Word
of Mouth Is King
To start, get yourself some business cards that explain your services.
DO NOT LIST YOUR RATE I made this rookie mistake and was tied to my
lowball rate once I was more established. So start by spreading the
word at work. Hopefully your employer is tolerant of this. To know
the limits simply ask someone in HR if the company has a policy regarding
work outside of the job. If not you may be able to post a notice in
the lunchroom or company classified ad board. However if this is not
an option just spread the word among co-workers you trust. Word of
mouth is always the best way to bring in new business. Everyone knows
someone with a broken computer and you just need to get people talking.
Once you get an opportunity, provide more service than the customer
expects. Remember these initial jobs are seeds so even if you don't
make a profit, the goodwill you earn will keep you working down the
road.
The golden ring in doing this is to find someone who will recommend
you to a small or medium size business that does not have its own
IT staff.
Why Businesses? Because its steady work and businesses know that time
is money. Businesses tend to pay on-time, they don't keep junk on
their systems, and if a job runs over the amount of time you expect
they are generally willing to keep the clock running so long as their
systems are fixed. Home clients on the other hand tie the money for
the job with the price of the PC. This works against us as PC's become
cheaper. Businesses assign a monetary value to their time and data
so these are easier clients to work with. They also view hiring you
as just another cost of business and will not hesitate to let any
employee call you in after you gain their trust.
Advertising
I've tried advertising in newspapers and never found it to pay off.
One of the best things I've done besides word of mouth is to use my
neighborhood. I put a flyer in each newspaper box advertising my services.
The target here is the person who works out of a home office. This
is another attempt to secure a client whose time is money. From here
apply the same principle of outperforming their expectations. Let
them know you appreciate referrals and provide them with plenty of
extra business cards. I once was hired to separate two businesses
during a purchase. While one half was my client I made sure the other
business owner knew the level of my service and went out of my way
to ensure his systems worked as well or better once I left. Of course
I taped my card to each of his servers. A better way than walking
your neighborhood is to obtain a list of the addresses in your neighborhood
and visit http://www.usps.com and start a mailing campaign. Select
the postcard mailing option and simply upload your flyer, send them
your list of addresses and enter your credit card number. I've found
that I can canvass a 300 house neighborhood for about $40.00 - $50.00
much cheaper and more targeted then my other attempts. The reason
you want to use a postcard is two fold. 1) It's cheaper 2) Its easy
to hang on to. When I used 8 1/2 x 11 paper flyers I only could reach
those with an immediate computer problem. Everyone else simply tossed
the ad. The idea is to get them to keep your card for later to offer
an incentive to this. Give them $10.00 off their first job or offer
a consultation. You want them calling you not the other guy.
| Convert
your keywords to sales! Try Urchin for free - Download
Now |
Billing
Ok here's my take on billing and getting paid. Judgment is the key.
When you bill a business be sure to add to your invoice that payment
is due upon receipt. Does this mean you'll get paid immediately? Nope
but if you leave it out businesses will assume a Net 30 approach and
pay you 30 days after receipt and that's no good. So put the payment
due upon receipt and see what happens. I give them 30 days anyway
before sending a second invoice with a clear notice that this is a
PAST DUE invoice. Most times this clears things up. Now I should add
that I do have some customers that are inconsistent about how long
it takes to get paid but they do pay and furthermore I LIKE working
for them. Maybe they are the type that doesn't watch over my shoulder
or gives me the key to the place or lets me take stuff home to work
on. My point is you be the judge where the hassle is worth the delay
if this occurs. Most important spell out your terms on the invoice
and send reminders every 30 days. Now home users are different, you
should expect them to pay on the spot or very soon after. Just as
the local PC shop expects them to pay before getting their stuff back
you should too. Judgment comes into play here as well. Some will ask
you to stop by for one thing and then keep you longer than expected.
DO NOT bring a prepared invoice based on what you believe the charge
will be. It's always better to tell them the cost and then e-mail
them the invoice after you've been paid.
|
FREE
Java™ Developer Resource Kit!  |
|
Tax Tips
If your serious about an on-going consulting business take the time
to set yourself up properly. This will pay dividends in increased
revenue and tax savings. Assign a room in your house as your home
office. This will let you deduct any costs related to that office
from your earnings as a consultant. There is no law your business
has to make a profit so as long as you document the expenses you deduct
you can do so even if the expenses exceed your earnings. The benefit
here is that you get some tax savings from your regular paycheck from
the loss of your business. Hopefully your business gets going and
earns a profit but until this is the case you may as well do what
you can to save money. A few examples of things you can deduct are
the insurance, utilities, and internet costs proportional to the %
of square feet your office consumes. I've even heard that technically
you can deduct dog related expenses if you can prove the dog also
guards the home office. I don't recommend stretching anything however.
Sales Tax
Get yourself established as a business in your state so you can charge
sales tax. I know this sounds crazy but if your going to sell your
time, why not sell the parts and mark them up 10% so you make more
money. I used to require my clients to purchase items and then call
me to install them. Now I just make sure I trust they'll pay and order
the items myself. This lets me increase revenue and as long as you
keep track of what you charged you simply pay the sales tax at the
end of the year, couldn't be easier.
Hopefully those tips will help you start a small business on the side.
From there you can grow or shrink the business as you see fit.
About the Author:
John Gall is a full time IT Manager and IT Consultant in Minnesota.
He runs several websites as a hobby featuring content similar to that
in this article.
http://www.gallconsulting.com
http://www.sandalspictures.com
http://www.napavalleypictures.com
http://www.winesilove.com
|
| From
the Forum: |
| Credit
Card processor for Europe |
I have a client from Germany and we've been
working on an online gaming site for him. People will be able
to signup for free but there will also be VIP subsciptions.
Currently the only viable option is Paypal because of its low
cost and incrased security, but the fact that users will have
to leave our main site and sign up at Paypal is something that
takes away from the usability of our site as well as the features
we have embedded (never mind that it could confuse new users).
...
|
 |
By
John Gall
