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Quorthon · 09-10-2008, 15:26

From my own experience setting up a similar small business a few years ago.

This was me and a good friend setting up a small IT company.

We initially thought we wanted to focus on commercial clients, but very quickly realised it would be a tough nut to crack.

The majority of larger companies usually do it "in-house" and smaller companies can't afford the costs of contracted IT.

This does however leave the "mid tier" business's that are often open to either

(a) fixed price IT support.
or
(b) response time based IT support.

We had about 10 clients with a mix of the two, combined with home customer call-outs this was more than sufficient to make a living from.

A niche that worked well for us was offering these business *office* support not just PC's and Networking.

If you know enough, offer them MS Office advice and training if required (really not as difficult as it sounds)

Support for printers, photocopies phones and faxes (again, not as hard as it sounds due to the nature of these items being effectively "bin it and buy a new one" anyway)

If you can also design even a basic webpage, setup internet access (and accompanied security etc)

Then you have the basis of a great "product" that will appeal to small to medium size companies.

Couple this with “flyers” and any cheap local newspaper adverts etc.

The town I live in is about 10k population, we hand delivered an a4 “flyer” and a business card to all these businesses

Summarize what you can offer, and mention “keep this card near your PC, and call when you need us”

We focused on fast call-out , reasonable call-out charges and no-fix no-fee as our USP.

For info we charged £25 a call-out (1st hour labour included) and guaranteed “same-day” response

We also have a large university in our town, I posted flyers in the Foyers there, offering a reduced (£20) call out for students, this got us LOTS of work in the halls of residence etc.

To close…

Your first and most important objective is to form a solid business-plan (no bank etc will even speak to you without one)

Focus on realistic and achievable objectives in the first 3 years and work hard, driving 10 miles to solve a 20 second problem and earning barely enough money to cover your costs might seem wasteful,. From every seed……..

Best of luck, and enjoy

09-10-2008, 15:26	#9
Quorthon Retired Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 340	Re: Advice? From my own experience setting up a similar small business a few years ago. This was me and a good friend setting up a small IT company. We initially thought we wanted to focus on commercial clients, but very quickly realised it would be a tough nut to crack. The majority of larger companies usually do it "in-house" and smaller companies can't afford the costs of contracted IT. This does however leave the "mid tier" business's that are often open to either (a) fixed price IT support. or (b) response time based IT support. We had about 10 clients with a mix of the two, combined with home customer call-outs this was more than sufficient to make a living from. A niche that worked well for us was offering these business office support not just PC's and Networking. If you know enough, offer them MS Office advice and training if required (really not as difficult as it sounds) Support for printers, photocopies phones and faxes (again, not as hard as it sounds due to the nature of these items being effectively "bin it and buy a new one" anyway) If you can also design even a basic webpage, setup internet access (and accompanied security etc) Then you have the basis of a great "product" that will appeal to small to medium size companies. Couple this with “flyers” and any cheap local newspaper adverts etc. The town I live in is about 10k population, we hand delivered an a4 “flyer” and a business card to all these businesses Summarize what you can offer, and mention “keep this card near your PC, and call when you need us” We focused on fast call-out , reasonable call-out charges and no-fix no-fee as our USP. For info we charged £25 a call-out (1st hour labour included) and guaranteed “same-day” response We also have a large university in our town, I posted flyers in the Foyers there, offering a reduced (£20) call out for students, this got us LOTS of work in the halls of residence etc. To close… Your first and most important objective is to form a solid business-plan (no bank etc will even speak to you without one) Focus on realistic and achievable objectives in the first 3 years and work hard, driving 10 miles to solve a 20 second problem and earning barely enough money to cover your costs might seem wasteful,. From every seed…….. Best of luck, and enjoy