The “My Inspirations” series is my opportunity to highlight specific people, books, or resources that have helped lead me to where I am today and inspired me to take on the challenge of starting a computer business. No journey is ever taken alone.

It’s Thanksgiving here in the US and I’m currently spending time in Connecticut with family. I’m thankful for alot of things, including the opportunity to start this blog and learn so much from all of my readers! I’m off to a great start with my computer business and it’s thanks to your input that I’ve been able to get this far with my blog and business.

This is the perfect day to post the latest entry in the “My Inspirations” series. This time I’ll focus on someone who could not be here on the east coast with us today. That person is my dad, who currently resides on the West Coast in California.  My dad and I have had our differences. I must admit that we have different religious and personal philosophies and this has caused a lot of tension in our relationship over the years. But there are many things about my dad that have inspired me to be the person I am today. I’d like to concentrate on those things today.

(more…)

I’m at the point in my business planning where I need to start thinking about setting the prices I charge for my services.  It’s been a struggle for me to decide how much I feel my services should be worth.  Reading books, blogs, and forums on the subject, the general consensus seems to be that there is a happy medium between undercutting the major competition without shooting so low that people wont take you seriously.

I’ll take you through the process I used in order to come up with my prices.  Although this process is specifically for my business as a computer consultant, I’ve tried to make the ideas broad enough that they can apply to almost any business in the service industry.

(more…)

Welcome to another edition of Computer Guy’s Corner!  During the week I collect a small handful of links to useful news, reviews, and blog postings that relate to small business news, productivity, tech gossip, troubleshooting tools, industry news, or any random stuff that I find helpful, and share it with my readers.  Feel free to comment about any of the articles I’ve included and let me know your take!

(more…)

In one of my first posts here on Y.F.N.C.G., I outlined the first first few things I plan on doing to get my computer business up and running.  Up to this week I had completed four of them:

Have a business plan
Come up with a name
Register the business name
Start finding ways to make money

And now, this week, I have reached another important milestone in the preparation of my business, opening a bank account for my business.  If you’re wondering why I think establishing a business bank account is necessary so early in the planning process, I’ve listed some of my reasons.
(more…)

Welcome to another book review from Your Friendly Neighborhood Computer Guy.  I try to keep these reviews simple to read and concise in delivery so you can quickly find out if the book being reviewed is right for you.  I focus on books specifically about starting a computer business and I hope to tailor my reviews to folks who are in the early stages of starting a computer consulting business.  The thing you’ll need to keep in mind is that I’m still in the process of learning as I read and review these books, so my reviews are from a start-up perspective.  I think that fact may benefit those who are in my situation more than if these books were reviewed by a “seasoned pro”.

The book I’m reviewing this time around is Computer Business Lessons Learned by Daniel Hand. I found this book while searching online for information about starting a computer business. One thing that grabbed my attention about this book were the words “Lessons Learned”. That tells me that the author has already had his trial by fire and he’s ready to share his insights. The website says that CBLL is “a true book that reveals exactly how to be successful in the Computer Repair Business.” Does the book live up to the hype? Lets find out…
(more…)

This is my first foray into “link round-up” writing. About once a week, hopefully, I’ll be posting a small article with a handful of links to useful news, reviews, and blog postings that I’ve found across the net pertaining to any aspect of computer consulting whether it be small business news, productivity, tech gossip, troubleshooting tools, industry news, or any random stuff that I find helpful. This will set into motion the creation of a solid archive of relevant links to articles that should prove helpful to all you computer guys and to anyone looking to start a computer business, or any business for that matter.
(more…)

I’ve recently finished the advertising plan for my part-time computer consulting business and I thought I’d share it with you.   It’s really quite simple.  I’ve identified 5 marketing strategies that I will implement, over the next 6 months or so, that should cost very little money, if any at all.  I think these are great strategies for those who are starting a business while still working full-time at a “day job” or for high school and college students looking to make some extra cash by moonlighting as their own neighborhood’s computer guy.
(more…)

Historically, the computer guy, like many other service professionals, has been undervalued and under appreciated.  But beware, we computer folk hold a lot more of the cards then some may realize.  For those people who tend to treat their computer guy like a second class citizen, here are the top 10 reasons why you may want to reconsider giving us a hard time (David Letterman style): (more…)