Welcome to the 4th Computer Guy’s Corner.  Here is where 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 you all.  Feel free to comment about any of the links and let me know your take!

Stay tuned after the links for an update on my first customer.

10 classic clueless-user stories (TechRepbulic) - I think my computer tech friends can appreciate this article on TechRepublic’s 10-Things blog series.  It highlights hilarious examples of the kind of customers we deal with on a daily basis.  They’re a little out of date, but check the comments of the article for some more recent examples.

2008 Year In Review (Technibble) - This is a great comprehensive list of the best posts of 2008 on Technibble.  Lots of good stuff for folks looking to start a computer repair business.

Balancing Part Time Freelancing with a Full Time Job (Freelance Switch) - Excellent advice for those looking to start a part-time business.  It doesn’t necessarily apply perfectly to computer consulting, but it gives some good food for thought.

Top Ten Technology Trends for Small Businesses - 2009 (Small Business Trends) - Very well thought-out list of trends that will be popular this year in technology.  As a computer tech, make sure you’re always learning about new trends in technology so you can position yourself to be ahead of the competition when the trends become mainstream.

My Story About Doing The Right Thing (Technibble) - Bryce over at Technibble gives us an example of the right way to treat your customers, even if the customer may not realize that they could have easily been taken advantage of.  Kudos to Bryce for stressing the importance of honesty and integrity in this business!

Update on My First Customer

There’s been a pleasant turn of events with my first customer that I wanted to share with you all.  If you weren’t around for the two previous articles about my first official customer check them out here and here.

The latest update was that the customer had decided to purchase a new computer.  Well apparently after she thought about it a little more she called me back and said she decided to save money and just purchase a new hard drive for her current computer.  She asked if I could help her by ordering a suitable hard drive and installing it for her.  This is great news!  Now I have an opportunity to work more with the customer, get some more experience, and make more money from this encounter.  I’m in the process right now of quoting drive prices for the customer.  I’ll be marking up the hard drive by 10% as compensation for my time and effort in ordering it and I’ll charge the customer my regular hourly rate for installation.

All-in-all I think this first customer experience turned out to be a good one.  I’ve learned some valuable lessons and I now have a customer that I’m confident will come back to me for all of her future computer needs.