How to Leverage Teaching to Improve Your Business

April 21, 2011 By 2 Comments

starting a pc repair business In my interview with Randy the Tech Professor earlier this week, I was intrigued by his quote that “To Teach is to Learn Twice”.  To me, it boils down to the fact that in order to be able to effectively teach something, you need to make sure you know it well enough to convey the concept to others.  In the process, you’re re-enforcing the information in your own mind.

Beyond that, however, teaching is great business.  By teaching, you become an authority on the given subject in the eyes of your students.  Your students will see you as the person who has all the answers and in the future if they need help, they’ll know who to contact.  Your students are all potential customers and you’ve already gained their trust through your teaching.

I’ve always been interested in including some form of teaching or training service in my consultancy.  Up to this point, however, I haven’t quite figured out how to go about doing so.  Thanks to my interview with Randy, I was inspired to spend some time brainstorming some ideas that I’d like to present here.
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4 Free Automated Advertising Strategies

March 14, 2011 By 3 Comments

Marketing is a constant struggle for solo consultants and small business owners.  It’s always a gamble whether your marketing effort will be worth the money and time invested, but it’s a necessary evil.  Without marketing, there’s no way for people with needs (customers) to know that we are here to fulfill them.

Without a large marketing department at your disposal, many traditional marketing techniques require a substantial upfront investment with unpredictable results.  Examples of this include direct mailings, fliers, signs, and ads in the paper, on the radio, and on TV.

I’d like to explore some advertising techniques that are not only completely free, but also automated.  What I mean by automated is that once they are set-up, they have the potential to continually provide marketing leverage for you over time.  Keep in mind, however, that these techniques do require some significant time investment up-front, and the results may be slow coming at first.  Often  that leverage is compounded over time, so the longer these free marketing techniques are in place for your business, the more turn-around you’ll see as a result.

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How Many Customers Do I Need To Make A Living?

November 28, 2009 By 5 Comments

In an early post on this blog, I established a 5-year plan for taking my computer consulting business from a wistful idea to a part-time side-business and finally into a full time career.  After those 5 years, I could leave the workforce with enough experience and financial cushion to be confident with a successful transition to small business ownership.  I admit this was a leisurely time frame, but there was no rush.  I had a stable, well-paying job that I could leverage to make my dreams a reality.

Fast forward to today, and things aren’t so certain.  With the economy  in recovery mode, most companies are still laying off, and my employer has recently tossed around the idea of outsourcing a good majority of the in-house IT staff.  With the possibility of unemployment looming, I decided to buckle down and realistically figure out what kind of business traffic I would need if I do happen to get kicked to the curb before I’m ready.  How many billable hours will I need to log in order continue the lifestyle I currently enjoy, and pay my bills? How does that translate into actual customers?

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The Friendly Neighborhood Business Card

April 24, 2009 By 12 Comments

No advertising or networking method is more powerful and cost effective for the burdgeoning small business owner than  the business card.  

It’s a great ice breaker and conduit for face-to-face conversations about your business to potential customers. It’s an extremely portable advertisement for your business that people can take with them and keep in their wallets/purses.  Nothing is more basic than the business card, providing the most important information about your business and nothing more.  Finally, there’s no denying that it’s much cheaper than an ad in your local paper or phone book, saving you money in those critically cash-strapped first years of business.

So it goes without saying that the first thing any new small business owner should do is get some business cards made.  And that’s exactly what I’ve done.

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For A Good Time Call…On These 3 Things to Consider Before Choosing Your Business Phone Number

April 03, 2009 By 5 Comments

Choosing a phone number for your business may seem like another one of the many tedious steps standing in the way of you and your dreams.  Your phone number, much like your business name and website URL, are calling cards that will most likely stay with your business indefinitely.  Although not a deal breaker, an easy to remember phone number is one that will help make it that much more convenient for your customers to reach you.

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I CAN Hear You Now!: My Pick For VoIP Phone Service

March 23, 2009 By 10 Comments

This is the final article in the Can You Hear Me Now? Series of blog posts in which I embark on a journey to find the most cost effective home office VoIP plan for my computer repair business.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been looking for a low cost VoIP solution for my home office based computer consulting business. You can catch up on the series by reading the last two articles here and here.

After much consideration, I finally settled on a provider that I think will fit my needs as my business grows.

And the winner is…

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Never Stop Learning: An Interview With Bryce Whitty Of Technibble.com

February 20, 2009 By 4 Comments

It wasn’t until after I started this blog that I came across the website Technibble.com. I wish I would have found it sooner, because it’s proven to be the single best resource I’ve found for people like me who are just starting to forge their own path in the computer support/repair business field.

The man who started Technibble, Bryce Whitty, created the site because he saw a need for an online resource for independent computer consultants. Not a general “techie” website or a “how to fix windows errors” message board, but a community dedicated specifically to the nerd entrepreneur trying to start his own business.

Technibble offers great resources like an extremely helpful and friendly forum, a blog, and the Computer Business Kit, which is a collection of documents and forms that you’ll need when starting a computer business.  I plan on purchasing the CBK for review here on this site in the future.

Bryce himself runs his own one-man computer consulting business which gives him the inspiration for his website.  I decided to pick his brain a little and see what approach he took to starting his business.  Check out his responses below.

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Book Review: How to Start and Run your own Computer Repair Business

February 09, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Welcome to another book review brought to you by 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 will focus on books specifically about starting a computer business. If you’re in a hurry, skim the BOLD sentences and then read the Final Verdict.

Today I’ll be reviewing a book called How to Start and Run your own Computer Repair Business (HSRYOCB) by Joe A. Wisinski.  I stumbled across this book while looking for a new book to review for this blog.  The two other books I’ve already reviewed, Computer Repair Business Lessons Learned and Start your Own Computer Business, seem to be the most well-known among the do-it-yourself computer business crowd.  But I was pleasantly surprised to find this one, along with a few more,  that I will be reviewing over the coming months.

The front cover of HSRYOCB is pretty straight forward: a photo of the guts of an ATX computer case set against a white background.  Lets see if there’s some meat underneath this unassuming exterior.

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I’m On Twitter! Why Should You Care?

January 20, 2009 By 3 Comments

I finally did it.  After many months of testing the waters, I finally dove into the Twitter ocean and created an account for Y.F.N.C.G.  For the sake of full disclosure, however, this isn’t actually my maiden voyage on Twitter.  I’ve been tweeting for about a month now for my music website, but I thought it was about time to create a special twitter account for my blogging/computer repair/small business owner persona. Why did I go through the trouble of creating another Twitter account?  What do I think the benefit will be to me and, more importantly, to you?

Let me explain.

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