Some signs are important to look for when looking for your sweet spot computer consulting clients. Most of these businesses will be doing at least a seven-figure annual sales volume with 10 to 25 employees. In this article, you'll learn how to use additional criteria to pick out your sweet spot computer consulting clients.
Computer Consulting: The Good Signs and the Bad
Some industries tend to be more IT-intensive than others. Soon, you'll learn the industries that are most likely to need your computer consulting services. There are some good signs and bad signs when it comes to the probability of a business hiring you. You will learn to recognize right off the bat whether a business is going to be receptive to spending $1,000 to $2,000 for computer consulting services.
A really good sign is if you go in to meet with a prospective client and you find out that they’re working with another solution provider in your local community but they’re dissatisfied. Why is that a good thing for you? If they’re dissatisfied and looking around for someone else, that tells you that they’re willing to pay for professional computer consulting services.
A bad sign is they’re working with a moonlighter or they have a friend or a family member who helps out once in a while or they’re getting volunteer support, and they’re not used to paying for high-level professional services. That's a big red flag. Any price you quote them is going to seem really high when they're accustomed to getting service for free.
Sweet Spot Clients Run in Packs
Your sweet spot clients that are willing to spend $1,000 to $2,000 per month on IT services are going to have relationships with other trusted business advisors in the local community like accountants, attorneys, and management consultants. Sometimes they’re even working with other niched tech providers. This will work to your advantage when they start referring you to their contacts.
The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting
By learning to recognize the characteristics of a sweet spot client, you'll save yourself lots of time and energy and more easily turn your prospects into clients. In this article, you’ve learned more about computer consulting.
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Jumat, 20 Agustus 2010
Kamis, 19 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Finding Your Prospects Among Your Leads
Some signs are important to look for when looking for your sweet spot computer consulting clients. Most of these businesses will be doing at least a seven-figure annual sales volume with 10 to 25 employees. In this article, you'll learn how to use additional criteria to pick out your sweet spot computer consulting clients.
Computer Consulting: The Good Signs and the Bad
Some industries tend to be more IT-intensive than others. Soon, you'll learn the industries that are most likely to need your computer consulting services. There are some good signs and bad signs when it comes to the probability of a business hiring you. You will learn to recognize right off the bat whether a business is going to be receptive to spending $1,000 to $2,000 for computer consulting services.
A really good sign is if you go in to meet with a prospective client and you find out that they’re working with another solution provider in your local community but they’re dissatisfied. Why is that a good thing for you? If they’re dissatisfied and looking around for someone else, that tells you that they’re willing to pay for professional computer consulting services.
A bad sign is they’re working with a moonlighter or they have a friend or a family member who helps out once in a while or they’re getting volunteer support, and they’re not used to paying for high-level professional services. That's a big red flag. Any price you quote them is going to seem really high when they're accustomed to getting service for free.
Sweet Spot Clients Run in Packs
Your sweet spot clients that are willing to spend $1,000 to $2,000 per month on IT services are going to have relationships with other trusted business advisors in the local community like accountants, attorneys, and management consultants. Sometimes they’re even working with other niched tech providers. This will work to your advantage when they start referring you to their contacts.
The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting
By learning to recognize the characteristics of a sweet spot client, you'll save yourself lots of time and energy and more easily turn your prospects into clients. In this article, you’ve learned more about computer consulting.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Computer Consulting: The Good Signs and the Bad
Some industries tend to be more IT-intensive than others. Soon, you'll learn the industries that are most likely to need your computer consulting services. There are some good signs and bad signs when it comes to the probability of a business hiring you. You will learn to recognize right off the bat whether a business is going to be receptive to spending $1,000 to $2,000 for computer consulting services.
A really good sign is if you go in to meet with a prospective client and you find out that they’re working with another solution provider in your local community but they’re dissatisfied. Why is that a good thing for you? If they’re dissatisfied and looking around for someone else, that tells you that they’re willing to pay for professional computer consulting services.
A bad sign is they’re working with a moonlighter or they have a friend or a family member who helps out once in a while or they’re getting volunteer support, and they’re not used to paying for high-level professional services. That's a big red flag. Any price you quote them is going to seem really high when they're accustomed to getting service for free.
Sweet Spot Clients Run in Packs
Your sweet spot clients that are willing to spend $1,000 to $2,000 per month on IT services are going to have relationships with other trusted business advisors in the local community like accountants, attorneys, and management consultants. Sometimes they’re even working with other niched tech providers. This will work to your advantage when they start referring you to their contacts.
The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting
By learning to recognize the characteristics of a sweet spot client, you'll save yourself lots of time and energy and more easily turn your prospects into clients. In this article, you’ve learned more about computer consulting.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Rabu, 18 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Finding Prospects Among Your Leads
How do you narrow down your leads and find your prospects? In this article, you'll learn some criteria that will help you narrow down your computer consulting leads and take them to the next step.
One is finding your industry focus. You must laser beam your target market. You need to stand out tremendously from the crowd because everyone other computer consulting professional is chasing after the same hardware services, LAN, and the exact same advertising.
But there are two other really big ways that you can narrow down your leads and improve your batting average. One is size.
Computer Consulting: Three Different Size Audiences to Pursue:
One is the micro small business where there’s just a handful of PCs. It has more to do with the mindset of the business owner than the absolute number of PCs, but it’s a very small number of employees, a very small number of PCs, and at that size, the micro small business doesn’t usually look for extensive high-level IT computer consulting services. The next step up is really the sweet spot where we see most computer consulting professionals still continuing to do very well even in this challenging environment, and that’s the 10- to 50-PC space. A number of different studies have confirmed that the two to one ratio holds across different industries, so if you’re maxing out around a 50-seat LAN, a lot of times that equates to anywhere from a 90- to 100-employee company. At that size, once you get that many PCs, IT is usually a lot more strategically important to the company. Down time becomes much more expensive. You can do simple calculations like taking their annual revenue and dividing by 250 business days a year and eight hours a day and give them real simple ideas of a company doing $4 million a year in annual revenue with 2,000 business hours a year is losing on average $2,000 an hour for down time. A computer consulting professional can save them money in the long run. When you start to get to 50 PCs or 100 PCs or more, you start to enter what we consider the borderline of the top of small business and the bottom of medium-sized business. What can often happen at that size is the IT services bills from your company start to approach what could become a full-time salary of a real IT manager. They’re no longer going to need to outsource the generalist roles--instead they'll hire their own, on-site person.
The Bottom Line About Computer Consulting
To set yourself apart from the crowd, you need to further define your ideal client in order to find the prospects among your leads.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101 Blog. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
One is finding your industry focus. You must laser beam your target market. You need to stand out tremendously from the crowd because everyone other computer consulting professional is chasing after the same hardware services, LAN, and the exact same advertising.
But there are two other really big ways that you can narrow down your leads and improve your batting average. One is size.
Computer Consulting: Three Different Size Audiences to Pursue:
One is the micro small business where there’s just a handful of PCs. It has more to do with the mindset of the business owner than the absolute number of PCs, but it’s a very small number of employees, a very small number of PCs, and at that size, the micro small business doesn’t usually look for extensive high-level IT computer consulting services. The next step up is really the sweet spot where we see most computer consulting professionals still continuing to do very well even in this challenging environment, and that’s the 10- to 50-PC space. A number of different studies have confirmed that the two to one ratio holds across different industries, so if you’re maxing out around a 50-seat LAN, a lot of times that equates to anywhere from a 90- to 100-employee company. At that size, once you get that many PCs, IT is usually a lot more strategically important to the company. Down time becomes much more expensive. You can do simple calculations like taking their annual revenue and dividing by 250 business days a year and eight hours a day and give them real simple ideas of a company doing $4 million a year in annual revenue with 2,000 business hours a year is losing on average $2,000 an hour for down time. A computer consulting professional can save them money in the long run. When you start to get to 50 PCs or 100 PCs or more, you start to enter what we consider the borderline of the top of small business and the bottom of medium-sized business. What can often happen at that size is the IT services bills from your company start to approach what could become a full-time salary of a real IT manager. They’re no longer going to need to outsource the generalist roles--instead they'll hire their own, on-site person.
The Bottom Line About Computer Consulting
To set yourself apart from the crowd, you need to further define your ideal client in order to find the prospects among your leads.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101 Blog. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Selasa, 17 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Find Paying Clients during Start-Up
Even if you are just starting out your computer consulting practice with rather basic desktop support level technical skills, make sure that your computer consulting firm gets some paying clients who are at your current technical skills comfort level. In this article, you'll learn which types of clients to pursue first.
Start out by working with home offices and very small stand-alone businesses and companies with really, really small peer-to-peer simple networks. At least you're getting some paying clients and some reference accounts.
Make The One-Shot Deals a Stepping Stone
Recognize however, that you need to move beyond that. You want to be able to have a successful small business computer consulting practice that's built on recurring revenue retainer agreements and sophisticated kinds of dedicated server solutions. When you're first getting started with your computer consulting business, there's certainly no reason why you can't take on some of these smaller, one-shot deal accounts. Just recognize that you need to be moving towards more sophisticated, more profitable, long-term client accounts.
Continue Learning
If you feel that your lack of technical training is holding you back from clients that need more sophisticated solutions, put aside some time each week for training (even if its just two or three hours). Go through tutorials and resource kits. And install your not-for-resale (NFR) software. Then, break the installation and troubleshoot the setup process. Then, reinstall the applications until you get more and more comfortable with setup and troubleshooting.
Copyright Notice:
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Small Business Computer Consulting .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Start out by working with home offices and very small stand-alone businesses and companies with really, really small peer-to-peer simple networks. At least you're getting some paying clients and some reference accounts.
Make The One-Shot Deals a Stepping Stone
Recognize however, that you need to move beyond that. You want to be able to have a successful small business computer consulting practice that's built on recurring revenue retainer agreements and sophisticated kinds of dedicated server solutions. When you're first getting started with your computer consulting business, there's certainly no reason why you can't take on some of these smaller, one-shot deal accounts. Just recognize that you need to be moving towards more sophisticated, more profitable, long-term client accounts.
Continue Learning
If you feel that your lack of technical training is holding you back from clients that need more sophisticated solutions, put aside some time each week for training (even if its just two or three hours). Go through tutorials and resource kits. And install your not-for-resale (NFR) software. Then, break the installation and troubleshoot the setup process. Then, reinstall the applications until you get more and more comfortable with setup and troubleshooting.
Copyright Notice:
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Small Business Computer Consulting .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Senin, 16 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Do Your Homework
Beware of vendors who ask you to explain what you do in your business. Instead, give a basic explaination of what your computer consulting business is all about so a client can determine if he has any product or service that’s in your picture. Rather than be reactive, go to the interview being proactive! Know what they are doing before you go in and be prepared to help them with their needs.
Computer Consulting: Research to Prepare for Your Meeting
Even though it might take you 30 to 45 minutes to do some homework ahead of time, you need to do your research to increase your chances at closing the sale, either on the spot or within a week or two afterwards. For them to agree to your computer consulting services, you will have to build credibility and mind share with that prospect. It shows that you care about their business.
There's really no excuse for not doing your homework anymore. Today, you can easily go to the Google search engine and type in the person's name or phone number or address and find out everything under the sun that you can about them.
Computer Consulting: What You Need to Know about Your Clients
You should really have a complete profile of:
-What their business is all about
-What industry they’re in
-What types of services they provide
-How many locations they have
-How long they’ve been in business
Find Out Recent News about Your Client
You’re probably going to be able to find articles that have been in the local newspaper about them that might either show up in Google or you can find by going to the newspaper doing a search function there. You want to look for anything you can that’s going to give you extra background and an extra edge so when you go in there, you already know what they’re doing.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Computer Consulting: Research to Prepare for Your Meeting
Even though it might take you 30 to 45 minutes to do some homework ahead of time, you need to do your research to increase your chances at closing the sale, either on the spot or within a week or two afterwards. For them to agree to your computer consulting services, you will have to build credibility and mind share with that prospect. It shows that you care about their business.
There's really no excuse for not doing your homework anymore. Today, you can easily go to the Google search engine and type in the person's name or phone number or address and find out everything under the sun that you can about them.
Computer Consulting: What You Need to Know about Your Clients
You should really have a complete profile of:
-What their business is all about
-What industry they’re in
-What types of services they provide
-How many locations they have
-How long they’ve been in business
Find Out Recent News about Your Client
You’re probably going to be able to find articles that have been in the local newspaper about them that might either show up in Google or you can find by going to the newspaper doing a search function there. You want to look for anything you can that’s going to give you extra background and an extra edge so when you go in there, you already know what they’re doing.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Minggu, 15 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Balancing Your Portfolio
Do you have a balanced portfolio in your computer consulting business? Target 70% of your businesses in the small business state.
Keep a small amount of your business dealing with home networks and the consumer side and then have 5-15% of your business with much larger businesses. This setup works for many computer consulting professionals but it all depends upon where you want to take your business.
Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
Make sure that no single one of these clients accounts for more than 10 percent of your computer consulting revenue. If you get most of your money from one source and then lose that client because they were acquired, sold, or had a change in management, you stand to lose a lot of revenue. It is very difficult to bounce back from something like that.
Fire Your Bad Clients
As crazy as it seems, you may also choose to fire one of your clients. Every once in awhile you’re going to run into some real problem clients that aren’t worth all the money in the world.
These clients will drive your computer consulting staff nuts to the point that they’re taking sick days and everyone’s dreading going out to see them. At some point you'll decide to cut them loose. If they make up too much of your current base, you'll have a hard time firing them.
Reasons to Fire Clients
You may also have some clients that aren’t meeting your monthly revenue goals and aren’t paying on time or aren’t meeting their computer consulting contract commitments. You really need to have the luxury of cutting one or two of them loose each year without it taking a huge chunk out of your revenue.
Lots of management consultant gurus say that you should fire your bottom 20 percent of your customer list every year. You may not need to be that precise, but you are going to find some people that have ridiculous, unrealistic demands and you should be prepared to fire them.
Make Room for Your Ideal Clients
Don't tolerate computer consulting customers that are verbally abusive, harrass you, and cause you too much stress. If you have enough other clients that are the kind you want to work with, it will be easier for you to replace the problem client rather than reform him.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Small Business Computer Consulting .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Keep a small amount of your business dealing with home networks and the consumer side and then have 5-15% of your business with much larger businesses. This setup works for many computer consulting professionals but it all depends upon where you want to take your business.
Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
Make sure that no single one of these clients accounts for more than 10 percent of your computer consulting revenue. If you get most of your money from one source and then lose that client because they were acquired, sold, or had a change in management, you stand to lose a lot of revenue. It is very difficult to bounce back from something like that.
Fire Your Bad Clients
As crazy as it seems, you may also choose to fire one of your clients. Every once in awhile you’re going to run into some real problem clients that aren’t worth all the money in the world.
These clients will drive your computer consulting staff nuts to the point that they’re taking sick days and everyone’s dreading going out to see them. At some point you'll decide to cut them loose. If they make up too much of your current base, you'll have a hard time firing them.
Reasons to Fire Clients
You may also have some clients that aren’t meeting your monthly revenue goals and aren’t paying on time or aren’t meeting their computer consulting contract commitments. You really need to have the luxury of cutting one or two of them loose each year without it taking a huge chunk out of your revenue.
Lots of management consultant gurus say that you should fire your bottom 20 percent of your customer list every year. You may not need to be that precise, but you are going to find some people that have ridiculous, unrealistic demands and you should be prepared to fire them.
Make Room for Your Ideal Clients
Don't tolerate computer consulting customers that are verbally abusive, harrass you, and cause you too much stress. If you have enough other clients that are the kind you want to work with, it will be easier for you to replace the problem client rather than reform him.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Small Business Computer Consulting .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Sabtu, 14 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: A Business of Time and Sweat Equity
Building a computer consulting business requires a lot of time. It involves going out to meetings and it's shaking a lot of hands. You'll need to make a lot of follow-up phone calls. Display ads and direct mail drops and similar marketing efforts do not replace calling up a potential client to try to establish a person-to-person connection. Because of the required hands-on time, you should be realistic about what it takes to get your computer consulting business going.
Franchises Don't Serve Silver Platters
Even with a franchise operation, the franchiser is not handing you a client list on a silver platter. If you want to be handed a client list on one, don't buy a franchise: you need to buy a current business. And of course, buying a current business is even more capital intensive than a franchise. To buy even a small, thriving IT consulting firm could cost anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to a few million dollars… pretty much some multiple of its annual sales.
What Are Your Computer Consulting Business Start-Up Costs?
On the other hand, you can start your own consulting firm generally for as little as a few thousand dollars. What do you need? You need a business phone number and voice mail. You need a cell phone. You need business cards and legal licensing registrations. And you probably want to meet with an attorney and an accountant. You'll need some insurance. In many cases you can get started working out of your home office. Start-up costs are certainly higher with a franchise.
Franchises Aren't for Control Freaks
Another downside of franchise can be a loss of control. You have to do things a certain way and according to the established rules. And you can't step too far outside of that. Again, your company would be paying the franchiser a percentage of your company's revenue indefinitely. And you won't have as much flexibility in taking your business in a lot of different directions that you may want to.
The Bottom Line on Computer Consulting
Computer consulting has a few different options for start-up. You can start an independent business, buy a franchise or buy an established business, depending if you want to start from scratch or be handed a client list. A start-from-scratch computer consulting business requires more sweat equity than money.
Copyright Notice:
Copyright MMI-MMVI, PC Support Tips .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Franchises Don't Serve Silver Platters
Even with a franchise operation, the franchiser is not handing you a client list on a silver platter. If you want to be handed a client list on one, don't buy a franchise: you need to buy a current business. And of course, buying a current business is even more capital intensive than a franchise. To buy even a small, thriving IT consulting firm could cost anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to a few million dollars… pretty much some multiple of its annual sales.
What Are Your Computer Consulting Business Start-Up Costs?
On the other hand, you can start your own consulting firm generally for as little as a few thousand dollars. What do you need? You need a business phone number and voice mail. You need a cell phone. You need business cards and legal licensing registrations. And you probably want to meet with an attorney and an accountant. You'll need some insurance. In many cases you can get started working out of your home office. Start-up costs are certainly higher with a franchise.
Franchises Aren't for Control Freaks
Another downside of franchise can be a loss of control. You have to do things a certain way and according to the established rules. And you can't step too far outside of that. Again, your company would be paying the franchiser a percentage of your company's revenue indefinitely. And you won't have as much flexibility in taking your business in a lot of different directions that you may want to.
The Bottom Line on Computer Consulting
Computer consulting has a few different options for start-up. You can start an independent business, buy a franchise or buy an established business, depending if you want to start from scratch or be handed a client list. A start-from-scratch computer consulting business requires more sweat equity than money.
Copyright Notice:
Copyright MMI-MMVI, PC Support Tips .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
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