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Joshua Feinberg Profile and Articles
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201). Consulting Rates - What Are My Competitors Charging?
Consulting rates of your competitors provide an excellent starting point for your own billing rate analysis. If you know you competitor's consulting rates you can analyze various rate scenarios within a tighter range. You don't want to under or over price your own services and this information gives you valuable insight into what your target clients are currently willing to pay.
202). Promotion Tools - What Will Work The Best?
Promotion tools come in all different shapes and sizes. They also have different prices and rates of effectiveness. Regardless, the promotion tools you use have one purpose: They must promote your business and get your name out there.
Some of these promotion tools will work extremely well; some of them work some of the time, and some of them don't tend to work well at all.
203). Marketing and Promotion - Plan and Track Your Expenses
Marketing and promotion expenses are one of the bigger outflows that you need to contend with. From the start you should be thinking about putting aside cash for marketing and promotion expenses on a regular basis. If you manage it properly, your marketing and promotion expense is more of an investment than an expense.
When you start planning your marketing and promotion expense, you should think about tracking every dollar that you put in.
204). Time and Billing - Three Methods, Three Results
Time and billing issues can cause the single fastest way to put yourself out of business overnight or put yourself in the position of financial strain. Many people neglect to manage their time and billing properly and they pay for it in the end.
Time and billing entails payment tracking and invoicing. If you do it right you will get paid well and get paid fast.
205). Invoicing in a Successful Computer Consultancy
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.
206). Time Management Tips For The Busy Computer Consultant
Time management tips are essential for busy computer consultants. Time gets eaten up by everything from administrative activities to traveling to and from clients. We have found that there are three really important time management tips that you should be aware of.
Time Management Tip #1
Limit the Time You Spend Reading IT Related Material
As a computer consultant you are running a business and that means you need to spend your time on revenue generating activities.
207). Business Organizations - Finding The Best Ones To Join
Business organizations are a great place to do some relationship marketing. By joining business organizations you meet key business owners and leaders in your community. By getting active in these business organizations you can use relationship marketing to its full potential.
The most common business organization we think of joining is the Chamber of Commerce.
208). Business Referrals: Use Your IT Consultant Network
Business referrals are a critical aspect of a successful IT Consulting business. The question is though, "How do you get set up for business referrals?" IT Consultants who are in the know, use their network to get the referrals they need.
Business Referral Sources
Some of the best business referrals come from niche technology providers. The providers who don't do virtual IT services and are limited in scope.
209). Mingle for Business Success
Mingling is an important business skill in your new computer consulting business. In fact two of the most important marketing activities you will do are networking and relationship marketing. Mingling is key to your success with both of these.
Even if you don't feel confident with social mingling, you need to do it. It is not an option. Some of your most important contacts will come from chance encounters at networking events.
210). Direct Mail Campaigns Versus Relationship Marketing
Direct mail campaigns are the first marketing strategy most new Network Consultants think of. Unfortunately, direct mail campaigns are not always the most efficient or cost effective means of advertising; especially when you are first starting out.
Direct Mail Campaign Comparison
To launch a direct mail campaign you typically use postcards. Think about how many postcards you would have to mail out to get 100 people’s attention for a few minutes.
211). Relationship Marketing - A MUST For Your Computer Business
Relationship marketing is a better way to market. It benefits you and it benefits your prospects. Producing a win win situation is always advantageous so relationship marketing just makes good common sense.
What does relationship marketing mean for your consulting firm?
For starters relationship marketing creates a lot less sales resistance. The trust has already been established.
212). Credibility Is Key For Successful IT Integrators
Credibility is an overused buzz word but it is so critical to business success that it can't be overlooked. As an IT Integrator you need to be seen as having high credibility. This is what will set you apart from your competitors.
Building credibility however, doesn't come overnight. To build up your credibility stock you need to get involved in the community.
213). Training Seminars - Benefits For Computer Services Businesses
Training seminars provide many benefits to your computer services business. They are one of the best ways to increase your network. Training seminars also allow you to highlight your unique skills and abilities to a large number of people all at one time.
Sponsoring a training seminar however, takes a lot of commitment. They are not easy to organize and execute but the payoffs are typically worth it.
214). Training Seminar Tips and Tricks For Solutions Providers Part 2
Training seminars are a savvy marketing strategy. As a Solutions Provider they warrant serious consideration. Hosting a successful training seminar, however, requires a lot of work and planning. Last time we talked about some ideas for getting the most out of your training seminars. Here we present some more tips and tricks and some ideas on how to decide who to invite and how to invite them.
215). Computer Repair Prices: Control for the Customer
Computer repair prices are ruled by both the competition and the owner's specific needs. But in reality, consumers should not have very much control over prices. If you present the customer with choices about computer repair prices, he will feel like his needs are being better met. And a satisfied customer will bring more future business.
Choosing The Service
Most customers will enjoy being able to choose whether or not to have repair services done.
216). Media Publicity - Get Reporters on Your Side
Media publicity is something you want to generate. It's free and it gets you the type of exposure most people pay a lot of money for. The key with media publicity is that you can use it for your own publicity over and over again.
Here are some ways to become savvy around reporters that will maximize your opportunities for media coverage.
To garner media publicity you have to be perceived as an expert source.
217). Computer Franchises: Choosing the Right One for You
Computer franchises can be found everywhere in the country. Because risks are a part of investment in computer franchises, you want to make sure you consider all factors to make sure you are completely prepared for all the challenges.
Things To Consider When Purchasing A Franchise
A lot of people falsely think that buying computer franchises guarantees a winning business situation.
218). Computer Networking Business Start-up and Hiring Key Employees
Hiring employees in the computer networking business is an exact science. Many computer networking business owners don't have the knowledge required to hire the best and most experienced employees, even though hiring these people is one of the most beneficial factors of business growth. There is a formula to follow that can help you, as a business owner hire the right employees for your computer networking business.
219). Computer Service Agreements: Looking Beyond the First Find
It seems that everyone is offering computer service agreements. Most IT consulting firms are capable of telling you what you need for your company, but not so many can actually combine expertise and hands-on training with invaluable diagnostic tools and speedy service all at prices your company can afford. These important attributes are what you should look for in your computer service agreements.
220). Reliable IT Service Contracts
Good IT service contracts can give small businesses peace of mind and the knowledge they have dependable support in case of a computer emergency. Often simple issues such as one small bit of badly written code or a computer virus can bog down a whole office. Since your time is valuable, you need the right help easily accessible so you don't miss a beat.
221). IT Service Agreements: The Offer is About Timing
The best time to offer IT service agreements to clients is immediately following emergency service calls. Since you've just rescued a client, you are in their best graces, and they are at their highest point of liking you, knowing you and trusting you, three critical elements that make up a good client-IT professional relationship.
Damage Control For The Future
Right after you handle an emergency, a client is most interested in talking about how to prevent future panic, since the feeling of helplessness and frustration is fresh in his mind.
222). Computer Repair Franchises: Evaluating a Site
Computer repair franchises need a good location to enjoy success. Finding the best site involves several factors, and many franchisors are happy to help prospective owners weigh different criteria and use all available resources before choosing a site.
The following factors are critical to location choice for computer repair franchises: population density; traffic; competition; appearance; and visibility.
223). Computer Reseller Business: The Components of Online Pricing
Many professionals today are enlisting the support of those in the computer reseller business, and the Internet has become an excellent tool for any computer reseller business looking to market products and services. Websites and online auctions help make products visible to people outside the computer reseller business' immediate community.
Components of Internet Pricing
Internet pricing involves several different factors: price; packaging; and delivery.
224). Computer Service Company Motivational Tips
Praise is very important to master for computer service company managers. When it is not used in the right way, it can be detrimental to a computer service company. There are five tips to help managers effectively deliver praise: use praise sparingly; be sincere; specify; ask for advice; praise in public. As a computer service company manager, you want to deliver praise in a way that will be perceived by employees as honest and inspiring.
225). Tips for Succeeding as an IT Consultant
Technological advances have made IT consultant work a viable option for many with computer skills. Though starting a life as an IT consultant, like making any other business move involves risks, it has many benefits. As an IT consultant just starting out, you will undoubtedly run into the situation of having the expertise but no clients. By adhering to the following tips, you can be successfully self-employed as an IT consultant.
226). Defining Terms of IT Service Agreements
In order to gain the trust of your customers, you need to plan in advance for IT service agreements. Important items such as clear benefits and prices will help you sell IT service agreements to future clients.
Rate Cards
A rate card is simply a short, one-page sheet that displays your typical prices in contrast to prices you offer under IT service agreements.
227). Partnering and the Prospecting List
Creating a partner prospecting list will help you with your partnering goal. A prospecting list can be created quite easily. Simply write down the next 12 months on a piece of paper, starting with the current month. For each month, write down the following:
1. The name of a person
2. The name of a company
3. The type of role the company or person plays.
228). Computer Service Repair and Expenses
In the computer service repair business, there are many expenses. If you can control the expenses of your computer service repair business, your profits will be increased. Increasing prices or decreasing expenses can show instant results for your clients and for your entire business. If you learn to control your expenses, you will better be able to predict and manage your cash flow.
229). IT Consultants: Recommending Video Monitors and PCs
Most PC vendors will give good prices to consumers that buy monitors at the same time as desktop PCs. IT consultants that normally recommend brand name PC products should keep certain things in mind when talking to their clients.
Actual Cost For Your Clients
As IT consultants, you should price every PC both with and without the monitor to gauge what clients are actually paying.
230). Computer Consulting: Balancing Your Portfolio
Do you have a balanced portfolio in your computer consulting business? Target 70% of your businesses in the small business state.
Keep a small amount of your business dealing with home networks and the consumer side and then have 5-15% of your business with much larger businesses. This setup works for many computer consulting professionals but it all depends upon where you want to take your business.
231). IT Consultants: Save Your Clients from Themselves
As professional IT consultants, don’t let your clients be the first on the block to buy something new, unless they have a really good reason and can cost-justify the bleeding-edge purchases.
"Latest and Greatest" Isn't Always the Best Choice
While buying the “latest and greatest” does have its time and place, this kind of purchasing strategy really puts your neck on the line and can rapidly deplete your clients’ limited technology budgets – which of course they need to conserve to afford your expert guidance.
232). Small Business IT Consulting: What Micro Small Business Look For
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.
233). Small Business IT Consulting: The Micro Small Business Environment
One hard to target market for small business IT consulting is the "micro-small businesses"; those that have a single-digit number of PC’s - anywhere from one to nine PC’s. These micro-small businesses can provide, depending on the metro area where you’re located, $50 to $75 an hour or $75 to $90 (at the absolute most) for small business IT consulting work.
234). IT Spending: Your Clients' Purchases Require Planning
You need to be the voice of reason when it comes to the IT spending habits of your clients. You may encounter a "use it or lose it" mentality, or your clients may want compress all of their PC-related purchases into a brief window.
This usually happens when the owner of the company may be in a good mood and approachable about technology spending.
Whimsical IT Spending is Not a Good Idea.
235). IT Consulting: What Non-IT Skills Do You Need?
IT consulting is more than just knowing all about laptops and servers. To be successful, you need to have business skills, too. This article will give you some examples of skills you need for your IT consulting business.
Good Data Management Will Keep You Organized
You should have strong spreadsheet skills and hopefully know Excel pretty well. There will be all kinds of data you will need to put together for internal use and for client’s use.
236). IT Consulting: You Need More Than Just Technical Skills
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.
237). IT Consulting: Why The Sweet Spot Makes Sense
In the sweet spot of small business IT consulting, you will be taking over anything and everything related to IT. You are expected to know a little about a lot of different things, but most of all, you are expected to be very resourceful and to know where to get the answers to make things happen on a multi-vendor platform project.
The Sweet Spot is a Great Starting Point
For a lot of people who are starting out, sweet spot small business makes the most sense.
238). IT Spending: Reallocate Your Clients’ PC Hardware Budgets
If your clients’ recent financial results have been so spectacular that they feel now is the time to make significant technology investments in their companies, consider the following alternatives to solely devoting their IT spending to PC hardware purchases.
Influencing What Your Clients Do with Budget Surpluses
Think about encouraging clients to reallocate the surplus funds for IT spending on something else technology-related that they really need.
239). IT Consultant: Do You Have These Personality Traits?
Sure, you need technical skills. But to be a successful IT consultant, you also need to be able to work well with people. In this article, you'll learn about some of the personality traits that make for a successful IT consultant.
IT Consultant Traits: Are You Assertive?
You need to be assertive, but not overly obnoxious. That is a fine line to walk.
240). Computer Consulting Business: Determining Client Criteria
So you’re looking for quality accounts as you start your computer consulting business. What are the qualifying criteria for such accounts?
Consider Proximity
First, the potential client for your computer consulting business should be close to you, generally within a 30 to 60 minute drive from where you’re located. This is going to have some impact on the networking events you attend or anything else you do from a marketing perspective.
241). Partnering Is Like Courting
Partnering does not happen overnight. You should approach it slowly and methodically like courtship or dating. In the same way you wouldn't sleep with someone or suggest going to bed with someone on the first date, you don't want to try to close a deal with a potential partner in the first meeting.
Don't try to close the partnering deal the first time you meet.
242). IT Emergencies: Be Prepared
You want to be prepared for IT emergencies with checklists, the ability to access online resources, telephone support lines, and tool kits ready to go.
Begin with matching your abilities to their basic needs.
Find out what kind of hardware your customer has, what the operating system is, what applications are involved, and how is it impacting their business operationally and financially.
243). Small Business Computer Consulting: Can You Hire Help?
As a new small business computer consulting firm, you might ask what level of technical staff you can put on payroll. Don't get too excited yet; you have to be realistic about this.
Of course, it varies by job market, but all things being equal, what kind of technical person will your small business computer consulting firm be able to find? Can you.
244). IT Consulting: Considering the Hidden Costs of a Start-Up
In IT consulting, what does a $75 an hour consulting business equate to in the long run? What happens if your rate structure extends beyond that?
If you keep carrying something like a $75 or $85 level beyond the grand opening special to get your first couple of clients, your business will become more of a hobby or non profit-type organization.
Consider.
245). Notebook PCs: Extended Warranties
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.
246). Small Business Computer Consulting: Appropriately Setting Your Rates
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.
247). IT Consulting: Ensuring You Get Paid
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.
248). IT Support: Don't Work Too Cheaply
If you set your IT support rates too cheap, you're going to have to work like crazy. The last thing you want to discover at the end of the quarter, after you've entered everything in QuickBooks or Excel, is that you've provided IT support for free.
Be Sure To Make a Profit!
Don't find yourself saying, "Gee my revenue was really awfully close to my expenses!" You don’t want to work for free.
249). Handheld Devices: Supporting Your Clients Needs
While it’s tough to make much of a profit margin on sales of desktop or notebook PCs, it’s next to impossible to profitably sell personal digital assistants (PDAs) to your small business clients.
After all, these handheld devices are generally positioned more as consumer electronics devices than full-blown "computers".
The Popularity of Handheld Devices or PDA’s
Nevertheless, today’s PDAs, based on the Palm and Microsoft Windows CE OS’s are quite powerful.
250). Small Business Networking: Suggesting Dedicated Servers to Clients
PC-based servers and LANs may be relatively mature technologies. However, small businesses need your firm’s expertise, more than ever. For these businesses, you'll need to select, configure, customize, secure and maintain the right small business networking tools for their unique needs.
Real Small Business Networking Solutions Begin with Real Servers
How.
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