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 of the Independent Computer Consultant? Or can he evolve to become the preferred option for cost-effective 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 just as 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, they’ll 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 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 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 thanks to much lower overhead.
Providing the computer consultant’s business is created on the correct business model, success is easily reached.
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 a high, hourly billing rate. 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 a proactive monitoring keep their customers 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 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.
In Part 1 of this 2-part article, we discussed 3 of the 7 Major Perks that can be gained by starting a small business of your own as an Independent Computer Consultant.
Let’s discuss the 4 remaining Major Perks you’ll get by taking charge of your career and becoming your own boss.
Major Perk #4: Flexible work hours – You’re the one who sets your office hours. Naturally, as the support provider for your clients, you’ll need to be available when they need you. However, if you want to get paid an overtime rate for any work your clients request outside of your regular business hours, you can.
Simply set the ground rules for your hours and rates in the support agreement that you have signed when you begin your relationship with your customer.
When you follow the correct Proactive Support Model with Flat-Fee Billing and Remote Computer Support, you should be providing the vast majority of your work from a remote location and not at the client site. And because your support model is based on preventative maintenance and not on constantly addressing emergencies, you’ll have a great deal of flexibility as to when you begin and end your work day.
Major Perk #5: An Opportunity for technical growth – If you’re working for someone else, it’s typically your boss who decides what products you’ll get to work with or learn. Fall into the wrong position, and your experience level and growth can be severely limited.
But as an Independent Computer Consultant, your clients will be turning to you for recommendations on which products or solutions to install. You get to decide on the products you will be working with. The choice is yours as to what you will be installing and supporting.
You get to learn the systems that you want to learn. If there is a product that you want more experience with and it’s the right solution for one of your clients, then you have the opportunity to go ahead and learn it.
Your clients will believe in you and your expertise. If you believe your choice in systems is the best and most cost-effective option for your clients, they will usually follow your advice.
Major Perk #6: Opportunity for professional growth – As a business owner, you’ll communicate regularly with the upper management and owners of your clients’ businesses. You are no longer the “technician” sent in to work on their systems… you are a fellow business owner… and your relationship will take on a peer-like connection. It’s the type of connection that can lead to greater opportunities for higher level networking and relationship building.
Business owners enjoy talking with other business owners because they can relate to them. Suddenly you’ve become one of their inner circle… a place that many people never get access to.
You’ll also have the opportunity to grow your own business should you so decide. If you choose to expand your operations beyond what you’re able to handle on your own and build your business into a larger corporation, that’s your choice.
You see, the starting point of Independent Computer Consultant can be a solid foundation for providing the client base, contacts and capital that will help your growing computer consulting business to continue growing.
Major Perk #7: A stimulating social environment – You’re in complete control over the companies you work with. Every employee or employer of every company you choose to work with provides an opportunity for expanding your social circle. The larger and more varied the client base you create for yourself, the larger the social network you’ll have to operate within.
Strong social circles are where great referrals can be found.
And great referrals provide the foundation for growing your computer consulting business.
Starting a small business of your own as an Independent Computer Consultant can provide you with so many benefits that are simply difficult, if not impossible to obtain while working as an employee of someone else.
Assuming you already have the required skill set to support a small business network, getting started as your own boss as an Independent Computer Consultant will be easier, less risky and requires far less capital then starting a small business of almost any other kind.
By focusing on building your business on the correct model of flat-fee, proactive maintenance and using inexpensive, readily available utilities to monitor and remotely support your clients, you can achieve great success very quickly.
Starting a small business as an Independent Computer Consultant can provide the progressive and determined IT Professional with 7 Major Perks that would be difficult to come by as an “employee” at most any other IT Job.
Major Perk #1: Excellent Income Potential – An Independent Computer Consultant operating under the correct model of Proactive Network Monitoring, Remote Computer Support and Flat-Fee Billing, can:
- Make more than the average salary of working for someone else, while working far fewer hours!
- Know in advance how much revenue will be collected each month… as opposed to hunting for billable hours and battling slow months.
- Choose EXACTLY WHEN to GET paid each month… as opposed to waiting for (or hounding) slow paying clients.
Major Perk #2: Benefits – Such as Health, Retirement and Financial
- As a self employed Computer Consultant, you’ll be able to PICK the benefits that are BEST FOR YOU (not settle on WHATEVER an employer would offer… IF THEY EVEN OFFER BENEFITS!)
- Do you prefer low-cost benefits instead? No Problem! You CHOOSE THE PLAN YOU LIKE and you can pay potentially LESS than what you would contribute to a company plan.
- As an owner of your own company, you’ll have MORE savings, investment and tax benefits available to you that are far greater than you could obtain as an employee
Major Perk #3: Unmatched Job Security – LET’S FACE IT: In today’s job market (or any other time in history for that matter), just how secure can your position be when you’re working for someone else?
As an employee, there are a whole host of reasons why you can lose your job:
- Over 80% of terminations are a result of a poor boss/employee relationship.
- The company may need to cut costs and eliminates your position
- The company decided to outsource your position
- The company changes management or merges with another company, who decides to remove you from your position
- The company is going out of business
But when YOU’RE the BOSS, the only one who can fire you – is YOU.
Of course, as an Independent Computer Consultant, it’s possible that you can lose a client for some of the very same reasons you could lose your job as an employee.
BUT WHEN AN EMPLOYEE LOSES THEIR JOB, THEY LOSE 100% OF THEIR INCOME.
However, the Flat-Fee, Proactive Support Business Model is built SO YOU NEVER RELY ON ANY ONE CLIENT BECAUSE no one client should EVER comprise of a majority of your income!
If you were to lose a client, your remaining client base will CONTINUE TO MAKE YOU MONEY until you ADD a new client.
As your own boss, you’ll have the power to temporarily increase your billings and boost your income by adding more projects or work across your remaining client base.
That covers Part 1 of this 2-part article on the 7 Major Perks of Being an Independent Computer Consultant. Look for Part-2 for the rest of the great opportunities that await you when starting a small business of your own as an Independent Computer Consultant.
Starting a small business as an Independent Computer Consultant can be one of the most rewarding career choices a computer support professional can make today.
Fortunately, the path to success as a successful Independent Computer Consultant can be an easy one… IF you’re armed with the right information.
With so many wonderful perks that come with being your own boss, why do so few computer consultants ever attempt starting a small business of their own, when they likely have all of the qualifications they need to succeed?
Achieving success as an Independent Computer Consultant can actually be quite easy today, providing you know the steps to take, the pitfalls to avoid, and the tools to use to make the journey easier.
If you run a small business, outsourcing your IT needs is probably your most cost-effective means of supporting your computer systems. Even if you’re personally qualified to maintain the systems yourself, your time is likely much better spent running your business rather than monitoring backups and troubleshooting buggy desktops.
And of course if something really goes wrong, you’re going to want to have a professional that you know and trust to come to the rescue.
I provide computer consulting New York based small businesses. It’s a highly competitive market with a wide variety of IT Service providers, ranging from the Independent Consultant who serves a limited, but loyal customer base, to large firms supporting hundreds of local businesses.
A small business in need of a qualified computer consulting firm has several criteria in which to measure their potential future provider. Gone are the days where you simply wait for the computer to break and then call in the computer consultant to perform the repair at an hourly rate. This reactive support model is inefficient and very ineffective at keeping the systems operating at peak performance.
To get the most out of your IT Maintenance budget, the best approach is to be proactive and try to prevent problems from happening in the first place. If your Computer Consulting firm is operating under the correct Managed Service Provider (MSP) business model, your ultimate support costs should be approximately the same as if you were paying for hourly, reactive support, yet your performance levels and system reliability should be much higher.
The things you should be looking for in a computer consulting firm are:
1. Network Monitoring – By installing a small application on your server, your computer consultant should be able to monitor all of the critical components of your network, including:
- AntiVirus updates and activity
- Backup status
- System Event Log alerts and errors
- Security status – are unauthorized users trying to enter the system
- Drive space
- Processor and memory utilization and possible bottlenecks
- Website and communication status – know immediately if a service fails
Many of the monitoring utilities in use today are web-based, which could allow you to monitor the network right alongside your computer consultant. Keeping an eye on your own network’s health status is a good way to remain apprised of any issues and to keep tabs on your consultant if need be.
2. Remote Computer Support – Your computer consultant should be able to log into your systems (both the server and your user’s desktops) remotely to address problems as they arise. With remote connectivity, your consultant could potentially provide support even faster than an in-house Network Administrator could.
3. Service Reporting – Your computer consulting firm should be able to provide you with timely and accurate reports as to what service was performed, for who and how long did it take. These reports will allow you to identify potential problem spots on the network (areas of repeating problems) as well as assist in budgeting for future support needs.
4. Inventory Reporting – A current inventory report of all of your technology components is useful for insurance purposes, budgeting for future needs and for identifying possible weak points in your infrastructure. Your data should be collected in real-time and your consulting firm should be able to provide you with up-to-the-minute reports via a web-accessible interface.
5. Location – Not every problem can be addressed remotely. There will be times when you need your computer consultant on-site ASAP! Make sure you select a consultant who can get to you when you need him.
6. Fees – Selecting the “cheapest” consultant you can find will most likely backfire on you and wind up costing you more in the long run. A qualified, experienced computer consultant commands a respectable salary. If your consultant is charging below-market rates, it’s likely because of his lack of experience or talents. If it takes him twice as long to complete a job than a qualified consultant can do, then you’re likely still paying the same amount, but getting a lower quality of service (which may cause additional problems in the future.)
Your consultant’s basic fees should be flat-based as opposed to hourly. This works to both of your advantages.
By paying a flat, monthly fee, you’ll be able to budget your expenses more accurately and you won’t have to place restraints on the maintenance of your systems. And unlike with an hourly rate, your consultant’s income doesn’t improve the more your systems fail. Instead, with a flat-fee, the more reliably your systems perform, the less work your consultant needs to invest to achieve the same billable amount.
Under flat-fee billing, it’s in everyone’s best interest for your network to perform reliably at all times.
7. Dedication – If you want to gain the maximum lifespan and long term performance from your network, you’re going to need someone to maintain it on a regular basis. Someone who is intimately familiar with both the systems and the users. If you’re using a larger firm, you want to have a single consultant plus a backup dedicated to your account. This can often be difficult to accomplish for a consulting firm with a large client base. Qualified consultants are expensive and a large IT Support firm will want to employ only as many as absolutely necessary at a time to control overhead. This often results in spreading the technical talent too thin and you as the customer get a revolving door of consultants who are unfamiliar and take longer to resolve issues.
In the dedication department is where an Independent Computer Consultant has an advantage over the larger IT Support Firms. An Independent Computer Consultant who serves a limited customer base can provide a level of attention similar to that of an in-house employee. Assuming he’s monitoring his client’s systems properly, provides remote support and charges flat-fee based billing, a very manageable workload can be maintained, leaving enough flexibility in the schedule to provide equal and necessary attention to each and every client.
Ideally, you’d like to find a larger computer consulting firm with diverse resources, yet can provide the level of dedication and attention you’d get from an Independent Computer Consultant.
If you’re looking for computer consulting in New York City, you might want to give Perry Consulting a call. I hear good things…
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