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Computer Consulting: Some General Tips
By Joshua Feinberg
To run a successful computer consulting practice, you need to be able to deliver on that end-to-end solution. Have a good service agreement ready to go. Have an IT audit checklist. Have partnering agreements. Be prepared to take your clients from the beginning to the end of the process with you.
Computer Consulting Service Agreements
If you don't propose the service agreements to your customers, your small business decision makers probably won't ask for them. You have to tell your computer consulting clients that this is how you work with other customers. You build mutually beneficial relationships where your company essentially becomes your computer department.
Take Your Prospect from Free to Fee
You need to learn how to take your prospects from free to fee. You should never spend several hours on just a proposal. A proposal has no value added and it leaves you in commodity status. That numbers game you don't want to play - it's not very high profit.
Tackle One Thing At a Time
Pick one thing a week for next several weeks and just start working on it. Whether it's coming up with a couple different marketing ideas you can work with, whether it's coming up with a service agreement that you can start marketing to your existing computer consulting clients, or whether it's coming up with customizing the IT audit package.
Start getting your ducks in order. You should be getting your plans in place and building up your network. Make sure you have everything ready so you can hit the ground running. Be ready to do a full frontal assault on the marketplace to let your slice of the market know that you're out there.
Don't focus on reaching everyone. Define who you're trying to reach and limit the size and scope.
Consider Yourself an Outsourced IT Department
If you think of the five or six different functions that small businesses need, from the needs analysis, the project management, the training, the desktop rollouts, the desktop fixes, the server, setting up and configuring the servers, maintaining the servers, and build your computer consulting business around that, your business will grow.
Additionally, it will give your client the single point of contact that they really desperately want. The number one responsibility is to think of yourself as your computer consulting client's outsourced IT department.
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About the Author
Joshua Feinberg of Computer Consulting 101 helps computer consultants get more steady, high-paying clients. Sign-up now for free access Joshua's field-tested, proven Computer Consulting 101 strategies at http://ComputerConsulting101.blogspot.com
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