Computer Consulting Kit ™ FC’s Blog

1. Study Exactly What Your Niche Clients Do. For example, if your client list or resume is loaded with health care-specific IT experience, create a marketing campaign that addresses the hot buttons of those with small medical offices. Begin by figuring out which business issues impact main decision makers. Get subscriptions to industry publications, e-mail newsletters and other industry publications that you know your prospects read. This way, you can understand the big problems your niche faces, what drives their decisions, and which security and IT problems are front-burner now. This strategy allows you to become a real specialist and helps you get each big IT contract job that comes your way.

2. Learn Which Solutions You Can Offer Clients. Find out how those within your niche, again for example small medical offices, are using IT to change their way of doing business. Find out how they get reimbursed faster by insurance companies, how they make patient and doctor scheduling more efficient, and how they keep track of their charts more effectively. No matter which industry you choose, make sure you understand big-picture trends that are happening right now, so you can be an expert at solving problems and be more efficient at securing each valuable IT contract job within your niche.

3. Always Think of Yourself as a Virtual CIO. When you market yourself, position yourself as a Virtual CIO. This means when you approach prospects, you will not just be the consultant that sells PC’s, installs LANs or fixes software problems. You are a true Virtual CIO that can analyze sophisticated business needs, make recommendations, and implement long-term IT plans.

4. Never Present Yourself as a Commodity. When you market yourself the right way, you are not just a techie. You are someone that truly understands each prospect’s business. And when you have built solid relationships with prospects that become customers and clients, they will know they are not going to spend six months training you. Your expertise will be obvious because you’ve done your homework on their real IT business problems and worked with a lot of other offices their size in their industry.

Many small business IT consultants wonder as they are starting their businesses whether or not they should do computer maintenance contract subcontracting for national service organizations.
 
The simple answer is, “NO!” Essentially, you will spend a lot of money and time getting certified and learning the latest platforms and technologies and best practices. And you will end up doing a lot of low-level, low-skilled hardware repair and work that puts you in the same category as a commodity. Why? Because every year, hardware components become more disposable and replaceable and less repairable.
 
The following 4 tips can help you understand why you should stay away from doing computer maintenance contract subcontracting with a national service organization:

1. Many Computers are Dirt-Cheap and Basically Disposable. As an example, think about a standard $400 consumer-grade PC. Can you imagine one of your clients spending money on an out-of-warranty repair for this type of computer? And who would spend money out of warranty as part of an on-going computer maintenance contract to have a $400 laser printer repaired? You can’t focus your consulting business on these minor computer repairs. Rather, you should target small businesses that need your help on more complex IT business problems and can afford your sophisticated expertise.

2. Labor Allowances for Computer Maintenance Contract Work are Low with National Service Organizations. National service organizations are going to be dealing with warranty repairs on pretty inexpensive hardware. That being said, how big will the labor allowance be for a $1,200 notebook? Many big hardware vendors are so hard-up for cash that they are always on the verge of going out of business. There are only a handful of major hardware players that are still in good financial shape. So you have to think about what your chances of getting paid well in this situation will be.
   
   
3. Think About Your Profit Margins on Computer Maintenance Contract Repairs for National Service Organizations. Consider what you will make on a repair. You will probably only make somewhere between $50 and $200 (at the absolute most). You will do a lot better when you find small businesses in your area that need high-level professional IT services on a regular basis and not just your help un-jamming a printer or rebooting a computer.

4. Computer Maintenance Contract Subcontracting for National Service Organizations is Barely Profitable. When you act as a subcontractor for a national service provider, you will be working against yourself and your business constantly. You will most likely be in eight different offices every day as opposed to one or two. And you will be given a $65 labor allowance to replace a system board, no matter how long it takes you, instead of billing out $100-$150 per hour for high-end network support services and network integration services. 

Repairing and troubleshooting hardware is low-end commodity work and should be left to those that can afford to bill out at $20-$30 per hour. You need to focus on high-end consulting and establishing a strong computer maintenance contract program with steady, high-paying clients if you want to really succeed in the small business IT world.
 
In this article, we talked about 4 reasons to steer clear of doing computer maintenance contract subcontracting for national service organizations. Learn more about how you can build your computer maintenance contract business around great, steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link.
 
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1. Use Your Hourly Rate as a Guide to Setting PC Repair Prices. For initial work you do with new customers, you will probably spend about two or three hours on site and another hour or so back at your PC repair shop writing up a report summarizing work done and suggested next steps. Determine your PC repair prices for initial projects based on your average hourly billing rate. As an example, if for basic on-site service you are charging $95 per hour and you anticipate that for an initial project you will spend about five hours on-site, your first paid project should be worth a little under $500.

2. Don’t Bill the Full Amount for Initial Projects. While you may have discovered that based on your hourly rate, that initial project will be worth just under $500, you want to round down and offer discounts to new customers on PC repair prices to get your foot in the door. You don’t need to bill your very first paid work with new customers at your full rate. You want to give new prospective customers with whom you hope to have a long-term agreement some comfort. You want new prospective customers to know they can afford your services, and you’re not just trying to run up a huge bill. You want new prospective customers to know that you care about solving their IT problems. Your initial project may take a few hours, and you will likely spend another hour or so coming up with a coherent recommendations report on what your new customers need. Don’t give away expertise for free, but also don’t try to recover your typical PC repair prices on your first project.
3. New Customer Discounting Can Really Pay Off Long Term. Your goal with setting PC repair prices at the beginning is to get prospects to prove they will spend money on your services. The important goal of your initial project is to make the sale and start a real relationship. If you establish that an initial project is worth a little under $500, for example, think about discounting that to $250-$350. The key thing is to do initial work at fixed PC repair prices, and start to build trust and a relationship with new customers. 

If you are running your own IT consultancy, you know that finding the time to do everything required to keep your business going can be very challenging. You are not alone. Most consultants face serious time management issues at nearly every stage of their businesses.

The fact is, no matter what, you need to focus on building relationships with prospects, customers and clients to get steady, on-going revenue that will sustain you into the future. But how can you devote time to finding long-term clients for your IT consultancy if you’re already working 60-80 hours per week?

The following 4 tips can help you manage your time so you can focus on getting long-term clients for your IT consultancy.

   1. Get Your Time Management Under Control. Look at where you spend most of your time with your IT consultancy. Write down your responsibilities and how much time you spend on each task per week. Are there some tasks you can afford to delegate, automate or eliminate? For example, perhaps you are sitting there building PCs and putting in motherboards and power supplies for your clients 10 hours per week. These low-level tasks could be delegated to other staff members or contractors. If you own an actual retail computer store and find yourself minding the retail traffic often, that’s something else that can be done by someone else, at least part of the week. Many computer consultants also spend excessive time on administrative tasks. A virtual assistant or a part-time employee can take over a few hours of clerical work per week for you, so you can focus on marketing and networking to build your client base.

   2. Delegate (More) Responsibilities to Make Time for Business Development. Once you write down and analyze how you spend your time each week, think about delegation with your IT consultancy. What can you safely delegate based on the staff you already have? If it is just you, are you at a point where you can hire additional staff to free up some time? Often delegating tasks can very quickly free up as much as a day to a day-and-a-half per week to start actively cultivating long-term clients.

   3. Use Your Time Wisely. When you analyze the time you spend each week, you need to make sure you are using your newly “free” time well. Go out to networking events, plan your marketing efforts, focus on sales calls and following up with prospects, customers and clients. These are great uses of your time and can help you build the relationships that can last for the entire life of your IT consultancy.

   4. Become Friends with Like-Minded Non-Competing Technology Providers and Trusted Business Advisors. No, you don’t necessarily need equity partners or employees to grow your IT consultancy’s team. Simply look around for non-competing IT consultancy owners in complementary niches to yours, as well as trusted business advisors, such as accountants, attorneys, and management consultants. Network with them. See how you can help each other. Become friends. The professionals can become an informal, but extremely valuable part of your growth plans. They also can become great resources to introduce to your prospects, customers, and clients. And don’t forget… on the flip side, these like-minded professionals can also introduce you to their prospects, customers, and clients.
 
Unfortunately, if you’re already working a ton of hours and don’t yet have the option of hiring additional staff or contractors, you need to make time to build relationships for your business. Think carefully through time management challenges and know where you really spend the bulk of your time. Chances are, you can find some ways to free up a few extra hours for marketing, sales, and business development.
 
In this article we discussed 4 tips for finding long-term clients for your IT consultancy. Learn more about how you can get great, steady, high-paying clients for your IT consultancy now at the attached link.
 
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