Computer Consulting and Virtual IT

Do you own or manage a computer consulting company? Would you like to achieve greater small business success? If so, then get ready to learn why most computer consulting companies get IT (Information Technology) wrong and what you can do about IT.

The Problem: Why Most Computer Consulting Companies Get IT Wrong

Most owners of computer consulting companies make their jobs much harder than need be. Why? Because these computer consulting business owners fall in love with the technology… and view their small business clients as a distant second priority.

However, if you get this part of “IT” wrong, you will doom your computer consulting company to “clueless geek” status. It's crucial that you understand one extremely important principle here: Recruiting and retaining small business clients is your #1 computer consulting priority. Keeping up with IT should never get in the way of the mission of your computer consulting company.

In other words, don't get seduced by the hardware, operating systems or applications. Fall-in-love with the business opportunities surrounding how you solve your clients' biggest business problems with your recommended IT solutions. That's the real mission of a computer consulting company.

The Solution: Blend Computer Consulting and Virtual IT

To put this all in perspective with your computer consulting company, you need to understand and embrace the concept of virtual IT.

Virtual IT is what allows your computer consulting company to function as an extension of your small business clients' companies. Your computer consulting company essentially becomes the outsourced IT department for your small business clients.

As owner or manager of a computer consulting company in this role, you will most likely become the de facto CIO (chief information officer), CTO (chief technology officer), or IT manager for your small business clients.

And just like any well-rounded internal IT department, your virtual IT computer consulting business will need to provide, or arrange for, a complete soup-to-nuts solution that includes services like help desk, desktop support, network administration, engineering, security, training, procurement, and asset management… because anything short of the complete virtual IT solution will leave valuable computer consulting money on the table.


The Bottom Line

Most computer consulting companies are making a huge mistake when it comes to their small business engagements… because these computer consulting business owners fall-in-love with the technology, at the expense of the business opportunities. In order for your computer consulting company to flourish, make sure that you understand the concept of virtual IT and build virtual IT into every major business decision for your computer consulting company. To continue learning more about how you can use virtual IT to grow your computer consulting company, go sign-up right now for the one-hour free training seminar on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business at http://www.ComputerConsultingBusiness.com

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IT Certifications: What Types of Support Do Your Clients Need?

Sweet spot small businesses have distinct support needs-strong desktop support skills and light LAN skills. In this article, you'll learn what skills and certifications are most important to your sweet spot business clients.

What Specific Tasks Will Your Clients Need Help With?

These sweet spot clients are looking for help with popular desktop applications like Microsoft Office, Intuit QuickBooks, and Interact ACT! and help doing hardware upgrades. They need help setting up shared folder backup software and keeping their antivirus and firewall software up-to-date. These small businesses need help synching up their PDAs with ACT! and Microsoft Outlook. And they definitely need help with their networks.

Micro Small Businesses Have Different Needs

Micro small business space with fewer than 10 PCs, the peer-to-peer end, don't bother spending a lot of money on certification. In fact, IT certifications are often perceived as a negative-small business owners feel like they're paying for someone who's overqualified for the job.

IT Certifications Are More Important to “Real” IT Managers

When you start selling to a real IT manager, in a much larger small business (50+ systems) you'll find a more sophisticated IT buyer. At this point, IT certifications start to become extremely important. At this level, a “real” seasoned IT manager knows exactly what the different levels of IT certifications are.

At this level, there's a very good chance the buyers you're selling to are certified and they'll typically look for deeply niched experts-as opposed to virtual IT generalists. An in-house IT manager often handles the generalist work in-house. So this kind of larger small business doesn't need a virtual IT department-they are looking for someone to fill in their own skill gaps.

For example, if this client has a Microsoft Exchange Server installation, the IT manager may bring in a consulting firm skilled in doing forms development or hooking up a Java-based application to something that's based in a Microsoft Exchange Server Message Store. Or the IT manager may be looking for a Microsoft SQL Server developer or someone with strong Microsoft Visual Basic development skills.

The Bottom Line about IT Certifications

The sweet spot clients are a very different type of opportunity than where most small business computer consulting firms focus. At least at the outset, put most of your energy into the 10 to 50 PC space which is just big enough to need fairly sophisticated solutions, but not nearly large enough to justify putting a “real” highly-skilled IT person on payroll.

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IT Certifications: Are They Important?

Most of your sweet spot small business clients are just starting to gain awareness of the value of certifications. But most sweet spot clients don't know enough about IT to appreciate and pay for the differences in different levels of certification. In this article, you'll learn what your clients are looking for with your IT certifications.

What Do IT Certifications Mean to Your Clients?

If you present a staff member who's an MCP or CNA who has an entry-level certification and then next week you send someone in who's an MCSE or a more senior level certification or a Cisco certified SE (like a CCIE), it's not going to mean much to your clients. Your clients are probably going to have an appreciation for what certification is because they know they want to have someone that passed the test. However, your clients won't want to pay sky-high hourly billing rates for the more senior levels of IT certification.

From a practical standpoint, with most sweet spot small businesses, senior-level IT certifications don't matter all that much since most of the time the projects and tasks you will be working on are not that technical. And the tasks and projects that are very technical can be subcontracted out.

The Technology Curve in Small Businesses

Keep in mind with sweet spot small businesses that they're often years behind the technology curve. So you don't necessarily need to invest in keeping your skills and IT certifications up-to-the-minute.

The Bottom Line About IT Certifications

Small businesses will be so many years behind the curve that just basic, advanced-beginner to intermediate-level technical skills will be adequate IT certifications to carry you through most of your sweet spot IT clients' needs.

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