Tech Search

Computer skills are important for your virtual IT business. But with so many possible skills, which ones do you really need in your business? In this article, we'll address which computer skills your competitors may have so you know what you're up against.

 

Necessary Networking Platforms

Most of your competitors who are doing well with sweet spot clients know the following networking platforms:
· Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS)
· Novell Small Business Suite or just Novell NetWare
· Linux (generally RedHat)
· Mac OS

Some of the larger integrators in your markets that have several employees may go towards the higher end of this market. They'll start at about 25 to 50 PCs, and take on some larger small businesses where there are 50 to 100 systems. They also may take on some small, mid-size companies where there may be a range from 100 to 500 systems. These larger competitors will need to get involved in more sophisticated solutions than what you need to provide.
{mosgoogle}
What Else Do Your Larger Competitors Have?

Your larger competitors will usually have some more advanced expertise on:

o Network Attached Storage (NAS)
o Storage Attached Networks (SANs)
o Complex security solutions
o CheckPoint firewalls
o Citrix Terminal Solutions
o Higher end Wi-Fi solutions
o Managed hardware

Remember though, such high-level advanced certifications are not critical until you start selling to a real IT manager at a larger small business.

What Do You Really Need?

For the sweet spot small businesses with 10 to 50 PCs, employing virtual IT staff that has one or two entry-level certifications and are working towards something like an MCSE is sufficient.

Solving Problems Makes Your Clients Happy

Usually your clients put more of a premium on problem-solving computer skills. Those clients want your company to know about their particular business industry and how you can apply IT to their business problems. That's what sweet spot clients tend to value even more strongly than pure technical computer skills and certifications.

The Bottom Line about Computer Skills

In this article, you've been introduced to which ones are the necessary computer skills in your computer consulting business. computer skills in your computer consulting business.

Copyright Notice:

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}


About The Author:

Joshua Feinberg helps computer consultants get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for Joshua's free Computer Consultants Secrets audio training.

Joshua Feinberg, co-founder of Computer Consulting 101, shows computer consulting business owners get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for your free access to field-tested, PROVEN Computer Consulting 101 secrets .

Don't worry too much if you lack advanced technical computer skills. A lot of that can be remedied by just putting in a little bit of time each week in doing some self-study. In this article, you'll learn which computer skills are necessary to serve your sweet spot small business clients.

 

If It Works, Break It
You can do something as simple as getting a not-for-resale (NFR) copy of a product that you want to sell, install, and support and then working with the product in your lab. When you or one of your lead technicians or engineers has a spare half-hour to an hour, you can walk through the basic installations. Then, deliberately break the lab installations. Next, reinstall the software until you get more comfortable with the package.

Most of these products that you'll be installing for small businesses are very mature technologies. They're very wizard-driven, and at least for plain-vanilla configurations, they don't require tremendous levels of computer skills.

Installations Are Easier Now
Years ago, it was much more difficult to install the Novell small business suite or IBM equivalent, or the original 1997 Microsoft Small Business Server. But all of these companies, especially Microsoft, put a lot of money into making it easier for people who don't have advanced IT backgrounds and networking computer skills to install their small business server application suites.
{mosgoogle}
In terms of your technical computer skills to service sweet spot clients, your staff needs to:
1. have good strong PC hardware skills
2. be able to handle a peer-to-peer setup
3. understand what TCP/IP is all about
4. know what POP3 and SMTP are
5. know how to work with basic SOHO routers

If your staff possesses the above skills, you're definitely at a good starting point to get started with at least the smaller sweet spot small businesses (10-20 PCs).

Share the knowledge among your employees
Make sure your staff members cross-train each other and you. This way, no one's ever “too knowledgeable” to the point where they can blackmail you, extract huge raises or huge bonuses, or walk away with your client base. You have to make sure your company's internal know-how or intellectual capital can't just get up and walk out the door to your biggest competitor.

The Bottom Line about Computer Skills
In this article you've learned about which technical computer skills are necessary to service your sweet spot clients.

Copyright Notice:

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

About The Author:

Joshua Feinberg, co-founder of Computer Consulting 101, helps computer consulting business owners get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for your free access to field-tested, proven computer consulting secrets at Computer Consulting 101 .