Small Business Computer Consulting

Many small business computer consultants are realizing the power of adding support contracts to their standard business plan, thanks to the field-tested, PROVEN strategies provided by the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course.  Each year, more IT professionals discover how much value commitment to going beyond the break/fix model and moving towards support contracts can add to their companies.  

Here’s what three REAL computer consultants JUST LIKE YOU working in the field had to say about the value of support contracts and how the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course helped them grow and get steady, high-paying clients:

"I got at least another $2,000 per month ($24,000 annualized). We used the Computer Consulting Kit’s service agreement for all our customers. This saved us untold hours in trying to put one together ourselves."  

- Peter Till, Huff Technologies, Jacksonville, Florida, USA

"I signed up a multi-location business as a customer using the annual service agreement straight from the Computer Consulting Kit.  This account’s value is over $20,000 annually."

- Blake Heinemann, Small Business Technology Consultants, Wichita, Kansas, USA

And finally, here’s how Sandy Smith of Bangor, Maine got past the cash flow problems, stopped responding to non-committal break/fix customers and finally saw results:

"Before investing in the Computer Consulting Kit, we were totally a break/fix company and were struggling with cash flow constantly. The Computer Consulting Kit created awareness that there is a better way and gave us the tools to implement service agreements with our customers. We earned $75,000 in additional revenue with the ideas in the Computer Consulting Kit."

- Sandy Smith, Fiber-M Technologies, Bangor, Maine

For more information on support contracts and how YOU can get access to the tools of the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course, visit the attached link.

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

Many computer consultants across the globe are selling more IT service agreements by following helpful tips provided by the Computer Consulting Kit.  But don’t take our word for it – see what consultants are saying about the IT service agreements relationships they’ve started by incorporating the field-tested and PROVEN Computer Consulting Kit business strategies:

"The Computer Consulting Kit’s service agreement training helped me quickly provide an option to my customers that I didn’t previously have. We can now sell IT service agreements to our existing customers."

- Matthew Faubel, Advanced Computer Solutions, Las Vegas, Nevada

"With the project management and service contracts in place from the Computer Consulting Kit, I acquired additional projects which yielded me $30,000 in additional consulting revenue!"

- Craig Ramsey, 404 Consulting, Raleigh, North Carolina

And the following story is PROOF that it doesn’t matter WHERE you are located – you can find great opportunities for IT service agreements just about anywhere … from major cities to the suburbs to rural areas … 

"9 months ago, I launched my consulting business with $2,000 in savings and a list of contacts. The business has grown steadily and is able to pay my salary, rent, inventory, insurance and provide work for three other subcontractors. This is all done in a small town of 8,500 people nestled in the mountains of West Virginia. Thanks to the Computer Consulting Kit, I have two new customers on contract. The forms included were worth the money."

- Mike Gallogly, Mi-Tec Computer Solutions, Elkins, West Virginia

To learn more about how you can succeed with IT service agreements, visit the attached link.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Are you still unsure about whether or not you want to use a support contract-centric business model with your computer consulting business?  If you want on-going revenue to sustain your business, the only way to go is through long-term, steady relationships with clients on a support contract.

The truth is – you can’t build your business around one-shot deal customers and panicking small business owners or you’ll find yourself over-worked and unable to make ends meet.  But, don’t take our word for it.  The following three testimonials from those that used tips from our Computer Consulting Kit to grow their businesses and incorporate the idea of the support contract should give you some insight:

“The Computer Consulting Kit assisted me in getting the contract agreement in place, then the SLA (service level agreement) in place.  This yielded me $200,000 AUD.”  

-    Rob Morgan, Proactive I.T. Consultants, Austinmer, New South Wales, Australia

“Because of the Computer Consulting Kit, we implemented client service agreements and now have better relationships with our clients and consistency in cash flow.  The Computer Consulting Kit provided the plan for establishing service agreements.”

-    Daniel Sherwood, Sherwood IT Consulting, Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia

“Thanks to the Computer Consulting Kit, I increased the number of service agreement clients by 100%, by providing a contract template and structure to my rate sheet.  This earned me an extra $25,000 this year.”

-    Gregory Brewer, Vowire, Brighton, Michigan, USA

Take these Computer Consulting Kit customers’ word for it – the support contract concept can really work for your business!  To learn more about this topic, visit the attached link.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Some clients may not have the appropriate type of sample computer contracts.  You need to figure out how to know when someone is interested in long-term agreements.  

Screen Your Candidates

When you set up sales calls, you need to ask the right questions to find out if your prospects are good candidates for sample computer contracts or not.  If you don’t think they want to work with you, they will not be good candidates for long-term relationships.  

Sell Peace of Mind with Sample Computer Contracts

You are selling an insurance policy 85% of the time because you are not going in for emergencies.  You are dealing with upgrades, maintenance, virus protection updates and new laptops.  You may be doing a variety of other things too with sample computer contracts, but clients need to know you will be there.  

Be sure the people you are talking to in terms of prospects are buying into the idea of the “insurance policy” or the virtual IT experience.  They need to need an insurance policy and peace of mind.  And they need to know you will be there in an emergency to take care of your problems and that they can trust you.  

Don’t Spend Time on Bad Prospects

If you want to re-envision your business and get involved with sample computer contracts that will work for your business, you need to think about who you are courting.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Based in Vancouver, IT consulting firm Outsource Technologies has started stressing people skills in its business strategies.  The IT consulting company has been in business for ten years, offering services that go from basic tune-ups to long-term network maintenance.  But its main emphasis is on assessment and business planning along with design and integration and education of customers and clients on the management of their unique IT systems.  

The company employs 10, and hand-selects its staff based on experience not only with technology, but also with people.  Staff members of the IT consulting firm state they are more compassionate and sympathetic than most professionals in their field because they have years of experience working with customer pain first-hand.  

Outsource Technologies:  Customer Service is a Mantra

According to employees at the IT consulting firm, Outsource Technologies’ success has been based on the premise by which it began.  The IT consulting firm started based on the idea of a vested interest in client success.  The IT consulting team at the company strives to create an outsourced virtual IT department for small businesses that provides complete support for systems.

The IT consulting company has evolved in how it delivers service, but has kept its mantra the same.  From the beginning, the company has pushed service contracts as preventative maintenance programs.   The fact that overtime spent on emergencies and other service to customers not on service contracts meant expensive overtime pay encouraged support contract sign-up.

IT Consulting and Service Contracts

The firm introduced its Managed Services Program, providing flat-fee preventative maintenance under a contract to clients two years ago.  The IT consulting firm has learned the value of support contracts in keeping business and satisfying customers.  Service contracts have helped the company grow and help get better, more loyal clients.  

For more information on this IT consulting firm, visit the attached link.

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

Computer service contracts are what you want all of your customers to be on.  It can be hard though, to convert your transaction-oriented customers to computer service contracts.  This is where you need to decide what is better – keeping the clients and trying to convert them or finding new clients all together.

If you’re in the mode now where most of the customers you have are not on computer service contracts, then you need to focus on getting some.  AS you get more and more clients who are on computer service contracts you can afford to be less dependant on the ones that aren’t.

Your time is going to be taken up by people that need you and are counting on you on regular basis.  You’ll have steady, guaranteed predictability to your business by signing up clients on a computer service contract.  And, you’re not going to have very much time left for the people that aren’t willing to raise their hand and commit to a contract.

This makes it less difficult to drop these clients or convert them.  If you have computer service contracts, they take priority.  This means your transaction-based clients have to wait in line. How you go about converting them, is to go back to them and explain the situation.

You tell them that you are moving to a computer service contract model.  Because they are an existing client you are offering them a small discount as an incentive to join up. They will get the same great service and they won’t have to be slotted in – they will enjoy regular, priority service.

If they don’t take the offer all you need to say is that you will have to charge extra to come in after hours to accommodate them and that you can’t guarantee response time. If the client is serious about your services, they will sign up for a computer service contract – if they aren’t, then the decision is easy and you drop them.

Bottom Line on Computer Service Contracts
Computer service contracts give you leverage.  When you have lots of clients on computer service contracts you can start to phase out your transaction-based clients.  This is good for your time and your profitability.  If you don’t have lots of computer service contracts right now, concentrate on getting some and make that the priority sale when talking to new leads.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to Computer Service Contracts. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about Computer Service Contracts, 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. 

Hourly rates and service agreements are two issues that many network consultants worry about when they first start out.  They typically wonder how their retail hourly rate relates to the hourly rate in the service contract.

Most network consultants will use some kind of discounted hourly rate when they enter into a service contract with a client.  This discounted hourly rate is one of the main incentives for a client to want to make a long term commitment.  The question becomes then, "Have you set a retail hourly rate that you can afford to discount?"

When you set your retail hourly rate you need to consider the eventual use of offering things like lower or waived minimums and/or waived premiums.  In order to be able to discount your hourly rate you need to leave yourself enough room in your rate structure to do so.

This means that when you set your hourly rate you also need to consider:

• Your first year expenses
• How hourly rates equate to salaries
• Ability to pay sales commissions
• Ability to hire subcontractors and staff
• Ability to afford revenue-sharing arrangements and referral fees

The key thing with your hourly rate structure is that even after you’ve discounted down your rates for service agreement clients, there’s still enough margin in it for you.

If you know that 85 – 90% of your business is coming from sales agreements and thus 85 – 90% of your clients are being charged a discount hourly rate, you necessarily have to make sure your discounted rate is high enough to accommodate all the items we just mentioned.  What happens in practice then is, you set your discounted hourly rate first and then bump that up to determine your retail rate.  

The main protest we hear from network consultants is that they are uncomfortable offering a two-tiered rate structure. This is the entire basis of retailing.  The department stores mark up their prices by four times just so they can afford to put it on sale for 35 to 50 percent off.  You need to do the same thing!

The Bottom Line on Hourly Rates
Your hourly rate has to be set in order to discount it for long term service contracts.  When you know that the vast majority of your business is coming from service agreements, the way to approach setting your hourly rate is to set the discounted rate first.  This way you know you’ll be pulling in enough to take care of the obligations you have now and in the future.  

In this article, you’ve been introduced to hourly rates. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge of hourly 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. 

Phone support is a service that you should offer.  There are times when phone support makes more sense than you going and doing an onsite visit.  How to charge for providing that phone support is the difficult decision.  

You have to charge for phone support.  The best model to use is charging the same rate you are using for onsite visits.  Giving away phone support for free or charging less for it is unwise.  It will only end up losing you money. There are real costs associated with phone support including:

• Your time (answering, logging, recapping)
• Toll free number
• Cell phone minutes
• Calling card costs

The best way to protect yourself is to establish a minimum charge for phone support.  We like to use a 15 minute minimum.  If you don’t have a minimum you’ll get interrupted with one or two minute requests for things that are absolutely trivial.  People won’t care if they spend $3 or $4 on a phone support call.  They’ll start to think twice if each call costs at least $25.

After your minimum rate, what do you charge for phone support that goes over 15 minutes?  You can charge by the minute after that, or you can continue to use set minimum increments.  We prefer the set increments where for every 15 minutes afterward it’s an extra x number of dollars.  

There is always some flexibility when the call is 16 or 17 minutes.  Your best judgement will tell you what to do in these situations. When deciding whether to round up or down consider these issues:

• What was your prep time?
• How much research time did you need?
• What type of documentation was involved?
• Did you have to send them follow up?

Bottom Line on Phone Support
Phone support must be charged for. How you charge for it is the question.  We like to set a 15 minute minimum and then use 15 minute increments thereafter. This system protects you from losing real money and time, and it forces your clients to think about whether they really need the phone support.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to Phone Support. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about Phone Support, 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.

Pricing strategy is all about flexibility.  While time and materials is the most flexible, a per PC pricing strategy can work as well.  You just have to take all the issues into consideration.

Per PC Pricing Strategy Issues

Scope
With a per PC pricing strategy the scope issues are pretty well taken care of.  Typically a business will add more PC’s and your price then goes up. But what happens if you set up a yearly contract and then three months later they add a few more systems?  

With a per PC pricing strategy you have to plan for this type of contingency.  You do this be ensuring you have the ability to run a change order through to bump up the contract price for the remainder of the duration.  

PC Definition
When your pricing strategy is based on each PC, how do you define a PC?  For example, is it just a desktop PC or does it include notebooks, sub-notebooks?  Does it include PDAs, like Palm devices and CE devices?  What if there’s a second PC on a user’s desk?  Does that count as a PC or a half a PC or no PC?  If the device is going to be a support burden you need to count it if you want a per PC pricing strategy to work.

Peripheral Devices
When you bill using a per PC pricing strategy you have to consider the support burden caused by items other than the defined PCs.  What if there are network attached storage devices, printer servers, wireless access points, appliances, file servers, app servers, terminal servers, etc…?  Every one of these items could conceivably be a burden. This is where the per PC pricing strategy gets less straightforward.  

Bottom Line on Pricing Strategy
Pricing strategies that use a per PC basis can work for long term business contracts.  The key issues are (1) making sure you have a change order process in place for additions, and (2) clearly defining what constitutes a PC and considering the support burden of devices other than PCs.  If you carefully consider these issues, you should be able to execute a  successful per PC pricing strategy.  

In this article, you’ve been introduced to Pricing Strategy. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about Pricing Strategy, 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.

Service Agreements are the best way to provide your business with consistent income and the stability that will allow you to grow your computer consulting practice. Professional contracts and forms inspire confidence in potential and existing customers and clients. Service agreements also help you move into more proactive computer consulting and bring you stable revenue.

Read on to learn how one of our computer consultants benefited from service agreements:

"This year I transitioned from a break/fix consulting practice to one based on service level agreements. By learning from the experience of others, I was convinced that the transition had to be made in order to succeed in this industry."

Ronald Pitts, Your IT Staff, Inc.
Scranton, Pennsylvania

The Bottom Line about Service Agreements

To learn more about service agreements, click here now to get access to free tips and an audio training excerpt on service agreements.