Your computer business can be very profitable if you provide service to businesses rather than to consumers.  Retail customers only need service one or two times per year and typically don’t need you for long-term service.  If your goal is to produce $200,000 annually in services revenue, the following are your strategic options.

Computer Business:  Retail Clients

The first choice for your computer business is to offer business to consumer service, otherwise known as B2C.  This type of customer might spend $250 annually in services or products from your shop.  They will spend money on a hard drive upgrade, repairs, installing Wi-Fi, etc.  This type of strategy for your computer business can get tricky and time-consuming, as you would have to reach 800 customers in order to reach your revenue goal.  

If you are only selling the products and don’t find yourself with a lot of after-sale support, this amount of customers might seem fine with a small staff.  However, these types of customers will need a lot of advice and guidance from you.  This type of sales for your computer business will also cost you a great deal in terms of advertising, promotional and marketing dollars.  

The B2C model will also be expensive in terms of labor costs.  You will need quite a few technicians to be able to give enough free and paid support to customers.   

Computer Business:  Business Clients

Business customers (B2B) will be committed to spending about $1,000 per month every month.  This means every year you can expect to get $12,000 per customer at least.  You only need 16 or 17 of these types of computer business customers in order to get to your revenue goal, which is very manageable, especially with a small staff.  

Plus, when a business is spending $12,000 per year, the business is no longer based on transactions.  This is a real client that has made a real commitment for extended maintenance and a long-term relationship with your computer business.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit