Rationally, the small business owner is aware that to get the most out of the network, it should be monitored and maintained. But when there’s an hourly fee involved to do extra work when everything seems to be working just fine, emotions overtake rationality and proactive maintenance is often put off.

Proper proactive maintenance of a network will improve your client’s productivity, increase the reliability of the systems, and quite possibly save them money in IT support costs.

For me, my Proactive Maintenance Plan includes:
– monitoring all server event logs
– monitoring for proper AV updates and activity
– monitoring backup status, whether on-site or remote
– monitoring firewall activity, hack/spam relay attempts
– monitoring system bottlenecks (system processes, processor/ram utilization, etc.)
– monitoring application services (Exchange, ISA, IIS, etc.)
– Real-time Inventory collection and web-based reporting
– remote support for most issues

Monitoring is performed 24x7x365 by configuring the hosted software that you select to perform these tasks to send you an email or sms alert whenever an event occurs that needs your attention. The software I use, GFI Max, performs all of these tasks as well as provides many more features not listed above for a low monthly fee.

The benefits your client gets from having this level of monitoring is:

1. Improved productivity – Most problems display warning signs of some sort before becoming critical issues. Check the event logs of any unmonitored server and I would bet good money that they’ll be more than a couple of red X’s that warrant some level of attention. Same goes for the odds of an unmonitored backup system having more than an acceptable amount of failed backups. Or an AntiVirus system that hasn’t updated in weeks. Or even the possibility of having a hard drive in a drive array completely failed without anyone being aware.

Any one of these examples, or countless others, if gone unchecked could easily develop into a crisis situation where there could be very serious and possibly unrecoverable losses to productivity and to the finances of the company. Proactive monitoring gives you the ability to prevent these unexpected emergencies.

Besides being able to save the day from disaster, you’ll also be able to improve performance on a day-to-day basis.

Too often, performance of equipment is allowed to degrade to the point where the device is no longer functional or usable. You’ll be improving your client’s productivity by more closely examining inventory reports for outdated or inadequate equipment or applications and performing upgrades before productivity can suffer.

2. Improved reliability – If you can identify and correct small problems early, before they have a chance to develop into larger problems, and most small problems are addressed by you remotely and therefore immediately, your client will have very few complaints about their systems. Providing that you keep your client constantly informed about the status of their network and the services your providing through excellent reporting (a MUST!), they will have little reason to ever consider replacing you (and a lot of reasons for recommending you to someone else).

3. Save them Money – Hourly based, reactive support for a small business customer is typically unstable. There will be very busy months, often off-set by quiet periods where everyone (including the computer consultant) is just happy that things seem to be working nicely for a change. And once in a while, one of those crisis situations I mentioned earlier will occur and the consultant delivers an invoice that could be relationship changing. This is a tough pill for the client to swallow after suffering through whatever downtime was just experienced.

Average out the cost of hourly support long-term, taking into account both the good and the really bad times, and the average monthly costs should actually be somewhat reasonable from both the computer consultant’s and the customer’s viewpoint.

If proactive monitoring can be delivered at a similar cost to hourly, reactive support, there is little reason for a small business owner to opt for the old model of hourly support.

Factor in any financial benefits as a result of increased productivity, or the prevention of a single disaster, and a flat-fee, proactive monitoring plan should be easily justified as a valuable and cost-effective solution.

If you can convey this to your potential customers when starting a computer consulting business of your own, you should be well on your way to expanding your client base.

But in a time where small business customers still want to know what your hourly rate is, how can we convince them that a flat-fee is the best solution for them?
You need to show VALUE!

What will they get for this predictable and affordable monthly fee?

– Greater reliability from their systems.
– More productivity.
– Less losses due to downtime.
– For about the same or less than they’d pay for hourly, reactive service.

You’ll be able to accomplish this by monitoring their systems and providing remote computer support.

Monitoring your client’s systems 24x7x365 is easily done with low cost software like GFI Max, which is able to collect real-time inventory reports as well.

Through monitoring, you can immediately identify problems such as failed backups, system event errors, virus activity, hacker attempts, etc. By preventing errors, you will reduce unexpected problems and increase their productivity.

You can provide remote support to all of your client’s workstations and servers for free by using software like LogMeIn Free. By providing remote computer support, you can increase your response time to most issues, large or small by about 100%.

The biggest complaint small businesses have when it comes to their computer consultant is having to wait for him or her to arrive, and not being notified when the consultant is going to be late.

With remote computer support, as long as the computer (or user) with the problem has Internet connectivity, you should be able to log on and work as if you were deskside. You can actually respond faster than an internal IT admin could make it across the office.

By providing basic proactive maintenance and support, you can generate an income based on predictable and reliable monthly fees, while dedicating a greatly reduced number of work hours on site at your clients. They honestly don’t want to see you very often anyway. And they’ll be happy to pay a fair rate to ensure that the less they see you, the better.

For complete information on how to succeed at starting a computer consulting business as an Independent computer consultant, visit http://SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com.

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.