Small Business Computer Consulting

Are you ready to be more than just an IT freelancer and get serious about starting your own computer consulting business?  Being successful at getting enough high-paying, steady clients to get started means getting to know a lot of people and getting them to trust you.  Networking is one of the very best ways to achieve your goal of being a successful IT consultant and be more than just another IT freelancer trying to make ends meet.

While you can’t join every organization under the sun, you can join a few that will work best with your schedule and give you access to the best leads and prospects for your specific business.  Take some time to go to a meeting or two and get to know organizations in your area.

Organizations that Can Help You Be More than an IT Freelancer

1.    General Business Organizations:  These can be your chamber of commerce or Rotary Club or Kiwanis or even a group like Le Tip or BNI or some other lead club.  These clubs are targeted by industry or occupation and will give you access to a lot of other small business owners/managers.

2.    User Groups:  This type of group can be useful if you decide you want to specialize in a specific type of software or other platform.  You can find people with similar interests that are either consultants or IT professionals.

3.    Targeted Business Organizations or Trade Groups:  This is a group that will give you the most direct access to the clients you want for your business.  Choose a group that gives you access to small business owners within your specialty or niche and start to look for upcoming events like expos, etc. as well as a newsletter you can read.

No matter what, you need to get ACTIVE to engage in great networking that will get you beyond being just another IT freelancer and closer to your goal of being an IT consulting business owner, thriving in your field.  To learn more about this topic, visit the attached link!

Submitted By:  Joshua Feinberg

Whether you’ve been in business for 2 months … or 20 years … the Computer Consulting Kit helps computer consultants continue to grow their businesses and find more steady, high-paying clients with limitless revenue-building resources, exercises and important templates and tips.  

Here’s how two computer consultants just starting out in the field jump-started their businesses, in their own words:

“The Computer Consulting Kit was instrumental in helping me successfully launch my computer consulting business. I appreciated the depth and the detail, and the additional resources provided. It’s a great investment… easily paid for my Computer Consulting Kit in the first month. And I have numerous clients under contract to show for that!”

Neal Castles, Castles Technology Consulting, State College, Pennsylvania

"I achieved a net profit of over $11,000 in my first quarter (in business). The Computer Consulting Kit immediately made me look like a seasoned business owner in the I.T. consulting market."

Mike Sims, Simtech Data Services, Hesperia, California

To learn more about how you can learn from the tips and tools offered by the Computer Consulting Kit and increase your revenue and improve your relationships with clients, just like these two computer consultants did, visit the attached link!

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

You need to be prepared to invest a lot of time into starting your own computer consulting business.  How can you be realistic about choosing the type of business that is right for you?

Franchises Are Not Guarantees

You might think that if you choose a computer consulting business that is a franchise, a lot of the work will be done for you.  While this is true with parts of the process, you still are going to have a lot of work to do.  For one, the franchiser is not giving you a pre-established client list.  If you want that, you will have to buy a current business, which can cost a lot of money.  Even if you buy a very small but thriving computer consulting firm, you can spend $300,000-$3 million dollars (or about that amount).  The amount will be a multiple of the annual sales.

What Are the Computer Consulting Start-Up Costs?

If you start your own computer consulting firm, you can do it for as little as a few thousand dollars.  You’ll basically need a business phone number and voicemail, a cell phone, business cards and legal licensing registrations.  And you’ll want to figure in the cost of meeting with an accountant and an attorney.  You will also need insurance.  A lot of times you can work out of your home office, which means less money.

Attention Control Freaks:  Steer Clear of Computer Consulting Franchises

When you buy a franchise, you give up some control.  You have to do things a certain way according to pre-set rules and regulations.  There is very little room for deviation.  Your company will be paying the franchiser a percentage of your revenue from now until … forever.  And you won’t get the same level of flexibility when it comes to taking your business in different directions as you would if you opened your own business.  

The Main Idea

Computer consulting has some start-up options:  starting an independent business; buying a franchise; buying an established business.  Ask yourself if you want to start from the ground, up or be handed a client list.  Just keep in mind that any start-from-scratch computer consulting business is more about time and sweat equity than money.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

There are two ways of thinking about being a reseller as consulting firms.

What Is a Pure Consulting Firm?

Some consulting firms choose to be pure consulting companies.  They think they will never make any money off products and that there are some major conflicts when you get into becoming a reseller.  As consultants, these companies help clients decide what to buy, what the specs should be and they show them where they can buy recommended products.

What is a Purchasing Agent?

Another type of pure consulting firm is a purchasing agent.  When you do this, your firm does the purchasing for clients and bills them a couple hours for it.  Your firm gets reviews and quotes, places and tracks orders and handles the whole purchase.  These are more pure consulting functions than reselling functions.

What Are Hybrid Consulting Firms?

When you follow a hybrid consulting model, you do white box PC reselling (reselling PC clones).  A computer reseller that does this is selling generic desktops, servers and sometimes notebooks (called white books).   

Do You Resell or Not?

When consulting firms are deciding whether or not to resell, they need to think about how they want to spend the majority of their time.  If you are facing this decision, ask yourself if you want to pick up some additional profit from product sales or if you want most of your income to come from pure consulting money.  No matter what, you don’t want to lead off with product sales when selling yourself to prospects.

Can Product Sales Get Consulting Firms in the Door?

Many new computer consulting owners ask themselves, “Should I resell inexpensive PCs, cheap software and cheap peripherals to try to get into consulting?”  The answer is typically “No.”  

All of a sudden you will have shown customers that you want to be a commodity broker.  And most will not hire this type of person for consulting.   

If you want to be a reseller, relationships have to come first.  Consulting firms looking for great longevity should focus on relationships.  

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

If you are trying to be a computer business consultant, you can do quite well when starting by moonlighting.  This also allows you to figure out if you like being a computer business consultant before you decide to do it full time on your own.

Real Billable Hours

When you moonlight as a computer business consultant, you get to know what real billable hours are.  As an example, if you spend 10 hours working, you might only be able to bill for four.  This is just the way it works and something you need to learn for yourself to understand completely.

Why Are Some Hours Non Billable for a Computer Business Consultant?

The other responsibilities of running your own business typically are what make up most of your non-billable hours in computer consulting.  You will spend time on marketing, business development, paperwork, organization, billing and collections and basic accounting duties.

You have to learn what owning your own computer consulting business is all about first-hand, and moonlighting can be a way to do this.  If you don’t find out before you start, you may discover you don’t like it and are not really cut out for the industry and find yourself stuck.  

Moonlighting Has its Benefits

The biggest benefit of moonlighting when you are thinking of being a computer business consultant while you still have a day job is that you take some of the pressure off yourself.  If you end up not liking consulting, you haven’t lost anything.  But you still have a good way to get your foot in the door and learn about the industry without making a big commitment.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

A lot of people gain extra income with moonlighting computer consulting businesses.  Moonlighting also gives you the opportunity to try computer consulting on for size before committing to it full time.  

True Billable Hours

When you moonlight as a computer consultant, you gain an appreciation of the reality of billable hours.  If you spend 10 hours working, you may really only bill for 4.  Similarly, you can spend 10 hours of time and only bill for 6 or 7 hours.  When you experience this for yourself in computer consulting, you get an idea of whether or not you can handle it.  

What Are Non-Billable Computer Consulting Hours?

Non-billable hours include the following business responsibilities:  marketing; business development; paperwork; organization; billing and collections; accounting.  You won’t get a real picture of whether or not you can handle these types of issues – and more! – until you own a computer consulting business for real.    

Moonlighting Benefits

The main benefit of moonlighting while still having a day job is lack of pressure.  If you don’t end up liking computer consulting, you can get out and go back to your routine.  But moonlighting allows you to test out computer consulting without a major commitment.

Submitted By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Before you officially open a computer consulting business, you need to be well-prepared.  Pick a company name and get business cards together.  You also need to think about which types of customers you will be acquiring and where you will meet them.

Printing Business Cards

Even if you don’t think you’ll keep the same information forever with your computer consulting business, get business cards together right away.  Even if you change information in six months, you can change it.  You need to start handing out computer consulting business cards, even if you just do it with family members and friends.

Tell People

Networking means that whenever you are out and about, meeting people at kids’ soccer games, church or synagogue or just standing on line talking to people in the store or at the movies, you need to take the opportunity to tell them about your business and give out business cards.  

Your Business Community – Get Involved!

You should join local organizations that cater to small business owners.  Find three or four good local trade groups and get involved.  Examples are your chamber of commerce, user group or trade groups related to your industry other types of trade groups.

Computer Consulting:  Start from a Known Point

You should pick an industry focus that interests you and in which you have experience.  You can always branch out later, but starting with a niche you already know and with which you already have some experience can really jump start your credibility, make you more memorable and improve your computer consulting business. 

Evaluate Your Niche for Prospects

For example, you might choose the medical field if you have a background in nursing.  Focus your early activities on small doctors’ offices in your local area.  You should be sure you have at least 500 – 1,000 prospects within a one-hour radius of your location.

You can even brand yourself by putting industry focus in the name of your company.  Add “health care systems” or “medical office systems” to your name for extra emphasis on your computer consulting specialty. 

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

IT consultants need to know when they are going after sweet spot small businesses that the company is going to be looking for someone that has strong hardware skills.  You need to thus know about RAID and multi-port adapters. 

What is Your Background?

IT consultants need to be able to deal with storage attached networks, network attached storage, mid-range data backup systems, DAT, DL2, UPS’s, power protection systems, routers, CSU’s, VSU’s, wi-fi hardware and anything associated with roaming. 

What Systems Do You Know?

Networking software is a very important part of life for IT consultants working with sweet spot small businesses.  You need to know the software and also have great skills with networking.  You also need to know about the server OS’s.  They are hiring IT consultants for networking design, installation and on-going support and maintenance.

What Are Clients Using?

IT consultants working with small businesses need to know about Microsoft Windows server, Microsoft Small Business Server, Novell Netware, Novell Small Business Suite and Red Hat.  Because client server messaging is so big, Microsoft Exchange Server and Novell GroupWise are also good ideas for IT consultants.

Accounting applications will also be crucial for IT consultants along with CRM applications, web servers like Microsoft IS and Apache. 

Which Other Tools Do You Know?

IT consultants working with small businesses should also know web authoring tools including Microsoft Front Page and Macromedia Dream Weaver.  For those dealing with small businesses that use Windows, terminal services will also be important.  IT consultants should also be familiar with network faxing, performance monitoring, virtual private networking, BPM’s, RAX and others.

Firewalls and advanced virus protection are also a necessary part of working with small businesses.

IT Consultants:  The Bottom Line

In order to support sweet spot small businesses, IT consultants need to know 25 – 50% of the aforementioned items. 

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

There are many different IT consulting rates.  Some people decide to charge zero, others go for $25, $35 or $45 per hour.  What is the best IT consulting rate for you?

Startup and Rates

If you want to set a good standard for yourself, your future clients and your business, your starting IT consulting rates should be around $75 - $95 per hour.  Setting high rates for yourself will build a reputation for your IT consulting business and help you attract the best clients.

IT consulting businesses that work with small companies typically charge $100 - $125 per hour.  The rate is determined by how deep their specialty is, their vertical industry and their metro area.  

How Do You Adjust IT Consulting Rates?

New IT consulting businesses often don’t accurately think about their expenses and end up charging too little for their IT consulting services.  Usually, if you start out really low, you will have to stay really low.  Adjusting IT consulting rates late in the game is nearly impossible.  Your last resort is fixing rates going forward and getting new clients, keeping a lot of old ones that are paying you way too little.

Raising Rates is a Challenge

When you grandfather rates, half or at the very least one quarter of your IT consulting business will be useless because it will not be earning you any money.  Getting clients to agree to huge rate increases – possibly increases of 100 percent or even more – is an impossibility.  

The Main Idea About IT Consulting Startup Rates

When you are starting your business, don’t charge too little or you will have to totally ditch your IT consulting client list later and start over, possibly putting you out of business.  Set rates appropriately from the beginning to attract the best clients and get the most out of your company.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

If you currently have a full-time day job and are moonlighting as an IT consultant, you might be wondering how you can move into a job as a full-time IT consultant.  Think about the following rules and help yourself avoid the common issues that prevent IT consultants from transitioning into full-time, self-employed consulting.  

The First Rule:  No Assumptions

Many IT consultants that moonlight initially are so excited and taken by the idea that they can be self employed that they don’t plan appropriately.  Start off right by having no assumptions about what will and will not happen.  

The Second Rule:  Plan in Advance

Many moonlighting IT consultants want badly to become full-time consultants, but a lot of them will not make it because they do not plan ahead for the transition.  They hope it will happen, but they do not think about how and when the transition will happen.  

The Bottom Line

As a moonlighting IT consultant hoping to transition into full-time consulting, you need to plan ahead.  Don’t get stuck taking huge risks that make no sense or hiding because the task gets too overwhelming.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit