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Sunday, December 30, 2007

Computer Consultants: Why is Self Employment So Great?

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

Choose Your Own Work

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

Find Many Clients in Your Area

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

Freely Choose Your Destiny

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

Choose Your Schedule

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

Build Your Self Worth

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

The Main Idea about Computer Consulting

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

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Friday, December 28, 2007

Sell IT Consulting Services Instead of Products

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

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

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

IT Consulting: An Example

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

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

Get Experience in Your Niche of IT Consulting

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

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Computer Consulting: Identify Prospects

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

Computer Consulting and Good and Bad Signs

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

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

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

Sweet Spot Clients Hang out Together

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

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

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

IT Marketing and Referrals

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

The Question about Referrals

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

IT Marketing Techniques: Teach Clients to Know Referrals

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

Client Surveys

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

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

IT Marketing and Referral Rewards

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

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Sunday, December 16, 2007

IT Consultants: Your Relationship with Desktops, Notebooks and PDAs

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

IT Consultants Are Technology Influencers

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

Technology Advances

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

IT Consultants Can Profit from Hardware Sales

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

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

IT Marketing: Seminars and White Papers

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

IT Marketing: Seminars

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

Low Pressure

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

White Papers and IT Marketing

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

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

Spread the Word with IT Marketing

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

The Main Idea about IT Marketing

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

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Sunday, December 09, 2007

IT Marketing and Stating Your Specialty

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

Case Studies

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

Web Sites

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

Address a Niche with Each Web Page

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

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

Emphasize Service with IT Marketing and Your Web Site

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

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

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

PC Troubleshooting: When in Doubt, Reboot!

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

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

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

The PC Troubleshooting Reboot Process

1. Exit out of all files and programs.

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

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

1. Go to your Start menu.

2. Shutdown your PC.

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

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

The Main Idea about PC Troubleshooting

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

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Sunday, December 02, 2007

How On-Going IT Support Can Help a Small Business

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

Get Advice from an IT Support Firm

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

Hiring an IT Support Professional

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

Don’t Multi-Task Yourself Blind!

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

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

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

New Perspectives

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

IT Support: How Can It Help?

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

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

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit