Work At Home Computer Based Business-start Profiting Immediately From Home

A work at home computer based business is something that many people want to start in today's day and age. The reason for this is quite simple: a work at home business offers you the flexibility to be able to live the lifestyle you’ve always wanted to and work whenever you want. However, keep in mind a work at home computer based business is much more work than most people make it out to be.

There are many websites today where people's claim that they simply sit around the house for most of the day, work a couple hours common and watch thousands of dollars come raining and to their bank account. In reality, this end result might be true, but what you don't hear about is the endless hours of effort it took to get to that point.

Nobody comes to the Internet and starts making thousands of dollars overnight; it takes some time and dedicated before this occurs. However, keep in mind that once the money making faucet is turned on, it is almost impossible to stop it. Once the money starts rolling in for your work at home business, it really comes.

So what are some good work at home computer based business ideas to get you started profiting as quickly as possible? There are many different ways to profit at home from the Internet.

You can either get a work at home job, where you will simply work from it for a certain company from your home and work generally when you want to. This is simply a salary or hourly base position, and you would work it just as if you had a job working for them at their corporate headquarters.

The other work at home computer based idea is to start your own business. There are many opportunities for this, too many to list here. You can either sell on eBay, develop your information products, affiliate products, do network marketing, sell physical products, make money via Google adsense, etc.

Also, there are a million different ways to get traffic to your website, whether it be search engine optimization, pay per click, co registration, affiliate marketing, offline marketing in newspapers and magazines, radio ads, etc. There are a million different ways you can make money online.

Not one way is necessarily right. You need to do your own research and find out for yourself which one offers the most opportunity for you. The most important tip you can get for your work at home opportunity is to not wait for the perfect time to get started; simply take action today, and make it happen.

All too many entrepreneurs wait for the prefect time to implement their work at home business idea, and that time never comes. Chances are, there will never be a better time in your life to get started; remember, it’s much easier to change your course once already underway than it is to get stared in the first place. Hopefully these work from home computer based business tips will help you get up and profiting from home as quickly as possible. Stay consistent every day, and you will succeed.

Relationship Marketing and Your Computer Consulting Business

Relationship marketing is a powerful tool that you must use to grow your computer consulting business. Relationship marketing is how I turned a simple website demo into $175,000 in service revenue over a period of a few years. When you use relationship marketing you don't waste your money on risky display advertisements, you don't have to cold call, you don't have to do any door to door selling, and best of all you don't even feel like you are selling.

Relationship marketing centers on conveying the right kind of professional image all of the time. It is crucial that in every situation you find yourself in, you remember that you are marketing your business. You are your business so what people think of you they will also think of your business.

Another important key to remember with relationship marketing is that every person you meet presents an opportunity to forge a relationship. Obviously networking opportunities are important to remember. But the area of relationship marketing that many people forget about is developing relationships within the businesses you serve.

You may have gotten a lead from one person at a company. Or you may have one key contact at a business you currently service. Those who are savvy at relationship marketing know that one contact is never enough. People change jobs and companies all the time. You don't want to lose a potential client or service contract because your key contact is no longer around.

When you use relationship marketing correctly you will develop relationships with more than one person at any business you enter. Think of every person as a potential source of business. Make sure you expand the scope of your accounts to at least a couple of people with whom you have a solid relationship.

The Bottom Line on Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing is a critical element in your overall marketing strategy. You must always be aware of how you are presenting yourself. You never know when or where you will meet the next person with whom your relationship flourishes into a whole lot of business. The beauty of relationship marketing is that it seems like effortless selling but it is really the most powerful and effective marketing tool you can use.

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Earn Good Money With A Computer Home Based Business

Personal computers and the internet have revolutionized how people see a home based business. There are many options today in computer home based business that allow for almost anyone to begin making money from the comfort of their own home.

To begin with, a person needs a home computer and internet access. It is important to choose a computer that is running a new operating system and that is not too old. The internet service should, ideally, be a high speed service. If a person wants to start out with a dial up connection it is a good idea to take advantage of those free trial offers as each service’s speed varies. By trying free trials a person can find the fastest dial up connection possible.

After getting connected to the internet, a person should start searching for information on computer home based business. It is very important to understand, though, that there are scams out there that can be costly and very time consuming. That is why, before signing up for any opportunity, a person should carefully check it out. Doing a search with a business name and the word ‘scam’ will usually do the trick.

There are plenty of legitimate computer home based business choices though. It is important not to get discouraged by scams, which is easy to do when starting out. Through some careful research a person should be able to easily find a good computer home based business.

Some of the perks of a computer home based business are that they allow a person to work completely online. In many cases this means that they will not have any inventory or any other responsibilities such as shipping to handle. Additionally, a computer home based business means a person can sell even when they are not at their computer or even at home.

A computer home based business is something that can allow a person to start making a living right from their home. They can begin to build up a business that could possibly allow them to leave behind their full time job outside the home and reap the rewards of working at home forever.

Computer Consulting Business: Find the Right Clients

If you really want to make a decent living and want to have a good, successful, viable computer consulting business, sooner or later you have to narrow down your focus and develop a keen intuition. Additionally, you have to become good at spotting the best small businesses accounts.

The Small Business Myriad

There are millions of small businesses in the U.S. and there are millions of small businesses abroad. There’s a pretty good chance that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of companies that would qualify as small businesses in your local area.

The sad fact is, if you latch onto the wrong ones, you’re not going to have a very good computer consulting business.

Finding the Best Accounts

You need to know where to find these best accounts. In the computer consulting business you also need to know how to say "no," and when to say "no."

It’s extremely important that you know where to look, and how to verify that a small business is going to be a gratifying client for your computer consulting business.

You obviously want to feel a certain sense of career satisfaction. That’s probably one of the reasons you’re looking at starting your own computer consulting business as opposed to sticking with a traditional corporate IT career.

Keep the Financial Aspects in Mind

Your computer consulting business also has to be lucrative financially because you need to have a profitable business. You want it to be a stable source of recurring revenue.

Remember, all small businesses are not created equal. Your job is not to be the Mother Teresa of PC support. You are not starting a computer consulting business as a charitable organization.

The Bottom Line about the Computer Consulting Business

Of course, you want to have empathy for the people you support and you want to do a great job for them. At the same time, you have to look out for your own interests to make sure you’re going to be there for them six months to a year down the road.

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Computer Consulting: Should You Work With Micro Businesses?

When it comes to computer consulting with micro businesses, look at the margins issue. You will always have a certain amount of hours that you’re forced to eat because you can’t bill for it. When you have a larger base of computer consulting clients to spread it over, a loss is a lot easier to swallow.

"Eating" a Loss is Easier with Big Clients Than Small Ones

For example, if you have a customer that’s billing $2,000 a year with you and you’re forced to eat a $500 job, you’ve sacrificed 25 percent of your billing for that customer. If you have someone that’s billing $10,000 a year with you and you’re forced to sacrifice a $500 job once a year, that’s no big deal.

That’s a very small percentage. The bigger the client, the more you can afford to do things like that.

Are Micro Business Distracting You From Finding "Sweet Spot" Clients?

Is computer consulting for micro businesses taking away valuable time from cultivating more lucrative business? Only you can answer that question.

You have to make sure that you have enough time to go after the solid B2B small businesses where there’s at least 10 systems, a real server and they can afford at least $5,000 to $10,000 in IT services a year on an ongoing basis.

Focus On The Larger Computer Consulting Clients

Phase out your dependence on micro small businesses. As you start taking on additional larger clients, you’re going to find you have to make tough decisions anyway.

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Computer Consulting Businesses: What Your "Sweet Spot" Clients Are Looking For, Part One

When providing B2B service, computer consulting businesses' ideal clients, or “sweet spot,” are companies with 10-50 PCs and 1-10 million in revenue. These “sweet spot” small businesses typically look for four things in their computer consulting businesses.
1. Response Time
2. Knowledge (Business and Technical)
3. Customer Service
4. Price/Value
In this article we will focus on the top two items, response time and business and technical knowledge.

Speed is Paramount in Computer Consulting Businesses
The more that a small business needs IT, the more likely that response time will be the leading factor. Why? Downtime is money lost. How quickly computer consulting businesses can address their clients' urgent or emergency IT needs becomes very important.

Computer Consulting Businesses are more Than Just a Bunch of Technicians
Your technicians' quick response to IT needs is of prime importance to most sweet spot small businesses. Second in importance would generally be your business or industry knowledge. For example, how well do your employees understand the client's particular industry and niche? Sweet spot clients definitely want technology providers that can really solve business problems, as opposed to just running around doing “screwdriver” kind of work, such as upgrading RAM or loading software.

Computer consulting businesses basically becomes the outsourced IT department for your sweet spot clients. Your company will end up working on hardware support, software support, LAN and WAN support… so you deliver soup-to-nuts, end-to-end solutions.

The Bottom Line on Computer Consulting Businesses
In this article you've been introduced to your sweet spot clients' first two requirements in computer consulting businesses.

Computer Consultant Startup: Identify Your Business Skills

Since you're taking the time to read this article right now, it's a good sign that you have what it takes to become a computer consultant. You're in the small minority of people who have recognized that this is a business and needs to be run like one.

A Good Computer Consultant Has More Than Just Technical Skills

It's not about playing with the latest routers or wi-fi device or VPNs or firewalls. Sure, you have to have a certain amount of skills to make a successful computer consultant because people are buying your expertise. At the end of the day, though, it's a business.

In order for the business to be successful, you have to know a few things about getting revenue in and keeping your expenses down. You also need to forecast and be able to bill, negotiate, and network properly.

There are a lot of stubborn techies out there who think that studying the Windows Server Resource Kit is going to tell them what they need to know about running a business. Not true. It's going to teach you about registry keys and directories and things like that.

Even a Computer Consultant Needs a Good Resume

If you're currently self-employed, you may not have an up- to-date resume, but for most people looking to transition into the business to become a computer consultant you probably do have a resume. Take out a copy of your resume and a yellow highlighter marker and go through and highlight every sentence or phrase in your resume that describes a project or a job or a skill that you think would be relevant or marketable to the owner of a small company.

Categorize the Items on Your Resume

Go through it and look for all the phrases and the jobs and the projects that you've worked on for the past couple of years and think about what's going to catch the eye of a typical small business owner or manager. Once you've done that, go back through each highlighted item and mark whether it was IT related, whether it had to do with understanding how to run a business or whether it had to do with being able to communicate effectively.

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Computer Home Business

When the conversation turned to cool businesses that one could work from home the topic turned to starting a home computer repair business.

As my wife and I have had many such chats over the years this one started out as just a routine brainstorming conversation. Then I Googled the idea and things changed.

I found out that up to 95% of all Windows computers currently online are plagued with data-mining, offline ad pop-ups, something called parasites, trojans, dialers, browser hijackers and lots of stuff even meaner sounding than viruses.

According to Earthlink, “the spyware and virus problems are getting worse instead of better. Problems with locked up computers are more common and over 225 million computers are infected.”

I decided to start a casual survey of my friends. I gave myself a very low key goal of 3 to 5 months to complete the project. I didn't want to appear too pushy or obvious. All I asked was one question and the rest of my presentation took a natural course from that point.

My conversation would begin casually and end with....have you noticed your computer is acting funny?

Most often the response would be, “sort of. It takes longer to boot up and I get so many pop-ups even with a pop-up blocker, it makes me sick.”

My next strategy is to say, well the same thing was happening to me and just about all of my friends. I decided to buy a kit to clean out viruses, some nasty worms, and some stuff that's hard to pronounce. I always get a laugh with that line. Then I continue.

“Most of the time I just charge for the program I use for each computer which is about 20 bucks. I’ll take a look at your’s some time, just let me know when.

8 times out of 10 I make an appointment on the spot. Even though I’ve only done this about a dozen times, I’ve banked $600. This mostly because I’m getting referrals, one of which was a small accountant’s office just before the tax season started.

I’ve always maintained a private coaching practice so the money is not the main idea behind my project. I wanted to see if what I read had any value. It appears to be a true opportunity that can only get bigger.

USA Today reported recently that, “By the turn of the millennium, unparalleled growth in computer and Internet usage resulted in a $300 billion computer service market, comparable in size only to the home improvement market!

This sector of the computer industry is now experiencing double-digit growth, and is projected to continue doing so for the foreseeable future." This was based on industry studies by Ziff-Davis.

If I ever decide to retire from coaching, I’ll have no problem moving into a computer home business.

I recently found a great little company that has designed a complete home computer repair package. If you know how to setup an internet connection on your computer, and access the add/remove programs in the control panel, you can do this.

What’s even better about this is my personal experience indicates you can pocket a day’s pay in less than a day.

Computer Consulting Business: Know about Vendor Hard Drive Replacement

Many of your computer consulting business clients will come from non-technical, business backgrounds. As a result, many will not immediately grasp why a failed hard drive cannot "simply" be replaced by a new or refurbished hard drive.

As part of managing clients expectations, it’s important to educate your clients on the steps that go into formatting a hard drive, loading the OS, configuring device drivers, loading software applications, customizing the OS and applications and restoring data.

Educate Your Client

As a computer consulting business owner, you know replacing a hard drive is not as simple as removing the shrink wrap and installing the device into the PC. But, many times, your clients don’t.

Or they just assume that all the OS files, device drivers and software applications will "magically" appear. This all may sound really basic, but taking a few minutes when discussing PC warranties with your clients to explain these issues.

How does the Vendor Handle Hard Drive Replacement?

You need to know how your preferred PC vendors handle hard drive replacement under warranty service. What kinds of labor are covered if a desktop PC or notebook hard drive needs replacement under the warranty?

Some vendors specify that the hard drive device needs to be just physically replaced and operational, and recognized by the PC hardware setup program. Under this form of warranty coverage, the technician’s job is done the moment the empty (blank) replacement hard drive is installed in your client’s PC.

The Real Cost

Unfortunately, as most PC vendors feel financial pressure to reduce their support and warranty costs, your computer consulting business clients probably will be subjected to a no-frills warranty service approach. Hard drives for desktop PCs are relatively inexpensive, around $100 to $200 at retail.

So it’s important for your clients to understand that warranty service on a hard drive replacement generally doesn’t cover the more substantial labor costs involved with restoring the hard drive and system to the pre-crash condition.

If your clients outsource this work to your computer consulting business, it easily could cost them $200 to $500 (or more) in labor to get that PC hard drive back to its pre-crash condition. Even if your clients’ internal gurus handle the work, this easily could pull these internal gurus away from their "real" jobs for a half-day or more.

The Bottom Line about the Computer Consulting Business

The expense of recovering a crashed desktop PC hard drive tends to be more concentrated on soft costs, which most times aren’t covered by the PC vendor’s warranty, therefore we see more and more reason not to recommend purchasing extended warranty coverage with entry-level desktop PCs.

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Computer Consulting: A Business of Time and Sweat Equity

Building a computer consulting business requires a lot of time. It involves going out to meetings and it's shaking a lot of hands. You'll need to make a lot of follow-up phone calls. Display ads and direct mail drops and similar marketing efforts do not replace calling up a potential client to try to establish a person-to-person connection. Because of the required hands-on time, you should be realistic about what it takes to get your computer consulting business going.

Franchises Don't Serve Silver Platters

Even with a franchise operation, the franchiser is not handing you a client list on a silver platter. If you want to be handed a client list on one, don't buy a franchise: you need to buy a current business. And of course, buying a current business is even more capital intensive than a franchise. To buy even a small, thriving IT consulting firm could cost anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to a few million dollars… pretty much some multiple of its annual sales.

What Are Your Computer Consulting Business Start-Up Costs?

On the other hand, you can start your own consulting firm generally for as little as a few thousand dollars. What do you need? You need a business phone number and voice mail. You need a cell phone. You need business cards and legal licensing registrations. And you probably want to meet with an attorney and an accountant. You'll need some insurance. In many cases you can get started working out of your home office. Start-up costs are certainly higher with a franchise.

Franchises Aren't for Control Freaks

Another downside of franchise can be a loss of control. You have to do things a certain way and according to the established rules. And you can't step too far outside of that. Again, your company would be paying the franchiser a percentage of your company's revenue indefinitely. And you won't have as much flexibility in taking your business in a lot of different directions that you may want to.

The Bottom Line on Computer Consulting

Computer consulting has a few different options for start-up. You can start an independent business, buy a franchise or buy an established business, depending if you want to start from scratch or be handed a client list. A start-from-scratch computer consulting business requires more sweat equity than money.

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Computer Repair Is A Tricky Business

Computer is a combination of analog and digital device which is used to compute complex mathematical problems. It is basically a programmable electronic device which performs high speed mathematical and logical operations. The main function of computer is to perform repetitive procedures very quickly and reliably.

The computer can be broadly divided in two sections; one is hardware and the other is software. The hardware is made of electronic circuits and components while the software is the programs required to run the central processing unit or the CPU. Again the hardware is of four type i.e. CPU, input, output and memory device. Now a days looking at the vast uses of computer people are using computer at their offices and at homes for working as well as entertainment purposes.

As we all know that each and every electronic goods need repairing and computer is not excluded from that list. Whenever there is any troubleshoot in this whole procedure the computer seems to function improperly. As a result we need to repair our computer to make it function properly. It is very tedious to repair ones computer and beside that it is also time consuming if the problem is unknown by the repairer. But if anyone has sound information regarding computer repair then it would seem to be rather easier. There are several organizations with trained and qualified technicians to help you out whenever you have problem with your computer. There are also various computer selling organizations who give after sell repairing service completely at free of cost. While there are other computers organizations, which have good computer technicians, provide only repairing service. Each of these companies serves their clients with best technical services. There are also different books or guidelines to provide us various information regarding computer trouble shoot and how to repair them. There are also technical colleges and training institute for technicians to learn more about computer problems and their repairing.

There are computers of various brands such as IBM, HP, Compaq, Dell, Apple etc. in the market and they differ from each other in respect of hardware and software. Therefore their troubleshooting problems also differ from each other. So the technicians should know how to repair these different computers. A good computer technician is required to familiar with various operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Linux, etc. A good technician must also know how to deal with different computer peripherals such as printers, scanners, fax machines, etc.

Here are few troubleshoots of computers which are very common. They are 1) Power Supply Failure, 2) Motherboard Troubleshooting, 3) Hard Drive Failure 4), CD and DVD Drive Troubleshooting, 5) Modem Failure, 6) Sound and Game Card Failure, 7) Peripheral Failure 8) Virus Threats and many more. At first the technician need to do a complete diagnostic checkup. Then he needs follow those Basic Computer Repairing rules to repair a troubleshooting computer successfully. Beside these computer requires regular update, virus cleaning and modifications. At last we can conclude that if computers are maintained and handled properly then we can prevent our computers from various troubleshoots as we all know that 'prevention is always better than cure'.

Computer Consulting Business: Nail Down the Vendor Support Options

No computer consulting business can afford to be sitting at a client site, running up a big bill, staring at a blue-screen-of-death, facing an angry mob of irate users and sitting on hold for two hours with tech support.

This scenario is your absolute worst nightmare in running a computer consulting business and can be the kiss of death to your client relationship.

The Need for Good Vendor Technical Support

Good vendor technical support will preserve your credibility as a computer consulting business during times of crisis. No matter how experienced you are at PC hardware troubleshooting, calling on a specialist is a necessity.

Understand What Is Offered

Rather than get an unpleasant surprise when you need help the most, get the lowdown on vendor technical support before you make the purchase recommendation. Although many top PC vendors have similar capabilities and services, ask about included technical support services, and preferably get a description of them in writing.

Ask Questions

As a computer consulting business, you will want to ask questions to determine the reliability of PC vendor technical support. Find out if they are available by phone, if the technical support phone number is toll-free and if the support is free or not.

Also, find out if there are different technical support phone numbers for different products.

In operating your computer consulting business, you will also want to know if vendor technical support has 24/7 support in case you have a need for emergency support. Ask if online tech support resources are available as well.

Deal With a Specialist

As a computer consulting business, you want direct, rapid access to a specialist who deals with nothing but that particular product all day. So test the technical support group’s responsiveness at a time when your heart isn’t racing in the heat of a client server-down emergency.

Also, PC Magazine (http://www.pcmag.com/) regularly evaluates PC vendors’ technical support quality, so this is a good resource to look into.

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Computer Consulting: Which Business Is Right for You?

Some people decide they want to open up an independent doughnut shop instead of buying into one of the really large doughnut shop companies. If you want to make submarine sandwiches, you can do it on your own or you can buy into one of the big, extremely well known franchises. If you want to start a computer consulting business, you can be independent or part of a franchise.

It all depends on whether you want to build your business completely by yourself, or whether you want to try to take some shortcuts. Of course, with a franchise, you need to be prepared to up the ante. In this article, we'll explore some pros and cons to each choice.

Be Prepared to Put in Some Sweat Equity

Realistically, during your computer consulting startup phase, you're still going to have several months where you'll need to be out pounding the pavement, shaking hands and getting your name out there. You'll also follow up on a ton of leads, generate a lot of proposals and go out on a lot of sales calls. And you'll have to do all of this before you start getting a lot of billable projects. Don't think that just because you're buying into a franchise that those problems are going to go away overnight. You need to be realistic about the pros and the cons of buying into a franchise.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

The right decision for one person isn't the right one for the other. It really all depends on what you're looking for in your computer consulting business, your skills, and your available time and financial capital.

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Computer Consultant 101: How to Build a Stable Business

Know How To Bill and What to Charge

Without knowing how to bill and what to charge, you’re going to lose a lot of money that’s really yours. If you get your billing and pricing wrong as a computer consultant, you'll send a bad message to people that you’re trying to quote for business.

You'll be screaming that you’re a rank amateur rather than a skilled computer consultant. It could take you years to recover from this. A lot of times you would need to scrap existing clients and completely start over because certain clients you brought in at the wrong level.

Perform IT Audits

If you know how to do them right it’s an incredibly powerful technique. You get paid to write proposals and do needs assessment work. If you don’t know how to do this you’re going to wind up doing a lot of exploratory work for free. You can actually get paid for your initial consultation time for doing the technology assessments and the IT audits.

Build Local Partnerships

You’ll need partnerships as your computer consultant business evolves. These will get you some of your best clients along the way. If you don’t have good local partnerships, you can almost guarantee that you’ll lose clients along the way with this as well. You need to learn how to find these key players and how to negotiate with them.

Exceed Client Expectations

If you want to get paid the big bucks as a small business computer consultant, your clients will expect a lot from you. Your clients' idea of perfection may be different from yours. You need to learn the magic words you need to know to avoid a lot of the stress and intense pressure. You want to come out smelling like a rose to exceed their expectations.

Maximize your Utilization Rate and Profitability

Making as much of your work-week billable as possible and eliminate a lot of the non billable, time-draining non revenue draining computer consultant activities. It’s all about delivering small business virtual IT services and how to build a stable business; how to get clients for life.

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Computer Consulting Business: Hardware Warranty Services

As a computer consulting business, you shouldn’t be spending precious time and your clients’ limited budgets troubleshooting a malfunctioning monitor or CD-RW drive.

If your computer consulting business is large enough that you have both senior-level and technician-level staff, you’re probably already doing a great job of directing workload to the right personnel.

Are You a Company of One?

However, if you are a small computer consulting business, where perhaps you are the "company", it makes sense to let the PC vendor’s technical support staff arrange for hardware warranty repairs, using their large networks of national service providers.

Know the Facts about Warranty Service

As a computer consulting business, you will want to know how long the warranty period is, if it covers parts, labor or both and what the promised response and turnaround time on warranty service may be.

Also, determine whether the vendor will try to pressure your clients to do their own service. If so, are your clients prepared to pay your consulting firm to do the labor?

Scheduling Hardware Warranty Service Calls

If possible, try to have your clients’ internal gurus schedule hardware warranty service calls to coincide with times when you are at your clients’ offices on other related computer consulting business. Or at the minimum, be sure that your clients’ internal gurus are there to supervise the third party hardware technicians.

Be Involved

It’s really up to you to decide how active of a role your computer consulting business wants to take in coordinating and managing these hardware warranty repairs. In some cases, getting in involved with the full end-to-end responsibility makes sense, including packaging up the defective part to send back.

In other cases, you may be better off training your clients’ internal gurus on how to place these vendor tech support calls and supervise the hardware warranty repairs.

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Computer Consulting Business: Determining Client Criteria

So you’re looking for quality accounts as you start your computer consulting business. What are the qualifying criteria for such accounts?

Consider Proximity

First, the potential client for your computer consulting business should be close to you, generally within a 30 to 60 minute drive from where you’re located. This is going to have some impact on the networking events you attend or anything else you do from a marketing perspective.

Potential Client Size

In starting your computer consulting business you will want to target potential clients that have 10 to 50 PC’s. The prospect should be big enough that they need a real server, which most of the time could translate to 10 to 100 employees.

A good prospect for your computer consulting business would be companies that have $1 million to $10 million in annual sales. This information will help you in your marketing efforts, especially if you decide to do some direct mailing down the road.

What Should Your Prospects Have in Use?

In most cases, your computer consulting business’ potential clients will have their own email domain. You will want to address how their users retrieve and send emails when meeting with prospective clients.

In most cases, they’re going to have a dedicated server or dedicated Internet access, so this will help narrow it down. It also indicates that they have more serious IT needs.

Ensure They Are Serious About IT

If a prospect for your computer consulting business doesn’t have a dedicated server, dedicated Internet access or they’re messing around with peer to peer and dial-up lines, they’re probably not for you.

The Bottom Line about the Computer Consulting Business

Any prospect you are considering as a target for your computer consulting business should make IT mission-critical. Many times a potential client can end up being a good, strong prospect and future client because they’re in an industry where IT is critical.

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Create The Business Tools Of Tomorrow With A Computer Programming Degree

A computer programming degree will allow you to couple your technical knowledge with your natural analytical ability to create unique and dynamic solutions for businesses. By designing and then creating software solutions, you will find that career doors will swing wide open for you. The demand for quality programmers who have the ability to accurately assess their client's needs is going to continue to increase, as more businesses require their own unique software solutions to run their businesses efficiently.

One opportunity that stands out as an ideal place for a computer programming degree is the development department of a large corporation. The needs of many large companies have become so unique that they require specialized software to meet their specific demands. A degree in computer programming will help you become a valuable asset for these types of companies as they seek to solve their software needs in-house instead of outsourcing them to software development companies. Whether it is for confidentiality reasons, or to keep a leg up on their competitors, they find a tremendous amount of value in keeping their own programmers on staff.

Another avenue that one could pursue with a computer programming degree is freelance work. With this type of career you will be hired by companies on a project-by-project basis to meet specific programming needs. As you increase the number of clients that you have, you will find that you begin to acquire better, and higher paying contracts. This can be quite lucrative if you have an entrepreneurial spirit and are willing to take some risks at first. By choosing this career path you open the door for unlimited success. One day you may be running your own software development company and employing people just like yourself. If you have the courage to go out and find your own work and have the customer service skills to make your clients happy, then you will go a long way with your computer programming degree.

Many people who graduate with a computer programming degree find productive and satisfying careers working for software developers. These companies gather work from other companies that have software needs, but who don't have the resources to meet those needs on their own. The software development companies work with their clients to determine what their specific needs are and then work together to find software solutions that will meet those needs. When you work for a developer you will find that you gain experience in a lot of different industries because each client's needs are unique. This job calls for you to be a good analyst as well as a competent programmer. Companies that choose to outsource their software needs are usually looking for consultation as well.

As you consider your career choices and try to decide which degree program will give you the most options, keep in mind the tremendous demand that already exists for qualified programmers. Tackle this degree program with the confidence that comes from knowing that you are entering an industry with unlimited growth potential and one that is more in demand every day. The hardest part of putting your computer programming degree to use won't be finding open doors, it will be deciding which one to walk through.

Business Idea With Your Own Home Computer!

Since the invention of Home Computer in the 1980’s, even the inventor’s did not prejudge, that this technology is born to help millions of people throughout the globe to earn substantial money from their own homes. Now in 2007, many more than the millions are trying to make money online with their own home-based business using their Home Computers. Home Computer Business Idea is nothing new really; people have always tried to make money from home. Using the Internet, there are vast opportunities to make a descent income either part-time or full-time. Here are just a few of the opportunities that are available.

One of the easiest and most popular methods of making money from home is through Ebay. Ebay is an online auction where items are bought and sold. Anything from pencils to pent houses, used or unused goods are sold here using the Auction concept. It is easy to open an account and practically any item imaginable can be sold there. Many people sell used household items but many new items are sold as well.

Many people make a very nice living by selling things on Ebay. Ebay is a site that helps new entrepreneurs make a living online. If you decide to become an Ebay seller, make sure you read the Terms & Conditions, Selling norms and Buying norms in detail and moreover the cost to package and ship your item before listing it, especially if it is a large item. Since you can sell anything, it is always better to know everything about Ebay to make a reasonable income consistently.

The next most profitable Home Computer Business Idea is selling your knowledge or rather selling information. If you are capable of writing an information product, you are sure to make big money. The other name for online information products is Ebooks. An Ebook is a digital or computer version of a traditional printed book. The advantages of Ebooks are, there is no need to print them or ship physical books. Everything is digitalized and it can be downloaded using the Home Computer as soon as the cost of the book is paid. Everything is instant and hence the reach of the information products is very vast and fast.

There are ebooks available on almost every subject imaginable. You can write about anything. Is there is something that you’re good at? Are you an expert in a particular field? Do you have a hobby that you enjoy? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are well qualified to write an ebook.

In recent times, another easy and simple Home Computer Business idea is Blogs. A blog is a place to write whatever you are interested in. The most successful blogs are usually geared toward one subject, but you can write about whatever you like. A blog is like a notice board, where you can write about your views, share your knowledge with the internet community and also receive reviews about your writing. A blog not only displays your writing skills but also helps you to earn money.

If you want to make money with your blog, you have to write at least several times per week (at least once a day is best). There are a number of ways to make money with your blog. Google’s Adsense Program helps you to earn money by placing ads on your blog pages and the most important aspect of this program is, Google places ads relevant to the subject of your blog, hence, people who read our blogs could click the ads and Google is ready to pay for it. Although there are many businesses that provide ads for your blog, Google’s Adsense program is excellent source of ads if you are just starting out.

These are just the basic Home Computer Business Ideas that helps you to earn online money at the start. There are thousands of other ways to make money online, using your home computer. These are just a few ideas to start with. Finally, the home computer is not an idiot box right on top of your work table, but it is non stop money vending machine, if used to earn money online by selecting the best programs on net and by putting efforts. My sincere wishes for your online income using home computer business idea.

Business Directory Moves From Paper to Computer Screen

A business directory helps buyers to find businesses that sell what they want. The directories used to come printed, often on yellow pages. A buyer went to the relevant category, looked through the listings, and phoned promising suppliers.

These days, the directories are more likely to come in an online form. Online business directories have several advantages. Businesses can keep their information up to date so that a prospective buyer won't find a wrong person at the other end of the phone, for example.

Business directories not only serve consumers but also businesses. They can get their businesses listed in the directories and attract the attention of buyers who browse the directories. Much business can come in this way, particularly if the directories are online directories.

Advantages of Online Business Directories

Online business directories have several advantages compared to paper-based print directories. These include:

DIRECTORY USERS:

• Users can find what they want much more easily and quickly using search and other facilities. Instead of thumbing through pages of an unwieldy volume, they just click the mouse a few times.






• Much more information can be accommodated in the online directories. This includes not only information about the listed businesses but also other relevant and helpful information. Direction maps and informative topical notes are examples of such add-ons.






• Information in online directories are likely to be more up to date, as listed businesses can edit their details.






• Users can quickly click through to the business website and get more details. They can also contact the businesses if the details meet their expectations, or look promising.

LISTED BUSINESSES:

• In addition to providing more information about themselves in the directories, businesses can provide full details at their websites to which directory users typically click through. This is much better than conveying information over the phone when a print directory user phones in.






• Users are much more likely to check out websites anonymously than phone in. This means that more users are likely to become aware of your offers.






• A listing in an online directory has the incidental advantage of providing in-pointing links to the websites of listed businesses. Many businesses list their businesses in many directories to gain link popularity that boosts the search engine visibility of their web sites.

Organizing Business Directories

Making it easy to find information in different ways is one of the prime objectives while deciding on how to arrange the content, layout and navigation of the business directory.

A search facility with advanced features is a standard feature now. You can typically search by business name, category, location or product. The use of clearly visible tabs to direct visitor to major sections, and links in each section to sub-sections, etc are also standard.

The look and feel of a directory can determine whether it would become popular, provided it has an adequate number of listings to become known as a good resource.

Many directories seek a niche approach, focusing on a particular business category, such as agriculture or plastics.

Conclusion

A business directory helps both buyers and sellers. Online business directories offer several advantages over print directories, which tend to become unwieldy and even obsolete quickly.

Online business directories offer speedier finding and more information. For listed businesses, they also provide some link popularity.

To be successful, a business directory has to attract both businesses and directory users. They try to do this using different techniques and approaches.

Add Value to your Business with Computer Courseware

Training employees and educating consumers to be able to use particular computer software is a tough job. It takes time and skill to write training manuals and design illustrations to go along with them. That's why many business owners are choosing computer courseware instead of creating training manuals of their own. Computer courseware is pre-designed and customizable so you can arrange the lessons and customize them to fit your training needs. It saves time and money, and can be done easily in-house once you have a copy of the training materials.

What is Computer Courseware?

Computer courseware is software and/or training materials used for educational purposes. Educational institutions may use courseware to teach students how to operate a particular computer software program. Companies may use it to educate employees on using a new software program that has been installed for business operations. Also, companies that sell computers, software, or other related products and services might offer computer courseware to their customers as a free "how-to" guide.

The training courseware can be used for almost any type of computer software. There are Macintosh manuals, Microsoft courseware, Adobe Photoshop courseware, Excel courseware, and many others.

Tips for Maximizing your Computer Courseware Benefits

To get the most benefit out of your computer courseware, use it in creative ways. For example, package it nicely and offer it as a free bonus with a purchase to your clients. If you sell Microsoft Word software, then advertise up-front that each customer will receive a free beginner's course on how to use Microsoft Word. Then, include your Microsoft courseware with each purchase. If shipping products, package it neatly with the product. If selling in-store, make sure your employees know to give the bonus courseware with each purchase.

If you sell Macintosh computers, provide free Macintosh manuals with the computer. Those customers who are brand new to Macintosh computers will appreciate this tremendously!

Package your Computer Courseware for Long-Term Use

When you print the courseware manual, put the pages in a nice binder with your company logo, store location, phone number, and website address. Also include a "welcome" letter explaining briefly what the customer will learn in the course. Customers are more likely to keep the manual if it is packaged this way. If you hand them a lot of papers that have been stapled or bound together, these are likely to end up in the trash!

Another idea is to include a sales presentation at the beginning or conclusion of the courseware manual to try and up-sale customers on a new product or service. You're already providing something free that's of value, so why not make an offer while the customer is reading your materials?

If you operate an online business with an e-zine or newsletter, offer free computer courseware with every subscription. It may seem like a lot to give someone who's signing up for a free newsletter, but the rewards can be great. The long-term value of a newsletter subscriber base can be monumental!

As you can see, computer courseware can add great value to your products and services, and it's usually very easy and affordable to get started. All you have to do is order rights to the courseware, print your training manuals, and package them for distribution. Then, let the computer courseware materials do the rest!