Small Business Computer Consulting Finding The Right Prospects

Writen by Joshua Feinberg

If you are starting a small business computer consulting firm, you should know that the small business accounts that have 10 to 50 PC's are going to have at least one branch office.

Prospects of this size are used to using professional technology providers and this isn't the first time they've had to hire a small business computer consulting firm. Organizations like this have a willingness to pay for support.

Does Your Prospect Have In-House IT?

However, if they have in-house IT, you should learn what they need you for. Is it for a very deep specialty or for an extremely unusual case where they want to outsource everything?

Researching Prospective Clients

To find prospects for your small business computer consulting firm you should Google towns in your area, ZIP and postal codes, area code and telephone prefixes. Additionally, these prospects will usually belong to a local or regional chamber of commerce or similar organization.

To meet some of these people and market your small business computer consulting firm, you can join the organizations or attend as a guest.

Know Where to Find Your Prospects

Your prospects will likely have presence at business to business events, so you can also attend these events to market your small business computer consulting firm.

Since your target clients will often be covered in the business section of your local publications, you'll want to subscribe to these or read them at the library.

The Bottom Line about Small Business Computer Consulting

If you want to narrow down your focus to the best small businesses in the area, consider networking at local events and reading up on these businesses in your local publications. You want to pay attention to the criteria above and ensure you can identify your prospects right off the bat.

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Fleet Washing Expansion Considerations

Writen by Lance Winslow

Many times small businesses want to expand their businesses and are not sure when the best time to do that might be. The key of course is cash flow. Will your current and brand new accounts afford you the cash flow to expand? Let us run thru a scenario with you and just so you know this is good advice, I own the Truck Wash Guys and have been doing this a while. Each time a franchisee wished to expand and ask for advice, I would look at their situation and determine if it was a wise idea. Sometimes it was, but often it was not. So let us look a hypothetical scenario for a moment:

Well let's consider. You have two new fleet accounts, one with twenty buses at let's say $10.00 each from a summer day camp for kids. The other is a rent-a-car company that pays once a month. This is your 50 percent increase in sales. Now, let us add in a graffiti removal contract. The graffiti contract starts in two months. Sales are up and everything looks great…except:

The day camp ends after summer (two months left)

The rent-a-car company pays monthly so you will bill them at the end of the month and then they will wait thirty days to pay you plus mail time

The graffiti contract is the same payment schedule and cities are notorious on slow payment

Graffiti can be cleaned at night

Rent-a-cars can be cleaned by starting one and one-half hours earlier on Mondays and thirty minutes earlier other days

Summer camp buses can be cleaned whenever You are not sure yet how often the day camp pays

Still think you want to expand?

NO WAY!

Remember: You can run your pressure washing rig twenty-four hours a day without owning two rigs. You will have a major cash flow problem if you buy another unit because of the billing cycle on big accounts. Your new truck would not be ready for thirty days plus five days to get financing. By that time the summer camp is almost over. Wow. All the indicators point to a second pressure washing rig and new truck or do they?

Sometimes you need to actually open the hood and take a look. Consider putting on your devil's advocate thinking cap and make yourself a mechanic. Ask yourself for help. Let yourself look under the hood. Throw away the ego. Sure it would be nice to own another pressure washing rig and you would be a big business man. But realistically speaking it would all be for show and you would actually be making less money. You can justify the expansion to the leasing company or a bank and get the money all right because sales are up. But that doesn't make it a savvy move. Sometimes race car drivers draft behind the lead car to cut down on drag from the wind. By conserving resources (fuel) they better their chances for winning the race later. In business, the person who gets to keep the most money wins, not the one who has the biggest empire. Think about it before spending the money on expansion.

Lance Winslow

How To Achieve Real Success In Business Five Breezy Tips

Writen by Kannan Balakrishnan

Achieving real success should be the goal of any good businessman. But what is real success? I believe that it is no just money, or instant growth. In my opinion real success is composed of the following factors. Good growth, good reputation and above all peace of mind. In this short exposure I try to elaborate on five factors pertinent in achieving this real success.

1. Do your homework and planning

Before starting a business you should study the background carefully. Many people ends up as losers only because they starts a business seeing the outside glitter. So talk with people doing similar business, customers and various others who are involved in similar business lines.

2. Be straightforward.

Even thought businessmen are believed to be cunning, a cunning person never gets peace of mind. It is always better to do things in the clean way. This does not mean that you should be foolish or to be cheated by others. You should be intelligent enough to understand others cunningness, but should be straightforward in your dealings.

3. Don't be greedy

Greed in any form is likely to cause peril in the long run. Taking huge profit from an unaware customer base may increase your growth temporarily, but will surely affect you in the long run and may even result in the collapse of a business. History shows that many business empires achieving such abnormal growth tend to terminate quickly. So insist on steady growth even if it is slow.

4. Insist on quality

Delivering a low quality product or service at a lower cost may increase your profitability, but is likely to obliterate to you in the long run. The customers now satisfied will turn against you when low quality shows out. Also remember that bad reputation travels faster and is difficult to remove! So insist on quality products and services even at a higher price.

5. Don't gamble in business.

Remember that Murphy's Law applies in business many times. So indiscriminate gambling may result in the collapse of your business. This doesn't mean that you should not take a calculated risk. But you should be able to survive even when things turn against you.

Kannan Balakrishnan is a faculty in Computer Science from an Indian university. He can be contacted on kannanb@post.com.