Small Biz Tech Talk ™

A majority of successful computer consultants working with small businesses act as virtual IT departments for their customers and clients. Offering virtual IT to customers allows for steadier business that benefits consultants and customers.

Virtual IT:  A Definition

Virtual IT means that you become your clients’ IT department instead of just selling products and services.  As a virtual IT specialist, you spend your time selecting and designing networks, solving business problems and deciding how technology will be applied to bring resources together into one package.  You become a part-time IT manager or virtual CIO.

Virtual IT is a great way to offer a technical services program for small businesses to help them get what they need without the expense of a full-time IT staff.  

How is Virtual IT Provided for Clients?

In order to provide the best virtual IT you have to be aware of the typical solutions for small businesses.  As an example, you can figure out what typical types of services you can sell to existing clients and future clients and what other opportunities are out there.

Growing Relationships with Virtual IT

Add value to all types of customers and clients, from new to existing and everything in between.  You need to go beyond selling the initial network installation, getting it installed and stepping out in hopes everything will work properly.  

You can’t wait for your customers to call you; instead, you have to offer virtual IT regularly to help you and your clients stop emergencies before they happen.  Virtual IT will help make your business more profitable and make for less stress and more trust in the long run.  

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

The delay of the release of Windows Vista has allowed competitors to enter the market and has solution providers questioning whether they can deliver a comparable product.  Computer business Novell is working hard to seize the desktop operating system market with its release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, an operating system trying to edge out Microsoft’s product by beating it in cost, manageability and features offered.

Solution providers and other experts are still asking whether the channel is ready for a Linux desktop to replace Windows, or better yet whether the Linux system itself is ready to enter the channel.  SUSE is set to be available by mid-July, 2007 whereas Vista will be released in January.

System builders and solution providers are already cautioning users about the new SUSE Linux, despite raving about its inexpensive $50 price tag, which comes in at $450 less than Windows XP with Office.  Many do not believe that there will be a grand migration from Microsoft to Linux, at least not immediately.

According to solution providers, SUSE has the feature set, compatibility and flexibility to fulfill the needs of a majority of corporate desktop users.  Solution providers feel they can count on Linux to fill the gaps previously filled only by Microsoft products.  However, there will be challenges.  Channel partners will need to train employees and customers on Linux, and there is a chance that applications may not exist in Linux that can truly meet line-of-business needs.  Simply put, there will be a significant learning curve to deal with before Linux reigns, and many will have a hard time giving up their friend Microsoft.  However, as son as Microsoft stops supporting XP, this could all change.      

Those looking to find out a feature-by-feature analysis of the new SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 as reviewed by solution providers can reference the linked article, which analyzes the operating system by categories such as ease of installation, basic feature set, user experience, administrator experience, network, security, add-ons and third-party applications and others.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

You need to prepare for the initial IT sales call so you can be aware of your prospect’s needs and design a pitch that will make him/her aware of your services.  Before you make that first IT sales call, get ready for meeting a potential client for the first time with the following tips.

IT Sales is Dependent Upon Doing Homework

Before you get to the first IT sales call with a prospect, do your homework.  It might only take you 10-15 minutes to determine whether a prospect is worth the two – four hours it will take you to drive out and have a meeting, which is well worth the time.

Before you even get to the point of research, make sure you qualify your prospect to determine that all the time you might spend will be wise.  Once in the IT sales meeting make sure you ask questions about size, platform and industry.

IT Sales:  Services vs. Products

You need to research your prospect ahead of time and manage their expectations right away.  They should know you are selling your expertise and your sophisticated solutions and not just a machine or computer.  You can’t build a successful IT business without focusing on services instead of products.

If you want to sell products as part of your IT business such as white boxes, notebooks or web licenses, feel free, but this should not be the focus of IT sales.  Your prospects should know you are people-oriented and interested in real service.

Choosing Clients

Prospects should know you are a service provider at the start of your relationship.  You need to interview potential clients as diligently as they should interview you during the first IT sales call.  If you are selective, you will find clients you like to work with that will be in business with you on a long-term basis.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101

Almost every business today could use the expertise of a computer consulting firm.  The following tips can help even the most technologically-challenged business owners make the right choice when hiring someone to handle IT needs.  

Many small businesses don’t know how to handle impossible computer consulting firms, which they end up hiring because they don’t know what to look for in the first place.  Uncovering potential issues can help you avoid issues in the future and lead to a healthy relationship with a good provider.  Ask basic questions to get started interviewing potential computer consulting support.

1.    Are you part-time or full time?  Find out of the computer consulting firm has a day job or if the person is a moonlighter.  

2.    Are you a solo practitioner or do you run a true computer consulting business?  If the consultant keeps referring to “we,” ask about the other people at the company.  Are they employees or contractors?  What are their names and in what do they specialize?  How long have they been working with the computer consulting firm, and will they be involved in this specific account?

3.    What is the size of your typical consulting client?  Ask the prospective computer consulting firm how big its typical client is in terms of PCs, employees and annual revenue.  

4.    Are you a generalist or a specialist?  Ask about industries and vertical markets along with specific software applications and other aspects.  Also ask if there are certain products and services that the company avoids, or if the company is tied to specific hardware, software or services vendors.

These questions can get you started in the process of looking for a computer consulting firm to suit your business.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Joshua Feinberg, author of the Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit, will be speaking next Tuesday, June 27 at the Ziff Davis Media SMB Virtual Tradeshow: "The World is Flat – Using Technology to Compete on a Grander Scale".

At 5pm EDT on Tuesday, June 27, Joshua Feinberg will be part of a panel discussion on how SMBs can proactively protect their data from various threats and how to prepare for the next big data disaster.

Also on the panel are Donna Childs, Co-author, "Contingency Planning and Disaster Recovery: A Small Business Guide" and Tom Serio, Director Business Continuity Management for Office Depot. The moderator is Pam Schancupp, Executive Editor, Ziff Davis Media eSeminars.

Joshua Feinberg will also be a providing a complimentary special report to attendees on how to disaster-proof your small business computer systems.

To sign-up for "Hot Button Panel 3: You Get What You Pay For: Disaster Recovery and Continuity Strategies That May Save Your Business", visit smb.eseminarslive.com/ and click on the Registration link at the top of the page.

To learn more about Joshua Feinberg, author of the Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit, visit www.joshuafeinberg.com/
 

As a provider of computer consulting services, you will want to communicate to prospects and/or clients that anyone, even with the most rudimentary PC skills, who has physical access to a peer-to-peer server, usually has access to every file and folder on that server.

Although many people mistakenly think that the Microsoft Windows 9x/Me logon dialog box provides protection, they are wrong and that misperception can be extremely dangerous.

Address Client Skepticism about Protecting their Files

If your computer consulting services prospect or client is in disbelief, this vulnerability is very easy to demonstrate in about 90 seconds. With a boot disk, a press of the Escape key, or a boot up into Safe Mode, an unauthorized user with no operating system knowledge can "compromise" the entire Microsoft Windows 9x/Me server in just a few seconds.

For your computer consulting services, clients a dedicated server system can enforce a mandatory logon and provide local file level security. In addition, each user account that needs interactive logon access to the server must be explicitly granted that right.

A dedicated server console can also be "locked" when you walk away from the server, either manually or through a time activated screen saver.

Auditing Shared File and Printer Resources

With very minimal effort and no additional software, your computer consulting services clients can use a dedicated server operating system to audit usage of any shared file, folder or printer. Auditing can be especially helpful for tracking use of sensitive files such as payroll, credit card data, R&D documents and proprietary plans.

Auditing is also valuable for tracking usage of expensive-to-operate resources such as a color laser printer or check printer. A Microsoft Windows 9x/Me peer-to-peer server does not have these integrated auditing capabilities.

The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting Services

As a provider of computer consulting services, it is important to address the importance of protecting and auditing sensitive information when meeting with prospects or clients.

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

Most small business owners equate expenses with overhead items and capital expenditures such as buying a PC, notebook, printer, modem or version upgrade to Microsoft Office XP. These kind of small business owners often desperately need your computer consulting business assistance to see the big picture and the total solution.

In order to help your prospects and clients leverage their IT infrastructure, you need to elevate your price quotes, proposals and invoices from transaction status to investment.

Your Computer Consulting Business as an Investment

An investment usually has at least the perception of quantifiable and somewhat immediately measurable benefits. If you’re still proposing individual hardware and software purchase recommendations, it’s time to move your sales pitch toward a more cohesive, proactive technology plan – of which your proposed small business network becomes "mission control". 

Small business IT expenses tend to be somewhat random and haphazard.  When technology is looked at as overhead, purchases are often made only when there’s an emergency.
 
Have a Plan

When IT investments are made, on the other hand, there’s a written plan of attack. This is the project plan that your computer consulting business started developing during your initial consultation and IT audit for how standards are supported, how purchases are made, how projects are implemented and how pilots are rolled into production use.

Take the results of the IT audit, or similar fact-finding mission, and be proactive. To run a successful computer consulting business, you must help your small business clients get out of the fire extinguisher mode.

Understanding Client’s Downtime Costs

While the investments associated with data backup, power protection or virus protection certainly are not trivial, they often become quite small in the whole scheme of things — when you compare costs to the value of the data being stored and the potential business impact if the data were partially or completely lost. It’s crucial for you to understand your computer consulting business’ client’s true costs of downtime.

It’s much easier to protect data when the data is well organized. In many small businesses, you’ll find critical data being stored on an individual’s local "c:" drive. Because the data is so decentralized, it’s nearly impossible to adequately protect the valuable information.

The Bottom Line about the Computer Consulting Business

Alternatively, data may be stored on a server in a disorganized fashion, making it difficult for others in the company to locate the files at a later date. You can add tremendous value to the installation, and help increase ROI on your client’s networking investment, by devising a well-organized file, folder, and share structure.

In this article, you’ve learned about the computer consulting business. To learn more about the computer 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.

If you’re new to small business consulting, you may think there is no such thing as a prospect or client being too enthusiastic about jumping headfirst into a major IT project. Enthusiasm is a good thing when it comes to signing your firm’s small business consulting contract, right? Well, not always.

Manage Clients’ Optimism

Although hype isn’t exactly a sales obstacle, you need to manage client expectations regarding “unjustified” optimism at your earliest opportunity.  During small business consulting projects, there is often a need to combat hype with vertical industry software solutions.

Keeping Client’s Expectations Realistic

The small business owner or manager may return from a trade show with a gorgeous glossy brochure (and mouse pad) for an industry-specific application. Since your small business consulting client thinks the application is the best software since Lotus 1-2-3, he is ready to open up his firm’s checkbook — but wants to run the application by the internal guru and your small business consulting firm, first.

Although the ISV’s marketing literature and Web site seem quite professional, upon further investigation you learn this $5,000 per seat package is built on an MS-DOS-based Clipper database engine (circa 1991).

The Bottom Line about Small Business Consulting

While your client might have been impressed initially with the demo at the trade show, you need to overcome the hype surrounding the application and save your client from making a sizable investment in an application that should’ve been retired or supplanted years ago.

Otherwise, your prospect or client may end up squandering scarce IT budgetary resources that could be better invested in the network solution that you’re recommending.

In this article, you’ve learned about small business consulting. To learn more about small business 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’re new to small business consulting, you may think there is no such thing as a prospect or client being too enthusiastic about jumping headfirst into a major IT project. Enthusiasm is a good thing when it comes to signing your firm’s small business consulting contract, right? Well, not always.

Manage Clients’ Optimism

Although hype isn’t exactly a sales obstacle, you need to manage client expectations regarding "unjustified" optimism at your earliest opportunity.  During small business consulting projects, there is often a need to combat hype with vertical industry software solutions.

Keeping Client’s Expectations Realistic

The small business owner or manager may return from a trade show with a gorgeous glossy brochure (and mouse pad) for an industry-specific application. Since your small business consulting client thinks the application is the best software since Lotus 1-2-3, he is ready to open up his firm’s checkbook — but wants to run the application by the internal guru and your small business consulting firm, first.

Although the ISV’s marketing literature and Web site seem quite professional, upon further investigation you learn this $5,000 per seat package is built on an MS-DOS-based Clipper database engine (circa 1991).

The Bottom Line about Small Business Consulting

While your client might have been impressed initially with the demo at the trade show, you need to overcome the hype surrounding the application and save your client from making a sizable investment in an application that should’ve been retired or supplanted years ago.

Otherwise, your prospect or client may end up squandering scarce IT budgetary resources that could be better invested in the network solution that you’re recommending.

In this article, you’ve learned about small business consulting. To learn more about small business 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 is very important to educate your small business prospects and clients on key small business networking terms and buzzwords.  After all, in order to "win them over," you need to be speaking the same language.

In fact, you may even want to prepare a "cheat sheet", based on the below definitions, to help you in your prospect and client pre-sales activities.

If you’d like to order a license to reproduce these networking terms for client sales literature, please contact questions@ComputerConsulting101.com and put "Licensing Your LAN Buzzwords" in the subject line.

• 802.11a – wireless Ethernet standard that allows for data networking transmission at up to 54Mbps; operates in the 5-6Ghz range.
• 802.11b – most mature of the widely available wireless Ethernet standards that allows for data networking transmission at up to 11Mbps; ; also commonly referred to as a “WiFi”; operates in the 2.4Ghz range
• 802.11g – newest in-progress wireless Ethernet standard that promises to allow for data networking transmission at up to 54Mbps, operates in the same 2.4Ghz range as 802.11b-based Wireless Ethernet networks.
• CAT5 (Category 5 Cable) – copper, unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cabling that can support voice and data communications at speeds up to 100Mbps and 1000Mbps for Ethernet networking.
• Client/Server Network – a network in which a dedicated server is used to share resources.
• Ethernet Network Adapter – due to the market dominance of Ethernet networks, an Ethernet network adapter has become largely synonymous with the more general term network adapter or network interface card.
• IDE (integrated drive electronics) is a more mainstream, lower-cost interface (than SCSI) for connecting internal peripherals — generally hard drives, CD-ROM drives and tape backup drives.
• LAN (Local Area Network) – set of computer systems and peripheral devices connected for sharing resources and providing near instantaneous communications; today’s small business LANs are typically physically connected using Ethernet network adapters and Category 5 cabling; when extended to one or more additional geographic locations, can become a metropolitan area network (MAN) or wide area network (WAN).
• Network Integrator – a computer services business that designs, installs and maintains heterogeneous computer systems and software; many computer consultants are also network integrators (and vice versa).

The Bottom Line about Networking Terms

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

Because many handheld devices or PDAs have the ability to connect to your clients’ LANs (either directly or indirectly), you need to consider PDA remote access, just as you would any other remote device, such as an employee’s home computer or a company-owned notebook.

This also should include a thorough discussion of what sensitive data can be stored on a handheld device, given that the pocket-sized PDA devices are inherently vulnerable to theft.

Establish Backup Procedures

In the same context of data security, be sure to establish some kind of backup procedures. We’ve all heard the horror stories of handheld device users losing three years of appointments and 2,000 customer names that were stored on their PDA and not backed up anywhere else. Don’t let your clients become one of these statistics.

Desktop Connectivity

Also think about how your clients’ internal gurus or your consulting firm will assist users in connecting their handheld devices to their office PCs.  Yes, your clients could adopt a policy banning PDAs from the office entirely, or making users responsible for their own PDA-related support issues, but these extreme approaches may not be practical.

After all, handheld devices are becoming a major competitive force that others in your clients’ industries may be rushing to integrate into their information technology toolkit.

Employees Can Cause Other Damage

In addition, your clients probably don’t want to leave employees to install and support their own PDA desktop connectivity, unless they are very PC savvy. All too often, a user inadvertently will break a multitude of key software configurations while accepting default installation settings.

If your clients are determined to have users tap the power and flexibility of handheld devices or PDAs, they’ll need someone PC savvy (your firm or an internal guru) managing these installations.

The Bottom Line about Handheld Devices

In this article, you’ve learned about the handheld device. To learn more about the handheld device 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.

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.

Sweet spot small businesses, have from 10-50 PCs and do anywhere from a million to 10 million in annual revenue (U.S. Dollars). They get their IT support in several different places, which you’ll learn about in this article.

Sweet spot businesses have their internal gurus. Remember that internal gurus are the people in small businesses who tend to more about PCs than everyone else. They are often the first responders when IT support is needed.

Internal Gurus Have other Jobs

Because of that, even though dealing with the PCs is not their real job, everyone tends to yell for them when the laser printer jams or the accounting software gets corrupted, or the internet connection goes down. 

They yell for the gurus and they spring up from their regular job, whether they are office managers, admin people, comptrollers, bookkeepers, etc.

Some professions are more natural fits for gurus who provide IT support. These are the people you want to be buddying up with to get your foot in the door.  Internal gurus are still really big with sweet spots.  Moonlighting IT professionals are also still really big in the sweet spot.

Other Places Sweet Spot Businesses Get IT Support

Sweet spot business also often start working with valuated resellers, VARS, solution providers, network integrators, professional full time consultants and small consulting firms as well as ISV, independent software vendors.  Especially niche ISVs for different industries, different types of software applications.

Sweet spot small businesses a lot of time start working with accounting firms that do IT support and accounting support.  These firms can be a great source of referrals a great contact for you to have, but they can also be your competitors.   

The Bottom Line about IT Support

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

When targeting the sweet spot small businesses, IT consultants should know the company will desire someone with strong hardware skills.  As an IT consultant, you should know about RAID and multi-port communications adapters.

Background Needed

IT consultants targeting sweet spot small businesses should be comfortable with storage-attached networks, network-attached storage, basic mid-range data back up systems, DAT, DL2, UPS’s, power protection devices, routers, CSU’s, VSU’s, advance wi-fi hardware, and things that support roaming and management.

Knowing the Systems

The bigger part of supporting sweet spot small businesses effectively deals with networking software. An IT consultant targeting these businesses should know the software and have strong networking skills. 

In addition to this, you need to be extremely familiar with the server OS’s. That’s a big part of what they’re hiring you for; the networking design, installation and ongoing support and maintenance.

Know What They’re Using

IT consultants should be familiar with Microsoft Windows server, Microsoft Small Business server, Novell Netware, Novell Small Business Suite and Red Hat. Also, client server messaging is huge, so platforms like Microsoft Exchange server and Novell GroupWise may be widely used in this environment.

Client server accounting applications start to become big in this environment.  Additionally, CRM applications, web servers like Microsoft IS, and Apache are often utilized by these small businesses.

Other Tools

IT consultants, targeting this environment, should be familiar with web authoring tools like Microsoft Front Page and Macromedia Dream Weaver. An IT consultant serving small businesses using Windows should be comfortable with terminal services. Network faxing, performance monitoring, virtual private networking, BPM’s and RAX are pretty important as well.

IT consultants dealing with small businesses should be comfortable with advanced virus protection. You should also be very familiar with security, like intrusion detection and firewalls.

The Bottom Line about IT Consultants

To support sweet spot small businesses effectively, IT consultants should be familiar with at least 25 to 50% of the things mentioned above.  It is recommended that you have a minimum of 50% of the above skills to effectively support these small businesses.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT consultants.  To learn more about IT consultants, 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.

IT consulting for micro businesses is a good starting point for many IT professionals. In addition to the general hardware and software, and peer-to peer networking, you’ll need to be familiar with some additional items. In this article, you’ll learn what other skills you need for micro business IT consulting.

When providing IT consulting to micro small businesses, you will occasionally get requests for support of the big competitors of the basic Windows software for their competiton. Some of these include Goldmine and other kinds of tech management or Peachtree – another accounting package.

Virus protection is also real important, so make sure you are comfortable with McAfee and Norton.  Make sure you are comfortable with personal firewalls like Zone Alarm, and Norton personal firewall as well as remote control packages like PC anywhere. 

Micro Small Business Networking Needs

You need to be comfortable with working and setting up basic peer to peer LANs to share a drive, to share a CD-ROM, to share a printer, to share internet access, and share ICS kind of stuff. You should be pretty comfortable with the inexpensive routers that share a broadband connection among a whole office and have the little built in 10/100 switch and you can scale it up there.

With IT consulting, you should also have some familiarity with some Y-5 products, the wireless products that allow you to do some limited amounts of wireless access, especially the entry level ones you find in a lot of office supply superstores and warehouse clubs.

The Bottom Line about IT Consulting

Do you need to know all of these to provide IT consulting micro small businesses? Preferably you should know half or more.  So in other words there are like 13-14 things on the list, so if you know 4 or 5 of them you are kind of ok, you should ideally know half of them or more.

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.

Computer franchises offer many benefits and reduce your start-up risks. If you are ready to start your own business, you may want to consider computer franchises.

Computer franchises appeal to many people who are looking to start up their own business.  Purchasing computer franchises can reduce many of the risks that are encountered in a start-up business.  A new owner who needs assistance with marketing, financing, or training receives all of the necessary resources from his computer franchises.

Benefits of Computer Franchises

There are several benefits to buying computer franchises.  You are obtaining an established product and learning proven operating procedures. Training, advertising, and other important advice is also available. The franchise fee will cover all of these aspects allowing the new owner to focus on making a profit as soon as possible.

After all, this is what owning your business is all about!  In fact, franchises have a significantly lower failure rate than other start-up businesses.  So, if you’re ready to make it on your own, review the benefits and consider computer franchises.

Established Product

One benefit of obtaining computer franchises is the ability to purchase the rights to an established product or service. You will have a legal right to use the trademark, name or advertising symbol.  Customers will already know to expect the excellent quality and service that is associated with your business name, shortening the amount of time it takes for you to get your business underway.

Standard Operating Procedures

A franchise also supplies a new owner with an operating manual.  All procedures are spelled out eliminating the trial and error that faces most new business start-ups.  You’ll know what products and supplies are in demand or how to handle sales or service calls.  Everything you need to know to run your new computer franchises will be available.  Help is only a phone call away!

Training and Marketing

One unique advantage to owning computer franchises is the ongoing support from the company.  You will be advised on finding a location, management, marketing techniques, hiring personnel, and training employees.  Some companies even offer newsletters or workshops to help enhance your business.

Whether you choose to buy computer franchises or not, just remember that a lot of time, energy and financial commitment are expected.  Buying computer franchises will not make the job easy, but it will relieve some of the stress and reduce your risks!

The Bottom Line about Computer Franchises

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

Want to sell more high-margin, value-added networking services in 2006?

Want a really easy way to sell TONS of high-margin, value-added networking services to your clients this year?

Right before the holidays, Joshua Feinberg was interviewed for an article in CMP’s Networking Pipeline / Small Biz Pipeline (same publishers as CRN and VARBusiness) on "10 Ways To Juice Up Your Network".

The excellent article by Phil Britt ran earlier this month and provides you with a great checklist of 10 very simple ways to sell more high-margin, value-added networking services to your small business clients this year.

Go read it, print it out and make sure YOUR marketing plans for 2006 include offering these virtual IT services to YOUR small business clients.

Here’s to selling more high-margin, value-added networking services in 2006!

Software service contracts are offered by the big and small players in the computer industry. In this article you’ll learn what this means to you. Generally, the bigger players offer support with purchases of their software. The smaller players offer support, training and troubleshooting as part of a larger and more comprehensive package of software service contracts.

What Does The Future Hold?

So with all of these products and systems being sold and with all of these contracts including software service contracts being offered, what does the future look like for some of the top leaders in the computer industry and what does it mean to you?

From industry reports, it appears that Apple is leading the way with their iPod, other innovations and standard computer offerings. Authorized dealers offer product sales as well as software service contracts and other hardware warranties.

The future is promising for Dell which is one of the largest computer companies in the world. Dell offers a very limited range and but delivers quality products within this range. Dell does not offer software service contracts itself, but if a consumer buys a package from a retailer with a software bundle they can usually take up some sort of software service contracts from the retailer.

The Biggest Technology Merger on Record

HP has undergone a merger which has in some ways changed the way they do business and what they offer to their customers. In 2002, HP merged with Compaq which was the largest technology merger in the history of the IT industry. HP offers hardware, software and infrastructure management solutions to its clients. Naturally it offers a range of support contracts including software service contracts.

The Bottom Line about Software Service Contracts

 In this article you’ve learned more about software service contracts and how the offerings of the players in the computer industry are influencing them. To learn more about software service contracts, click here now to get access to free tips and an audio training excerpt on software service contracts.