Technical skills are critical to your computer consulting business.  But you need to be selective when it comes to those you choose to develop so you can focus on your business and all its many complex aspects and stay up to speed with your competitors.

Technical Skills:  Networking Platforms

Your competitors that do well with their sweet spot clients have expertise in the following types of networking platforms:  Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS); Novell Small Business Suite or Novell NetWare; Linux (RedHat, usually); Mac OS.

Some of your larger competitors with more than one employee might gravitate towards the higher end of the market – 25-50 PCs – as a starting point and take on some larger small businesses with up to 100 systems.  They might also go towards mid-size companies that have 100-500 systems, at which point they will cease being real competitors; you don’t need the technical skills required to provide these high-end solutions.  

Technical Skills and Your Larger Competitors

Larger competitors have expertise in the following items:  Network Attached Storage (NAS); Storage Attached Networks (SANs); complex security solutions; CheckPoint firewalls; Citrix Terminal systems; high-end Wi-Fi solutions; managed hardware.  Until you start selling to a real IT manager at a small business, you don’t need these very high-level technical skills.  

Necessary Technical Skills

When you work with sweet spot small businesses that have 10-50 PCs, you should hire people to help you that have one or two entry-level certifications and are working towards an MCSE or equivalent.  

Solve Problems to Satisfy Clients

Your clients will care more about your ability to solve their major computer problems than they will about your high-level technical skills.  Get to know their industry and how you can solve major business problems from a unique IT perspective and you will be valued, even if you don’t have very advanced technical skills.  

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg