I have updated the service monitor tool based on the feedback of a few customers. Customers thus far love the product and can’t believe they ran their servers without it.

Knowing when services are no longer available/responding is powerful knowledge. You’re customers will be impressed when you can call them and tell them that you are aware of a problem before they were even aware of it.

Zachary M. Morvik

How many times have you or one of your technicians spent three or more hours working on a spyware, virus, or quirky hardware problem? I’d guess the number is much higher than one. How about the number of times where more than one hour was spent? Probably still at least one right?

While it can be difficult to do, especially for technical staff, you and/or your staff need to recognize when a specific problem just isn’t worth the time. With new basic computers costing $500 or less, it is a disservice to your clients to bill them three hours fixing a 2+ year old machine… buy a new one.

Even just reloading a computer can cost more than it’s worth. Fixing extensive and advanced spyware and virus problems is crazy. It is definitely worth trying to fix the problem. Typically spyware and virus problems can be fixed pretty quickly. I’m talking about the issues that you have already spent an hour trying to resolve. There needs to be a cut-off point. A point at which you have the business sense to step back and realize that it just isn’t worth it.

It is in the clients’ best interest for you and your staff to be able to realize when it no longer makes sense to spend time on that particular issue. Workstations are cheap. Your time is not. If your customer does not understand this concept, explain it to them. They will appreciate that you are looking out for their best interest.

Zachary M. Morvik

Something I have noticed is that many computer consultants place a high value on time. Each minute of each day is either billable or it’s not.

That’s true and it’s also very false. There are 86,400 seconds in a day. You don’t get anymore and neither does anyone else. I personally don’t choose to look at each moment as either billable or not. For me, that would be an easy way to drive myself crazy.

It is important to set goals and strive to exceed them, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to figure out ways to keep squeezing more billable time out of the same 86,400 seconds. You will quickly become a slave to your business if you try this.

What has also been observed is how much time computer consultants and business owners will spend trying to save small amounts of money. Payroll and anti-spam companies come to mind.

I have seen very small businesses waste dozens of hours trying to choose a payroll company to run payroll for two employees. Dozens of hours. What are dozens of hours worth in a time is money type business? It’s hundreds of dollars or more. Would you spend hundreds of dollars of billable time so that you could save $10 per month on your payroll? Now that I point it out like this, you would probably say no. But, the next time you get caught up spending large amounts of time trying to save a small amount of money, take a step back and make sure its actually worth it.

Time is money and this is true to a certain extent, but there are plenty of ways to increase your revenue without becoming a slave to your business.

Time is precious and it is the one thing that is irreversible and you will never get back. You have a limited supply of time and it is the most expensive thing you can give up.

Choose wisely.

Zachary M. Morvik

I can’t tell you how often I used to get burned by a Windows service unexpectedly terminating and the wrath that can follow. What I have searched for on many occasions is a very simple application that would monitor selected services on a specified interval. If any of the monitored services are not running, I want an email.

I don’t just want the service to restart. That’s little more than a bandaid. Why did that service stop? There was a reason and that reason should not be ignored. I want to know when the service stops.

Since I couldn’t find an application like the one I have described, I wrote one. It is simplistic which is exactly what I wanted. It does exactly what it needs to do and it does so flawlessly.

I’ll be releasing this application here on the blog soon. If you would like to be notified when this application becomes available, just signup for annoucements up there at the top right.

Take care,

Zachary M. Morvik