http://www.financealley.com en-us editorial@financealley.com IT consulting services come in all shapes and sizes. When you first start a business it is often difficult to decide which IT consulting services to offer. Should you sell what you know, sell what is trendy, or sell what you think people want? The bes... http://www.financealley.com/article_105530_15.html 17th November 2006 Internet security is an important element in the computer consulting business. As a computer consulting professional, your clients will need you to explain Internet security by describing how your networking solution will work with firewall, antivirus an... http://www.financealley.com/article_104640_15.html 17th November 2006 Small business networking is very important to success. You, the computer consultant, are entrenched in the professional services business, which revolves around relationships and thus networking with a large number of people. You need to make small... http://www.financealley.com/article_104639_15.html 17th November 2006 Having a sustainable IT consulting business is intricately linked to the sweet spot of small businesses. But where do you look for these small business clients, and how do you know they will actually be a source of lucrative recurring revenue? Identif... http://www.financealley.com/article_104570_15.html 17th November 2006 When you are just starting out in the IT consulting business, you need a website. Potential clients will know whether you are full time and in the IT consulting business for the long haul or just trying it on for size by the quality of your website. S... http://www.financealley.com/article_104569_15.html 17th November 2006 While there is no set definition in IT consulting of a sweet spot client, there are some signs that will tell you whether a prospect is a candidate. Ask the following questions to determine which of your clients will be long-term relationship material: ... http://www.financealley.com/article_104218_15.html 17th November 2006 As a consultant involved in small business consulting, your clients may sometimes ask you why they need the more powerful or larger network you are recommending. Many may say their networks work great ? most of the time. Selling Small Business Consult... http://www.financealley.com/article_104217_15.html 17th November 2006 The IT sales call should be mainly about making sure your prospect is well-suited for and in need of your services. If you don't use this call for that purpose, you can waste time with a prospect that does not actually want to hire you, rather simply wan... http://www.financealley.com/article_100126_64.html 15th November 2006 Sales processes vary depending on the type of marketing you are doing. Many computer resellers use direct mail advertising as part of their marketing strategy. The sales process that is critical in this type of campaign is the two-step sales process. ... http://www.financealley.com/article_99913_64.html 15th November 2006 Direct mail post cards are one of the most popular ways to market a computer consulting business. Networking is one of the most effective ways to market. Let's look at how the two marketing techniques compare to one another. You can use this informatio... http://www.financealley.com/article_99912_64.html 15th November 2006 Training seminars are a savvy marketing strategy. As a Solutions Provider they warrant serious consideration. Hosting a successful training seminar, however, requires a lot of work and planning. Last time we talked about some ideas for getting the most ... http://www.financealley.com/article_99911_64.html 15th November 2006 Credibility is an important factor that will be weighed by your prospects. As an IT Consultant you should be actively thinking about ways to build your credibility. Whether it is through building your credibility at the local level or going for a more nat... http://www.financealley.com/article_99909_15.html 15th November 2006 Business relationships are hard to build when you are in a position where you don't know anyone yet. Perhaps you are new to town, don't know the area, or haven't joined a business organization yet. Although it seems like a chicken and an egg scenario, th... http://www.financealley.com/article_99421_64.html 15th November 2006 Professional networking works. Last time we discussed five tips to improve your professional networking effectiveness. In this article you'll learn five more tips to make you a professional networking guru. Don't let one person monopolize your time... http://www.financealley.com/article_99420_64.html 15th November 2006 Direct mail post cards are a popular form of marketing for network integrators. They can be expensive though, so you need to set up your direct mail post cards correctly. Good direct mail post cards have good conversion rates, poor ones don't. You s... http://www.financealley.com/article_99419_64.html 15th November 2006 Training seminars present an excellent opportunity for you to market your IT consulting business. When you sponsor your own training seminar you raise your trust and credibility with potential customers. The added bonus is that you reach a large amount ... http://www.financealley.com/article_99418_64.html 15th November 2006 Relationship marketing can be a really powerful way to grow your business. And it's a really great way to meet key business owners and leaders in your community by getting active in these organizations. But you won't get to relationship marketing if you... http://www.financealley.com/article_99003_64.html 15th November 2006 Business organizations are a great place to do some relationship marketing. By joining business organizations you meet key business owners and leaders in your community. By getting active in these business organizations you can use relationship marketi... http://www.financealley.com/article_99002_15.html 15th November 2006 Business contacts are the people you have in your network. These people are all important to your growing business. You need to build and develop relationships with your business contacts in order to move your business forward and expand your customer b... http://www.financealley.com/article_99001_15.html 15th November 2006 Performance metrics in the area of networking are those measurements that will tell you whether your efforts are resulting in business. Networking and relationship marketing are time intensive so you want to spend that time wisely. Performance metrics a... http://www.financealley.com/article_99000_15.html 15th November 2006 Phone support is an area where many new IT consultants lose their shirts. They want to offer high quality service so they make phone support part of their service contract. The problem is they end up giving away the phone support for free. When you a... http://www.financealley.com/article_96343_15.html 26th October 2006 Computer maintenance contracts are one area of your business where you may want to consider using a price-fixed model. Time and materials pricing is almost always going to be better for you, but many clients respond well to fixed price computer maintenan... http://www.financealley.com/article_96342_15.html 26th October 2006 Fixed prices are often attractive to clients, but are they sustainable for the profitability of your computer business? When we start looking at fixed prices and ongoing computer maintenance the answer is, "maybe." If you offer a fixed price for ong... http://www.financealley.com/article_96341_15.html 26th October 2006 Pricing strategy is like walking a tightrope: price too low and you lose money that is rightfully yours; price too high and you lose business. Without knowing how to bill and what to charge, you risk looking like an amateur to the prospects that you des... http://www.financealley.com/article_96340_15.html 26th October 2006 Business agreements with other IT companies can be an excellent way to secure high quality referrals. When you are dealing within a B2B context, the referrals you get from non competing IT businesses tend to be ones that will turn into long term service c... http://www.financealley.com/article_93603_15.html 10th October 2006 Computer business software is an area where many new network consultants get overwhelmed. There are so many great products out there that it is hard to decide which computer business software to invest your time and money in. You want to be able to ... http://www.financealley.com/article_93602_15.html 10th October 2006 IT services outsourcing is what you need to do when, not if, your prospects ask for products and services that you are not able to deliver. Many new business owners think they need to know everything. They fear not being able to offer every service unde... http://www.financealley.com/article_93600_15.html 10th October 2006 IT consulting services are offered at different levels and types in almost all the virtual IT businesses you encounter. Deciding which IT consulting services you should offer is a key consideration when starting your business. The IT consulting servic... http://www.financealley.com/article_93599_15.html 10th October 2006 Product ideas or services that your computer business will offer are not as easy to decide upon as you may think. When you start a new business this part of business planning is often taken for granted. Deciding upon a product idea or service to off... http://www.financealley.com/article_93363_15.html 06th October 2006 Successful entrepreneurs in virtual IT have a certain set of personality traits and characteristics. Without these attributes, the chances of becoming a successful entrepreneur in this business are limited. Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs... http://www.financealley.com/article_93222_15.html 06th October 2006 Direct mail advertising is a marketing technique you will likely use in your virtual IT business. Because this type of advertising can be expensive, it is best to know the ins and outs before you begin. Direct Mail Advertising Tips It typically tak... http://www.financealley.com/article_93219_15.html 06th October 2006 Referral programs are a great way to boost your Network Consulting Business. Typically a referral program provides service credits to those clients who send you new business. If you offer a referral program you provide your clients with an incentive to ... http://www.financealley.com/article_92035_15.html 04th October 2006 Starting a new business is one thing, actually getting paying clients is another. Clients won't know you're starting a new business unless you tell them. So you have to start telling people right away. Here are some tips for getting the word out: ... http://www.financealley.com/article_92034_15.html 04th October 2006 Contact management databases are a very, very important asset to your systems integration business. In fact, a contact management database is like a treasure map. In it you will find your future business. The names in your contact management databa... http://www.financealley.com/article_91683_15.html 03rd October 2006 Follow up, as we said last time, is a critical component of your marketing system. You need to stay in touch with your contacts. The tricky part is making sure your follow up doesn't cross over into pestering. This is where creative follow up comes in.... http://www.financealley.com/article_91682_15.html 03rd October 2006 Seminar topics are difficult to think of. We know that hosting seminars is an excellent way to network and use relationship marketing. The problem lies in figuring out a seminar topic that will appeal to the clients in your sweet spot. When choosing ... http://www.financealley.com/article_91305_15.html 03rd October 2006 Sales pipelines are an important concept in business marketing. At any one point you will have different people in different phases of the buying process: your sales pipeline. How you market to these people varies. When you know who, and how many, you... http://www.financealley.com/article_91304_64.html 03rd October 2006 Contact management systems are an excellent way to track the success of your various marketing techniques. You can put together a quick spreadsheet to track your contact data but why? It is time consuming and with the excellent contact management systems... http://www.financealley.com/article_91303_64.html 03rd October 2006 Follow up is an incredibly important aspect of your marketing and contact management systems. You need to be diligent but not aggressive with your follow-up, though. Your follow up should be creative and customized for each lead or prospect but never so... http://www.financealley.com/article_91302_64.html 03rd October 2006 Marketing surveys are an excellent way to get information from contacts, prospects, and leads for your PC Repair Business. They allow you to keep in touch and keep current with what is going on after you have made a sales call. Your goal in marketing ... http://www.financealley.com/article_90354_15.html 29th September 2006 Referral programs are becoming very popular with Solution Providers. One of the simplest and most efficient ways to organize your referral program is to set it up on your web site. The process starts by creating a referral program page. You can then... http://www.financealley.com/article_90353_15.html 29th September 2006 Finding good moonlighting jobs can be difficult for computer consultants working with small businesses because you are usually on duty when these companies are not. You need to be able to conduct moonlighting jobs in the evening and on weekends, and many... http://www.financealley.com/article_90123_15.html 28th September 2006 In order to ease clients through the process of accepting your solutions in the computer consulting business, you have to stress value and return on investment (ROI) instead of presenting your services as an expense. Even though each client will have dif... http://www.financealley.com/article_90121_15.html 28th September 2006 Business startup funding is a concern for most professionals starting their own businesses. Many wonder if they have enough money to begin and when they can quit their other jobs to focus entirely on the new business. The key to launching a business is ... http://www.financealley.com/article_90120_15.html 28th September 2006 You'll find that clients are sometimes just like children. They want to biggest, shiniest toy even though it may not be good for them. Your job as the virtual CIO is to make sure that they spend their money wisely and well. What Does Your Client Reall... http://www.financealley.com/article_90064_15.html 28th September 2006 Although technical skills are essential for IT consultants, there are many other things you need to know when running your own business. Here is a list of a few of the most important things you need to learn when running your own business. Learn How to... http://www.financealley.com/article_90063_15.html 28th September 2006 Making the most of your IT seminars is integral to your business success. Here are a few important tips for getting everything you can from these seminars. Registration Most of your seminars should be free, but you still want to require some type of... http://www.financealley.com/article_90062_15.html 28th September 2006 Every company has some unique facet that makes them different from the rest of their competition. In order to effectively reach your clientele, you need to figure out what your unique offering is. For example, if you're within walking distance of many bus... http://www.financealley.com/article_90060_15.html 28th September 2006 Contact management systems allow you to track which marketing techniques are working and which aren't. With an effective contact management system in place you can see at a glance how much time you are spending with leads and from which sources you are g... http://www.financealley.com/article_89928_15.html 28th September 2006 Starting a new business requires creativity. You need to think of innovative ways to entice people to give you a shot when you are starting a new business. Often times early paying clients come from friends of the family and other family members. W... http://www.financealley.com/article_89926_15.html 28th September 2006