Small Business Computer Consulting

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

Many people get their start in computer consulting and are able to make a decent additional living by moonlighting.  Moonlighting in computer consulting can give you the chance to determine whether or not you actually like the job before you begin a full-time computer consulting business.  

Computer Consulting:  Billable Hours

Computer consulting moonlighting helps you learn the importance of true billable hours.  As an example, you might spend 10 hours working, but can only bill for four, six or seven.  Only actually working and moonlighting computer consulting can show you the big picture of billable hours.  

What Are Non-Billable Hours?

Non-billable hours are a natural and necessary part of computer consulting.  Non-billable computer consulting hours are those used for marketing, business development, paperwork, organization, billing and collections and accounting.  

Until you are an actual owner of a computer consulting business, you can’t totally know you will enjoy it or whether or not you will be capable of running it.  

Computer Consulting:  Moonlighting Benefits

The most important benefit of moonlighting while still working at a day job is the decreased pressure.  If you find out you don’t like computer consulting, you have not lost anything because you still have a day job.  Moonlighting gives you a foot in the computer consulting door without requiring a huge commitment and without compromising your financial stability.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

Before using the Computer Consulting Kit, consultants often report having a difficult time juggling different complicated IT marketing and sales efforts, administrative techniques and the management of complex client needs all at the same time.  The Computer Consulting Kit has helped make the task of starting a computer consulting business and managing on-going, never-ending needs specific to the industry much simpler with useful, clearly laid-out tools and templates that have been proven to work time and time again for professionals at every level of business development.

The Computer Consulting Kit:  Steve Frankland of 2 Clix

Like many other IT specialists, Steve Frankland of 2 Clix in Dublin, Ireland has faced many challenges managing the complexity of his business.  Before he started using the Computer Consulting Kit, he admitted he wasn’t diversifying or specializing as much as he needed to in order to really expand his business and give it a secure future.

“In 2006 I reduced my exposure to big ‘all the eggs in one basket’ clients.  The Computer Consulting Kit is well-featured and addresses most of the issues I constantly encounter.  I stopped trying to sell services to home businesses and concentrated on workplaces where more rewards and profits are being made.

I also addressed the issue of having some very high-income clients that, if they went elsewhere would cause me serious issues.  I relocated the entire business to Dublin, Ireland also to close more business in my particular vertical market (financial services and banking) and used the marketing ideas outlined in the pack … and they work! “

Steve was running out of ideas and decided it was time to seek outside help in order to open up new possibilities and capitalize on the uniqueness of the solutions only he could provide.

“In effect I am a startup in Dublin and without this inspirational Kit I would be struggling for ideas on how to get on.  Last year I was able to make $200,000 in additional revenue by implementing your ideas. Your product is excellent and I have recommended it to many contacts of mine.”

The Bottom Line About the Principles of the Computer Consulting Kit

In order to compete in the IT industry, computer consultants need essential tools that can help with the many elements specific to the industry, including information about IT marketing and sales strategies, time management techniques and ways to get long-term high paying clients that create a long-lasting business.  Consultants looking to join Steve Frankland and others that stand behind the tested and proven principles of the Computer Consulting Kit should visit the attached link for free tips and information about how to get the Computer Consulting Kit for themselves.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Start-up security firm Imprivata is making plans to redesign its solution provider program in order to serve its identity management and physical/logistical access partners.

This week, the company launched the iPartner program, which will consist of two different partnership levels:  Authorized; Premier.  This will help further the different levels of solution provider partners within the company to help the current 55 partners in North America understand more clearly their roles.  Authorized partners have to have certain technical expertise and Permier partners have to provide services and support for products from Imprivata.

Director of channel sales and programs for solution providers at Imprivata Eric Blatte states that new changes in the partner pgoram will improve revenue for each solution provider.

The new solution provider program will also offer deal registration.  Partners that find new opportunities for Imprivata products will enjoy ten percent of the profits, regardless of the size of the deal.  The goal of this new component of the solution provider program is to encourage partners to pioneer new products and give them better rewards.

Imprivata started shipping its first product in December of 2006.  The new product connects server-side authentication management systems with building key card systems.  The vendor will also start working with non-IT value added resellers that specialize in installation of cameras and magnetic locks.  The change to the solution provider program reflects the diversity of the company’s presence within the marketplace.  

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101

Business billing and collection can be an area where new network consultants get themselves in trouble.  To ensure you get paid, you have to start very early setting up good practices for business billing and collection.  

Here are some basic issues you need to understand when setting up your business billing and collection policy.

The most important issue in new network consultants’ minds regarding business billing and collection is, "What software package should I use for time and billing?"

If you’re just focusing on that, you’re missing the bigger issues related to business billing and collection.  Of course you should use a piece of software that makes it a little easier to carry out business billing and collection, but the software is not going to fix any underlying problems you have with actually getting paid.

Business Billing and Collection Premises
First, you need to know that steady clients perceive your company as an insurance policy. What does this have to do with business billing and collection?  Everything. This insurance policy mentality is what motivates clients to pay your company on time.  They fear that if they forget to pay invoices on time, you will not help them (cover them) in the case of a network emergency.  If you bill them regularly, steady clients will pay.

On the flip side are the one-shot deal, cherry picking customers.  These people view your company and services as a commodity.  Here you need excellent and very tight business billing and collection practices if you hope to get paid.

The cherry picking clients don’t value your relationship. They view you as one of hundreds who offer the same service.  There’s no fear motivating them and they have an entirely different mind set. They have no qualms whatsoever about paying you late or not paying you at all.

They’re not interested in building a relationship with your company. They’re just after what they perceive to be the absolute, rock-bottom, lowest price. If they get a late notice from you, they’ll probably laugh at it and throw it out or put it through the shredder.

Bottom Line on Business Billing and Collection
It’s very important from a business billing and collection standpoint that you understand your steady clients come from an entirely different place than one-shot deal clients.  Knowing and understanding this difference will make an enormous difference on your business billing and collection practices.  Think about how you will handle these two distinct situations when you are developing your business billing and collection policy.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to Business Billing and Collection. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about Business Billing and Collection, just 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 rates vary from the very low to the very high.  When you start out with your network consulting business you need to make sure your IT rates are set at a level that will carry your business long term.  

Believe it or not, the act of setting an IT rate is one where a majority of new consultants have troubles.  Here’s how you can avoid the mistakes others have made.

Avoid Common IT Rate Mistakes

What a new consultant does all too often is give away their services for a ridiculously unsustainable IT rate of $25 or $30 an hour.  They are desperate to get customers and they emulate the wrong people in the market.

When you copy the IT rates of a computer repair technician or other moonlighters, you won’t ever be able to transition to full time work and have a sustainable business. Why is this?

There is a very definite relationship between what your clients pay your consulting firm, your hourly IT rate, and the kind of salary package you can ultimately offer your sales and technology staff.

You might say, “I’m not thinking of hiring sales and techno staff. That’s so far down the road, why should I be thinking about it now?”

You need to be thinking about it now, because whether you realize it or not, even if you don’t have anyone working for you in a sales or technical function, YOU are doing that work and you need to be compensated correctly. Why should you accept any less than someone you would pay to do the work?

If your IT rates are set too low, you’re eventually going to have an extremely difficult time attracting the kind of staff that’s required to recruit and service sweet spot clients.

The next reaction to this is typically, “Can’t I adjust my IT rates later?”

The answer in most cases is no. It’s very difficult to adjust your IT rates with your existing clients. Often you won’t be able to keep carrying these grandfathered IT rates.  Then half or a quarter of your business essentially becomes worthless because it’s not profitable. If you charge too little, you may effectively end up having to dump your client list and start over, which could put you out of business really fast.

Bottom Line on IT Rates
When you set your IT rates you have to look to the future.  Don’t succumb to low IT rates just to get clients.  You want long term high paying clients and you need to have IT rates that will be attractive should you need to hire staff in the future.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT Rates. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about IT Rates, just click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

Technology training is a luxury you can’t afford when you first start off computer consulting.  There are more important things to be spending your time on like getting clients and building a long-term sustainable business.

What we hear so often is this:

• "I love to get out and go to networking events, but I have no time!"
• "I’d love to get all my clients on service contracts, but I have no time."

When we dig a little deeper we find there is enough time but a lot of it is being spent on technology training.

Building a strong business is a lot about adjusting your priorities.  My advice, when you’re first starting out, especially during the first six months to a year, is to put 90% of what you perceive to be your research and development time – your technology training – on the back burner.

You need to concentrate on finding paying clients. Technology training, like sitting in a classroom, playing with CDT’s, learning not-for-resale copies of things, and playing around in your lab with new operating systems is not helping your business! You need to put 90% of these technology training activities on hold so you can concentrate and use that time to find paying clients.

When you have some paying clients you’re going to figure out, pretty quickly, whether you need to get more technology training. You’re probably six to 18 months ahead of what small businesses in your area need. They’re not early adopters, they’re late adopters. Put your business development needs ahead of your need to feel like you’re keeping up with the latest and greatest technology training.

Also, along the same lines, you should ignore 90% of your technology magazine subscriptions for the next three to six months. Take all the time you would have spent keeping up and reading magazines, and put it into demand generation, lead qualification, sales calls and follow ups.

Bottom Line on Technology Training
Don’t use the excuse that you’re too busy to stop you from business development.  Stop spending your precious time on technology training.  No more training classes and no more reading through thick stacks of computer magazines every week. Spend your time generating demand, getting good leads and prospects, qualifying them, going out on sales appointments and following up on them.  Do not get seduced by technology training.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to Technology Training. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about Technology Training, just click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

Target businesses will sustain your business into the future.  Before starting your computer consulting company, you should know what to look for in terms of target businesses.  Here is a brief summary.

Target Business Criteria

• A target business in one that is close to you:  generally within a 30 to 60 minute drive from where you’re located.  

• Your target business should have 10 to 50 PC’s. It should be big enough that it needs a real server, which most of the time translates to 10 to 100 employees.

• The average annual sales of your target business is between $1 million to $10 million.  You can get this revenue information directly from them, through Google, Dun & Bradstreet, etc…

• These target businesses will have their own email domain.

• In almost all cases, a target business is going to have a dedicated server or dedicated Internet access.  

• A business that meets your target profile will require working online and it will use IT to communicate with some of their vendors, key customers, partners or even regulators. Essentially that means that IT is mission-critical for them.  

• In most cases your target business accounts are going to have at least one branch office. They’re going to have some remote staff, and with that comes the need for more sophisticated telecommunications and someone that can help them design and implement it the right way.

• Generally your target business client will have a website. You can Google towns in your area, ZIP and postal codes, area code and telephone prefixes to find some companies in your area.

• More often than not, a business that meets your target profile will have a pretty sophisticated phone system or PBX.

• These companies will almost always belong to a local or regional chamber of commerce or similar organization. To meet some of these people you can join the organizations or attend as a guest.

• Your target business client will also typically have a presence at business to business events, so you can attend these events to network.

• This kind of company will get media coverage in the business section of the local newspaper or in the business journal. You’ll probably want to subscribe to that or read them at the library.

Bottom Line on Target Businesses
When you are networking and marketing yourself to potential businesses you need to have a clear idea of the kind of businesses to target.  You want to be able to tune out some “business fatal attractions” and narrow down your focus to the best small businesses in the area.  Use the criteria given above to develop a profile of your target business client and learn to recognize them quickly and efficiently.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to Target Businesses. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about Target Businesses, just click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.