It used to be very difficult being an Independent computer consultant. When you didn't have enough clients, finding enough billable hours in a day could be a real challenge. And when you had "enough" clients, way too often you would be needed at two places at once. Either there's too many emergencies going on, or you're working on a decent project that could bring in a chunk of hours that prevents you from giving other clients the attention they demand. Make one client happy, another is getting angry at you.
But starting a computer consulting business today as an Independent Computer Consultant is one of the best career choices an IT Professional can make. All because you can now monitor and service your clients remotely. All the things that made running a consulting business difficult in the past (too many unexpected emergencies, can't be in two places at once), are eliminated by using cheap or free utilities (I use GFI Max for server monitoring and inventory reporting and LogMeIn Free for remote desktop and server support).
Using these tools can help you to:
a) catch problems early, minimize emergencies, downtime and unexpected problems.
b) identify weak spots so that you can make recommendations for (profitable) improvement projects
c) Fix "little" problems (change passwords, find lost files, etc.) instantly, without having to go on-site.
d) Start addressing "MAJOR" problems instantly (address a complete email outage, start an AV scan on an infected machine) without making the client wait for you to arrive.
If you maintain your clients properly, they will have minimal problems and maximum productivity. This is EXACTLY what they want for you to provide as their consultant, and they're happy to pay for it.
But if you're billing by the hour, and they hardly need you on-site, how do you make an income?
You stop billing by the hour!
Charge your customers a flat rate for your monthly monitoring and remote support and you'll know every month exactly how much you'll be making even if you never have to leave the house. In the video link below, I give a clear breakdown of how a total of 4 small business clients can provide a steady income of about $66K, with you dedicating a total of about 10 hours of work per week. Once you obtain your initial client base, you'll never again have to worry about another paycheck, lay-off or sending out a resume.
So the trick of course is to get those first few clients, and get them quickly. How? That's a big topic (so big in fact that I have about 2 hours of video on my website dedicated to it).
In a nutshell, my top three methods for finding new clients are:
1. Getting Referrals
2. Business Networking
3. cold-calling (I prefer door-to-door with flyers).
You definitely don't have to spend a lot on sales and marketing to do it effectively. All the methods I use are very inexpensive or free. The biggest challenge isn't financial. It's having the confidence and determination to go out and do it.
If you live near a metropolitan area, I can guarantee you that there are many small businesses out there right now who are open to finding a way to improve the reliability of their systems and/or lowering their current support costs. You, as an Independent Computer Consultant can provide this solution, and you can find these potential customers through networking, asking for referrals and knocking on doors (among several other ways).
Once you get in front of these potential customers, you need to show them that as a professional Independent Computer Consultant, you're their best possible solution. You do this by delivering a good sales pitch and by presenting yourself as a professional (seen through marketing materials - your business cards, website, newsletter and flyers if you use them).
Developing an effective sales pitch will take time and practice. But if you're not currently using a scripted sales pitch and you prefer to "wing it" when talking to a potential customer, you need to evaluate how successful you've been with that approach. All successful sales people use a carefully scripted and practiced sales pitch (practiced to the point where it's delivered very naturally). If you've never done any sales, I recommend reading "The Sales Bible" by Jeffrey Gitomer. It's a fast and easy read and it should get you motivated to learn more.
As for the marketing materials, they need to look professional, but don't need to be expensive to create. I recommend VistaPrint for business cards. You can create a very professional website using WordPress (free) and Artisteer ($50). Flyers can be done in MS Word using inexpensive graphics. Same with your newsletter.
While creating these materials and sales scripts don't have to be expensive, they can be very time consuming if you try to create them on your own. And unless you have a background in sales, marketing and design, you also have to be realistic about how effective you expect them to be the first time you use them.
Of course, if you have the capital to invest, you can outsource the creation of these materials. But depending on who you outsource to, you may need a lot of capital, and be prepared to deal with missed delivery dates and "not-quite-what-you-were-expecting" results.
Or you can check the link at the end of this article for info on how to get all of these materials ready to use, right now.
However you go about obtaining your sales and marketing materials, you're going to need them if you're an Independent Computer Consultant looking to land new clients.
Fortunately, when you start a computer consulting business on the correct model of flat-fee, managed support, you need very few small business clients to create a significant and reliable income.
For free, step-by-step instruction on how to earn $66K while working 10 Hours a WEEK as an Independent Computer Consultant, visit http://SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com
Sunday, January 31, 2010
IT's EASY to be a Successful Independent Computer Consultant. Really!
It used to be very difficult being an Independent computer consultant. When you didn't have enough
clients, finding enough billable hours in a day could be a real challenge. And when you had "enough"
clients, way too often you would be needed at two places at once. Either there's too many emergencies
going on, or you're working on a decent project that could bring in a chunk of hours that prevents you
from giving other clients the attention they demand. Make one client happy, another is getting angry at
you.
But starting a computer consulting business today as an Independent Computer Consultant is one of the
best career choices an IT Professional can make. All because you can now monitor and service your
clients remotely. All the things that made running a consulting business difficult in the past (too many
unexpected emergencies, can't be in two places at once), are eliminated by using cheap or free utilities
(I use GFI Max for server monitoring and inventory reporting and LogMeIn Free for remote computer
support).
Using these tools can help you to:
a) catch problems early, minimize emergencies, downtime and unexpected problems.
b) identify weak spots so that you can make recommendations for (profitable) improvement projects
c) Fix "little" problems (change passwords, find lost files, etc.) instantly, without having to go on-
site.
d) Start addressing "MAJOR" problems instantly (address a complete email outage, start an AV scan on an
infected machine) without making the client wait for you to arrive.
If you maintain your clients properly, they will have minimal problems and maximum productivity. This is
EXACTLY what they want for you to provide as their consultant, and they're happy to pay for it.
But if you're billing by the hour, and they hardly need you on-site, how do you make an income?
You stop billing by the hour!
Charge your customers a flat rate for your monthly monitoring and remote support and you'll know every
month exactly how much you'll be making even if you never have to leave the house. In the video link
below, I give a clear breakdown of how a total of 4 small business clients can provide a steady income
of about $66K, with you dedicating a total of about 10 hours of work per week. Once you obtain your
initial client base, you'll never again have to worry about another paycheck, lay-off or sending out a
resume.
So the trick of course is to get those first few clients, and get them quickly. How? That's a big topic
(so big in fact that I have about 2 hours of video on my website dedicated to it).
In a nutshell, my top three methods for finding new clients are:
1. Getting Referrals
2. Business Networking
3. cold-calling (I prefer door-to-door with flyers).
You definitely don't have to spend a lot on sales and marketing to do it effectively. All the methods I
use are very inexpensive or free. The biggest challenge isn't financial. It's having the confidence and
determination to go out and do it.
If you live near a metropolitan area, I can guarantee you that there are many small businesses out there
right now who are open to finding a way to improve the reliability of their systems and/or lowering
their current support costs. You, as an Independent Computer Consultant can provide this solution, and
you can find these potential customers through networking, asking for referrals and knocking on doors
(among several other ways).
Once you get in front of these potential customers, you need to show them that as a professional
Independent Computer Consultant, you're their best possible solution. You do this by delivering a good
sales pitch and by presenting yourself as a professional (seen through marketing materials - your
business cards, website, newsletter and flyers if you use them).
Developing an effective sales pitch will take time and practice. But if you're not currently using a
scripted sales pitch and you prefer to "wing it" when talking to a potential customer, you need to
evaluate how successful you've been with that approach. All successful sales people use a carefully
scripted and practiced sales pitch (practiced to the point where it's delivered very naturally). If
you've never done any sales, I recommend reading "The Sales Bible" by Jeffrey Gitomer. It's a fast and
easy read and it should get you motivated to learn more.
As for the marketing materials, they need to look professional, but don't need to be expensive to
create. I recommend VistaPrint for business cards. You can create a very professional website using
WordPress (free) and Artisteer ($50). Flyers can be done in MS Word using inexpensive graphics. Same
with your newsletter.
While creating these materials and sales scripts don't have to be expensive, they can be very time
consuming if you try to create them on your own. And unless you have a background in sales, marketing
and design, you also have to be realistic about how effective you expect them to be the first time you
use them.
Of course, if you have the capital to invest, you can outsource the creation of these materials. But
depending on who you outsource to, you may need a lot of capital, and be prepared to deal with missed
delivery dates and "not-quite-what-you-were-expecting" results.
Or you can check the link at the end of this article for info on how to get all of these materials ready
to use, right now.
However you go about obtaining your sales and marketing materials, you're going to need them if you're
an Independent Computer Consultant looking to land new clients.
Fortunately, when you start a computer consulting business on the correct model of flat-fee, managed support, you need very few small business clients
to create a significant and reliable income.
For free, step-by-step instruction on how to earn $66K while working 10 Hours a WEEK as an Independent
Computer Consultant, visit http://SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com
clients, finding enough billable hours in a day could be a real challenge. And when you had "enough"
clients, way too often you would be needed at two places at once. Either there's too many emergencies
going on, or you're working on a decent project that could bring in a chunk of hours that prevents you
from giving other clients the attention they demand. Make one client happy, another is getting angry at
you.
But starting a computer consulting business today as an Independent Computer Consultant is one of the
best career choices an IT Professional can make. All because you can now monitor and service your
clients remotely. All the things that made running a consulting business difficult in the past (too many
unexpected emergencies, can't be in two places at once), are eliminated by using cheap or free utilities
(I use GFI Max for server monitoring and inventory reporting and LogMeIn Free for remote computer
support).
Using these tools can help you to:
a) catch problems early, minimize emergencies, downtime and unexpected problems.
b) identify weak spots so that you can make recommendations for (profitable) improvement projects
c) Fix "little" problems (change passwords, find lost files, etc.) instantly, without having to go on-
site.
d) Start addressing "MAJOR" problems instantly (address a complete email outage, start an AV scan on an
infected machine) without making the client wait for you to arrive.
If you maintain your clients properly, they will have minimal problems and maximum productivity. This is
EXACTLY what they want for you to provide as their consultant, and they're happy to pay for it.
But if you're billing by the hour, and they hardly need you on-site, how do you make an income?
You stop billing by the hour!
Charge your customers a flat rate for your monthly monitoring and remote support and you'll know every
month exactly how much you'll be making even if you never have to leave the house. In the video link
below, I give a clear breakdown of how a total of 4 small business clients can provide a steady income
of about $66K, with you dedicating a total of about 10 hours of work per week. Once you obtain your
initial client base, you'll never again have to worry about another paycheck, lay-off or sending out a
resume.
So the trick of course is to get those first few clients, and get them quickly. How? That's a big topic
(so big in fact that I have about 2 hours of video on my website dedicated to it).
In a nutshell, my top three methods for finding new clients are:
1. Getting Referrals
2. Business Networking
3. cold-calling (I prefer door-to-door with flyers).
You definitely don't have to spend a lot on sales and marketing to do it effectively. All the methods I
use are very inexpensive or free. The biggest challenge isn't financial. It's having the confidence and
determination to go out and do it.
If you live near a metropolitan area, I can guarantee you that there are many small businesses out there
right now who are open to finding a way to improve the reliability of their systems and/or lowering
their current support costs. You, as an Independent Computer Consultant can provide this solution, and
you can find these potential customers through networking, asking for referrals and knocking on doors
(among several other ways).
Once you get in front of these potential customers, you need to show them that as a professional
Independent Computer Consultant, you're their best possible solution. You do this by delivering a good
sales pitch and by presenting yourself as a professional (seen through marketing materials - your
business cards, website, newsletter and flyers if you use them).
Developing an effective sales pitch will take time and practice. But if you're not currently using a
scripted sales pitch and you prefer to "wing it" when talking to a potential customer, you need to
evaluate how successful you've been with that approach. All successful sales people use a carefully
scripted and practiced sales pitch (practiced to the point where it's delivered very naturally). If
you've never done any sales, I recommend reading "The Sales Bible" by Jeffrey Gitomer. It's a fast and
easy read and it should get you motivated to learn more.
As for the marketing materials, they need to look professional, but don't need to be expensive to
create. I recommend VistaPrint for business cards. You can create a very professional website using
WordPress (free) and Artisteer ($50). Flyers can be done in MS Word using inexpensive graphics. Same
with your newsletter.
While creating these materials and sales scripts don't have to be expensive, they can be very time
consuming if you try to create them on your own. And unless you have a background in sales, marketing
and design, you also have to be realistic about how effective you expect them to be the first time you
use them.
Of course, if you have the capital to invest, you can outsource the creation of these materials. But
depending on who you outsource to, you may need a lot of capital, and be prepared to deal with missed
delivery dates and "not-quite-what-you-were-expecting" results.
Or you can check the link at the end of this article for info on how to get all of these materials ready
to use, right now.
However you go about obtaining your sales and marketing materials, you're going to need them if you're
an Independent Computer Consultant looking to land new clients.
Fortunately, when you start a computer consulting business on the correct model of flat-fee, managed support, you need very few small business clients
to create a significant and reliable income.
For free, step-by-step instruction on how to earn $66K while working 10 Hours a WEEK as an Independent
Computer Consultant, visit http://SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com
Sunday, January 24, 2010
How to FAIL as an Independent Computer Consultant in 3 Easy Steps
I've met a lot of Independent Computer Consultants over the course of my career. While a few continue to thrive in their Independent practice, and a few others have grown their business into larger, successful computer consulting firms, the vast majority will give it less than a year before they give up and begin actively searching for a job again.
Almost every small business today that relies on computer systems, needs someone qualified to maintain them. The demand for affordable solutions for maintaining and supporting small business computer systems is huge. Today, every small business owner is looking for ways to reduce costs, and the Independent Computer Consultant is perfectly positioned to offer an excellent level of support that costs less than alternate solutions like in-house employees or larger IT Support firms.
So with such a strong potential market and with the Independent Computer Consultant able to provide a much needed solution, why is success for Independent Computer Consultants so rare?
Because they follow a standard, but wrong, hourly support billing model. If you want to join the majority of your colleagues and struggle briefly before you decide that being your own boss is to difficult and unstable and decide to call it quits, do like they do and follow these three simple steps.
STEP 1: Bill By The Hour
Ask 100 Independent Computer Consultants what their hourly rate is and almost every one of them will be able to give you one, probably ranged somewhere between $75-$150 per hour.
How many will tell you, "I don't charge by the hour. I charge flat, monthly rates."? I'm betting not many.
Basing your income around how many hours you're able to accumulate on a regular, monthly basis is a challenging and generally unstable situation. Due to the very nature of hourly rates, a cost-conscious client (and what client isn't cost-conscious today?) will always be aware of the time you spend on-site. And they'll be hoping to reduce it whenever and wherever possible.
They'll hold off on addressing "smaller" issues, judging if an item like connecting a user to a network printer justifies having you in for your hourly rate. Unfortunately, these little problems have a large negative effect on your client's productivity. When their productivity suffers to the point where it hurts them financially, they'll notice. And they'll be quick to blame the systems that you're responsible for maintaining.
Even if these small issues only amount to a few minutes a day for you to address, because they can get you in the door to work on other issues, these daily occurrences are generally the items that can make up the foundation of the hourly, computer consultant's salary. But with the client often looking to reduce these hours, this conflict can make it difficult for the consultant to properly maintain the systems and generate a reliable income.
And when a BIG problem occurs, such as a server or major email outage, your client's stress will be compounded by the fact while they're productivity is at zero, they're spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to have you fix the problem.
Billing by the hour creates a win-lose environment. The client has computer problems, they're unhappy, but the consultant makes more money. Fewer problems means a happier client, but a poorer consultant.
STEP 2: Provide Reactive Support
If you're billing by the hour for on-site support, you're generally waiting for someone to call you with a need or problem for you to address. Hopefully you'll be able to strike a balance where you'll have enough clients with service requests to keep you busy, without too many clients demanding you simultaneously for "critical" requests or unexpected emergencies.
This is a difficult balance to find, and the downfall of many new computer consultants. If you have too few clients, with few problems and a minimal budget for improvement projects, keeping busy enough can be a challenge. When things are working smoothly, you may be tempted to call your client just to "check in". But this can often be viewed negatively by your client as you possibly "fishing" for a few extra billable hours. Hitting a few slow months in a row can make for a very unreliable income.
Land yourself too many clients though, and you might be busier than you bargained for. Find yourself unable to provide support fast enough and you'll have dissatisfied customers. Fail to respond to a client during a real emergency because you're addressing another client's emergency, and odds are high that you'll lose more than just a few billable hours.
If you put a good server monitoring system in place, you can potentially eliminate most of these problems. If you monitor the server proactively, you can catch items like failed backups, low disk space, hardware failure alerts, etc. This will reduce unexpected emergencies and allow you to schedule your time much more reliably.
Monitoring will also let you identify issues that might have gone unnoticed until they escalated into a real problem. You don't need to wait for your client to tell you what work needs to be done. You can review the server logs and let your client know what problems exist and need to be addressed.
The problem with proactive monitoring under the hourly billing model is... what if it works?
What if you're able to clean up their systems to the point where problems are rare? Will you still be able to maintain a busy enough schedule with only the day-to-day minor user issues to address?
What if the opposite is true and you find problems popping up almost daily? While it'll be easy enough to bring these problems to your client's attention and hopefully they'll appreciate you identifying the problem early, there's also the probability that they'll question why all these problems are occurring and why suddenly you need to spend so much billable time on their systems.
And of course there's the question of how to charge for proactive system monitoring under an hourly-rate support model. Whether you charge an hourly, partial-hour or flat-rate for your monitoring service, unless the client sees regular, clear evidence of the effectiveness of your work, they're going to question whether this extra expense is a necessary one.
If monitoring helps to identify problems and keeps you busy, your clients will potentially be asking why they're spending more money now than before you started monitoring their systems. "Wasn't the monitoring supposed to reduce problems and save me money?"
If it helps to keep their systems operating at peak performance, they'll be happy, but your income will suffer.
Being proactive is a real challenge when operating under the hourly-rate business model. It can have a negative impact on your immediate income, but it gives you the best chance for satisfied clients. Yet another conflict that the hourly-rate computer consultant must figure out how to overcome.
Reactive support however, is basically waiting for things to break in order for you to survive. Which for a computer consultant hired to keep things running, is career suicide.
STEP 3: Provide On-Site Service
Naturally, you'll need to visit your clients on a fairly regular basis. As an hourly-support consultant, if you don't see your clients, you don't make money. If your business is built primarily around having to be at your client site to be able to support them and to generate your income, then it's in your best interest to be there as often as possible. Of course, your client wants to see you there as infrequently as possible. This conflict alone is enough to prevent someone who’s starting a computer consulting business from ever succeeding.
And there's always the possibility that two of your clients might need support at the same time. If you're not monitoring your clients proactively as discussed above, the chance for unexpected problems to arise is high. Two simultaneous emergencies happen often enough when you're supporting multiple, unmonitored networks.
What if it's not even an emergency, but a simple request to clean up a workstation that's been getting pop-ups. But the call comes in while you're working on a project and you have another service call waiting and you won't be able to make it down until a day and a half from now. This doesn't do much for customer satisfaction, let alone the possibility that your client may not want to wait for you and finds another way to resolve their problem, which will lose you some billable time at least (and maybe lose you a client at worst).
A simple solution would seem to be to provide remote computer support. Doing so gives you the ability to essentially be at two places at once. You probably won't attempt to do an SBS migration remotely, but you certainly can start a malware scan remotely at one client while onsite at another (of course, if you’re billing by the hour, you need to be very careful about who’s clock you’re on when you’re doing remote work from a client site).
Providing remote computer support could definitely improve client satisfaction. In addition to being able to provide nearly instantaneous support, your clients will also be seeing you less often, which we know is what they want when being charged by the hour.
So unless you're billing for remote support, you'll be losing some income.
But under the hourly rate billing model, how do you charge for remote computer support? By the hour? In 15 minute increments? What if the support call takes 10 minutes to resolve? Do you charge for it, or do you chalk it up to providing "good customer service"? How many billable hours might you be giving away over the course of the month? How many of those calls could have led to additional billable time had you have gone on-site to provide the service? By not having to go on-site to resolve the day-to-day, minor issues, would you still be able to maintain enough hours of on-site work per week for each of your clients?
Let's say you charge $125/hr. and you have four clients for who you provide a total of 2 hours of work each, per week remotely. This would be a fantastic gig for you... for the remote work alone, you’d be making $48K annually, while working about 8 hours a week, mostly while wearing your pj's.
But I guarantee you, if you consistently send your client an invoice for 8 hours a month, and they can't recall the last time they've seen your face for more than a few hours, it won't be long before questions or suspicions arise as to the need or validity of your service.
Whenever you provide remote support, stellar record keeping and reporting is critical. However, even with detailed reports, if your client is paying for a substatial numbers of hours each month for work they don’t actually see you doing, they're going to want a very high level of communication or other supporting evidence of your work and the time involved.
Once again, you’re faced with another conflict where you're trying to do your work, and the very nature of your billing arrangement causes your client to question your work.
If you want to fail as an Independent Computer Consultant, it's very simple to do. Just follow the examples laid out by the countless other failed consultants before you and create a business built on charging hourly rates to put out fires at your client's sites as quickly and as often as you're able to.
If however, you want to start a computer consulting business that follows a business model that's been proven and guaranteed to succeed, then visit http://SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com for free step-by-step video training that can get you started on the right path today!
_____________________________________________________________
Robert Peretson is the founder of Perry Consulting, a New York based computer consulting firm, started in 1996. Today, Perry Consulting enjoys a reputation as the premier provider of computer consulting services to many of New York City's most progressive and prestigious small businesses. For professional computer support in New York City, visit www.perryconsulting.com.
In 2009, Robert founded the website SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com, a training and support portal for IT professionals who would like to start a computer consulting business as an Independent Computer Consultant.
Almost every small business today that relies on computer systems, needs someone qualified to maintain them. The demand for affordable solutions for maintaining and supporting small business computer systems is huge. Today, every small business owner is looking for ways to reduce costs, and the Independent Computer Consultant is perfectly positioned to offer an excellent level of support that costs less than alternate solutions like in-house employees or larger IT Support firms.
So with such a strong potential market and with the Independent Computer Consultant able to provide a much needed solution, why is success for Independent Computer Consultants so rare?
Because they follow a standard, but wrong, hourly support billing model. If you want to join the majority of your colleagues and struggle briefly before you decide that being your own boss is to difficult and unstable and decide to call it quits, do like they do and follow these three simple steps.
STEP 1: Bill By The Hour
Ask 100 Independent Computer Consultants what their hourly rate is and almost every one of them will be able to give you one, probably ranged somewhere between $75-$150 per hour.
How many will tell you, "I don't charge by the hour. I charge flat, monthly rates."? I'm betting not many.
Basing your income around how many hours you're able to accumulate on a regular, monthly basis is a challenging and generally unstable situation. Due to the very nature of hourly rates, a cost-conscious client (and what client isn't cost-conscious today?) will always be aware of the time you spend on-site. And they'll be hoping to reduce it whenever and wherever possible.
They'll hold off on addressing "smaller" issues, judging if an item like connecting a user to a network printer justifies having you in for your hourly rate. Unfortunately, these little problems have a large negative effect on your client's productivity. When their productivity suffers to the point where it hurts them financially, they'll notice. And they'll be quick to blame the systems that you're responsible for maintaining.
Even if these small issues only amount to a few minutes a day for you to address, because they can get you in the door to work on other issues, these daily occurrences are generally the items that can make up the foundation of the hourly, computer consultant's salary. But with the client often looking to reduce these hours, this conflict can make it difficult for the consultant to properly maintain the systems and generate a reliable income.
And when a BIG problem occurs, such as a server or major email outage, your client's stress will be compounded by the fact while they're productivity is at zero, they're spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to have you fix the problem.
Billing by the hour creates a win-lose environment. The client has computer problems, they're unhappy, but the consultant makes more money. Fewer problems means a happier client, but a poorer consultant.
STEP 2: Provide Reactive Support
If you're billing by the hour for on-site support, you're generally waiting for someone to call you with a need or problem for you to address. Hopefully you'll be able to strike a balance where you'll have enough clients with service requests to keep you busy, without too many clients demanding you simultaneously for "critical" requests or unexpected emergencies.
This is a difficult balance to find, and the downfall of many new computer consultants. If you have too few clients, with few problems and a minimal budget for improvement projects, keeping busy enough can be a challenge. When things are working smoothly, you may be tempted to call your client just to "check in". But this can often be viewed negatively by your client as you possibly "fishing" for a few extra billable hours. Hitting a few slow months in a row can make for a very unreliable income.
Land yourself too many clients though, and you might be busier than you bargained for. Find yourself unable to provide support fast enough and you'll have dissatisfied customers. Fail to respond to a client during a real emergency because you're addressing another client's emergency, and odds are high that you'll lose more than just a few billable hours.
If you put a good server monitoring system in place, you can potentially eliminate most of these problems. If you monitor the server proactively, you can catch items like failed backups, low disk space, hardware failure alerts, etc. This will reduce unexpected emergencies and allow you to schedule your time much more reliably.
Monitoring will also let you identify issues that might have gone unnoticed until they escalated into a real problem. You don't need to wait for your client to tell you what work needs to be done. You can review the server logs and let your client know what problems exist and need to be addressed.
The problem with proactive monitoring under the hourly billing model is... what if it works?
What if you're able to clean up their systems to the point where problems are rare? Will you still be able to maintain a busy enough schedule with only the day-to-day minor user issues to address?
What if the opposite is true and you find problems popping up almost daily? While it'll be easy enough to bring these problems to your client's attention and hopefully they'll appreciate you identifying the problem early, there's also the probability that they'll question why all these problems are occurring and why suddenly you need to spend so much billable time on their systems.
And of course there's the question of how to charge for proactive system monitoring under an hourly-rate support model. Whether you charge an hourly, partial-hour or flat-rate for your monitoring service, unless the client sees regular, clear evidence of the effectiveness of your work, they're going to question whether this extra expense is a necessary one.
If monitoring helps to identify problems and keeps you busy, your clients will potentially be asking why they're spending more money now than before you started monitoring their systems. "Wasn't the monitoring supposed to reduce problems and save me money?"
If it helps to keep their systems operating at peak performance, they'll be happy, but your income will suffer.
Being proactive is a real challenge when operating under the hourly-rate business model. It can have a negative impact on your immediate income, but it gives you the best chance for satisfied clients. Yet another conflict that the hourly-rate computer consultant must figure out how to overcome.
Reactive support however, is basically waiting for things to break in order for you to survive. Which for a computer consultant hired to keep things running, is career suicide.
STEP 3: Provide On-Site Service
Naturally, you'll need to visit your clients on a fairly regular basis. As an hourly-support consultant, if you don't see your clients, you don't make money. If your business is built primarily around having to be at your client site to be able to support them and to generate your income, then it's in your best interest to be there as often as possible. Of course, your client wants to see you there as infrequently as possible. This conflict alone is enough to prevent someone who’s starting a computer consulting business from ever succeeding.
And there's always the possibility that two of your clients might need support at the same time. If you're not monitoring your clients proactively as discussed above, the chance for unexpected problems to arise is high. Two simultaneous emergencies happen often enough when you're supporting multiple, unmonitored networks.
What if it's not even an emergency, but a simple request to clean up a workstation that's been getting pop-ups. But the call comes in while you're working on a project and you have another service call waiting and you won't be able to make it down until a day and a half from now. This doesn't do much for customer satisfaction, let alone the possibility that your client may not want to wait for you and finds another way to resolve their problem, which will lose you some billable time at least (and maybe lose you a client at worst).
A simple solution would seem to be to provide remote computer support. Doing so gives you the ability to essentially be at two places at once. You probably won't attempt to do an SBS migration remotely, but you certainly can start a malware scan remotely at one client while onsite at another (of course, if you’re billing by the hour, you need to be very careful about who’s clock you’re on when you’re doing remote work from a client site).
Providing remote computer support could definitely improve client satisfaction. In addition to being able to provide nearly instantaneous support, your clients will also be seeing you less often, which we know is what they want when being charged by the hour.
So unless you're billing for remote support, you'll be losing some income.
But under the hourly rate billing model, how do you charge for remote computer support? By the hour? In 15 minute increments? What if the support call takes 10 minutes to resolve? Do you charge for it, or do you chalk it up to providing "good customer service"? How many billable hours might you be giving away over the course of the month? How many of those calls could have led to additional billable time had you have gone on-site to provide the service? By not having to go on-site to resolve the day-to-day, minor issues, would you still be able to maintain enough hours of on-site work per week for each of your clients?
Let's say you charge $125/hr. and you have four clients for who you provide a total of 2 hours of work each, per week remotely. This would be a fantastic gig for you... for the remote work alone, you’d be making $48K annually, while working about 8 hours a week, mostly while wearing your pj's.
But I guarantee you, if you consistently send your client an invoice for 8 hours a month, and they can't recall the last time they've seen your face for more than a few hours, it won't be long before questions or suspicions arise as to the need or validity of your service.
Whenever you provide remote support, stellar record keeping and reporting is critical. However, even with detailed reports, if your client is paying for a substatial numbers of hours each month for work they don’t actually see you doing, they're going to want a very high level of communication or other supporting evidence of your work and the time involved.
Once again, you’re faced with another conflict where you're trying to do your work, and the very nature of your billing arrangement causes your client to question your work.
If you want to fail as an Independent Computer Consultant, it's very simple to do. Just follow the examples laid out by the countless other failed consultants before you and create a business built on charging hourly rates to put out fires at your client's sites as quickly and as often as you're able to.
If however, you want to start a computer consulting business that follows a business model that's been proven and guaranteed to succeed, then visit http://SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com for free step-by-step video training that can get you started on the right path today!
_____________________________________________________________
Robert Peretson is the founder of Perry Consulting, a New York based computer consulting firm, started in 1996. Today, Perry Consulting enjoys a reputation as the premier provider of computer consulting services to many of New York City's most progressive and prestigious small businesses. For professional computer support in New York City, visit www.perryconsulting.com.
In 2009, Robert founded the website SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com, a training and support portal for IT professionals who would like to start a computer consulting business as an Independent Computer Consultant.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Is the Independent Computer Consultant Destined for Extinction?
The IT Support landscape is rapidly changing, with new, inexpensive tools being developed for proactive maintenance and remote support that allow support to be delivered faster and cheaper than ever before.
Is this the beginning of the end for the Independent Computer Consultant? Or can he evolve to become the preferred option for affordable, reliable Small Business IT Support in the coming decade?
With almost 30 million small businesses in the US alone, there is no shortage of a need for new innovations in technology. Every major technology developer... Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Apple, IBM, HP, Sony, BlackBerry, Intel and so on, as well as the thousands of smaller, but no less significant tech companies will continue to invest billions of dollars year after year developing new and innovative products for the immense and continuously growing small business market.
The way data is created, accessed and shared, the way communication will continue to expand our personal networks while shrinking our planet, the new and stronger methods we'll need to protect ourselves and our information, the way we sell and market our services and ourselves... All will change, and will continue to change for long into the foreseeable future.
As long as technology continues to evolve, there will continue to be a need for a qualified support person to install it, configure it, monitor it, maintain it, and yes, fix it when it doesn't work as it should.
And of course there will always be a need for a knowledgeable professional to show an inexperienced user how to get the most out of their systems.
To get the greatest long-term financial return from a technology investment, a small business owner will need to properly maintain these systems that are so critical to the daily functionality of their operations.
Qualified Computer Consultants who can keep their client's systems current, working at peak performance levels and that operating with minimal problems will always be in high demand.
This is where an Independent Computer Consultant has an advantage over larger IT Support Providers or MSP's. Thanks to the development of affordable system monitoring and remote support utilities, the independent computer consultant can provide the same reliable and immediate support response as a larger provider, yet, can be very price-competitive due to much lower overhead.
As long as the computer consultant's business is created on the correct business model, success can be easily attained.
What is destined for extinction is the old support model of being the on-call computer "repairman", who runs to the client's office whenever a problem occurs... at high, hourly billing rates. This reactive method of support relies on having systems fail for the consultant to make an income. The worse the systems perform (and the more dissatisfied the customer becomes), the more money the consultant makes.
This business model is guaranteed to fail. It's heavily reliant on having problems to resolve, keeps your clients continuously associating you with greater expenses to their business and provides a very unstable income.
For a computer consultant to succeed in supporting small businesses, they need to provide proactive monitoring to keep their customer's systems functioning at peak performance levels and operating as reliably as possible. They also need to provide instant response to critical support requests. Fortunately, these things can easily be accomplished by using today's affordable IT support utilities, such as GFI Max for server monitoring and inventory reporting, and LogMeIn Free for reliable... and free, remote computer support.
When a computer consultant builds a business on a proactive support model, they can charge affordable, flat monthly rates to their clients. This is much more preferable to billing high, hourly rates that the consultant is always looking for more of, while the customer is simultaneously trying to cut them down.
By being proactive and reducing problems, a computer consultant will have a much more satisfied customer base, a more predictable and reliable income level and will be able to support many more computer systems in far less time.
The Independent Computer Consultant can be the ideal support model for providing efficient and cost-effective IT Support to today's small businesses, who are more cost-conscious than ever before.
Starting a small business as an Independent Computer Consultant can be one of the most lucrative and rewarding career choices an IT professional can make today.
Is this the beginning of the end for the Independent Computer Consultant? Or can he evolve to become the preferred option for affordable, reliable Small Business IT Support in the coming decade?
With almost 30 million small businesses in the US alone, there is no shortage of a need for new innovations in technology. Every major technology developer... Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Apple, IBM, HP, Sony, BlackBerry, Intel and so on, as well as the thousands of smaller, but no less significant tech companies will continue to invest billions of dollars year after year developing new and innovative products for the immense and continuously growing small business market.
The way data is created, accessed and shared, the way communication will continue to expand our personal networks while shrinking our planet, the new and stronger methods we'll need to protect ourselves and our information, the way we sell and market our services and ourselves... All will change, and will continue to change for long into the foreseeable future.
As long as technology continues to evolve, there will continue to be a need for a qualified support person to install it, configure it, monitor it, maintain it, and yes, fix it when it doesn't work as it should.
And of course there will always be a need for a knowledgeable professional to show an inexperienced user how to get the most out of their systems.
To get the greatest long-term financial return from a technology investment, a small business owner will need to properly maintain these systems that are so critical to the daily functionality of their operations.
Qualified Computer Consultants who can keep their client's systems current, working at peak performance levels and that operating with minimal problems will always be in high demand.
This is where an Independent Computer Consultant has an advantage over larger IT Support Providers or MSP's. Thanks to the development of affordable system monitoring and remote support utilities, the independent computer consultant can provide the same reliable and immediate support response as a larger provider, yet, can be very price-competitive due to much lower overhead.
As long as the computer consultant's business is created on the correct business model, success can be easily attained.
What is destined for extinction is the old support model of being the on-call computer "repairman", who runs to the client's office whenever a problem occurs... at high, hourly billing rates. This reactive method of support relies on having systems fail for the consultant to make an income. The worse the systems perform (and the more dissatisfied the customer becomes), the more money the consultant makes.
This business model is guaranteed to fail. It's heavily reliant on having problems to resolve, keeps your clients continuously associating you with greater expenses to their business and provides a very unstable income.
For a computer consultant to succeed in supporting small businesses, they need to provide proactive monitoring to keep their customer's systems functioning at peak performance levels and operating as reliably as possible. They also need to provide instant response to critical support requests. Fortunately, these things can easily be accomplished by using today's affordable IT support utilities, such as GFI Max for server monitoring and inventory reporting, and LogMeIn Free for reliable... and free, remote computer support.
When a computer consultant builds a business on a proactive support model, they can charge affordable, flat monthly rates to their clients. This is much more preferable to billing high, hourly rates that the consultant is always looking for more of, while the customer is simultaneously trying to cut them down.
By being proactive and reducing problems, a computer consultant will have a much more satisfied customer base, a more predictable and reliable income level and will be able to support many more computer systems in far less time.
The Independent Computer Consultant can be the ideal support model for providing efficient and cost-effective IT Support to today's small businesses, who are more cost-conscious than ever before.
Starting a small business as an Independent Computer Consultant can be one of the most lucrative and rewarding career choices an IT professional can make today.
Is the Independent Computer Consultant Heading for Extinction?
The IT Support landscape is rapidly changing, with new, inexpensive tools being developed for proactive maintenance and remote support that allow support to be delivered faster and cheaper than ever before.
Is this the beginning of the end for the Independent Computer Consultant? Or can he evolve to become the preferred option for affordable, reliable Small Business IT Support in the coming decade?
With almost 30 million small businesses in the US alone, there is no shortage of a need for new innovations in technology. Every major technology developer... Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Apple, IBM, HP, Sony, BlackBerry, Intel and so on, as well as the thousands of smaller, but no less significant tech companies will continue to invest billions of dollars year after year developing new and innovative products for the immense and continuously growing small business market.
The way data is created, accessed and shared, the way communication will continue to expand our personal networks while shrinking our planet, the new and stronger methods we'll need to protect ourselves and our information, the way we sell and market our services and ourselves... All will change, and will continue to change for long into the foreseeable future.
As long as technology continues to evolve, there will continue to be a need for a qualified support person to install it, configure it, monitor it, maintain it, and yes, fix it when it doesn't work as it should.
And of course there will always be a need for a knowledgeable professional to show an inexperienced user how to get the most out of their systems.
To get the greatest long-term financial return from a technology investment, a small business owner will need to properly maintain these systems that are so critical to the daily functionality of their operations.
Qualified Computer Consultants who can keep their client's systems current, working at peak performance levels and that operating with minimal problems will always be in high demand.
This is where an Independent Computer Consultant has an advantage over larger IT Support Providers or MSP's. Thanks to the development of affordable system monitoring and remote support utilities, the independent computer consultant can provide the same reliable and immediate support response as a larger provider, yet, can be very price-competitive due to much lower overhead.
As long as the computer consultant's business is created on the correct business model, success can be easily attained.
What is destined for extinction is the old support model of being the on-call computer "repairman", who runs to the client's office whenever a problem occurs... at high, hourly billing rates. This reactive method of support relies on having systems fail for the consultant to make an income. The worse the systems perform (and the more dissatisfied the customer becomes), the more money the consultant makes.
This business model is guaranteed to fail. It's heavily reliant on having problems to resolve, keeps your clients continuously associating you with greater expenses to their business and provides a very unstable income.
For a computer consultant to succeed in supporting small businesses, they need to provide proactive monitoring to keep their customer's systems functioning at peak performance levels and operating as reliably as possible. They also need to provide instant response to critical support requests. Fortunately, these things can easily be accomplished by using today's affordable IT support utilities, such as GFI Max for server monitoring and inventory reporting, and LogMeIn Free for reliable... and free, remote computer support.
When a computer consultant builds a business on a proactive support model, they can charge affordable, flat monthly rates to their clients. This is much more preferable to billing high, hourly rates that the consultant is always looking for more of, while the customer is simultaneously trying to cut them down.
By being proactive and reducing problems, a computer consultant will have a much more satisfied customer base, a more predictable and reliable income level and will be able to support many more computer systems in far less time.
The Independent Computer Consultant can be the ideal support model for providing efficient and cost-effective IT Support to today's small businesses, who are more cost-conscious than ever before.
Starting a small business as an Independent Computer Consultant can be one of the most lucrative and rewarding career choices an IT professional can make today.
Is this the beginning of the end for the Independent Computer Consultant? Or can he evolve to become the preferred option for affordable, reliable Small Business IT Support in the coming decade?
With almost 30 million small businesses in the US alone, there is no shortage of a need for new innovations in technology. Every major technology developer... Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Apple, IBM, HP, Sony, BlackBerry, Intel and so on, as well as the thousands of smaller, but no less significant tech companies will continue to invest billions of dollars year after year developing new and innovative products for the immense and continuously growing small business market.
The way data is created, accessed and shared, the way communication will continue to expand our personal networks while shrinking our planet, the new and stronger methods we'll need to protect ourselves and our information, the way we sell and market our services and ourselves... All will change, and will continue to change for long into the foreseeable future.
As long as technology continues to evolve, there will continue to be a need for a qualified support person to install it, configure it, monitor it, maintain it, and yes, fix it when it doesn't work as it should.
And of course there will always be a need for a knowledgeable professional to show an inexperienced user how to get the most out of their systems.
To get the greatest long-term financial return from a technology investment, a small business owner will need to properly maintain these systems that are so critical to the daily functionality of their operations.
Qualified Computer Consultants who can keep their client's systems current, working at peak performance levels and that operating with minimal problems will always be in high demand.
This is where an Independent Computer Consultant has an advantage over larger IT Support Providers or MSP's. Thanks to the development of affordable system monitoring and remote support utilities, the independent computer consultant can provide the same reliable and immediate support response as a larger provider, yet, can be very price-competitive due to much lower overhead.
As long as the computer consultant's business is created on the correct business model, success can be easily attained.
What is destined for extinction is the old support model of being the on-call computer "repairman", who runs to the client's office whenever a problem occurs... at high, hourly billing rates. This reactive method of support relies on having systems fail for the consultant to make an income. The worse the systems perform (and the more dissatisfied the customer becomes), the more money the consultant makes.
This business model is guaranteed to fail. It's heavily reliant on having problems to resolve, keeps your clients continuously associating you with greater expenses to their business and provides a very unstable income.
For a computer consultant to succeed in supporting small businesses, they need to provide proactive monitoring to keep their customer's systems functioning at peak performance levels and operating as reliably as possible. They also need to provide instant response to critical support requests. Fortunately, these things can easily be accomplished by using today's affordable IT support utilities, such as GFI Max for server monitoring and inventory reporting, and LogMeIn Free for reliable... and free, remote computer support.
When a computer consultant builds a business on a proactive support model, they can charge affordable, flat monthly rates to their clients. This is much more preferable to billing high, hourly rates that the consultant is always looking for more of, while the customer is simultaneously trying to cut them down.
By being proactive and reducing problems, a computer consultant will have a much more satisfied customer base, a more predictable and reliable income level and will be able to support many more computer systems in far less time.
The Independent Computer Consultant can be the ideal support model for providing efficient and cost-effective IT Support to today's small businesses, who are more cost-conscious than ever before.
Starting a small business as an Independent Computer Consultant can be one of the most lucrative and rewarding career choices an IT professional can make today.
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