new consulting firm

S

sliperypete

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 12, 2006
Messages
143
Hey guys

I am looking at setting up a small computer consulting firm, that will be marketed towards home users and small businesses. It will involve PC repair, network support (both wired and wireless), server setup and maintenance, etc...

Do you guys have any tips on starting this up or any suggestions for people that have done this. It is only going to be part time for now but I hope to expand in the future.
 
Yes, Set up a SLA..... do your self that favor. this will eliminate any nickle and dime stuff that you will get. Most people feel that once you touch thier PC you own it and if they break it, it is your responsibility to fix it. I got some SLAs that i would be happy to share as well as some contracts that i have written up. PM me and we can discuss it outside of a public forum.
 
delemorte said:
Yes, Set up a SLA..... do your self that favor. this will eliminate any nickle and dime stuff that you will get. Most people feel that once you touch thier PC you own it and if they break it, it is your responsibility to fix it. I got some SLAs that i would be happy to share as well as some contracts that i have written up. PM me and we can discuss it outside of a public forum.
Click to expand...


thats why i aviod home users like the black plague.
 
I'd be interested to find out more about this. I've kicked around the idea of setting up a business for home users and small businesses also.
 
Here are a few suggestions:

Create a legal business. There are many different types. Do some research about what type of business you want to start. Check out some books on starting your own business. Getting the plan right ahead of time will pay off in the future.

Start off part time with one or two clients and go from there. It's a lot less stressful than depending on it 100% for a paycheck.

Create the full business presence. Business cards, letter head, invoices, etc. It will make you look more professional.

Lastly, keep your business finances separate from your personal finances.
 
MorfiusX said:
Lastly, keep your business finances separate from your personal finances.
Click to expand...

Thats the best piece of advice you will ever read...... remember it.... Uncle Sam will.....
 
MorfiusX said:
Lastly, keep your business finances separate from your personal finances.
Click to expand...

The best way is to create an LLC. If you setup a DBA (doing business as) your personal finances are at risk for anything that you do as the business. Also things that can help you as you go, put an ad in the local business section of the newspaper, join the chamber of commerce. These are little ways to put your business name out into the public. Also remember your competition, don't bad mouth or put them down. This will be frowned upon in the business community. If you have worked for them or have heard anything negative about them, when someone asks just say that you haven't had any dealings with them. My former boss did this all of the time, and after time the word got out about the way he talked about others and people did not bring him any business, now he as retired, the majority of the clients have now come to me, now that I have opened my own consulting firm.

I spoke with a person here in the forums when I started up, he was very helpful, SJConsultant. He steered me in the right directions.Even though I came from Intel, knew what I was doing, I was still concerned about the business aspect of things. Now I have 2 persons working for me, and business is growing by leaps and bounds.
 
I'm also in the process of "going legit" with a business license and all that. Contracts are going to be one of my biggest expenses at the moment paying good lawyers for making airtight contracts that will protect me from the client and the clinet from me. I'd love to hear from you guys that are already doing this. BTW, I am also reading a pretty thick book on the subject...
 
MorfiusX said:
Here are a few suggestions:

Create a legal business. There are many different types. Do some research about what type of business you want to start. Check out some books on starting your own business. Getting the plan right ahead of time will pay off in the future.

Start off part time with one or two clients and go from there. It's a lot less stressful than depending on it 100% for a paycheck.

Create the full business presence. Business cards, letter head, invoices, etc. It will make you look more professional.

Lastly, keep your business finances separate from your personal finances.
Click to expand...

All of these are very important. Also I would say that if you want to do this you need to go in with someone. It is a lot better to have at least 2 people for multiple reasons(2 clients have shit blow up at once, you are busy doing something elce, etc). Also having a second person to share trouble with(when diaging hard shit).

Other things I would say to do:

Look at getting like an experts exchange account so you can read the fixes on there(they have a shit load of info) and maybe one for one of the small business server sites if you want to admin them.

Also look at using something like quickbooks to try to keep everything right money wise. Works a lot better then doing it by hand. Besides it can print invoices and everything you need.

Sign up for business acounts at like compusa and other computer shops. It is nice to get at least a little discount on things you need right away(we hit up our business rep at compusa at least once every week and a half for something small). They also have a provider network where they will sub you out for shit. We haven't really messed with it yet but are going to look into it. Other stores may do shit like this as well.

Be prepared for weird hours. I know with the firm I work for we do a lot of desktop rebuilds overnight to limit downtime for cleints. Servers almost always get touched at night. We use remote access to do minor things like updates and reboots but if we need to do upgrades or something it becomes a night job or weekand job fast. Once again this is to lower downtime.

Get a cell phone plan with a lot of minutes. You will be using them up fast. My boss ended up giving us unlimited phones because we can be on them a lot. Talking with clients working through things, on the phone with vendors, etc.
 
lone wolf said:
Also remember your competition, don't bad mouth or put them down.
Click to expand...

This is a very good point. You don't want to talk bad about another firm or anything. It will come off wrong most of the time. If you see where one of them really messed something up(like an it guy before you) explain how you don't agree with how it was done but do not try to burry them or anything like that. Also be as honest as possbile. You will find yourself working for people who know how to catch someone bullshitting them. If you don't know an answer for something tell them you will research it or something. Don't try to lie yourway through it.
 
i dont think contracts or SLAs require any serious legal advice as anyone who is just starting out is not going to be negotiating massive contracts. However i would have someone look over them but i would not expend great amounts of capital on this one project. Bestbuy and compusa not to mention most PC shops have contracts they make you sign before they will work on your PC. Use your talking skill to get a peek at one.



The one good peice of advice i can give is admit now you dont know everything. I always build into my contracts the ability to use third party contractors at the clients exspence. They would rather kick out for a third party specialists for 2 hours than pay you 6 hours to fumble your way thru it especially when its a live enviorment you are working with. Dont up charge their fee just take it as a learning experience. The client will be happier that you can admit your limitations and even though you could not fix it you facilitated the repairs in a timely manor.

On that last point. Have a good set up people you can depend on and trust. Preferably people with more experience than you. If i had a buck for everytime a freind helped me resolve an issue i would be in good shape.
 
Don't start until you have liability insurance. Figure out if, in your state, you need to be bonded.
 
delemorte said:
I always build into my contracts the ability to use third party contractors at the clients exspence. They would rather kick out for a third party specialists for 2 hours than pay you 6 hours to fumble your way thru it especially when its a live enviorment you are working with. Dont up charge their fee just take it as a learning experience. The client will be happier that you can admit your limitations and even though you could not fix it you facilitated the repairs in a timely manor.
Click to expand...

This is a good point. Also as you expand get a good business relationship with them. My boss for example has a very good relationship with a repair shop in town. It works great as I just had them repair a customers notebook(replace dc jack) as I didn't have time to resolder it. Guy gives us a good rate so we can pull some profit off it. We also have another consultant that does servers that we have help us from time to time when we are busy. Has pulled us out of a jam before.
 
Also if your not a people person dont do this!!! i am so serious. Some clients will be totally cool and you will love helping them so much you almost feel bad charging them. However other clinets will make you want to kill your self rather than pick up the phone. You need to be able to deal with very difficult very demading people who dont care about your feelings who dont understand a thing that you do so they simply get ill. They will yell cuss and be extremaly demanding and un-understanding. If you cant handle having your ego handed to you in a very deemining manner dont be your own boss doing technical support.

It is that reason i have a full time job and now do limited side work, just to much stress.
 
delemorte said:
You need to be able to deal with very difficult very demading people who dont care about your feelings who dont understand a thing that you do so they simply get ill. They will yell cuss and be extremaly demanding and un-understanding. If you cant handle having your ego handed to you in a very deemining manner dont be your own boss doing technical support.
Click to expand...

Sounds a lot like doing work for lawyers and traders...

(not a slam, just an observation)
 
delemorte said:
Also if your not a people person dont do this!!! i am so serious. Some clients will be totally cool and you will love helping them so much you almost feel bad charging them. However other clinets will make you want to kill your self rather than pick up the phone. You need to be able to deal with very difficult very demading people who dont care about your feelings who dont understand a thing that you do so they simply get ill. They will yell cuss and be extremaly demanding and un-understanding. If you cant handle having your ego handed to you in a very deemining manner dont be your own boss doing technical support.

It is that reason i have a full time job and now do limited side work, just to much stress.
Click to expand...

I can handle anything users will throw at me, I get it everyday at work im used to it. I would rather just make more money charging customers that I make in an hour of work. Dealing with the users is the easy part the hard part will be getting them...
 
sliperypete said:
I can handle anything users will throw at me, I get it everyday at work im used to it.
Click to expand...

With that kind of an attitude, you will not last long as a "consultant". Do you honestly think the problems you get at your job are typical everywhere else? I got news for you, the issues you will be dealing with have less to do with Windows and more to do with a particular businesses third party software application.

Drop the "know it all" attitude before you even think about working with your first business customer because they definitely won't appreciate it.


sliperypete said:
I would rather just make more money charging customers that I make in an hour of work. Dealing with the users is the easy part the hard part will be getting them...
Click to expand...

I wish I had a penny for everytime someone mentioned this. You have no idea how much money it takes to run a successful full time consulting business. It will only "seem" like your making more money at first because of low "overhead", but if you want to do this full time, there are alot of expenditures that you have to consider like Payroll, Payroll taxes, healthcare insurance, General liability insurace, Errors and Omissions insurance, Workers Compensation insurance, and the list goes on an on.

Feel free to ask questions, but if I come across harsh, then that is only because you need to understand what your getting yourself into.
 
SJConsultant said:
With that kind of an attitude, you will not last long as a "consultant". Do you honestly think the problems you get at your job are typical everywhere else? I got news for you, the issues you will be dealing with have less to do with Windows and more to do with a particular businesses third party software application.

Drop the "know it all" attitude before you even think about working with your first business customer because they definitely won't appreciate it.




I wish I had a penny for everytime someone mentioned this. You have no idea how much money it takes to run a successful full time consulting business. It will only "seem" like your making more money at first because of low "overhead", but if you want to do this full time, there are alot of expenditures that you have to consider like Payroll, Payroll taxes, healthcare insurance, General liability insurace, Errors and Omissions insurance, Workers Compensation insurance, and the list goes on an on.

Feel free to ask questions, but if I come across harsh, then that is only because you need to understand what your getting yourself into.
Click to expand...


First of all you misread everything....

I said I can handle the attitudes that users will throw at me not all of the problems. Obviously im going to run into weird problems and will not know every answer, you just mis understood what I was saying. Second of all it is not going to be a full time business it is just to make some cash while im in school, its going to be completely part time...
 
sliperypete said:
First of all you misread everything....

I said I can handle the attitudes that users will throw at me not all of the problems. Obviously im going to run into weird problems and will not know every answer, you just mis understood what I was saying. Second of all it is not going to be a full time business it is just to make some cash while im in school, its going to be completely part time...
Click to expand...

If I mis-read I apologize. I just find myself running into too many people who think running a computer business is an "easy thing" or a quick "money maker" when in reality it takes more than computer knowledge or skills to pull off a successful consulting business.
 
SJConsultant said:
If I mis-read I apologize. I just find myself running into too many people who think running a computer business is an "easy thing" or a quick "money maker" when in reality it takes more than computer knowledge or skills to pull off a successful consulting business.
Click to expand...

Hire an outside consultant to deal with peoples attitudes while you do the real work. Now that's an IDEA! :) (Yes I know they have them in larger companies (Account Rep / Sales Rep, and any other wannabe middle management title you can think of.)) No Offense to any of these people that generalization is based off of some observations. We have had MANY good account reps and sales reps! Our HP rep was probably one of the best. But I have seem many outers just using that position to climb the ladder as fast as they can at the determent of the customer.

All the things you just listed and more are exactly why I have considered doing it myself as a full time job, and then dropped it. I certainly have done side jobs, but haven’t as of late, just because a 40 hour a week job is nice. Everyone I know who is working for themselves and making a good living is living the job. i.e. 40 hours a week and "normal hours" are laughable in their situation. It seems like they are always working and finding free time, not having free time.
 
SJConsultant said:
If I mis-read I apologize. I just find myself running into too many people who think running a computer business is an "easy thing" or a quick "money maker" when in reality it takes more than computer knowledge or skills to pull off a successful consulting business.
Click to expand...


I know its not an easy business at all and I dont expect it to be easy money, but I am up for this type of challenge at this point of my life. By me doing it part time as well there is not as much risk and pressure involved.
 
sliperypete said:
By me doing it part time as well there is not as much risk and pressure involved.
Click to expand...

Somewhat off topic, but I never use outside consultants/services unless they're full time for that very same reason. I want someone who DOES feel the pressure, and has to perform, not someone who is in a position to walk away if it gets too hard.
 
Takes time to build....there's a huge HUGE demand for these services, but it takes time to get into it. "Word of mouth" works best for me. Getting to know business owners through chamber meetings, keeping your current ones happy so they "spread you name around". References rule! :cool:

I stay away from home setups, basically the only ones I deal with are homes of people who work at my clients...for example, setting up the owner or accountant so they can remote into the office and do work. There's not enough profit on home users otherwise...most of it is dealing with junky home grade PCs (celerons and XP struggling on 128 or 256 megs, etc)...no firewalls, infested with malware...yuck. Takes hours to clean some heavy infections even if you know what you're doing..and you can't make good money on that.

Focusings on small business networks is, IMO, where the money is at. Trying to keep it above small peer to peer networks that any college kid can setup...usually above a 1/2 dozen PCs plus a file server...up to around 75 PCs. Once you get to 75 PCs or so..these business usually is large enough to have their own IT guy(s).

So that sweet spot of about 10-75 PCs is a good target.

Microsoft Small Business Server is another area I prefer to focus on. It fits the bill for the size mentioned above..and it has lots of features people love. You make great money on the initial install...and ideally keep a client for a long period of time with little things.

Hardware..your decision if you want to sell it or not...I like to..that way I get to 100% control what goes into my clients setups. I don't have to walk in and deal with "Ugh..you want me to install/support that piece of crap you bought at BestBuy?" The profit you make on hardware covers the time you spent selecting it, ordering it, and on larger projects, a nice bit of extra cabbage. Can take a while to get into hardware though..built up your credit line with a wholesaler.

Setting up what's often called "monthlies"....clients that you agree to a flat rate per month..they pay you a set monthly rate, say 300 bucks or 600 bucks or 1200 bucks, etc. You arrive at this rate based on you looking at their network/needs..and figuring out how much time you'd spend there (based on your experience)...minus a little bit...and they agree upon it. Non-profits love this..because it's a fixed cost for them. You're at the beck and call. Keeping track of what you spend there....to keep it fair to both sides. It's a good thing..you have some steady income you can count on here. We target about how much we'd like to have for billing hours each month...divide by 4..that's how much you want to bill for each week...you get some monthlies...and they cover a good amount of that. So now to make up the balance..you don't have to hump as hard.

Billing rate..what the market can bare in your area. Usually at least $100 - 125/hour for business networks, IMO..and we're looking at raising that next year. Obviously that's quite high if you're targeting the home user market..spend 3-4 hours doing one of those at a hundge an hour..and the person almost bought a new PC. Dunno what home users markets can bare..nor do I want to know..I stay away from that. But for startups...it may be a way to get your name out there.
 
I too started my own consulting firm about 2 years ago. I wish I had known then what I know now. :) But, as they say life is a learning experience. A partner and I started the consulting firm together and it keeps us pretty busy. We also do monthlies and our clients love them. Each monthly we have an SLA that is signed by the customer and each one is different as far as response times, etc... One of our clients is a Corporate attorney and she re-wrote all of our SLA's for free becuase we didn't screw her (for the lack of a better term). Two things we do not do in house is phone systems and printers. There are too many phone systems and I don't have anyone to get certified as of yet. So we sublet those out. We make a few bucks an hour for the referral; however, when the phone guy goes to another job and the users and/or management is complaining about computers he will throw our name in the hat. Next thing you know we are fixing their computers and/or network. We have not advertised on the radio TV or print media. Just word of mouth. You will be amazed how quickly a good or bad word can travel.

I don't know if you have heard this or not but it is called the 7 P's: Propper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Just an example, we setup a network when we were first starting out for a Law Firm that was moving to a new building. We spent alot of time in the planning stage of their network. Switches, Servers, Cable, Computers, Printers, etc... Once we setup the network we provide 30 days of service to finish tweaking and problems and/or permissions issues or firewall issues. So I was monitoring their network from my home office. One night I get a page on my cell phone at 3am stating that the server had lost power and it was going to shutdown. The firms secretary called me and said that the server was online but all of the desktops were off. I told her to power on and resume work normally and that the server had lost power. She told me that the building had been struck by lightning and all of the Telco and TV guys were outside trying to fix the mess. None of the other networks had any surge protection on them what so ever. Phone systems, computers, printers, faxes were all fried. The only person that had any connectivity to the outside world was our client. Needless to say that we ended up redoing a lot of the other networks in the building. Again word of mouth and seeing that our client was the only one that was not damaged by the lightning brought us more customers.

I think the biggest problem clients have with consulting firms is some of them have been burned in the past. Know your limitations and do not be afraid to say: "I don't know, but I can research it and get back with you."

Hope this helps.
 
The advice in this thread is really rather good
I ran my own small business during highschool with about 50 seats total a nice small part time work load to pay the bills. aiming at the market that any college could do :)

Word of mouth is the Best advertising you can get when you start. i started doing work for 1 client who had 5 computers because his usual tech guy was on holidays and he needed help.
within 2 months i was turning people away because i had enough work to keep me going.

look at niches i had a good one. going around after hours, doing windows updates for businesses and fixing problems when i could get to the machine rather than during business hours(didnt sleep much though)

It got to the stage that when i finished yr12 i got a full time job working for a local business and managed to bring all 8 of my permanent clients with me to the business. then when i left that place 1.5 years later to go and get some large network experiance i took 7 of the 8 businesses with me to the new shop.

If you have to deal with home users think about telling them to upgrade to a cheap dell\hp machine if the box is more than 3 or 4 years old
If you explain it to them what it is going to cost they will usually listen


Good luck btw
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top