Small Business Computer Consulting

If you are like any other IT consulting professional, you may have questions about time management.  How can you focus on finding long-term B2B clients when you already feel maxed out working 60-80 hours per week?  The solution is not easy, but you have some options.

The IT Consulting Time Study

If you examine where you are spending most of your IT consulting time, you can figure out if you can delegate, automate or eliminate some tasks.  For example, if you find yourself building PCs and putting in motherboards and power supplies 10 hours per week, this simple task could probably be delegated.  If you are minding traffic in your store, you should probably delegate that as well.  

How Does Delegating Help?

You should think about which tasks you can delegate based on the staff you have already.  When you delegate, you can often free up a day or a day and a half each week that can be spent finding IT consulting clients.

How Do You Use Extra IT Consulting Time?

To get clients, you can go to networking events, plan marketing campaigns, go out on sales calls and also make follow-up phone calls to cultivate relationships.  

Time Management and IT Consulting

If you are already working a lot of hours per week, you just need to find the time to do what you have to do to find IT consulting clients.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

Many consultants decide to be computer resellers.  But is this a smart move?

What Does it Mean to Be Computer Resellers?

Some consulting firms prefer to be pure consulting firms because they don’t think they can make a cent off products and don’t want to deal with the conflicts that reselling demands.  These pure computer consulting firms help clients decide what to buy, specs and also show them where to buy products but to not peddle the products themselves.  

Purchasing Agents

Purchasing agents are a variation on pure computer consulting firms and computer resellers.  If you are a purchasing agent, you do the purchasing for clients and your firm bills clients for a couple hours to perform that task.  Your firm is responsible for getting and looking at quotes, placing and tracking orders and following the purchasing process through until the end.  

Hybrid Consulting Firms

Hybrid consulting firms are those in which consulting businesses become computer resellers for some products but not others.  A lot of computer resellers in this capacity do white box PC reselling, selling PC clones.   Computer resellers that offer this service are offering non-branded desktops, servers and sometimes notebooks (white books).

Should You Be Computer Resellers?

In order to decide whether or not you want to join the ranks of other computer resellers, you have to think about how you want to spend your time.  Do you want to get some additional profit off product sales or have your income mostly come from pure consulting services? No matter what, to put yourself in a strong position you can’t lead off with being computer resellers in your sales pitch.   

Will Being Computer Resellers Put You in a Good Position?

In most cases, can being computer resellers really put you ahead and get your foot in the door?  In most cases, honestly the answer is no.  This is because when you label yourself as a reseller you position yourself as a commodities broker.  Customers will most likely not hire a commodities broker to do consulting, because they have you labeled in their minds as a cheap source and not a high-end professional services firm.

If you want to be computer resellers, resell to people that already have consulting relationships with you and make sure you get a decent profit margin for your time, capital, space, staff and overhead.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

If you own or manage your own computer consulting company, you may be finding the process of growing your computer consulting company’s profits challenging.  How can you focus your computer consulting firm’s profit and bottom line?  There are 7 profit secrets that can really jump start your business.

Where the Problem Starts

As you focus on your computer consulting profits, you may think the process will be easy.  However, it is a challenging business-focused discipline that escapes a lot of computer consulting firms.  

The problem is that many in the field get caught up in gadgets and great reseller channel programs at the expense of their business profits.  However, your computer consulting company is a BUSINESS, not a hobby or a charity, and you have to run it as such.  The following 7 tips can help you get more out of your business.

Profit Secret 1

You need to be motivated with your small business computer consulting clients and position your services as those in line with what a virtual CIO would do.  Look for ways to bring out the best in your clients’ businesses.  

Profit Secret 2

Dedicate yourself to improving the status quo.  It takes a lot to get great computer consulting clients, so you need to think about the lifetime value of your customers, not just one-shot deals.  Think about long-term planning and vision and persevere with the most complete solutions.  

Profit Secret 3

Get creative with your client relationships.  Small business technology solutions need to be modestly budgeted and work without an in-house IT staff.  Think creatively!

Profit Secret 4

Evaluate your clients’ systems – both the ones on paper and those that are computer based.  Part of your virtual CIO job will be looking at how clients’ systems are meeting or not meeting present and future needs.  This work will mostly be done during IT audits but can set you apart from other computer consulting firms.

Profit Secret 5

Think like your clients think.  What will THEIR clients need from them?  As a computer consulting business owner, you need to have good people skills and empathy for business problems.  But you also need to understand THEIR clients’ business problems to really bring them complete solutions.   

Profit Secret 6

You should keep up with advances and new versions.  When you are a virtual CIO for your computer consulting clients, they will rely on you to tell them which tools can better help your business grow.  Don’t let this training and R&D work take over all your time, but stay a few steps ahead of your clients’ needs all the time.  

Profit Secret 7

Summarize and communicate information to clients.  You need to figure out whether a new platform or tool can add value to your clients’ existing or future installations.  And you need to be able to summarize this information in language your computer consulting clients can understand.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

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

Part of being involved in computer consulting is selling your personality and your business knowledge.  But you are also selling your time, and you can’t afford to deal with people or tasks that will waste it.  You have to be able to use every hour to its fullest.  How do you tell if a service call is a good use of your time?

Is it an Emergency?

To work more efficiently, you have to be able to find out whether computer consulting clients are actually having an emergency or if they just want your time.  You should be able to determine this as soon as you hear from them – on the phone, over e-mail or in person.  A server down issue has a much greater sense of urgency than an unlinking PDA.  

What is the Budget?

You simply can’t waste time with prospects that don’t have any money to pay you for your services.  If you come across a broke computer consulting prospect, you need to put the person on a follow-up list for three to six months to figure out if there is going to be more IT money to be spent.  Otherwise, don’t waste your time.

Be Tactful

You can’t ask directly if a prospect is broke or even, “Do you have any money?”  To determine whether a prospect can afford your support, as if he/she gets computer consulting support currently, how he/she has received it in the past and whether he/she has only used moonlighters or volunteers.  You can find out how big the budget is for IT by asking these questions.

If you find out the prospect is already working with someone else that you think of as a competitor, you can assume the funds are there to hire you.

What is Their Pain?

You need to know how much pain a prospect is in and what the nature of the pain is in order to pitch a sophisticated solution to solve customers’ and prospects’ problems. 

 
The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting

You need to think of time as part of your valuable inventory; don’t give it away in computer consulting unless you are sure it will be worth it.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Micro small businesses frequently need to use internal gurus or free help, which is why the sweet spot is the best area for IT consulting.  Which rates are appropriate for the sweet spot (in U.S. Dollars)?

IT Consulting Range for the Sweet Spot

The rate range for the sweet spot of IT consulting (aside from for moonlighters or gurus) is typically between $50 and $125 or even up, depending on the skill set, niche and geographic service area.  However, if you want to project a professional image in the sweet spot small business industry, you should not be charging less than about $75 - $80 hourly.  

What is Your Lowest IT Consulting Rate?

$75 - $85 per hour should be the lowest you will accept for IT consulting.  And you should only charge that low rate when you have clients committing to you for a long period of time or signing service agreements.  Charging anything below this amount for your IT consulting services could find you going out of business.  

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

While non-profits are a valid market for IT specialists, they are certainly not the most financially rewarding clients.  

The Pros of Non-Profits for IT Specialists

1.     You can easily reach non-profits because they are members of trade groups and publicly listed in directories.  

2.    You can gain great emotional rewards from knowing you are helping a cause in which you believe and that is valuable to society.  

The Cons of Non-Profits for IT Specialists

1.     Non-profit organizations will have very low profit margins.

2.    Getting into bidding wars is a possibility with non-profits.  

The second “con” is dangerous; bidding wars make your firm into a commodity.  Also, when you bid against someone else, your competitor could be cutting corners, leaving the bid price low and preventing you from providing a realistic solution.  

Government Bids Can Be Difficult for IT Specialists

Selling to small businesses and the sweet spot is much easier for IT specialists than dealing with non-profit and government bids.  Regrettably, most non-profits and government organizations have to take the quoted price by law.

More Problems with Bidding Wars for IT Specialists

When you’re involved in a bidding war, your trust, personality and credibility does not really make a difference.  Following the rules and getting the bid in on time are the two most important factors.  

Bidding wars also require IT specialists to do a lot of non-billable work – researching, developing configurations, creating a cohesive plan — that is normally billable with regular small businesses.  And getting the contract can still be a near impossibility.  

Bid Smart

If you want to get in a competitive bid, you can’t put your whole energy into it.  Your bid chasing time as IT specialists should not exceed 20% of your business development time.  Unless you have chosen non-profits as your specialty, you are better off focusing on small businesses within the sweet spot.

If a government agency wants to outsource support services and the RFP is well-defined, you might have an easier time putting in a good bid.  However, if the organization is simply looking to buy hardware or do some installation once, you will have a problem making a real profit.    

IT Specialists and Non-Profits

Non-profit and government agencies are better niche opportunities for IT specialists than regular retail opportunities.  But they are still not as profitable as the sweet spot.

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

To provide virtual IT support, you often need to be a generalist, but to be successful in the IT industry you have to be an IT specialist.  As an IT specialist, you will have to provide the following very generalized services: network design; procurement services; management; phone company interaction; interaction with web hosts and ISPs; configuration, testing, integration, customization, training and troubleshooting problems.  

The truth is, as an IT specialist you will still be doing everything, which is technically being a generalist.  But, while you might have to be a generalist, you don’t necessarily have to be a generalist for everyone in the world.  If you are an IT specialist by carefully choosing the right clients, your marketing efforts will be much simpler.

Be Selective with Clients

You can be all things to some people by providing a complete solution.  You will offer virtual IT services and be a place for them to go for all their needs.  You take responsibility for all your clients’ needs, but still are selective about what kind of clients you pursue.

An Example for an IT Specialist:  Real Estate

If you’re specializing in the real estate industry, you have probably worked with commercial real estate firms in the niche, and might be a top IT consulting professional in that field.  You will have testimonials and references to show the work you’ve done in the field and will come across as an IT specialist in the real estate world.   

Specializing Does Not Mean You Have to Have Much Experience

Finding a niche can just involve having one or two clients you’ve had for a year or two.  You may have started migrating an older DOS industry application to a 43-bit or to another web-based application.  Work over an extended period of time will give you mastery of the line of business applications, which is often the difference between you and anyone else in the IT industry.

What is It to Be an IT Specialist?

You don’t have to have very much experience in the IT industry to become an IT specialist.  But the specialization is necessary to being a successful marketer of your business.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101

Major company AT&T, Inc. announced on Wednesday it would be releasing a new IT consulting package to add to its company professional services portfolio.  The new IT consulting offering will help SMBs and other similar organizations enhance their network, communications, security and planning techniques.   

The new IT consulting branch of AT&T will offer a suite of services that are usually enjoyed by global enterprise and federal government clients along with educational institutions.  This IT consulting package will be called AT&T Consulting Essentials and will help all SMBs plan, install and release new communications and IT networks and upgrade their current systems.  Besides the aforementioned services, the IT consulting package will emphasize assessment, gap analysis and practical solutions to enable SMBs to follow the best practices of their specific industry for information security.  As part of the consulting services, AT&T will recommend solutions to help customers comply with all necessary regulations.  

This extension of AT&T’s services to small and mid-size organizations will include the following categories of enhanced features:

Network and Information Security

Business Continuity

Network Optimization

Telecommunications Strategy

IPT Readiness

Client Tutorials

For more details about this new offering from AT&T, please visit this IT consulting article.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit