Suite or just Novell NetWare Linux (generally RedHat) Mac OS Some of the larger integrators in your markets that have several employees may go towards the higher end of this market. They’ll start at about 25 to 50 PCs, and take on some larger small businesses where there are 50 to 100 systems. They also may take on some small, mid-size companies where there may be a range from 100 to 500 systems. These larger competitors will need to get involved in more sophisticated solutions than what you need to provide. What Else Do Your Larger Competitors Have? Your larger competitors will usually have some more advanced expertise on: Remember though, such high-level advanced certifications are not critical until you start selling to a real IT manager at a larger small business. What Do You Really Need? For the sweet spot small businesses with 10 to 50 PCs, employing virtual IT staff that has one or two entry-level certifications and are working towards something like an MCSE is sufficient. Solving Problems Makes Your Clients Happy Usually your clients put more of a premium on problem-solving computer skills. Those clients want your company to know about their particular business industry and how you can apply IT to their business problems. That’s what sweet spot clients tend to value even more strongly than pure technical computer skills and certifications. The Bottom Line about Computer Skills In this article, you’ve been introduced to which ones are the necessary computer skills in your computer consulting business. To learn more about computer skills, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business. Don’t worry too much if you lack advanced technical computer skills. A lot of that can be remedied by just putting in a little bit of time each week in doing some self-study. In this article, you’ll learn which computer skills are necessary to serve your sweet spot small business clients. If It Works, Break It! You can do something as simple as getting a not-for-resale (NFR) copy of a product that you want to sell, install, and support and then working with the product in your lab. When you or one of your lead technicians or engineers has a spare half-hour to an hour, you can walk through the basic installations. Then, deliberately break the lab installations. Next, reinstall the software until you get more comfortable with the package. Most of these products that you’ll be installing for small businesses are very mature technologies. They’re very wizard-driven, and at least for plain-vanilla configurations, they don’t require tremendous levels of computer skills. Installations Are Easier Now Years ago, it was much more difficult to install the Novell small business suite or the IBM equivalent, or the original 1997 Microsoft Small Business Server. But all of these companies, especially Microsoft, put a lot of money into making it easier for people who don’t have advanced IT backgrounds and networking computer skills to install their small business server application suites. In terms of your technical computer skills to service sweet spot clients, your staff needs to: If your staff possesses the above skills, you’re definitely at a good starting point to get started with at least the smaller sweet spot small businesses (10-20 PCs). Share the knowledge among your employees Make sure your staff members cross-train each other and you. This way, no one’s ever “too knowledgeable” to the point where they can blackmail you, extract huge raises or huge bonuses, or walk away with your client base. You have to make sure your company’s internal know-how or intellectual capital can’t just get up and walk out the door to your biggest competitor. The Bottom Line about Computer Skills In this article you’ve learned about which technical computer skills are necessary to service your sweet spot clients. To learn more about these computer skills, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business. IT support contracts allow you to undertake virus removal and protection without spending hundreds of dollars on proprietary software. Sometimes this software has security holes in the most vulnerable areas, so the key to saving money, time, and indeed your data, are IT support contracts. The fact is, with all of these software packages, you usually only get marginal security at best. But with IT support contracts you get access to an entire team of professionals who make virus removal and protection their daily work. Quality Expertise Knows No Substitutes The difference between software and skilled technicians under the umbrella of IT support contracts is so vast that it is practically another field entirely. Big companies, government agencies, and anyone else who places a premium on the steady function of their computer networks will tell you there are few substitutes for the watchful eye of a talented IT person under IT support contracts. Automatic diagnostic software can catch some common problems, but anyone who has experience in the volatile field will tell you the uncommon problems are the ones that get you in the end. It takes ongoing maintenance and management through IT support contracts in order to steer clear of major disaster. Support Contracts Are Becoming More Common Recently, many computer service stores have begun offering IT support contracts alongside other common perks such as software fixes and upgrades. This lets you rest a little easier, knowing your problems are being addressed and anticipated under IT support contracts. If you want the best security possible, you will need some expert help to stay ahead of the curve and IT support contracts can do just that. Support Contracts Will Help You Protect Your Valuable Data Do your business a favor and call an experienced company of talented technicians who offer IT support contracts and see how much more they can do to keep your valuable machines safe. If you work in an industry where the data you generate can make or break your career, you want to work with nothing less than the best teams in your area. Explore possible IT support contracts today. The Bottom Line about Computer Support Contracts In this article, you’ve learned about IT support contracts. To continue learning more about IT support contracts, click here now to get access to free tips and an audio training excerpt on IT support contracts. Many different responsibilities are included in providing IT support to your clients. In this article, you’ll learn which areas need to be a part of your comprehensive services. Coordinating Telecommunications Solutions With sweet spot clients, you’ll probably end up coordinating your IT support with the local telephone company, whether it’s a CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) or ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier), to get a leased line. You’ll research what kinds of connections are needed and even basic dial-up networking recommendations. Most IT support departments also end up coordinating tech support with ISPs for Internet access. Testing, 1, 2, 3 Inevitably, your firm is going to get involved in vertical industry-niched applications, whether you bring the vertical applications in, or your clients ask you to test the application out before they make a major IT investment. Your client will want your IT support firm to evaluate how the vertical application fits into their network. Training the Guru or the Masses Like it or not, your firm will get involved in training. Sometimes that training may be more formal end-user training where you take small groups aside and show the users a new application. Other times the training may be more informal with the internal guru—the one that everyone comes to with questions. By training the “guru”, the guru will be able to “train” others on the more routine matters (such as how to recover a lost toolbar or taskbar). Count on the Inevitable Disaster Your firm will also need to get involved in disaster recovery planning, checking out the data backup system, the antivirus software, the power protection and the security. Also don’t forget proactive maintenance. The Bottom Line about IT support In this article, you’ve been introduced to the components of IT support. For more information on improving your IT support, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.Consulting Firms: Should You Be a Product Reseller?
LAN Service Contracts : Grab the Opportunity
Computer Consulting: A Business of Time and Sweat Equity.
Maintenance Contracts: Helping You Maintain Your Network
Using the services of a professional computer consultant under one or more LAN maintenance contracts can give you objective advice about what system will best suit your needs. You will also be able to train users quickly and efficiently.
If you find yourself in need of an IT consultant under the umbrella of LAN maintenance contracts, there are several ways to go about finding one. There are professional computer consulting membership organizations that holds their member firms to very high standards.
The Institute of Certified Computer Professionals, for example, has approximately 50,000 certified computer professionals as members who are located all around the world. Many of them can offer you LAN maintenance contracts.
In this article, you’ve been introduced to the components of maintenance contract for LANs. For more information on improving your LAN maintenance contracts, click here now to get access to a free audio training excerpt on LAN maintenance contracts. Computer Consulting: Find Paying Clients during Start-Up
Computer Consulting Proving Ground Projects Are a Good First Test
Technical Staff- Protect Your Business
Computer skills: Which Ones Do Your Competitors Have?
Computer Skills: Which Ones Your Staff Needs
IT Support Contracts Protect Your Machines
IT Support: Areas of Responsibility with Your Clients
Your biggest value to your customers is in your problem solving and the strategic planning. You must be able to take everything clients have that’s IT-related, put it down on paper, get it organized, figure out what needs to be done immediately and what can wait, how the immediate IT needs fit into the budget and other needs of the business.
