A Computer Consultant’s Guide to Craigslist

November 06, 2012 By 5 Comments

Computer Business CraigslistI’ve been getting some good results from Craigslist lately.  Yes, you heard right…Craigslist.  It’s ugly, scary, and yet it’s BUSY!  In fact, Craigslist is the second biggest referrer of new customers for my business right behind word of mouth referrals.

I’ve been using this service a lot lately because, well, it’s free.  I’ve been trying to take advantage of as many free sources of advertising as possible since my business is still relatively new (less than two years old as a full-time business) and I’m still trying to grow my customers and income.
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Filed Under: Computer Guys Tool Box, Growing a Computer Business

The Paperless Computer Business: An Interview with Jesse Powers of NightKingdoms

September 29, 2012 By 1 Comment

Paperless Computer BusinessMuch has been made these days of going paperless.  As technology evolves, businesses are trying to find ways to reduce the clutter and costs associated with putting everything on paper, not to mention the environmental implications of continued paper use.

As IT consultants, we should be at the forefront of this movement.  But how many of us have implemented such a system in our own business?

This is something I’ve tried to do myself.  I’ve talked about how I use Freshbooks and Square to try to keep my invoicing all electronic.  I also scan all my paper receipts and invoices so I can throw the paper in the recycling bin and save on clutter.

However I recently met a computer business owner who has taken the paperless office to the extreme!

Enter Jesse Powers, who, as of a few weeks ago, finished making his computer business, NightKingdoms, ENTIRELY paperless.  He personally programmed a system that allows him to track repairs, accept drop-offs and mail ins, and get customer’s signatures….all electronically.  When I heard this I was excited to talk to him about his system to see how it works.  What I found was that the lack of paper was a by-product of a need to create a system that made managing customers and tracking repairs easier.  And I think that’s something we are all looking for in our own businesses.

Here’s my interview with Jesse:

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Filed Under: Interviews

Video: Charging Hourly Rate vs. Charging Flat Rate

September 10, 2012 By 6 Comments

Welcome to the first in what I hope to be many videos here at YFNCG.  I’m trying to step away from behind the keyboard and put myself out there in other formats besides just the blog, since some people like to learn in ways other than reading.

So starting today I’m going to be answering reader questions on video.

In this video I answer the following question from Dan:

First, your articles and advice (to just do it) are keeping me going.  I have been doing computer consulting for 15 years and am finally ready to go to the next level.  I have a quick question for you - do you charge hourly or by the task?

Check out the video to see my response.

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Filed Under: Video

How Much Should I Charge?

August 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Starting a Computer Business - How Much Should I Charge?How much should I charge?

That’s a big question many new computer consultants face and it is a question that is tough to answer.

There are many factors involved.  What services are you offering? What is your competition charging?

Before you take all that into consideration, however, you first must figure out how much you NEED to charge to stay afloat as a business.

This is a good exercise to perform before you start your computer business, or even after you’ve been in business for a while.

I put together the calculator below to help you quickly figure out how much you SHOULD be charging, at a minimum, to sustain yourself and your business. Try it out and then make sure you charge what you’re worth!
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Filed Under: Computer Guys Tool Box

National IT Service Provider Showdown

August 15, 2012 By 1 Comment

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of “showdown” type posts where I compare similar services to see which one ends up being the best for my business needs.

Do you need to get more computer repair experience before starting your own business?  Not getting enough work for your current business?  Want to get some experience in an unfamiliar niche?

When I first started my computer consulting business, one of the best ways I found to get my feet wet with computer repair was to sign up for a national IT service provider.  These services basically provide IT support to customers all over the country (or world-wide) by contracting with local techs to complete the work.  Each service provider may have dozens or hundreds of techs in any given area in its database that it can call on to service any particular client.

Over the last few years I’ve signed up for a bunch of these service providers and had the opportunity to work for a few of them.  My results have been mixed, but they have provided great learning opportunities, especially when I was first starting out.

Below is a list of all of the national IT service providers that I’ve signed up for, along with my experiences with each.  All of these services provide voluntary work, meaning you do not have to take any of the service calls they offer you.

Please note that my experiences are based on my education, background, and location and are not to be taken as endorsements or rejections of any one service.  Your mileage WILL vary!

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Filed Under: Computer Guys Tool Box, Stories from the Trenches Tagged With:

81 Ways to Advertise Your Computer (Or Any Other) Business

July 02, 2012 By 8 Comments

One thing that remains constant for computer consulting business owners, or any business owners for that matter, is advertising. In order to keep a steady flow of customers calling and emailing you need to constantly be getting your business out in front of people.

I’ve been struggling with this lately myself, so I decided to take some time to brain storm as many advertising ideas as possible that could realistically be implemented by a computer business. You should always be looking for new ways to reach your customers and I’m sure there are some things on this list that you haven’t tried yet.

The items on this list can apply to almost any kind of business too.
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Filed Under: Growing a Computer Business Tagged With:

How to Build A Website In 30 Minutes or Less

April 30, 2012 By 6 Comments

30 Minute WebsiteI’ve been getting a lot of requests for web design work lately.  I can’t complain because I enjoy doing the work and it seems to be as in demand as ever.  It’s something I’ve done on my own for a long time, but never for money, so it’s been nice to start getting more and more work in this niche.

When I got my first few requests for webdesign late last year, I found that it was easy for the work to suck up a lot of my time, and my customers (small business owners or organizations) don’t have a huge budget to pay me for hours of work.

So I’ve been looking for a way to streamline the webdesign process.  By saving time I’ll be delivering a more affordable product to my customers while freeing myself up to do more work, since webdesign is only one of many computer-related services I’m offering.  Yet I don’t want the quality to suffer.

Over the last couple of months I’ve developed a system for building websites that allows me to provide a clean, professional, unique website for my clients in about 30 minutes, and my customers have been loving the outcome.
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Filed Under: Computer Guys Tool Box, Growing a Computer Business Tagged With: , , , ,

Trials and Triumphs: My First Year of Consulting

April 12, 2012 By 7 Comments

First Year Computer ConsultingIt’s been a little over a year since I quit my job to start living the life of a full-time computer consultant.  I had been running my business part time on the side for about three years and between changes at work and my growing list of consulting clients, I felt a year ago was a good time to make the transition.  I had saved about 6 months worth of living expenses and figured between that and my established list of clients I’d be off to a good start.

Boy was I wrong!

I can say without a doubt this has been one of the toughest years of my life.  But it’s also been one of the most rewarding.

I’ll walk you through my first year as a full-time consultant.  I urge anyone who is planning on going from part-time to full-time consulting to read through this and learn from my mistakes.
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Filed Under: Computer Tech Culture, Stories from the Trenches

Finding a Niche: Low-Income Neighborhoods

February 06, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Advertising your computer repair business can be a bit overwhelming. 68.7% of American homes have internet access, and the number rises sharply in more densely populated areas.  That means you have over half of your community, town, city, or county as possible customers.

You could take a generalist approach and randomly advertise to as many people as possible and hope you appeal to some of those people.  That works for well-established companies with large advertising budgets.  But there is a much cheaper and more effective method of advertising that involves targeting a small niche of your potential customer base.

In the Finding a Niche series of blog posts I will profile different possible customer niches that you can target for your computer consulting business.

Today we will focus on low-income neighborhoods.  It may be natural to think this is not a good area to target your advertising.  Many assume that low-income customers will be less likely to pay or to become return customers.  However, in my experience, this is usually not the case.  Low income neighborhoods can be great with referrals.  There are a lot of opportunities in serving these areas to bring in more loyal customers to your business.  Because they are so undeserved, the need for computer repair in low-income neighborhoods is higher than normal.
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Filed Under: Growing a Computer Business Tagged With: , , ,

20 Things You Can Do Right Now To Improve Your Computer Business

January 12, 2012 By 10 Comments

Improve Your Computer BusinessOver the three plus years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve experimented with many strategies for growing my fledgling computer consulting business. Some have worked well while others have fallen flat and turned out to be nothing but hype.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I only present topics about things that I have personally tried and experienced as I start and grow my computer repair business.  Yet, for new readers, it may be hard to find the best information among the hundreds of blogs posts on this site.

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Filed Under: Computer Guys Tool Box, Growing a Computer Business, YFNCG Tagged With: , , ,
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