Small Biz Tech Talk ™

Invoicing is an administrative task that requires attention to detail. You have to attend carefully to your invoicing on a regular basis.  If you don’t you will lose money that is easily avoidable. Follow these simple invoicing procedures for maximum efficiency:

Invoicing Procedures

• If you are invoicing for a previous week’s invoice and a current week’s invoice, include a statement of account. This puts their overdue balance right in front of them.  
• When invoicing, if you are sending an overdue notice stamp it “Past Due.”   People really don’t like seeing those things; it makes them nervous.
• After a week overdue, make a phone call. They will usually give you an apology and an excuse, and then get the check out right away. With a steady client when you call, you don’t even have to ask, they know why you are calling.
• When it comes to invoicing, include a specific due date. Don’t simply say due in 30 days.  
• All your invoicing should include your payment terms and late fees.  Reiterate your late payment fees at the bottom. Something like payments received x amount of days late, subject to late feature of x amount. Whether or not you enforce this is another story, but it can be an extremely powerful deterrent.
• Another big thing with invoicing is to send your invoices out even if your client is having financial difficulty. You can’t afford to be their bank.  A good, steady client will pay you first.  If you don’t have a thick enough skin, hire someone who does.

The Bottom Line on Invoicing
Invoicing is an important task that needs to be managed carefully.  Invoicing is how you get paid and you don’t want to let lax policies and procedures hinder your financial viability.  Customers will appreciate clear invoicing terms and practices and you will benefit from regular and complete payments.  

In this article, you’ve been introduced to invoicing. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about invoicing, just click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

Pro forma income statements look at revenue and expense projections for future periods.  Pro forma income statements are generated by looking at financial performance the year before, comparing it to the current year figures and using the changes to make projections into the future.

Pro forma income statements can be made without past and current data as well.  Figures are estimated for the first year and then assumptions are made about how those numbers will change in future periods.  The most important thing with pro forma income statements is that you need to track changes from period to period and then apply those changes to the future.  

Estimating Pro Forma Income Statement Numbers

Revenue

• How much service revenue do you anticipate generating?  
• Are you going to be reselling products and if so, what do you anticipate your sales to be next year?
• Will there be other potential revenue coming in i.e. acting as an agent and getting referral fees from ISPs or Web hosts.  

Cost of Goods Sold

• What does it cost you to purchase the items you are reselling?  

Budgeted Expenses

• Exhibits
• Sales Seminars
• Direct mail expenses

Postage
Printing costs
List rental
Copy editor or graphic artist

• Sales Call expenses

Gas
Tolls
Parking
Telesales
Phone expenses

• Display advertising

• Commissions

• IT expenses

Training and certification
Research and development
Subscriptions
Extra PCs

• Administrative expenses

Payroll
Subcontractors
Telecommunications expenses – cell phone, business line
Insurance – Business, General Liability, Casual
Travel and entertainment
Office supplies
Health insurance
Car payments
Bank fees
Credit cards fees
Professional fees – accountant, lawyer

Total up your revenue – Subtract your expenses – You have a pro forma income statement.  Analyze your numbers against previous years’ data or assumptions about the future and create statements for 3 – 5 years into the future.  

Breaking your pro forma income statements down into quarters is a good idea. Obviously, the further out you go out the more subject it will be to change, but it’s important to be thinking about the future and putting a plan down on paper.

The Bottom Line on Pro Forma Income Statements
Pro forma income statements are an excellent planning tool.  They are based on historical performance and best guess estimates of the future.  The numbers on a pro forma income statement won’t be perfect but the exercise of analyzing all your sources of revenue and expenses is one that will assist your business planning process immensely.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to pro forma income statements. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about pro forma income statements, just click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

Selling products as part of your computer consulting business is an option you should consider.  Products can offer an additional revenue stream but you must determine if the extra expense and overhead associated with selling products are a good fit for your business model.  You need to sit down and think long and hard about whether you want to be a reseller or if you want to be a pure consultant.   

As a consultant you will be specifying what products you recommend your clients purchase.  You may actually do the purchasing on their behalf.  The time you spend doing this is billable hours.   Selling products for resell products will make some product margin.  The margin for most of these products, however, is not that large.  

A majority of products you recommend will be available just about everywhere.  Your clients know this.  You might be able to add a small factor for convenience but if you try to reap huge margins selling products, your clients won’t buy from and no one else will either.

Selling Product Drawbacks
Things you need to consider before selling products:

• carrying costs and capital tied up in inventory
• product return issues
• carrying receivables
• merchant account administration

Essentially selling products makes your business model more complicated.  There is also not a lot of money to be made through selling products.   You won’t have sufficient buying power to enjoy low purchase rates so your product margins aren’t going to generate a lot of profit for you.

The Bottom Line On Selling Products
When you open your business you have a choice whether you want to be selling products and services or just services? You should consider selling products as an option but make sure you understand the pros and cons before committing to adding product selling to your business model.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to selling products. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about selling products, just click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

It is very important to have a website when starting an IT consulting business.  It is easy to tell who is working full time at starting their IT consulting business and who’s not just by looking at their website, or lack thereof.

Keep it Simple

Don’t go overboard on your website. Don’t use flash because you’ll never get decent search engine spidering and you’ll annoy a lot of people with it. Keep it very simple, about 4 or 5 pages.

Your Website Content

Of course you’ll have your homepage. Then, off the homepage you should have a page that talks about the benefits of the solutions that your IT consulting business offers. You should also have a bio page that talks about your background.

Show Your Face

It is important to note that you shouldn’t hide who you are. Often times when you visit a website you can’t figure out who owns the business. Make sure your name is up on your IT consulting business’ website.

You can even put your picture up there. Utilize tools like audio options if you want to build a stronger emotional connection. Definitely make sure that your website conveys who you are as the owner of this IT consulting business.

Make it Easy to Reach You

In starting your IT consulting business and working on your website, ensure you have a contact form somewhere within the site. You may also want to have a links page where you can exchange links and share some traffic with other trusted businesses.

Additionally, you may want to have a hidden referral page on your IT consulting business’ website. This could be a page where it is easy to refer people to.

The Bottom Line about the IT Consulting Business

You should definitely have a website. Write it from the standpoint of what’s in it for the small-business owner. Focus on the benefits and what you bring to the table.

In this article, you’ve learned about the IT consulting business. To learn more about the IT consulting business, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

To begin your IT consulting practice, there are 21 steps you should take before you hit your first day on the job. In this article, you’ll learn about three of the steps you should take before entering the business of full-time IT consulting.

Step Four. Engage Professional Services

You should have an accountant and an attorney before you start your IT consulting business. Sit down with them for a few minutes and tell them about your business plans. They’ll help you pick out what kind of business entity makes the most sense for you – whether it is a sole proprietor, limited partnership, or a corporation. 

They can introduce you to the pros and cons of each option and you can do your own research, too. A professional’s advice is money well-spent for your IT consulting business. Even buying a half hour or hour of an attorney or accountant’s time can help.

To save money, you can file some of the paperwork if you want to. But at least talk with them about where you are in your IT consulting business and your personal financial situation.  

Step Five: Open a Business Bank Account

Clients are going to write checks to your IT consulting business; not you personally. They are not going to want to end up with you being called a statutory employee.  They want to make sure that they are actually paying a business that they are employing which is corporation to corporation.  So you will need a bank account so you can cash those checks.

Apply for a merchant account if you are planning on reselling products or want more flexibility so you can accept credit cards.  Discover, MasterCard, Visa and American Express are the big ones. 

Step Six: Buy Some Insurance

Talk to a property and casualty insurance agent about getting commercial insurance for your IT consulting business.  General liability and professional liability are good, as well as Errors and Omissions. You want yourself and your business to be protected in case of problems. 

The Bottom Line about IT Consulting
 
In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT consulting.  To learn more about IT consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

A successful IT consulting business should be focused on selling your consulting services and not selling products.

At this stage of the game of starting an IT consulting business, you should not be looking to be a dealer for someone or an authorized solution for someone.

Service, Not Product
 
You can get those things if you think it will help your business a little bit, but don’t build your IT consulting business around that.  It’s not a product driven economy anymore.  It’s about the services. It’s about the solution.
 
If you align yourself with someone and say "Hey I am this dealer." If you put it all over your website and business cards, then you are basically a non-salaried employee of that company. That is the surest way to end up in commodity status.
 
A Real World Example 
 
In terms of hooking up with a software vendor, for example, those in the medical field, you really have to figure out if that is going to be your IT consulting niche. Do you already have expertise in that area?  You should be focusing on getting paying clients first and gaining some expertise in that area. 
 
If you are working full time in a niche right now, ie. the medical field, and currently providing PC support for someone that makes medical practice management software.

If you are looking to moving into IT consulting, then of course it makes sense to work with that niche since you already have tremendous knowledge and credibility there. 
 
Gain Experience in your Niche First
 
But if you are just starting from scratch now you should really look to get some experience in the field you want to specialize in before making big investments with vendors, going to conferences, etc.
 
Get some clients or get a part time job that gives you some exposure to working in small doctor’s offices before you go out and start building a whole IT consulting business around that.  
 
The Bottom Line about IT Consulting
 
In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT consulting.  To learn more about IT consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

There’s nothing more stressful for IT consultants than getting the dreaded emergency call from a client whose office is "crippled" because of a major systems outage.

If you’ve been an IT consultant a while you know the harsh realities of small business technology adoption. Your clients demand perfection, but don’t have much of a technology budget to invest in fault-tolerance.

Clients Should Understand the Costs of Downtime

As their IT consultant, it’s crucial to get your clients to understand the critical importance of protecting against unplanned downtime. The following is a two-pronged approach:

1) Help your clients figure out their cost of downtime.
2) Encourage your clients to invest accordingly in spare PC hardware.

The Cost of Downtime

If your clients have more than a handful of PCs, in time they’ll develop a service history and learn what kinds of hardware items break fairly regularly.

They’ll also learn from you, their IT consultant, how to convince their PC vendor to supply replacement parts under warranty coverage, as well as how to estimate the time for getting the replacement part to their office and installed into the appropriate PC.

Valuing System Downtime

For a quick, back-of-the-napkin calculation of what system downtime might be costing your clients, consider that the hourly cost of system downtime equals:

Projected annual revenue / (Business days per year x Hours in a business day)

Use This Tool on Your Website

If you’re a little handy with JavaScript, this calculator could be a really nifty marketing tool to place on the home page of your IT consultant website.  Just be sure to give credit where credit’s due and link back to our end user site, www.SmallBizTechTalk.com.

After all is said and done, a major cost to consider is employee downtime, as well as time spent by your clients’ internal gurus chasing down the warranty replacement part, perhaps during an inopportune time.

The Bottom Line about the IT Consultant

In this article, you’ve learned about the IT consultant. To learn more about the IT consultant click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

You want to ensure you always get a deposit check on any major IT consulting project. Don’t start a 40, 60 or 80 hour project on a handshake. This isn’t "Leave it to Beaver," IT consulting here.

Don’t Get Taken Advantage Of

There are a lot of ruthless small business owners out there who will think nothing of chewing you up and spitting you out for their lunches because it’s their sport!

You don’t want to subject your IT consulting business to this. It’s one of the most devastating things you can put yourself through as a new small IT consulting business owner.

Set-up Payment Schedules

In order to protect your IT consulting business, set up payment schedules that make sense. Do not take on a large, major IT consulting project or any project for that matter, without getting at least 25% down.

If they really kick and scream about it, that might raise a red flag that they’re not really serious.

The Bottom Line about IT Consulting

Make sure you bill weekly and not when you get around to it. Your IT consulting invoices should go out every week.  If you bill any less frequently than weekly now, you need to get to weekly immediately; start doing it next week.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT consulting. To learn more about IT consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

In sharp contrast to warranty options on desktop PCs, consider advising your clients to purchase the maximum extended warranty coverage they can with a new notebook PC purchase. Even beyond a potential hard drive failure on a notebook, consider the cost of replacing the LCD screen.

Potential Costs for Replacements

Unlike a conventional PC monitor, notebook PC LCD screens are highly specialized for particular notebooks. If a client needed to replace a standard 17" or 19" monitor that’s out of warranty, your client would generally have no problem finding equivalent products at local retail outlets for relatively modest prices of about $200 to $300.

For a notebook PC LCD screen, your clients would almost never find the parts in stock locally. And the LCD screen, related assembly, and cable purchased separately easily could run $1,000 or more.

Ask Questions

As a consultant, you should ask questions of your client and the warranty provider before making any recommendation.  For example, ask:

• Are the notebook PCs that your major clients own typically used more in the office or in the field?Can you get a copy of the notebook PC system warranty statement?
• How does the notebook PC warranty statement differ from the desktop PC warranty statement?
• Does the warranty specifically include or exclude certain hardware components?
• Are there any warranty restrictions regarding replacement of the hard drive or LCD panel?
• What is the duration of the included warranty coverage?Is your PC vendor the one selling and honoring the extended warranty policy?
• If the extended warranty is subordinated to a third party and the third party goes out of business, will your PC vendor still honor the warranty?

The Bottom Line about Notebook PCs

So because of the risks of hard drive and LCD screen failures on a notebook PC, buying an extended service plan becomes a no-brainer for most of your clients. This is also the primary reason extended warranties on notebook PCs cost a lot more than comparable extended warranties on desktop PCs.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to the notebook PC.  To learn more about the notebook PC click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

In small business computer consulting, $100 an hour can be a reasonable and livable rate. Why can setting your rates at $100 an hour make all the difference in the world?

Take the $100 an hour and multiply it by 1,500 hours a year. This is reflecting a 75% utilization rate; or 75% of a typical forty hour work week as billable time. Now you’re at $150,000 a year gross.

Salary and Affordability

As a small business computer consulting firm, you will want to take a third of the gross and plow it into sales and marketing.  Therefore you can afford a $40,000 base salary for your sales account executive.

So, of that one third of your gross small business computer consulting income, $40,000 can go to the base salary and $10,000 can go to related marketing expenses.

Additionally, one third will take care of taxes, insurance and overhead items for the most part, and you have a third of it or $50,000 left to pay a technical staff salary.

Surpassing $100 an Hour

You may be considering exceeding a rate of $100 an hour for your small business computer consulting firm.  At that point, you can hit what we call the not-so-imaginary-hourly-billing-rate ceiling.

Needless to say, if your small business computer consulting clients are paying $110 to $125 an hour, it gets even easier to be able to afford really bright, motivated, highly qualified sales and technical staff.

Higher Rates Equal Bigger Businesses

However, if you want to charge above $100 an hour in your small business computer consulting firm, you’ll almost always need to move above and beyond sweet spot small business clients into really large small businesses, medium size businesses and enterprise-sized accounts that require a different business model and technical skill set.

Once you do that, you’re going to be operating under a completely different type of business model.  And you will need even more polished and seasoned salespeople to be able to handle those accounts.

The Bottom Line about Small Business Computer Consulting

In this article, you’ve been introduced to small business computer consulting.  To learn more about small business computer consulting click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

In IT consulting, people charge various rates.  Some charge at the zero level, others at the $25, $35, $45 an hour level.

Starting an IT Consulting Business: What to Charge?

Probably a lot of you want to start charging, and should be, in the $75, $85, $95 an hour level to build up a reputation for your IT consulting business.  Don’t start out with much less than that.

IT consultants working with larger small companies generally charge $100 – $125 an hour and up, depending on how deep their specialty is, whether they’re in a certain vertical industry, or depending on the metro area they’re in.

Adjusting Your IT Consulting Business Rates

Many new IT consulting businesses underestimate their true expenses and as a result, end up charging way too little for their IT consulting services.  The big question they often ask is, "Can’t I adjust it later?" The answer in most cases is no.

It’s very difficult to adjust rates later with your existing customers and clients. The only thing you’re usually left resorting to is fixing rates going forward, and then you end up with a whole bunch of people that are grandfathered in at these rates you can’t afford.

The Problem with Raising Rates

When you grandfather rates, half or a quarter of your IT consulting business essentially becomes worthless because it’s not profitable. It can be really hard, if not impossible to get your existing clients to agree to substantial rate increases.

The Bottom Line about IT Consulting

As a start-up IT consulting business, if you charge too little, you may end up having to dump your client list and start over, which could put you out of business really fast. It doesn’t have to be that way.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT consulting.  To learn more about IT consulting click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

If you are starting your own IT consulting business, you need to be generating demand, getting good leads and prospects, qualifying them, going out on sales appointments and following up on those.

Do not get seduced by an aggressive sales person twisting your arm to join a channel program. Don’t get seduced by tech gadgets that don’t fill an immediate need with your paying clients.

Avoid Channel Programs

In starting an IT consulting business, you need to be very careful that you don’t get sucked into joining channel programs that aren’t leading anywhere. You need to focus on finding paying clients first. 

Determine How You Will Be Paid

With new IT consulting clients, you need to always insist on either getting payment as you do the work or get credit card authorization, especially when you sell products. That’s especially if you’re going to be selling hardware, software and peripherals.

Of course, to be able to take credit cards, in most cases, you need to get a merchant account. Do not give credit, and then even beyond that, do not give credit unless you’re going to do a regular credit application and credit check.

Require Deposits

Always, always, always get a deposit check – a substantial amount of the purchase – especially if it’s a product purchase.  Even on a big IT consulting project where you’re doing services, installation, design work, troubleshooting or upgrades, you should require a deposit.

At the absolute minimum, your deposits should be something in the neighborhood of 10 to 25%. Usually it should be somewhere more in the 25 to 35% range.

The Bottom Line about IT Consulting

In starting your IT consulting business, be sure you don’t end up feeling pinched. It is a good idea to bill weekly and always include a due date on your invoices.  Don’t just put "Due in X number of days." Include a concrete due date to show your clients you are serious about your business.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT consulting.  To learn more about IT consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

IT consultant skills vary widely. The successful ones will have the traits that help them deal with their customers.

IT Consultant Traits: Can You Manage Employees?

Even in your first year of business there is a pretty good chance that you will have to have at least a few sub-contractors that you work with long before you get to the stage where you can hire employees.

When that comes up, you are going to have to make hiring decisions and unfortunately what comes along with that turf too is firing decisions.  So you need to be decisive enough in those areas and take swift action. 

IT Consultant Traits: Are You Diplomatic?

You need to be able to teach technology to people that are often times computer phobic and not make them feel bad about that.  That is really important among small businesses cause in a lot of ways.

If you are used to dealing with enterprising users that are a lot more sophisticated than the typical small business end user.  You need to be able to take and check your ego at the door.

You have to be able to put your ego on the back burner and think what is in the best interest of your client and your business.  Sometimes it is best to just walk away. 

IT Consultant Traits: Are You Empathetic?

Can you feel your client’s pain, can you understand what they are going through so you can provide the best solution?  Often, the best thing to do is just listen, understand where they are coming from and calm them down.

You’ll need to do that a lot of times even before you can start treating the symptoms, working on the PC that keeps locking up or the network drive that keeps disappearing and figuring out the cause.  

The Bottom Line about IT Consultant Traits

In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT consultant traits.  To learn more about the IT consultant, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

In IT consulting, you can provide your services to many different sized businesses. In this article, you’ll learn about how you can fit in with the IT consulting needs of large/small businesses.

Pick 2 or 3 of the networking skill sets that you need for the sweet spot. For example, you might pick advanced virus protection, firewall intrusion detection, VPNs and routers.

So you are going to focus on security and border access kinds of things and that would be your IT consulting specialty. That’s all you’d do.

In Large/Small Business IT Consulting, It’s All About Specializing

You would get extremely deep and specialize by product platform. At that size, these companies bring in a real IT manager and put them on payroll for 40 hours a week. So these companies will want to handle a lot of the bread and butter infrastructure in-house.

When Would In-House Staff Turn to You?

When companies are paying a lot of outsourcing expenses, they’ll often decide to put 40, 50, $60,000 a year person on the payroll. Once that person is on-staff, he will have a lot of pressure to keep their outsourcing expenses down, until they absolutely have to go above and beyond.

Then they turn to deep niche specialists – a great opportunity for IT consulting.  

The Bottom Line about IT Consulting

In this article, you’ve learned about IT consulting. To learn more about IT consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

To be successful in IT consulting, you need to know about servers, hardware, and software, but more importantly, you need to know business skills.

Learn How to Say "No"

Anyone in IT consulting can tell you that, at first, you are going to get a lot of crazy requests.  You’ll get a lot of people wasting your time with half-baked nonsense. They don’t have the money to pay for you or they ask for ridiculous things.

Of course, all the customer service gurus will tell you that the word, "no" should not be in your vocabulary. Nonsense; you need to learn how to say no. 

Learn About Banking and Merchant Accounts

You will need to set up a business bank account. If you plan on reselling products, you’ll need to set up a merchant account. This gives you the ability to accept credit cards.

Learn How to Manage Your Finances

You need to make sure you get paid, get paid well, and get paid fast. You’re going to need to figure out your expenses, know how to balance your checkbook, know about credit and collections and how that ties in to your whole billing and invoicing system.

Learn How to Track Prospects and Clients

You don’t want prospects or clients slipping through the cracks. You’ll need to set up simple databases to track your prospects and clients. Fortunately, there are many off-the-shelf products that can help you do just that.

Learn How to Delegate

Even if you plan on your IT consulting business being "just you" for a long time, delegating skills are still important. At some time in your business, you are probably going to end up working with some business partners and contractors.

You are going to have all kinds of vendor relationships. You need to know when to pass it off to them and you need to know how to successfully manage and delegate work.

The Bottom Line about IT Consulting

In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT consulting.  To learn more about IT consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

If you sell to government, non-profit or educational accounts, your firm may be accustomed to managing this next challenge. But, if sales to small businesses are your bread and butter, you may not as tuned into the "use it or lose it" purchasing philosophy in IT spending.

For example, if you’re the science department chairperson for a local school district, and you have a $500,000 budget this year for computer products, you "need" to spend it.

IT Spending: Use It or Lose It

If you don’t spend the money, any funds left over will not carry forward to next year. And, the board of education probably will believe your department no longer needs the full annual $500,000 budget for computer products. Your department’s allocation likely will be reduced going forward.

So there’s a year-end rush to deplete the technology budget account; regardless of whether the timing is right for getting the best purchase value or controlling computer support costs.

Small Businesses Often Fall Into The Same IT Spending Trip

Just because a client is having a "great" year, quarter or month, your client shouldn’t rush out to buy every PC gadget and gizmo he or she has ever dreamed of having or heard someone gushing about.

As your clients’ virtual CIO, when appropriate, you need to act as their IT "grown-up" (be a little more sensitive in how you assume this role though) and remind them of the priorities spelled out in their annual technology plan.

Make Sure Your Clients’ Plan Includes IT Spending

You have a written IT project plan for your clients, right? If not, a detailed project plan not only keeps your clients’ IT spending priorities straight, a project plan assures your company a steady stream of recurring consulting revenue throughout the year.

The Bottom Line about IT Spending

In this article, you’ve been introduced to the topic of IT spending.  To learn more about IT spending, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

For sweet spot customers, consider the services you can provide to these IT consulting clients. In this article, you’ll learn some of the more popular ones.

IT Consulting: What Website Design Programs Should You Know?

You should be familiar with at least basic web authoring tools to set up a simple web site for your IT consulting clients and you should certainly have one of your own. At a minimum, you should be familiar with, Microsoft Front page. If you are going to do more high end websites, Macromedia or Dreamweaver could be a good programs for you to learn at some point. 

IT Consulting: What about Terminal Services?

Real is still hot among small businesses.  You should be familiar with what is built into the window server. The fax machine may be going away, but the concept of faxing over the network is just as important as ever.

You should be comfortable with performance monitoring so you can so some tweaking and tune-ups to find out what is going on with different thresholds.  VPN and RADs, virtual private networking and remote access is still a real big issue especially with teleworkers and branch offices.

IT Consulting: What about Virus Protection?

You should be familiar with some of the more advanced virus protection applications – especially where they cross over multiple applications.  When they are specifically working with something group-wide like Exchange Server or IAS, you should be familiar with how to automate that within the management server. You should also be familiar with some of the more sophisticated firewall and intrusion detection software packages

The Bottom Line about IT Consulting

In this article, you’ve learned about IT consulting. To learn more about IT consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

What is a "micro-small business" looking for in a small business IT consulting professional? You need to know desktop PC hardware.  You need to be good on notebook PC’s, have a good comfort level with PDA’s and various kinds of printers, and be familiar with modems, dial-up, cable, DSL and power protection.

The Importance of a Strong Software Background

From a software standpoint, you want to be successful in this one to ten space as part of your business. Again, a strong software background should be a part of your small business IT consulting practice; it should not be the main focus of your business.

Be Familiar with Operating Systems

In terms of a software perspective, in small business IT consulting, you should be really comfortable with desktop and notebook operating systems, mainly Microsoft Windows.  However, depending on the industry and your specialty, the small business could be utilizing Mac or Linux operating systems. 

A small business IT consulting professional should be really comfortable with things like Microsoft Office, Quick Books, ACT and Goldmine.

Security and Networking Abilities

As a small business IT consulting professional, you should be really comfortable with anti-virus software as well as personal firewalls and remote control software.  From a networking standpoint, a micro-small business will require a small business IT consulting professional to be familiar with peer to peer lans.

A small business IT consulting professional should be comfortable configuring the popular Silho (ph) routers that are on the market for being able to share a DSL or cable connection. Additionally, you should be comfortable setting up live access points and adapters. 

The Bottom Line about Small Business IT Consulting

At a minimum the small business IT consulting professional should possess knowledge of 25 to 50% of the areas mentioned above if you want to be able to effectively support a micro-small business.  Keep in mind that in supporting a micro-small business, you are generally dealing with a non-technical small business owner.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to small business IT consulting.  To learn more about small business IT consulting click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

Be familiar with the kinds of general business coverage that are available to those starting a computer business.  An insurance expert can advise on the type of coverage that best suits the company’s needs.

General Insurance Coverage

Before starting a computer business, consider the different types of insurance coverage.  Liability, automobile, fire, and workers’ compensation are just a few available to a new entrepreneur.  Seek advice from an insurance agent to ensure that all details are considered.

Liability Insurance

This insurance covers any injuries incurred while on the business premises.  Premiums are determined based on the square footage of the office space.  The number of customer visits is also taken into consideration when determining the premium.

Automobile Insurance

When starting a computer business, consider auto insurance for employees who will be driving in the course of business.  Employees will need to be covered when driving company owned vehicles, as well as their personal cars.  Additional coverage is needed for any tools or materials that are transported in a company vehicle. 

Fire Insurance

When choosing fire insurance, opt for the replacement value coverage.  The policy will cover any fire damage to the equipment, inventory and the building. 

It is also advisable, when starting a computer business, to back up computerized files and data on a regular basis.  This information is irreplaceable after a fire.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Most states require that all businesses provide workers’ compensation to its employees.  This will provide death or disability benefits to employees or their survivors. 

State plans are available to those starting a computer business.  These plans are typically less expensive than those offered through an agent.

The Bottom Line about Starting a Computer Business

Starting a computer business requires general insurance coverage.   Some state governments require other kinds of insurance, such as life, health, or unemployment.  Contact an insurance expert to determine which coverage is best.

In this article, you’ve learned about starting a computer business. To learn more about starting a computer business click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

If you’re just getting started, what do you need to know about the business aspects of being their own boss? It really boils down to two very straightforward things. You need to have some basic business skills and knowledge and you need the motivation to become a computer consultant.

Motivation

You have to really want to become a computer consultant badly. Think about anything you’ve ever really achieved in life. Whether it’s graduating from school or passing a test. Maybe it was getting your driver’s license, getting married, maybe buying your first car or home, maybe becoming a parent.

Whatever it is, it took a lot of motivation and determination. There’s always going to be ups and downs, some tough days and some tough weeks, but in most cases it’s probably going to be well worth it in the end. There are tools and tips you can use, but ultimately the drive and the desire has to come from within.

Step By Step Plan

The second part is knowing the key steps that you need to do week by week as you get through your first few months. You need to know what to get for your office, what to have in the car with you, what to do when you’re setting up credit policies, what to do to scope out the competition, what to charge, who to network with, who’s worth sucking up to and know who you’re wasting time with. All these things can be taught.

You’ll need to figure out your expenses, what you need to bill out at, how to organize everything, what to buy, and probably just as important, what not to buy. You’ll need to figure out how to work more efficiently, get paid for your time and get paid well for your time working as a computer consultant. The great part is that these are all very teachable things.

You Can Become a Computer Consultant

If you manage to master various software applications and network operating systems and hardware devices over the years you can definitely get your hands around a handful of important business skills that you need to become a computer consultant.
 
The Bottom Line about becoming a Computer Consultant

In this article, you’ve been introduced to becoming a computer consultant. To learn more about becoming a computer consultant, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.