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