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

This is a true a statement as you will ever read.

It is taught in sales, service, management, and every other aspect of business and life.  Whoever is is contact with a person or organization always has a stronger relationship than those with little contact.

Translation:  Contact you clients ALL THE TIME.

Contact them to say hi.  Contact them to ask how they are doing.  Contact them to ask how your last service visit went.  Contact them to tell them about developments and offerings from your company.  Contact them by just sending them an interesting article related to their industry.  Contact them by sending them information about a new technology that will soon arrive.  Contact them, contact them, contact them.  And after you do, contact them again.

Have I made my point?

-Zachary M. Morvik

It’s a simple concept and very few IT consultants do it.

You must use customer surveys. There is no way you are going to really know when, specifically, you did something right or wrong without them. It’s the easiest thing in the world to do and the rewards are massive.

Here is a site full of articles on customer surveys

http://www.isixsigma.com/vc/surveys/

Start using them today!

-Zachary M. Morvik

What’s in your computer kit?

This will be an ongoing entry that will be updated with more of my input as well as the feedback received from the readers of this blog.

The Ultimate Computer Kit consists of hardware, software, and documents used by computer service professionals to run their businesses or sole proprietorships.

Here is a base list of requirements:

Computer Service Hardware

USB Key (4GB+ Recommended)
External USB/Firewire/eSATA Hard Drive
Spare Network Card (NIC)
Spare Video Card
Spare Cables (CAT6, power, ide, sata, etc)
Crimper tool and RJ45 connectors
Multi-Screwdriver (Klein 10-1 for me)
PC Repair kit with screwdrivers, cases,
Cable tester
Cable tracer
Multimeter
Pocket knife (Leatherman for me)
Black CDs/DVDs
Cell phone
Laptop

Computer Service Software

AVG Antivirus
Symantec Antivirus
Hijack This!
Spybot
Adaware
OPHCRACK
UBCD
Knoppix
Windows, Linux, and Mac OS Discs
Service packs for windows, exchange, sql, etc.
Winzip or 7-ZIP
Acrobat Reader
Firefox
Thunderbird
.NET framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0
Zonealarm
UltraVNC
Gencontrol

Computer Service Documents

Business cards
Contracts
Thank You cards
Marketing documents
Brochures
Marketing propaganda (pens, cups, etc)

In addition to the above, I carry my Microsoft Action Pack.  I have mentioned this in the past and where you can get this pack.  It has powerful sales and marketing materials for Microsoft products and carrying this pack with me allows me to demonstrate some applications for my clients.

This is the majority of my kit.  I’ll add to this list as I receive feedback and use additional tools myself.   What’s in your kit?

-Zachary M. Morvik

Part of our service offerings is management of hosted accounts.  Yesterday a potential customer contacted us and said that they recently switched from one hosting provider to another.  Apparently all of the files had been copied using FTP, but they neglected to export the MySQL databases before making the switch.

Very fortunately, they had not yet canceled their service with the original hosting provider, but very unfortunately the reason they were switching was because their original hosting provider was basically going out of business and it is not possible to contact them.  When they changed the name servers, they did not write down what they were originally.

So, what do you do?  You cannot connect to the old server because the client doesn’t know what the IP address was.  You can’t do an NSLOOKUP because the customer doesn’t know what the DNS servers were.  We even called their domain registrar to see if they kept a history of changes made so maybe they could tell us what the name servers were before the change.  They did not.  While this is a minor case, it is still a good example of the necessity of good documentation.  Had we made the change, I know that we would have the information we needed to connect to the old server again.

This particular case worked out because we were eventually able to find some other domains that used the same hosting provider and then lookup their nameservers and eventually guess the correct nameserver (there were many), do our NSLOOKUP queries, get the IP address, and export the databases to the new hosting account.

The customer is very happy to be back in business and now understands the importance of documentation.  We have a new customer who has said they never again want to have such problems so they will be calling us for any changes they need to make in the future.  They are also interested in quite a few of our other services so everyone wins!

-Zachary M. Morvik

Has your domain or one of your clients’ domains ever expired without you realizing it? I have personally made this mistake, as have most, and I promised both my clients and myself that it would never happen again. This causes a major and embarrassing problem regardless of how quickly you correct the issue. It never should have happened in the first place.

I have created a tool called Domain Expiration Guard to ensure that you are never faced with this situation again. This tool accepts a TXT file list of domains, one per line, and will query a WHOIS database for every domain to find the expiration date. It will also make it very clear which domains will be expiring within the next 90 days.

Want to see a screenshot?

I’ll be offering this one cheap at only $20

-Zachary M. Morvik

Documentation is a crucial element of what you do as a computer consultant.  Even if you use a paper based work order system (not something I recommend), you should still keep a carbon copy of the work order in a file for that client.  Obviously, a computer program or database is preferred, but many consultants still use the paper based system so just make sure you at least keep the carbon.

If you ever have the day when you are in litigation with a client/former client for any reason, you will be very happy that you kept this documentation.  At a minimum keep the date/time, who made the appointment, what you did for that client, and end date/time.  I recommend much more than this, but this should get your started.  When I say “what you did for that client” I mean with specifics.  Detail *everything* you did or discussed.

The flip side to this is that during deposition, opposing counsel will try to rip apart what you did by using your documentation against you.  There are ways to deal with this and as long as you keep good records, you’ll be much better off.

Better reasons, other than covering your backside, is client experience.  You can go back and review historical data per client and forecast, plan, and act long before you would if you didn’t have the data.  How many times have you had the same problem on the same server?  Can you answer this question?  You should be able to so start documenting today!

-Zachary M. Morvik

Do you use service agreements and contracts in your business? If you do, then you are doing things right!

For those of you not using contracts, you should reconsider. Without these contracts, your customers probably don’t feel 100% peace of mind. Really, in computer consulting, what are they paying you for? They are investing in you to keep their business running smoothly. They are, in essence, paying you for peace of mind.

Real companies…professional companies use contracts. Go try to get a “business” cell phone contract at any carrier and see if they don’t use contracts. If you want to get a deal one multiple lines and possibly bundle in an internet connection or other service, odds are, you are signing a contract.

Contracts help your business because you have a revenue stream you can count on. You have monthly bills and with contracts, you have monthly revenue that you can expect. You then have the luxury of forecasting, future planning, etc. It’s difficult to determine when you can hire your first, or next, employee when you can’t say, with certainty, how much revenue you will have next month or over the next six months.

To a small degree, contracts also help to protect your business. In many contracts is verbiage that indemnifies your business from liability due to losses not directly caused by your personnel. There is insurance for the latter, but if you are working on a clients system and catastrophic failure occurs, you may or may not be liable, depending on the situation, but you are much more protected if you have a contract for that client or project.

Many small startup computer consultants tend to ignore the necessity of contracts. How do you think a company of any size will perceive your organization if you run your business like this? They expect contracts. If you don’t use them, you will look very “small-time” to them. Is that what you want?

-Zachary M. Morvik

How many hours do you bill per week?  That is, if you measure productivity in hours.  There are many different ways to sell services.  You can bundle services into blocks of time or you can sell services on a per job basis.  And of course, you can simply bill per hour.  Regardless of the method (I have tried them all) you need to measure the productivity of yourself and your employees.

My target, in terms of billable hours, is 30-35 hours per week.  The more the merrier, but the goal is at least 30.  There are no bonuses paid unless the average billable hours are at least 30 per week.  It is easy enough to convert this same figure to the other methods of selling service so I won’t do it here.

Many computer service professionals do not charge enough for their time.  While this is a big mistake, it happens all day, everyday.  Others charge adequately.  We are going to just take a happy median average of $100/hr.  If you bill 30 hours per week at $100/hr, that’s $3,000 per week or $150,000 per year assuming the standard American two-week vacation.

Sure, you can make more depending on your pricing structure, how you sell your services, and simply if you work more hours.  If working more hours is your chosen path, you will eventually resent your business and likely end up in a downward spiral.  As you can see, in the services business, you must have employees and you must maximize their billable time.  Start planning as early as possible the how’s and when’s of bringing on your first employee.

-Zachary M. Morvik

Getting Started in Computer Services

I worked for a computer services company for a little over four years.  If you have the time, but not the knowledge, I would highly recommend working for a computer services company to anyone interested in this field.  The knowledge you gain in both business and this field is invaluable and you get paid to learn!  By this I mean a computer services consulting firm.  Not Best Buy or some major retailer, a dedicated computer consulting company.  Small or large, that is your choice.

Having the knowledge to fix computers is not enough to start your own computer services company.  You need to understand business as well.  I can help in this area.  There is a stigma in this industry that many of the service professionals are “geeks” and have no people skills or ability to communicate in terms understandable to non-computer professionals.

While this has been true for many years, somewhat recently a shift has begun.  When people begun to see the dollar signs associated with computer knowledge and readily available certifications promising almost double the national median income, they flocked to this industry.

It has taken the industry some time to settle, but it is getting there.  Now, this industry emerges just like many others and no longer are the service professionals all “geeks”.  In a service business, interacting with people is at least as, if not more, important than being able to fix their computers.

Are you going to start off all by yourself, or will you have employees?  Do you have financing?  Do you understand basic tax law?  Do you mind accounting/billing?  Can you market and sell?  These are just some of the question you need to ask yourself before you take the leap.  You need to be able to do many of them to some degree.  Many of the processes that you do not do well or do not want to do can be outsourced.

If you are starting a small company all by yourself, you will initially need to do many, if not all, of these functions.  How you will get business is probably number one.  Revenue is the single requirement for all other things in business.  How will you prospect and find new clients/customers?  I’m going to cover everything I can as this blog grows so stay tuned!

-Zachary M. Morvik

Professional computer service has been my life for over a decade. My first computer repairs were done when I was 11 years old. I locked myself out of my computer by setting a CMOS password which I then promptly forgot. It cost $60 to have a computer service professional ‘clear’ this password for me. I vowed to learn how to do that myself.

I have worked as a computer service professional in large, multi-national public companies as well as small companies with less than ten employees. I have extensive background with both enterprise level systems and SMB (Small-Medium Business) machines.  I am also a VB.NET/ASP.NET/PHP N-tier developer.

It was in 2004 that I decided that the SMB market was my niche and ventured out on my own. I started off as a sole-proprietor and eventually incorporated. Part of this blog serves to help any other computer service professionals learn from my experience. I will also release different software applications I have written which have helped my business exponentially.

If you are a computer service professional, or you are considering this path, please feel free to leave me a comment or just check back often.

-Zachary M. Morvik