Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course Web site updated

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IT Consulting: How to Earn Income During Start-Up

During the start-up phase of your IT consulting business, you should be getting leads and prospects through demand generation, qualifying these prospects and leads and going out and following up on sales meetings. You can’t afford to get strong-armed into joining a channel program or by the latest gadgets that do not serve an immediate purpose with clients.

Stay Away from Channel Programs

During the start-up phase of an IT consulting business, don’t get suckered into joining channel programs that won’t help your business. Focus on finding paying clients above all else.

How Will You Get Paid?

You need to figure out a structured way of ensuring payment with new IT consulting clients. Get payment as you do the work or get credit card authorization, particularly when products are a part of the transaction, such as hardware, software or peripherals.

You will need to get a merchant account if you want to take credit cards. Never give credit and especially not without doing a regular credit application and check.

Ask for Deposits

Always get a deposit check from IT consulting customers and clients, particularly in the case of a product purchase. A big IT consulting project with services, installation, design work, troubleshooting or upgrades needs to have a substantial deposit attached. Your deposits should be about 10 to 25% upfront, minimally, ideally as much as 35%.

The Main Idea About IT Consulting Start-Up

During the start-up phase of your IT consulting business, make sure to bill regularly and put a due-date on invoices to ensure you get paid for your services.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Sales: Stress What Makes You Unique to Prospects and Clients

If you want to increase your IT sales successes, you have to show your clients and prospects that your benefits are different from everyone else’s.

IT Sales and Benefits: An Example

Let’s say you move to a new location in a 27-story building that houses a lot of high-end firms. There are other similar buildings in the neighborhood, and you may wonder if you should capitalize on the closeness.

The truth is, the presence of other firms can help you own the whole area. Your unique benefit is that you are right there, and you can get things done more quickly and better and cheaper than another person that is not there.

IT Sales: Sell Your Own Uniqueness

When you are selling your service agreements, you can lead into it by giving a guaranteed response time. Because you are right in the neighborhood, you can make blatant promises that you can be at their offices within 60 minutes in the case of a downed server or other emergency that happens during regular business hours. Further bolster your guarantee with $100 off your bill that month if you are at all late.

If you can get a large number of clients in the immediate area, and your staff is right there, the atmosphere becomes like a corporate campus and IT sales become easier. There is no travel time, and staff utilization rates can be higher than normal.

IT Sales: How Do You Find the Best Businesses?

In order to locate these businesses, do a survey. Mail something out to every decision maker in your building and those adjacent. The survey should ask questions such as the following questions:

1. How many PCs do you have?

2. How many employees do you have?

3. How do you get your IT support right now, and what do you like and dislike about it?

4. What is your biggest current business challenge, and what is your biggest current IT challenge?

The survey leading up to IT sales is just a means to get a response and gauge interest. A survey with basic questions should get a good response rate. Response generation should be as easy as going to the local coffee shop and meeting the regulars and people that go in and out of local offices regularly.

IT Sales is About Getting to Know People

You should get to know local shoe repair shops, food delivery people, mail carriers and UPS and FedEx drivers. You should get to know people that know your IT sales targets so you can network yourself into offices within the area.

IT Sales: The Big Idea

Take advantage of location and sell based on a guarantee to develop your brand and get more IT sales.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

IT Consulting and Trends of the Seasons

Those in IT consulting need to know about seasonal selling trends. You cannot expect someone to make a huge decision for an IT project during the following times unless it is an emergency: late summer; during the holidays.

IT Consulting: Stay Away from Standard Vacation Times

If you are running an IT consulting business you need to remember that most people will be vacationing off and on between early July and Labor Day, so you should not expect major IT purchases or decisions during this time. Therefore, if you have a lot of IT consulting leads in the winter and early spring, follow up in April, May and June.

IT Consulting: With Promotion of your Business, Timing is Everything

You should concentrate marketing and sales efforts in the fall, from Labor Day in early September until around Thanksgiving in November. These weeks are the key time to follow up on all IT consulting leads, hit the streets and go on a lot of sales calls so you can generate proposals and try to get big project commitments.

IT Consulting: No Commitment During the Holidays

In around mid- to late November, you will have a hard time getting people to agree to major IT consulting projects until after January 1st unless they have emergencies. Usually, they will object to sales by telling you your proposals sound great, but that they won’t be ready until after the 1st of the year.

IT Consulting: Seasonal Selling Trends Main Ideas

Be aware of the trends of the different seasons and use the information to plan the efforts of your IT consulting firm.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Specialist: The Real Way to Narrow Your Focus

You may wonder why you should be an IT specialist, which may imply to you turning away prospective clients. However, a true IT specialist focuses marketing efforts on finding enough prospects to which to market. An IT specialist chooses an area of focus that gives him/her ample prospects that will turn into clients that can grow and shape a consulting business.

To find a niche, think about your best clients. If they are small accounting offices, for example, you can do a search online to see how many small accounting offices are within a hour of where you are located. You can contact the industry trade groups or talk to a mailing list broker if this information is not readily available to you.

IT Specialist: Niche-Focused Marketing

Marketing to a niche is easier than general marketing because you know which trade publications you should contact for ads. You shouldn’t spend time or money on generic ads in newspapers, on the radio or in the phone book. Because you are an IT specialist, you can go straight to your niche.

Once you know what your expertise is as an IT specialist, you increase your worth to prospects. Your marketing message will ring truer to your targets because you are focusing on the people that will sit up and take interest in what you are saying.

IT Specialists Don’t Speak to the Masses

As an IT specialist, you don’t want a message that gets to everyone or you will attract those looking for the lowest price. You will be a commodity rather than a valuable professional service.

IT Specialist: Your Name Should Be Visible to Clients

If you know of a newsletter or magazine that prospects will read, put in a targeted ad for your company or write an article or get involved in the organization through a speaking engagement or event. Mention how your company provides IT solutions for that industry to get the right people to respond.

What it Means to Be an IT Specialist

There are a lot of ways to get to prospects that can use your services as an IT specialist. However, the most important thing to remember is to choose a niche that is enjoyable to you and lucrative enough to give you enough clients and top prices. Targeted marketing is essential if you want to be a successful IT specialist and part of this is finding a niche that will help you stand out from the crowd.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Consulting: Become a Full-Time Professional

Determining the best time to leave a full-time job and become a full-time computer consultant can be challenging. The following tips can help you learn more about what schedule for launch will work best for you.

IT Consulting: You Need to Know Your Expenses

You have to know what your living expenses are before leaving your day job and embarking on a career as a full-time IT consulting professional. You also have to know what is in your IT consulting sales funnel to make the best decision.

IT Consulting: Be Ready for Surprises

You should have a plan already in place to handle bumps during the process of planning your IT consulting business. What happens if your launch date has to be sooner or later than expected? You might lose your day job suddenly and find yourself needing to start your IT consulting business today.

IT Consulting: You Need to Find Steady Clients

In order to be prepared to give you a steady paycheck ad benefits, vacation time and other perks and still have a livable life, you need to get steady clients and steady income. Your IT consulting business needs to have regular and committed clients to support you.

IT Consulting: Charge the Best Rates

You can’t undercharge clients or you will not be able to sustain your IT consulting business for the long haul. You need to charge top rates for your services to get the most serious clients and help your business succeed. Don’t cheat yourself or prevent yourself from having a successful IT consulting career by charging too little.

IT Consulting: Moonlighting and Next Steps

Moonlighting is a good option for many IT consulting professionals starting out. The Computer Consulting Kit offers a 21-step checklist for those looking to get through the first 90 days of start-up that includes adapting to sudden loss of job, etc. But while you wait for IT consulting start-up you can take moonlighting opportunities that will help build relationships.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

A Computer Consulting Business Takes Time and Hands-On Work to Build

Starting up a computer consulting company is a time-intensive process that involves meting a lot of people and getting to know them. As a computer consulting professional, you will have to make a lot of follow-up calls, take out display ads and do direct mail campaigns and other marketing activities in order to establish real connections with people. Be realistic when planning out your computer consulting business and know it will be a very labor-intensive endeavor.

Computer Consulting: Franchises are Not Easy

A franchiser will not be handing you a client so don’t buy one if this is your expectation. Instead buy a current business if this is really your need, and then expect you will need a lot of capital to keep it going. Buying a small computer consulting firm can cost somewhere between a few hundred thousand to a few million dollars.

Computer Consulting Start-Up Costs

You can start your own computer consulting firm for as little as just a few thousand dollars. You will need a business phone number and voicemail, a cell phone, business cards and legal licensing registrations. You will also need to meet with an attorney and an accountant and get some insurance. Start-up costs are much higher with a franchise than with an independent computer consulting firm.

Computer Consulting: You Can’t Own a Franchise as a Control Freak

Franchises give you less control than other types of computer consulting businesses. You will have to do things an established way and will not have much leeway to do otherwise. Your company might be paying the franchiser a percentage of your company’s revenue forever. If you want flexibility, you probably don’t want to buy a computer consulting franchise.

The Big Idea About Computer Consulting Practices

You have some options when it comes to starting a computer consulting business. You can start an independent business, buy a franchise or else buy a pre-established business. Decide whether you want to start from scratch or get a client list and then be prepared to do some serious work.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Should IT Specialists Focus on Non-Profits?

Non-profits are fair game for IT specialists, but there are much more rewarding areas of focus.

The Pros of Non-Profit Organizations for IT Specialists:

1. Reaching non-profits is easy because they are a part of trade groups that have public directories;

2. Working with non-profits provides a great deal of emotional satisfaction because you are aware you are helping a valuable cause.

The Cons of Non-Profits for IT Specialists

1. Low profit margins;

2. Bidding wars.

When you get involved in bidding wars as an IT specialist, your firm becomes nothing more than a commodity. When you bid against someone else’s bid, you need to be aware that your competitor may be intentionally lowering prices in order to get you get a lower bottom line.

Bidding wars are some of the worst parts of working with non-profits for IT specialists because you don’t have trust, personality and credibility on your side. Who is able to post the bond on time and by following the rules become more important than any other factors. Plus, bidding wars mean huge amounts of non-billable time that you would normally be able to treat as billable in the private sector.

IT Specialists: Non-Profits and Government Agencies Can Get Complicated

Selling to small businesses will probably be simpler for IT specialists than trying to get involved in the tricky process of non-profit and government bidding. In many cases, non-profits and government agencies have to take the originally quoted price, so there is no real leeway.

IT Specialists: Bid Smart

If you decide to work with non-profits or government agencies, you can’t afford to give away your whole company. Don’t spend more than 20% of your business development time and effort on bid chasing. Unless you make a conscious choice to sell your services to non-profits and government organizations, you will do better to concentrate on private sector small businesses.

If a government agency of non-profit wants to outsource support services to IT specialists and needs more than just a one-shot deal, it will be a well thought-out request for proposal (RFP), and things get more interesting because there is the possibility of a long-term relationship.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Write an IT Sales Letter That Emphasizes Benefits

Regardless of your niche as a computer consultant, you need an IT sales letter that emphasizes benefits. This type of letter can improve IT sales and IT marketing techniques.

Use Long Sales Letters to Achieve the Following Results:

1. The creation of a sense of urgency;

2. A better-stirred “pot;”

3. Leads and prospects that take action;

4. The story of the pain of what will happen to prospects when they neglect the right data security;

5. Presentation of the joy of increased productivity in small businesses;

6. An explanation for prospects of reasons they should want to grow their company 150% to 200% without adding a lot more staff.

Long IT sales letters can convey these points and more, so don’t fear them.

IT Sales Letters: Writing to Painful Points

If you aren’t well-versed in writing IT sales letters, you may consider hiring a marketing consultant or a freelance copywriter to design them for you. Regardless of who writes your letter, you need it to address points of pain for your prospects, which means knowing what these points of pain are.

IT Sales Letters: Offer Something Limited, but Free

Offering something of value to prospects for free – like a free one-hour needs assessment r a white paper – with a specific deadline attached can generate good demand with IT sales letters. Make sure you limit your freebies to a certain number of respondents.

IT Sales Letters: Illustrate Your Expertise

If you are seen as an IT expert for a niche industry, your IT sales letters and marketing efforts will be more well-received by prospects. Your knowledge should be in the headline and repeated throughout the letter. You are offering something relevant to small businesses, and they should be interested. Talk about what you have done for other firms like theirs by including testimonials or other elements and talk about general trends and problems you notice within the specialty industry.

IT Sales Letters

An IT sales letter is designed to move your prospect into paying for services. Move them into an IT audit and the next step of the IT sales process with a benefits-focused letter.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Marketing and the Purpose of Your Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is an important part of any IT marketing campaign. Your elevator speech needs to be comfortably delivered repeatedly so it can become an integral part of your day-to-day IT marketing efforts.

An elevator pitch is defied as a quick introductory speech that does not sound like you have memorized it rote. It should be about ten-to-twenty seconds and should be used whenever you meet a prospect at a event. Your IT marketing elevator speech needs to say what your company does, how you are unique and why someone would hire you.

IT Marketing and the Elevator Speech: A Definition

The term elevator speech is based on a scenario in which you are getting onto an elevator with someone on the 20th floor and by the time you get to the ground floor, you are able to deliver a strong pitch. Find an elevator pitch that is comfortable for you to say – like a reflex – and don’t hesitate to deliver it as part of your IT marketing plan.

IT Marketing: Practicing Your Elevator Speech

Write out your speech on index card so you can have it with you at all times. You can look at it while you’re in traffic or before you go on a sales call. The more you rehearse it with a trusted business associate or with your spouse, the more natural it will become to deliver.

By the time you get out to do expos and go to seminars or attend chamber events, you will be tired of your elevator pitch. But you have to try to keep the same amount of energy each time you deliver it as part of an IT marketing strategy.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Sales: Figure Out What Your Clients Need

When you meet for the first time with potential candidates for IT sales, you need to figure out their top three problems. Perhaps the problems your prospects are facing are not the ones you can help solve, and you may need to move on. Regardless, you need to ask clients about problems if you want to achieve IT sales.

What Are Their Preferences?

Get your prospects to discuss what they like and dislike about past IT support experiences. This can give you a better idea of what they will expect of you. The first IT sales meeting is also the time to find out if the prospects have an emergency that needs to be dealt with in the next few days or if they are looking for IT audits, site surveys or tech assessments.

Sometimes prospects will want something different from what you expect; they will not need emergency service nor will they need tech assessments or other types of IT sales, though these items are most often what they will be looking to accomplish.

Get Your Clients to the Next Phase of IT Sales

Moving clients from free to fee, from sitting there and picking your brain in the IT sales call to getting them to write a check or authorize the IT sales means finding out answers to important questions.

Be prepared to offer prospects something concrete as part of the first IT sales call.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

The Establishment of Consulting Contracts with National Service Organizations

The main point to understand about consulting contracts with national service organizations is that you just should not get involved with them. You will most likely spend a lot of time keeping up-to-date with technology; and because hardware repair is a commodity due to the increasing disposability of technology components, you would be wise to avoid consulting contracts with national service organizations altogether.

Consulting Contracts: Computers are Expendible

As an example, a $600 consumer-level PC will not probably be thought of as worth repairs after the warranty expires. Small businesses will not be willing to spend the money on this type of repair and will most likely just purchase a new machine.

Consulting Contracts: Low Labor Allowances

National service organizations are just dealing with warranty repairs on inexpensive hardware, so they will not have much of a labor allowance for consulting contracts when it comes to $1,200 notebooks. Many hardware vendors are struggling so much that they are always about to go out of business, and there are only a select few that are in a good financial position.

Low Profit Margin for Repairs in Consulting Contracts

You can’t expect to make more than fifty or a hundred dollars on a repair. Your best bet for revenue is small businesses in need of sophisticated, regular solutions and consulting contracts.

Why Consulting Contracts with National Service Providers are Not Profitable

If you are a subcontractor for a national service provider you won’t be able to effectively run your consulting business. You will be in eight different offices daily and will not be able to see very good hourly rates.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101

Making Sure You Get Paid for IT Consulting

Getting a deposit check for major IT consulting projects is incredibly important. No IT consulting professional should begin a large project based on a handshake.

IT Consulting: Don’t Let Others Take Advantage

Many small business owners will not even think twice about using you for your IT consulting services without proper payment. If you let them, you risk the future of your IT consulting business. Don’t let anyone take advantage of you and always secure a proper agreement and deposit check when starting any major project.

IT Consulting: The Importance of Payment Schedules

Payment schedules can protect your IT consulting business from harm. You should set up a payment schedule that demands at least 25% down before any work begins. If anyone objects, you might want to think twice about starting a relationship.

IT Consulting and Getting Paid

Bill clients weekly and not just when you feel like it as part of your IT consulting procedures. IT consulting invoices need to go out every week.

Created By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

PC Troubleshooting Advice from Computer Consulting 101

Small businesses benefit from the help of local computer consulting companies to handle major computer problems. However, many simple computer problems can be dealt with easily and without the help of a computer consulting professional. Computer Consulting 101 provides the following advice for small business owners and employees: when encountering a computer problem, simply reboot.

This may seem like overly simple advice, but those at Computer Consulting 101 have found that users often forget about it in the midst of panic. And rebooting can save valuable time and dollars spent on computer consulting advice that could be better used for serious issues that crop up in the future.

Computer Consulting 101: The Rebooting Process

1. Exit out of all files and programs.

2. Go through a standard shutdown and restart sequence to reboot.

If your computer problem is related to hardware such as network cards, modems, a mouse, keyboards or sound cards, you can add the following sequence to your reboot before calling computer consulting professionals:

1. Go to the start menu.

2. Shut down your PC.

3. Turn the power off for a minute or more, if your computer did not shut itself down.

4. Turn your PC back on and see if the problem fixed itself.

The Bottom Line About Rebooting from Computer Consulting 101

About 10-20 percent of the time computer problems can be solved with a simple reboot. Take the advice from Computer Consulting 101 and always reboot your PC before calling in for help from professionals.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Sales: Go Beyond the Initial Call

The initial IT sales call is mainly an opportunity to qualify a lead. By qualifying leads you save time before getting really involved in the IT sales process and move more quickly onto the next step.

No Games of “20 Questions”

Often during an initial IT sales conversation, prospects will ask a lot of interview questions. If you don’t know how to cut them off, you will find yourself without the chance to ask prospects important questions about their needs to gauge the fitness of the relationship.

Cut the prospect off during the initial IT sales call after you’ve taken some notes describing their problems and urge the prospect to talk to you about the next step. Start this process as soon as you’ve finished your IT sales presentation, and suggest the next step of having a technician return for a site survey.

The Next Step of IT Sales: A Site Survey

A site survey helps you inventory problems and prioritize. You and the prospect can use this part of the IT sales process to help decide what will come first, second, third and so-on.

The site survey will include a report that tracks everything from their security to software licensing and data protection.

Make sure to cut off prospects before questions get out of hand as part of the IT sales process and have a better shot at getting to the next steps.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

IT Consulting: Ways to Accomplish a Business Launch Gradually

IT consulting requires you to have a clear launch plan for your business. There are 21 steps that can take you all the way to Day 1 of your IT consulting business and decrease or even eliminate many of the risks associated with start-up. The following represent the first three of these steps.

1. Overcome three weaknesses. Pick three areas that need work and try to work on fixing them in the next 90 days. These can be related to personality, business or technical skills. Don’t try to learn absolutely everything at once. Clients will ultimately hire you because you can get the work done and find someone that knows answers if you are unclear.

2. Find out the size of client businesses that are your best match. With which niche and industry have you previously worked and with which industry do you have the most experiece. You will need at least 500 to 1,000 people for marketing your IT consulting business, and only a very small percentage of these will actually respond. Even smaller numbers will become sweet spot clients for your IT consulting business.

3. Choose a company name. Your company name needs to say exactly what you do and also show why you are special. Put across your geographic area or specialty or both. Make sure you test out your IT consulting name on others before committing to make sure you are making your point clear.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Certifications Your Clients Expect for the Best Support

Small businesses in your sweet spot will need specific support and IT certifications, along with strong desktop support and some LAN skills.

IT Certifications: What Help Do Clients Need?

Sweet spot clients will need help with basic desktop applications including Microsoft Office, Intuit QuickBooks and Interact ACT! They will also need help with hardware upgrades and setting up shared folder backup software. They will need to keep antivirus and firewall software current, and will probably have needs when it comes to syncing PDAs with different programs. Networks will also need attention.

IT Certifications and Micro Small Business Needs

Micro small businesses – those with less than ten PCs with peer-to-peer networks – will not require extensive IT certifications. In this area of small business, IT certifications can sometimes be negative; owners do not want to pay for too many qualifications.

IT Certifications and Real IT Managers

When you encounter larger small businesses with 50 or more systems, you will have more advanced IT buyers. IT certifications will be more important to IT managers of small businesses because they typically know what the different IT certifications mean.

Real IT managers are probably certified and will be looking specifically for niched experts instead of IT generalists. These IT managers usually do the general work in-house, so they do not need a full virtual IT department, rather a supplement to their skills.

A client may have a Microsoft Exchange Server installation need. The IT manager will want a consulting firm with IT certifications that are related to forms or Java-based applications – something related to the Microsoft Exchange Server Message Store. Regardless, the IT manager will want someone with specialty IT certifications that can get a specific job done properly.

IT Certifications

Sweet spot clients present a special opportunity for IT specialists. Put the most focus on the 10-50 PC space, which is big enough for advanced solutions but small enough to not require incredibly advanced IT certifications.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

Hourly Rates and Your Competitors' Prices -- An Introduction

As a responsible IT consultant, you need to be aware of the hourly rates of your competitors in order to set a good hourly rate for your business. This means you have to know what low-end IT consultants are charging and the hourly rates of sweet spot clients like you.

Hourly Rates of Low-Cost, High-Volume IT Consultants

You don’t really want to compete with the hourly rates of low-margin IT consultants, but you should know them. Knowing the hourly rates of this group of consultants can help you get distance from it. Don’t cheat yourself out of getting your desired sweet spot clients by positioning yourself with the low-end group.

In order to figure out hourly rates for this low-end group you can use the following options: find websites by googling your city, state, province, etc. and type in keywords that fit these types of businesses; look in consumer-directed advertising including fliers, leaflets, coupon packs, etc. The hourly rates you find here will tell you what being too cheap means and help you avoid attracting price-focused clients.

The Next Step for Hourly Rates

Determining the hourly rates of low-end IT consultants is just the first step in setting the rates for your own business. The next step is looking at the hourly rates of the clients that look for sweet spot clients in your area and setting up competitive rates. But make sure you avoid attracting price-centric clients by first looking at the hourly rates of high volume IT consultants.

Created By: Joshua Feinberg

Hourly Rates: The Difference Between Discount and Retail Rates

Network consultants often worry about hourly rates and service agreements during business start up. How will their retail hourly rate be relative to the hourly rate in the service contract?

Many consultants will use a discounted hourly rate when starting a service contract with a client. This discounted hourly rate encourages a client to start a long-term relationship. But network consultants need to make sure the hourly rate is set so they can afford to offer a discount.

Setting Hourly Rates

When setting a retail hourly rate, network consultants should consider offering lower or waived minimums and premiums to valued, long-term service agreement clients. The hourly rate structure should allow for this from the beginning.

The following factors are important when setting hourly rates:

1. The first year’s expenses;

2. How hourly rates relate to salaries;

3. Sales commissions;

4. The hiring of subcontractors and additional staff;

5. Affordability of revenue-sharing arrangements and referral fees.
An hourly rate structure should provide something additional for the network consultant after rates are discounted for service agreement customers.

Hourly Rates: Sales Agreements and Discounts

If 85% to 90% of a network consultant’s business is coming from sales agreements, 85% to 90% of clients are being discounted. Therefore, the new discounted hourly rate needs to be high enough to offer a discount. Setting an hourly rate right from the beginning will foster trusting long-term client relationships and make for a profitable business.

Created By: Computer Consulting Kit

How Much Should an IT Audit Cost?

The best way to price an IT audit is using a fixed price model. The process of choosing the best fixed price to make sure you are not doing work for free but are still being fair to the customer is often a challenge,

Pricing an IT Audit

As previously mentioned, the fixed price strategy is often the best when it comes to pricing IT audits. It can cut profit margins, but it does help to overcome objections to sales during a crucial time. An IT audit is a doorway to further services.

Presenting a fixed-price IT audit shows you are willing to take some risks to make prospects happy and helps build your credibility. IT audit customers will more likely want to do long-term business with you if they perceive you are trustworthy.

Typical Price for an IT Audit

An IT audit for a standard sweet spot client with ten to twenty-five PCs and a single server will be approximately three to four hours of on-site work. If you are charging $125 hourly for client not on service contracts, three-to-four hours would cost about $375 - $500. An already contracted client will be charged $100 per hour or $300 - $400 per IT audit.

To build trust, price an IT audit at rates lower than what you would normally charge. You need to develop a relationship and make the IT audit a proving ground project.

The Main Idea About Pricing IT Audits

Pricing an IT audit accomplishes two things: it gets you paid; it gets a new client. Offer fixed price IT audits to show you are willing to shoulder some risk and build your credibility.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

The Best Customer Service Means Special Treatment of the Internal Guru

The main person that judges the quality of your customer service is the main decision maker or the internal computer guru. Treating these people with extra care is the way to provide the best customer service.

The following tips can help get you in with the internal guru or the primary decision maker and will help your reputation for offering excellent customer service.

Tips for Excellent Customer Service

1. Make the guru look good in front of superiors. If the guru is made to look well-versed and intelligent at handling issues, he/she will tell those that are giving you the check about your great customer service.

2. Get to know the main contacts for the account and take an interest in their jobs and functions. Remember personal details about them and ask them about these personal items later so you become known for the best customer service.

3. Take note of people’s personal lives and give appropriate gifts or cards to acknowledge major life events such as having a baby, getting married or losing a loved one. A small effort in this area will bring great rewards in terms of the perception of customer service.

4. Share some tips about productivity to help clients get the most out of their software. You don’t need to worry about losing a couple billing hours to do this, because at this point you have a long-term, established relationship with the client. Doing extra little training sessions helps build loyalty and shows you are putting client needs above your own.

5. Keep a wish list for clients of what they need in terms of IT. Organize the list in terms of their scheduling needs each month.

6. Help them clean out their old IT files. This process will only take 10 or 15 minutes and during this time you can help them figure out what should be kept and what can be thrown away. This process will contribute to great customer service.

7. Offer to give business tips with the guru. Tell what you learned from other clients as well as from other business sources.

8. Present a customer satisfaction survey annually. Excellent customer service means you have to exceed customer expectations. Surveys can help you determine where you are doing well and where you need work.


The Main Idea About Customer Service

Providing the best customer service is essential to your business. Focus your efforts on the guru and decision maker and position yourself to be known as a consultant that offers superior customer service to all your clients.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Subcontractors: With Whom Should You Work?

IT consultants frequently use subcontractors to fill in service gaps and get specialists that do not do what they do. Finding the appropriate subcontractors to complete tasks and making sure these subcontractors do not take existing clients are important issues for IT professionals.

Places to Find Subcontractors

The number one way to find subcontractors is by looking at current accounts. Finding subcontractors through client accounts allows you to work with the clients first before you have to deal with subcontractors.

Your business plan should include deciding which services to offer. Each service you decide not to offer should be represented by a qualified niche provider that can help. Subcontractors can be discussed with clients as you find them at networking events, channel seminars, training classes and other places.

You need to be looking for subcontractors all the time and asking questions of people you meet. Ask those you come across if they have relationships or experiences with any niche technology providers that might be opportunities for subcontractors.

Places to Avoid When Looking for Subcontractors

Using an outside IT employment service company is a bad way to find potential subcontractors. The best way to get the highest quality subcontractors is through face-to-face, in person meetings. If you rely on third party methods, you have less control.

What About Subcontractors?

The process of finding subcontractors should be simple if you are networking well. Use all available resources to find the best niche technology providers and improve your service level.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Exceeding Customer Expectations with Great Project Management Techniques

Project management issues are often the source of customer expectations. Well-managed projects that are completed the right way and on time will help IT professionals exceed customer expectations.

Tools for Exceeding Customer Expectations

1. Hold a meeting with key decision makers and gurus four times annually to go over completed projects, pending projects and projects not yet started but planned.

2. Go over schedules week by week with clients.

3. Check for scheduling conflicts with clients when examining pending projects. If you want to exceed customer expectations you have to make sure the client’s dealings with you are without a hitch. Projects should be completed at the clients’ convenience rather than at your convenience.

4. When meeting with gurus and decision makers you need to determine if there are outstanding needs. Are there projects that need to be completed within the next 90 days? You need to put clients first if you want to exceed customer expectations. You might have to change your schedule.

5. Clear guidelines are essential. Set up phases and milestones in order to give everyone more control over the project and allow customers to give you feedback.

6. Weekly reports on your progress help to organize offsite work and can contribute to exceeding customer expectations. Many clients have never had this level of service, so you should email once a week even if you are not onsite. These small gestures take very little time and make a big difference.

Exceeding Customer Expectations

Well-plotted project management and communication with decision makers and gurus help you exceed customer expectations and take little time, effort or money to execute.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Pricing Strategy: Some Examples of Fee Structures You Can Use

Pricing strategy is a tricky business. You can’t use a pricing strategy that gives you too low a rate, and you can’t use one that is too high or you will lose money and business. How do you set a pricing strategy that is right for your business?

Three Pricing Strategies

Computer consulting professionals use three pricing strategy methods: price-fixed pricing strategy; per PC or per server pricing strategy; hourly rate.

Fixed Price Pricing Strategy

When presenting a fixed price pricing strategy, you need to be prepared to outline the scope of the project. You will also need to have clear limits for your work so you don’t risk under-billing.

Per PC, Per Server Pricing Strategy

The per PC, per server pricing strategy is similar to the fixed price method, but you have to know what unit costs are. Hat will change as you begin to add or get rid of PCs, and how will these changes affect the total project? This type of pricing strategy gives you some leeway if the project grows from the original estimate and can be combined with the fixed price pricing strategy.

Hourly Rate Pricing Strategy

This type of pricing strategy can also be called “time and materials” and is the strategy used most commonly in the IT field. This pricing strategy allows you to set an hourly rate and then add cost based on the materials you use. This pricing strategy gives you superior protection when the project expands beyond what you originally predicted.

Choosing from Three Main Categories of Pricing Strategy

Before you choose the best pricing strategy for your company, think carefully about the benefits and pitfalls of each one. You need to price services based on what will be most profitable and allow you business to survive and thrive in the long run.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

Stop Feeling Guilty About Charging for Phone Support

Phone support, particularly at the beginning of the life of a network consulting business has to be a source of profit. There must be both benefits to you and your business and benefits to your client. No matter what, you should not feel guilty about charging regular, top rates for phone support.

Phone Support: If You Didn’t Provide it, What Would Clients Do?

If you did not offer phone support at all, your clients would have to call an independent phone support service. This type of phone support service usually charges $2.99 or even $3.99 per minute, which for a 15-minute phone support call would be $45 to $60. And the phone support would not even be as thorough or as personal as what you could provide.

Your Phone Support

You will be better skilled than the typical independent phone support person to provide your clients with service. You know the account and understand the needs of each and every client you serve. You also are well-versed in each client’s bizarre configurations, systems, workarounds and business issues. Because you have a full view of the business, you can provide a total solution to the problems presented during phone support.

What Should Your Hourly Rate Be for Phone Support?

Your hourly rate for phone support should definitely be between $75 and $125, and you should implement a 15-minute minimum to protect yourself. This means you can easily figure out billing and discourage incessant, unimportant phone support requests from clients. Your phone support for small problems would cost from $19 to $31 per call, assuming each one is approximately 15 minutes. The cost and the value of the phone support you are providing to clients in comparison to their alternatives should eliminate your feelings of guilt about offering it at top billing rates.

The Main Idea About Phone Support

When you think about phone support, think of it in regards to the value your client is getting, particularly in comparison to the other alternatives available. If you get any resistance about phone support charges from clients, inform them of how expensive it could be not to use your expertise.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

An Outline of IT Audits: The Three Main Parts, Features and Benefits

There are three parts to IT audits: actual features; a written and detailed report; a set of vendor-neutral recommendations. You need to explain the three parts of IT audits carefully by focusing on benefits in order to sell them to clients.

IT Audits: Features of Your Audit

You need to complete the following steps as features of your IT audits:

1. Review the current network

2. Look at the configurations of PCs;

3. Look at the telco circuts;

4. Analyze and critique IT policies of the client;

5. Examine data security and data protection measures that are currently used;

6. Explain data loss risks to clients.

Change these features of IT audits into benefits such as the ability to understand what is already owned, awareness of the limitations of the items owned, a knowledge of weaknesses of systems and what could be done to get the most out of current systems and processes.

IT Audits: Written, Detailed Reports

Provide clients with a written report that includes a detailed and up-to-date assessment of inventory. This report give clients the following benefits: complete documentation for insurance; better ability to make good decisions about future purchases.

IT Audits: Provide a Set of Recommendations

As part of IT audits, you need to give clients a vendor-neutral series of recommendations named in order of possible risk and importance. The benefit of these recommendations to clients is that it protects them from being swayed to purchase products from non-technical sales representatives. This part of IT audits also helps clients understand their current IT investments and what they will need in the future.

IT Audits: The Three Parts, Features and Benefits

If you present the parts of IT audits to clients in a way that stresses features and benefits you will make the important point to them that IT audits are necessary and help them understand the reasons why they can help the future of a business.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

Selling and Maintaining Computer Service Contracts

Computer service contracts are incredibly intricate and important parts of a business and need to be carefully maintained. Each computer service contract has to be sold with a good and consistent system, and each client needs follow up.

Go to each client with a prepared computer service contract. Base the amount of details you provide on the individual client; if the client likes computer service contracts that are detailed, provide as many details as you can, but if he/she prefers shorter versions, have that ready.

Computer Service Contracts: Time Block Contracts

This type of computer service contract involves a purchase of your time with the hope the client will renew the computer service agreement once the time expires. The basic information required in this type of computer service agreement is the following elements: the normal rate; the discount given for prepayment of the specified number of hours; the length of time the prepaid time block stands; the list of services that are included.

When clients sign time block computer service contracts, push them to use the time quickly. You want clients to realize how much IT affects their daily operations and show them that service contracts can be an essential item. This will encourage purchase of longer periods of time and year-long contracts.

When you have a client on a computer service contract, you want the client t use up time blocks consistently. If the client is not using these blocks up quickly, he/she is just a customer. Clients become customers when they renew their computer service contract time blocks or go to an annual contract.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

The Benefits of Computer Service Contracts from a Client’s Perspective

Computer service contracts have real benefits for you and the long-term success of your business, but they are equally beneficial to each client. You need to make sure clients are aware of the benefits of computer service contracts if you are going to get them to sign on the dotted line.

If you clearly outline the benefits of computer service contracts to clients during sales calls, you can help get more clients signed on and add to the longevity and success of your business.

The Benefits of Computer Service Contracts for Clients

1. Dependability: Clients know with computer service contracts that you will be there for them in good times and bad. Computer service contracts are insurance policies offered at a premium.

2. Ownership of a part of you and your business: Clients on computer service contracts own a part of you and your business. They share you with other clients, but they can count on you as if you are a tech person on staff.

3. Peace of mind: Computer service contracts are a commitment you make to be there for clients for the long haul.

4. Hourly billing rates at a discount: You can waive some premiums, surcharges and fees and can offer clients on computer service contracts lower billing minimums.

5. Priority: Clients that sign onto computer service contracts get prioritized response time and scheduling precedence.

6. Access to your entire menu of virtual IT services and perks: Clients signed onto computer service contracts can use the whole range of your services and the perks that come along with them. They get access to different businesses in the area because of your relationships within the community.

Computer Service Contracts and Your Clients

Computer service contracts provide real value to loyal clients. You shouldn’t have to come up with pushy sales campaigns to get clients to agree to them if you really articulate the benefits they offer.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

The Computer Consulting Kit Put into Practice: Ivan Judd and Photocom NZ, Ltd.

Computer consultants throughout the world are using the practical advice and templates offered by the Computer Consulting Kit. The Computer Consulting Kit outlines tangible strategies for marketing and sales along with templates to help establish rates, handle administrative functions and develop critical service contracts that will attract and keep long-term, steady and high-paying clients.

The Computer Consulting Kit in Wakatane, New Zealand

Ivan Judd, owner of Photocom NZ, Ltd. in Wakatane New Zealand, like many other computer consultants has found himself sometimes in a rut while trying to juggle the many tasks of operating his business and deliver the best services to clients. With suggestions provided by the Computer Consulting Kit about marketing and how to build a trustworthy reputation with clients, he has been able to boost his presence in the community and offer high quality solutions.

Becoming a trusted member of the community, known for offering high quality IT solutions takes time, and by thinking creatively and diversifying techniques for sales and marketing, Ivan has advanced his business and improved the quality of his client relationships.

“Last year we received public acknowledgement that our company is the dominant IT service company in our area. The Computer Consulting Kit enabled me to look at specific solutions with a different perspective, instead of following our previous habit of running around ‘putting out brush fires.’ We were able to earn an additional $30,000 in revenue.”

The Bottom Line of the Computer Consulting Kit

Ivan Judd has learned how to build his reputation within his community with the help of the Computer Consulting Kit and its presentation of practical marketing strategies and organizational tips. Join the many computer consultants worldwide that are learning to make the most of their businesses with free tips and helpful templates and information in the Computer Consulting Kit.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

Get the Pricing Strategy Right from the Beginning

You have to think about your pricing strategy from the beginning of your business. Once you set a pricing strategy for your services, you won’t be able to change it very easily.

Clients depend upon a reliable pricing structure and will resist if and when you decide to change it. You can’t change your pricing strategy dramatically or you may lose clients completely.

What Increases Should You Use?

If you increase more than five to fifteen percent, you will probably get really negative responses from clients. If you intend to make a significant change in your pricing strategy, you will probably have to think about replacing clients entirely.

If you really need to make a change in your pricing strategy in order to stay afloat, you will have to find new clients that are willing to be brought on at your new rate. You will also face probably $500 to $1,200 in client acquisition cost.

Start Right from the Beginning with Your Pricing Strategy

Instead of facing a great deal of costs, you are better off starting off with the right pricing strategy so you can pass along minor increases gently and keep clients for the long term.

The Main Idea of Pricing Strategy

Pricing strategy is a critical component from the very beginning of a consulting business and will affect the long-term success of your business. Choose your pricing strategy well from the beginning and avoid attracting the wrong type of clients.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

The Computer Consulting Kit in Practice: Worldian Technology, LLC in Ohio

The Computer Consulting Kit offers practical advice for those in the IT services industry hoping to grow their businesses and revenue. Many professionals have used the Computer Consulting Kit as a road map to guide them through IT marketing and sales strategies, how to manage relationships with clients and how to juggle administrative tasks with billable work to best use their time.

The Computer Consulting Kit: Randy Hall of Worldian Technology, LLC

Randy Hall is the owner of Worldian Technology, LLC, a computer consulting business based in Medina Ohio. Before discovering the Computer Consulting Kit, like so many others in the IT field he found himself inundated with occasional customers and struggling to make ends meet.

“I was able to move 92% of my clients from being reactive ‘Break/Fix’ clients to full Managed Services clients. On the first of every month, our accounts receivable increases dramatically. Cash flow has never been better, I have never made more money and OUR CLIENTS HAVE NEVER BEEN HAPPIER.”

“The Computer Consulting Kit got me started on the right road, and its advice helped me to identify and separate the losers from the winners and taught me how to move some of the borderline losers to the Winners’ Circle.”

The Bottom Line About the Computer Consulting Kit and Service Contracts

The Computer Consulting Kit offers advice for consultants like Randy Hall looking to eliminate the hassle of occasional, break/fix clients and fill their client roster with high-paying, steady service contract clients. Join the consultants worldwide that are unlocking the potential of their IT services businesses with the Computer Consulting Kit.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Customer Expectations: Dealing with Issues of Cost and Time

Customer expectations can change quickly if you don’t pay attention to specific issues that can help you stay in control.

You Have to Avoid Cost Overruns

Increased costs are a great way to lower customer expectations. You should never surprise a client with increased costs; limit cost-related surprises to projects that come in under budget.

Don’t Underestimate

Customer expectations are founded on the sum of clients’ experiences with you. If you underestimate costs for each project, your clients will get used to paying less every time, and this will decrease your value with them and falsely raise customer expectations.

Be On Time to Manage Customer Expectations

Lateness makes a bad impression on customers. If you will be late or need to reschedule completely, make sure you call as much in advance as possible. In order to exceed customer expectations you have to communicate as clearly and as often as possible. Your client should not be your boss.

Stick to Deadlines

Missing deadlines is very bad for managing customer expectations. You need to convey a sense of absolute professionalism at all times, which means sticking to your obligations as planned in the beginning.

More About Customer Expectations

Managing customer expectations is important for computer consultants and allows you to provide the best service possible to clients at all times.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

The Computer Consulting Kit in Practice: Robert Lewis and Plato Consulting

The Computer Consulting Kit provides important information, including business templates and strategies, for computer consultants worldwide looking to expand their IT services companies. Whether you are just starting your IT consulting business or have been developing it for years, the Computer Consulting Kit can help you with important issues such as time management, fee structures and how to sign up more clients on long-term service agreements to build more stable relationships, stay competitive and increase the longevity of the business.

The Computer Consulting Kit: How Robert Lewis Generates Leads and Builds Revenue

Robert Lewis is the owner of Plato Consulting, a business based in Cialfin, Kansas, USA. He is currently running his business part-time, and picked up the Computer Consulting Kit to get some ideas about transitioning into a full-time IT services company.

Reading the marketing, sales and time management strategies in the Computer Consulting Kit showed Robert that he was losing out on business because he was not approaching lead generation and customer acquisition in the most effective way.

Robert also used the tools in the Computer Consulting Kit to better organize his rate structures and make them consistent across all services to bring him more financially solvent and bring him one step closer to full time.

“After reading several pieces in the Computer Consulting Kit I realized that I was losing a substantial amount of revenue. Now that I have that issue under control the New Year's project is to start generating new leads and customers and hopefully by the year’s end I can begin doing my business full time and competing with some of the locally established computer service companies.

In 2006 I established a formal SLA and rates. Up to this point it was a hit-or-miss endeavor. After reading your program I knew exactly what I needed to do; I needed to start billing for ALL my services. I was missing a substantial part of my income, and to my surprise my service calls did NOT decrease when I started charging for everything, including phone support.”

The Bottom Line About the Computer Consulting Kit

If you are a computer consultant like Robert Lewis looking to get paid top rates for your skills and talents, attract high-paying clients and bring your business to the next level, look to the Computer Consulting Kit for tips and templates that can be your road map to success.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Include Business Case Studies as Part of a Comprehensive Marketing Package

Business case studies are critical to offering prospects a thorough set of marketing materials.

When Should You Use a Business Case Study with Prospects?

If you are selling your solutions to an IT manager, you may want to show him/her a business case study. Make sure your business case study displays benefits other companies have received when they worked with you. Business case studies should be relevant and on-point to have maximum effectiveness.

What’s in a Good Business Case Study?

1. A couple sentences providing background information on what the company does.

2. The length of time the company has been in business, its location, etc.

3. The name of the main decision maker for the company.

4. The problem you helped solve for the company.

5. A description of the solution you used to fix the problem.

6. The benefits you were able to offer to the client.

You need to make sure the business case study shows clearly what you did and also states the name and address of the contact person in the case study.

What Writing Skills Do you Need to Have to Create a Business Case Study?

You don’t need to be an expert writer to put together a credible, solid business case study. Just sit down with the subject of the study for five or ten minutes with a tape recorder and conduct an interview. Add the details of what you did, but use your client’s words to create the business study.

Business Case Studies and Marketing Collateral

Don’t use generic or prepared business case studies as part of your marketing collateral. Instead, showcase your uniqueness by talking about the work you do and its benefits to clients.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

The Computer Consulting Kit: Harold L. Bates and Robotics 1

Computer consultants that want to get the most out of their businesses are quickly realizing the benefits of the Computer Consulting Kit.

During start-up, those looking to create a community presence and get new clients through targeted marketing techniques and lead generation might find the process overwhelming while juggling the many administrative duties, billable hours and the sales process. The Computer Consulting Kit provides clearly laid-out tips and templates for computer consultants to help make the time spent on activities involved with their businesses as efficient as possible.

The Computer Consulting Kit in Vestal, New York

Like so many other computer consultants, Harold L. Bates faced challenges when starting his computer consulting business, Robotics 1. He came from a full-time job with a predictable salary and was concerned about his ability to stay afloat at the beginning and make a profit.

He used the Computer Consulting Kit as a guidepost to help lead him through the first few months in business and was able to succeed and create a real future with high quality clients and a competitive spot in the industry:

“The Computer Consulting Kit helped me earn an extra $5,000 in revenue this past year. I started my business from zero on June 1st, 2006 and was able to match what I was making as a network administrator after three months of being in business for myself.

I am really proud of the fact that the prognosis looks good and I am going to be able to stay in business. The Computer Consulting Kit gave me a direction! It also gave me the key words to use when speaking with new clients. I am going to refer to it again an again as I gain more experience and presence in the marketplace.”

The Bottom Line About the Computer Consulting Kit

The templates and best practice tips provided by the Computer Consulting Kit has given Harold L. Bates and other IT and computer consultants the guidance needed to start a viable services business. Join the many consultants learning how to implement the techniques laid out by the Computer Consulting Kit into their businesses by clicking the link provided. You can also get free tips and other resources.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Business Partnerships and How to Avoid Complications

Business partnerships can enhance your business, but you have to be careful when you form them. The following are some tips for managing the pitfalls of business partnerships.

A List of Things to Think About with Business Partnerships

Form business partnerships with only non-competing companies. Carefully peruse business cards, marketing materials, websites and other items to make sure the company is truly non-competing.

Have a non-disclosure agreement and a non-compete document ready before you start any business partnerships. These items need to be reviewed by your attorney.

Get a real project commitment from your clients before you enter into business partnerships. You can’t risk forming business partnerships to manage a project and then finding out that the client wasn’t really serious about completing it.

Qualify the budget of your client, the timeline and the project’s importance before using a business partnership to manage it.

Talk about the relationship and the nature of all business partnerships with potential partners from the beginning. At the very least, you want to label the work to decide if it’s going to be done through an informal referral, if there will be revenue sharing, if the relationship will be master-subcontractor, who is going to be the go-to person on the account and who owns the account.

You can’t just count on your partner understanding the world of small business virtual IT. Work in some time for teaching and managing as part of business partnerships.

Be ready to manage relationships between clients and business partners. You will be responsible for protecting your partner and your client from uncomfortable situations that may arise.

Be ready to translate when you get involved with business partnerships. Your client and the partners may not be speaking the same business language so you will be responsible for helping them communicate. Coordination is your job as part of business partnerships.

Your Job is Virtual CIO

When getting involved in business partnerships, you will be the manager of all projects for your partners. Set clear guidelines and ensure the quality of the work being done through careful management and diligent monitoring.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

The Computer Consulting Kit and Oxford Computers

Professionals within the IT industry are implementing the concepts of the Computer Consulting Kit to improve their businesses and become true technology partners to clients. Thanks to the Computer Consulting Kit, consultants at all levels are becoming acquainted with their strengths and weaknesses and learning how to focus their energy to best serve the needs of small businesses and build partnerships with both clients and other specialists.

The Computer Consulting Kit: Stratos Parisiou and Oxford Computers

Stratos Parisiou is an IT consultant based in Broomall, Pennsylvania that has learned how to capitalize on the relationship between the client and the consultant. By viewing all his relationships with customers and clients as true partnerships, he has been able to build a positive reputation within his community and grow his business. By creating a clearly defined standard for all his relationships with clients and technology partners, Stratos has made his work more efficient and improved the quality of the solutions and services presented by his company, Oxford Computers.

“I have created partnerships that allow me to focus on my strong points and become a resource to my clients. When a client has a problem with networks, my experience allows me to maximize my productivity by spending as little time as needed to fix the problem.

When the problem is database related, I make a phone call to my database partner and meet her onsite. Again, I maximize productivity by spending as little time as possible to find a solution to the problem. After reading through the material in the Computer Consulting Kit and attending the conference calls, I have realized that I am spending too much time trying to learn unknown technologies at the elementary level. Now, I focus on the customer relationship and allow the specialists to do their work.”

The Bottom Line About the Computer Consulting Kit and Partnerships

Stratos Parisiou uses the clear concepts of the Computer Consulting Kit to get the most out of partnerships with clients and other technology providers and specialists. Many other computer consultants are following suit and adopting the best practices and principles of the Computer Consulting Kit to create highly sophisticated solutions and improve efficiency.

Created By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

IT Services: What Can You Provide as Part of Your Offering?

Providing IT services outsourcing has to involve knowledge of what your particular virtual IT business is going to offer. Analyzing the function of the IT department with which you are working and comparing it to your specific provisions is important. A careful analysis of these factors will allow you to delegate tasks; what will you provide in-house and what will you outsource or not offer at all?

Think About IT Services Outsourcing Functions

The following IT outsourcing items are commonly provided by virtual IT firms: architecture design; lab offerings; corporate security; data center help; help desk; network administration; network engineering; PC floor support; very basic PC support; procurement or purchasing assistance; project management functions; business unit technology help; development of software; training center; WAN engineering and some others.

IT Service Outsourcing Helps Businesses Compete

Small business owners typically use IT outsourcing because they want to match the advantages of Fortune 1000 companies. But many do not understand how to create a solution that is comparable and fits into a small business budget. Your IT services outsourcing analysis can help these small businesses see the light.

What Will You Offer On Your IT Service Outsourcing List?

When you determine what you’re going to offer as part of your IT service outsourcing offerings, you can create your business around the idea. This idea will become a critical part of your business plan and provide you with additional marketing materials. Your IT outsourcing services will be joined by an explanation of your features and benefits that will make sense to clients and prospects and clearly tell them what you do and what will be outsourced to other specialists.

Other Ideas About IT Services Outsourcing

You have to clearly define what you can accomplish for your business with IT services outsourcing. Offer services you can’t provide yourself by specialty contractors and don’t try to offer anything at all that can’t be covered by you or these people.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Price Sensitivity: What's the Best Position for Your Clients?

What is price sensitivity? The term basically describes the extent to which a buyer uses the price as a reason to buy a service or product. As a computer consultant, you want to get clients that have very low price sensitivity. A client with low price sensitivity will pay you what you charge because they want you to do the work.

Benefits of Obtaining Clients with Low Price Sensitivity

1. You can choose the best quality clients because they will pay your rates no matter what they are.

2. You will be able to set rates at the high end of a range and still get low price sensitivity clients.

3. Low price sensitivity clients are usually serious about needs and will let you build their systems with greater freedom.

You need to base your marketing decisions on price sensitivity in order to get the best clients. When you are sure those falling into your sweet spot have low price sensitivity and vice versa, you can make the appropriate decisions about marketing and sales.

High Price Sensitivity Clients

If you direct your business towards clients with high price sensitivity your rates will have to be low. While this might work for some computer services businesses, high prices are always preferable.

Clients in micro businesses and home-based businesses are typically those that will have high price sensitivity. If you want to work with this type of client, then you will have to try to get a very high volume of customers.

Charging Premium Rates by Focusing on Price Sensitivity

In order to set the highest rates for your services, you have to focus on clients that have low price sensitivity. Regardless of what you choose to do with your business, you have to think about price sensitivity when creating a sales and marketing plan. Keep in mind that high rates often equate to higher quality in clients’ minds. Therefore a majority of clients will choose you based on price.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Prevent Subcontractors from Nabbing Your Clients

Subcontractors can really help your business because they can offer you the opportunity to provide additional services. But how do you prevent subcontractors from nabbing your clients?

When you first decide to bring in subcontractors as an IT consultant, you have to prevent competition.

Tips for Hiring Subcontractors

1. Do research on every company to which you want to subcontract. If the company is a competitor, look further. You want to get people in deep niches that have nothing to do with what you do.

2. Have a few meetings with prospective subcontractors and really get to know them. The relationship with subcontractors should evolve during the course of some lunches and emails to build trust.

3. Make subcontractors sign an agreement that has non-compete and non-disclosure clauses. Of course, have these documents attorney-reviewed. Paperwork won’t stop subcontractors that are determined to get ahead, but will make it harder for them.

The Main Point About Subcontractors

Finding a subcontractor is the first part of a long business process. When you find good subcontractors, you have to qualify each of them to make sure each is worthy of your trust before introductions to clients.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Where Should You Begin Your Search for New Business Partnerships?

New IT consultants are often interested in business partnerships. The most commonly asked question is, “When is the best time to begin the search for business partnerships?”

If you are a new computer consultant, you will want to know if you should start looking for business partnerships before your business is established. The answer to that inquiry is that you should be looking for business partnerships and opportunities constantly. You will have more to give to prospective business partners when your business is more established, but you should always pay attention to any opportunities that arise regardless of your position.

Be open to chances for business partnerships and be honest with all the niche technology providers with which you come into contact. You should tell them at the beginning that you are just starting your business, but that you will need their help in the future.

You can’t promise anything, but you can ask for a card from these people to find out more about their businesses and what type of business partnerships you can have. View this as not only an opportunity for the potential partner but also for you and your networking.

Conversations with potential business partnership opportunities should end with a call for them to tell you about any clients they might have that would need services like those you offer.

A lot of business partnerships will arise because clients request a product or service. You need to fill the need in order to let a business partnership arise. Networking is the key to establishing healthy business partnerships.

Blogged By; Computer Consulting 101

How Do Project Proposals Become Sales?

Project proposals can help drum up good business for your computer consulting company. Project proposals are used in two situations: getting a completely new client; doing more sophisticated work for an existent customer.

Typically you will do a project proposal after you’ve already gone through a proving ground project. You may do an IT audit or have fixed a PC, but you should have a foundation and a customer that likes you, knows you and has some trust for your work. Having this relationship with a customer already can help sell a project proposal easily.

Of course, follow-up is an important aspect of getting work out of a project proposal. You need to use, minimally a four-to-six-week follow-up cycle. You need to look to see if anything has changed or if there is something small to work on right now before you continue with the project.

You need to keep your name in front of your prospects and customers. If something is just a couple hundred dollars, you need to stay in the minds of your customers and prospects. You don’t want some other company to take your place.

Whenever you’re reviewing a project proposal, you need to be the first company called when someone needs IT issues handled. You also need to be in the right place at the right time sometimes.

Urgency will get a project proposal into the sales zone. If there is no urgency, you need to wait on the project for a while. Stay in touch with customers and get ready to do some small tasks until the larger project is needed.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

When is the Right Time to Sell IT Audits and How Do You Do It?

IT audits can offer additional revenue for a systems integration business. Many times professionals in the IT industry think that IT audits are hard to sell. However, two situations can be very conducive to selling IT audits.

Times to Offer IT Audits

1. When a prospect is looking for a new vendor. If a prospect wants to replace a technology provider or replace a vacancy you can sell IT audits fairly easily. Prospects may have had a falling out with someone or had a bad experience that has led them to seek help and support elsewhere. In this situation your prospect probably is not clear on his/her wants needs, and an IT audit can help clarify both. IT audits help you start anew and determine the best approach for a company’s specific IT needs. You already know the prospect is willing to pay for the IT audit because he/she has already paid for IT services in the past. IT audits are merely a natural part of your services.

2. When you’ve just successfully managed a crisis. If you’ve just finished saving the day for a company, you are in a good position to sell IT audits. The customer already thinks you’re great and has shown you that he/she can pay for IT services and is willing to do so. IT audits give you and the new customer a long-term plan. The suggestions will make sense and the customer will be willing to accept your solutions no matter what they cost. An IT audit acts as a tool to get to more long-term services.

IT audits are easy to sell if you offer them at the right time. When people want to replace a provider or have just been led through an emergency, they will be most likely to accept you as a systems expert.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

Don't Offer Free Phone Support, No Matter What!

Many brand new computer consultants lose money on phone support. They may want to present customers and clients with the best service so they include phone support in service contracts. However, many will give it away for free as a result.

If you’re using an hourly billing rate, your hours spent on phone support need to be handled the same way as on-site time. You will be contacted frequently if you offer phone support and will be dealing with it on a remote basis. Your clients will be able to get you anywhere.

Phone Support Takes Time

Phone support takes a lot of time, and if you are not charging for it, it’s free to clients and will suck valuable profits. No business that wants to survive charges nothing for services. Don’t offer phone support for free, not even if you’re claiming only offer it to good clients or “just this once.”

Free Phone Support Drains Incentive

When you offer phone support for free, you are minimizing the desire among clients to call you for on-site time. Why would a client want to pay you $100 for an on-site visit if they can call you for free? And will the clients that would take advantage of free phone support be good clients for the long term? Eventually, human nature dictates that these types of clients will take advantage of free phone support and drain your funds.

Don’t give away anything for free – not even phone support, which may seem simple. The information you give via phone is as important as on-site work. Giving away phone support for free will not help your business and will not increase loyalty among clients. Even the best clients will abuse free phone support.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101

When Starting a New Business, What People Do You Tell, and in What Way?

The process of starting a new business is difficult, and finding paying clients can be a real challenge. No one will know you are starting a new business if you don’t announce it to them, so you have to start spreading the word immediately.

Tips for Telling the Community about Your New Business

1. Get at least 50 people on your contact list to tell.

2. Start with family members not in your immediate family, including cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, nephews, sister in-laws, etc.

3. Tell people in your immediate circle of friends you are starting a new business.

4. Think about where you spend your money. The people you should tell you are starting a new business should ideally be those capable of returning the favor. Look at your credit card statements and bank statements and think about people you send money to on a personal basis each month: accountants; attorneys; cleaning services; babysitters; contractors; doctors; dentists; hairdressers; repair people; insurance agents; tutors; veterinarians.

5. Your list will be longer than the above, but these tips can help you get a start on the number of people you need to tell you are starting a new business.

6. Each time you do business with companies that give you a direct contact with an owner, manager or other major decision-maker tell these people personally you are starting a new business. Visit them, call them or send them an email.

7. When you pay a bill to a local company, include a business card to efficiently tell them you are starting a new business.

8. When you get phone solicitations, don’t let the caller go. Tell the person you don’t need their services at the moment, but that you will hold onto information. Then tell them you are starting a new business and try to get a referral.

When starting a new business you need to be prepared to state your presence in the community loudly. Think of everyone you know and begin the process of telling each person about your new business.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

When Starting a New Business, What People Do You Tell, and in What Way?

The process of starting a new business is difficult, and finding paying clients can be a real challenge. No one will know you are starting a new business if you don’t announce it to them, so you have to start spreading the word immediately.

Tips for Telling the Community about Your New Business

1. Get at least 50 people on your contact list to tell.

2. Start with family members not in your immediate family, including cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, nephews, sister in-laws, etc.

3. Tell people in your immediate circle of friends you are starting a new business.

4. Think about where you spend your money. The people you should tell you are starting a new business should ideally be those capable of returning the favor. Look at your credit card statements and bank statements and think about people you send money to on a personal basis each month: accountants; attorneys; cleaning services; babysitters; contractors; doctors; dentists; hairdressers; repair people; insurance agents; tutors; veterinarians.

5. Your list will be longer than the above, but these tips can help you get a start on the number of people you need to tell you are starting a new business.

6. Each time you do business with companies that give you a direct contact with an owner, manager or other major decision-maker tell these people personally you are starting a new business. Visit them, call them or send them an email.

7. When you pay a bill to a local company, include a business card to efficiently tell them you are starting a new business.

8. When you get phone solicitations, don’t let the caller go. Tell the person you don’t need their services at the moment, but that you will hold onto information. Then tell them you are starting a new business and try to get a referral.

When starting a new business you need to be prepared to state your presence in the community loudly. Think of everyone you know and begin the process of telling each person about your new business.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

When Starting a New Business, What People Do You Tell, and in What Way?

The process of starting a new business is difficult, and finding paying clients can be a real challenge. No one will know you are starting a new business if you don’t announce it to them, so you have to start spreading the word immediately.

Tips for Telling the Community about Your New Business

1. Get at least 50 people on your contact list to tell.

2. Start with family members not in your immediate family, including cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, nephews, sister in-laws, etc.

3. Tell people in your immediate circle of friends you are starting a new business.

4. Think about where you spend your money. The people you should tell you are starting a new business should ideally be those capable of returning the favor. Look at your credit card statements and bank statements and think about people you send money to on a personal basis each month: accountants; attorneys; cleaning services; babysitters; contractors; doctors; dentists; hairdressers; repair people; insurance agents; tutors; veterinarians.

5. Your list will be longer than the above, but these tips can help you get a start on the number of people you need to tell you are starting a new business.

6. Each time you do business with companies that give you a direct contact with an owner, manager or other major decision-maker tell these people personally you are starting a new business. Visit them, call them or send them an email.

7. When you pay a bill to a local company, include a business card to efficiently tell them you are starting a new business.

8. When you get phone solicitations, don’t let the caller go. Tell the person you don’t need their services at the moment, but that you will hold onto information. Then tell them you are starting a new business and try to get a referral.

When starting a new business you need to be prepared to state your presence in the community loudly. Think of everyone you know and begin the process of telling each person about your new business.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

Computer Service Contracts Can Provide Benefits to All Your Clients

Computer service contracts can provide as many benefits to your client as they can to you. Part of your job as a computer consulting professional is to inform clients about the many benefits to them of computer service contracts. If you can clarify benefits of computer service contracts, you can get clients to sign up for them.

Benefits to Clients of Signing Computer Service Contracts

1. Computer service contracts give clients dependable and consistent service when they need it. A computer service contract is an insurance policy that allows you to cover important needs and provide peace of mind.

2. Clients involved in computer service contracts own part of your business. While you are shared amongst many other local businesses, each client can count on you as he/she would a technology staff member.

3. Nothing gives a client peace of mind like a computer service contract. Computer service contracts commit you to a long-term availability for a long period of time.

4. Computer service contracts allow you to offer discounted hourly billing rates and waive premiums, surcharges and fees to offer lower billing minimums to clients.

5. Clients involved in computer service contracts get priority in terms of response time and scheduling.

6. Computer service contracts allow clients to get a range of virtual IT services and perks you are able to offer because of your relationships with other businesses in the area. Long-term loyal clients will get special benefits.

Computer service contracts present endless opportunities for both you and your clients and require no hard selling. If you present information clearly to clients, the benefits of computer service contracts will be obvious.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting KitComputer

Overcome Client Objections by Making the Client Do the Work

In order to overcome client objections, you need to ask specific questions to lead them to the decision that an IT audit is in their best interest. By giving the power to the client, you are making him/her the way to overcome client objections.

You need to get your clients to see how important your solution is when overcoming objections. This is achieved by asking questions that will make them see on their own the importance of IT audits to their businesses.

A Series of Questions to Ask to Overcome Objections

1. When were the majority of your systems installed?

2. How long ago were your systems installed and who installed them?

3. Is the person that installed your systems still working with you for maintenance?

The above questions will get clients thinking about overcoming their objections. They will realize the actual length of time that has passed since the systems were installed and might even realize they haven’t been very diligent about maintenance.

More Questions to Help Overcome Client Objections: Maintenance

1. What kind of maintenance do you receive and how often is it completed?

2. Do you have a log that tracks maintenance activities and support requests?

3. Do you have a history of support of copies of previous invoices for support?

Typically, these questions will make clients realize how disorganized they have been about keeping track of maintenance for important equipment and systems.

The Final Stage of Overcoming Client Objections

To overcome client objections and sell your services, you need to ask about the number of people that have been involved with the system throughout its history. A typical sweet spot small business client will typically have had three to five different companies involved in support over the past few years. A lack of centralized, single support will mean extreme disorganization of paperwork and will make the final stage of overcoming client objections easy.

If you can make the client think he/she has control over the destiny of his business with IT audits, you will be successful at overcoming client objections. The client will be more likely to fully understand the need to have regular organized IT support if he/she can see the benefits and errors of past ways.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101