While thinking about the long-term plan for my computer consulting business, I’m constantly struggling between two scenarios: continuing to run my business part-time indefinitely along side my “regular” job working for someone else, or making it my full time gig.  Should I try hard to turn my little computer repair business into an all-consuming career, or simply keep it as a side-operation to supplement my stable, well-paying corporate job? 

It’s a tough question with no easy answer.  I’m satisfied with my career and how it’s progressed thus far.  Some days I feel like it’s a bad move to throw a wrench in the spokes of a fast moving successful career working in the IT industry, but at times the fire in me burns for something more.

To try to alleviate some of my anxieties and make an attempt at understanding it all, I decided to pit full time against part time in a battle royal of ideals, realities, and everything in between. Read the rest of this entry »

This post marks the first in, hopefully, a long line of book reviews from Your Friendly Neighborhood Computer Guy.  I’ll try to keep these reviews simple to read and concise in delivery so you can quickly find out if the book is right for you.  In these early stages of my business formation, I’ll focus on books specifically about starting a business. Granted, there are plenty of books and book reviews out there about starting a business, but I hope to be different by tailoring my reviews to folks looking to start a computer consulting business, even if the book itself isn’t specifically about that.  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”.

I decided to kick off this series with the first book that I picked up a few years ago when I first started flirting with the idea of starting my own computer consulting business, Start Your Own Computer Business: The Unembellished Guide, by Morris Rosenthal.  The straight forward title obviously caught my eye and this is the book that comes up at the top of the list of any searches I did online for books about starting a computer business.  Mr. Rosenthal obviously knew there was a niche to fill with this book, but does it deliver the goods?
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I found an interesting thread on a forum the other day.  The thread begins with a young man nicknamed ”clutch” asking the forum members for their advice on the steps necessary to prepare for a new computer repair business.  He proudly lists some things he’s considered acquiring before he beings, things like spare parts, repair tools, boot disks.   Soon thereafter one of the seasoned vets of the forum, “Prime Suspect”, gives him this piece of advice:

“I hate to be so blunt about it, but discussing and planning and thinking and nailbiting doesn’t get a business to be successful. Every second that you spend planning it and asking for advice is wasted time. ”

You can read the full thread here.

A bit of a harsh statement, but it reaffirms something that I recently discovered.  I, too, had a lot in common with “clutch”, spending hours gathering information and formulating plans.  While I think some planning is necessary, and a new business is not the sort of thing to jump into blindly, too much preparation can also be a hindrance to forward progress.

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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.

At First I Was Afraid, I Was Petrified…

One of the first obstacles I had to overcome before I could start my business was a fear of the unknown.  This fear mainly stemmed from a lack of experience in the business arena.  Although I have plenty of experience fixing computers, I had never started a business before, I didn’t know anyone who had done anything similar, and although my family and friends provide excellent support, I didn’t have the kind of support that comes from people who have “been there” and “done that”.  I bought some books I thought would help, but they didn’t really fit exactly what I was looking for.  What I was looking for were mentors, people who have successfully done what I want to do, who I would be available to bounce ideas off of. I had questions: Could I pull this off?  How have others been successful?  What is the common wisdom and what are some lessons that others have learned learned?

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Business Name Blues is a 3-part series in which I talk about the experiences I had in naming my business and give tips based on lessons I’ve learned in the process. Part 1 explores choosing the business name. Part 2 looks into the online aspect of business naming. Part 3 closes with the legal and tax steps necessary to ensure your business name is protected. Also, as I go through each part, I will be updating the Resources page with a Business Naming section to assist you with resources and links to help you make the right moves when naming your business.

Don’t miss the end of this article where I summarize all I’ve learned with a list of 8 easy steps to naming your business!

Not Quite Done Yet

Come up with a good name for my business. Check!  Register my business website domain.  Check!  Time to start mailing fliers and knocking on doors right?  Not so fast! Read the rest of this entry »

Warning: If you’re not a computer nerd, you may not fully appreciate this post.  Proceed with caution (and set your phasers on stun).

Until the recent past, the entertainment world has given computer nerds a bad rap. Long have we been eschewed to the ranks of the socially inept, uber-sarcastic losers like Dennis from Jurassic Park or Nick Burns the Company Computer Guy from SNL.  Well, we mouse jockeys finally have someone to root for!

Tonight marks the premier of the second season of the NBC action-comedy Chuck.  The show’s outlandish premise follows the adventures of Chuck Bartowski, a computer repair tech, who had the last remaining copy of the worlds greatest spy secrets downloaded to his brain via an encrypted message sent by his old college roommate who now works for the CIA.  I’ll spare you the full synopsis which you can read here.
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Business Name Blues is a 3-part series in which I talk about the experiences I had in naming my business and give tips based on lessons I’ve learned in the process. Part 1 explores choosing the business name. Part 2 looks into the online aspect of business naming. Part 3 closes with the legal and tax steps necessary to ensure your business name is protected.  Also, as I go through each part, I will be updating the Resources page with a Business Naming section to assist you with resources and links to help you make the right moves when naming your business.

The Shady Underbelly

Proud of accomplishing the first task on the road to establishing my business by coming up with a good name, the next step I took was to register the domain name for my new company, Jiffy-PC.  In hind sight, I should have waited to do this until after I got the name registered with my State first (you’ll find out why in part 3), but I was excited to get my website registered because I had already had experience with domain name registration.  Finally,  something about starting a business that I knew how to do!  Not so fast!  As it turns out, this would be my first exposure to the shady underbelly of the domain name registration scene. I learned a lot during this process and at the end of this post, I’ll give you some tips that may help you if you ever run into this kind of situation.
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Business Name Blues is a 3-part series in which I talk about the experiences I had in naming my business and give tips based on lessons I’ve learned in the process. Part 1 will explore choosing the business name. Part 2 looks into the online aspect of business naming. Part 3 closes with the legal and tax steps necessary to ensure your business name is protected.  Also, as I go through each part, I will be updating the Resources page with a Business Naming section to assist you with resources and links to help you make the right moves when naming your business.
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I decided I’ve collected enough information over the past month or two to finally start fleshing out my Resources page over there in the yellow box to your right.  Since I’m still in the early stages of starting my computer consulting business, there isn’t a whole lot there, but that will change as I continually add links to resources I use.

The following is a break-down of how the page is currently organized. I have tried to organize it in a linear fashion starting with basic information at the top and drilling down to more specific and advanced services toward the bottom.
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With so much competition out there (I revealed in an earlier article that there are over 150 other computer support and repair companies in my county alone), I’ve started thinking about ways that I can stand out from the crowd.  One crazy idea that I’d like to suggest, as a way for the average computer consultant to find a niche and stand out from the hundreds of other companies out there, is by targeting consumer electronics. How many people do you know own an iPod or other MP3 player? How many people do you know that own one of the three major video games consoles?  These are hot items that are popping up all over the place.  Read the rest of this entry »