Essential Ingredients for a Winning Home Computer Mending Business Enterprise
October 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
1.Know your market place – home users (duh!), but seriously. Who are they? What do they do? The corporate employees will have their own remote support so you’ll be directing the up-and-coming types (like you) and recreational computer users.
2.Know what to expect from them – what problems will they typically run into? What should you get up to speed on and so you can diagnose and mend their problems quickly and efficiently? More often than not it will be spyware associated – expect to suss out a lot of that.
3.Know your rival – Who is doing the same, how are they doing it, how much do they bill, what services do they provide and how do they advertise? Do they have particular promotional materials or bundles?
4.Professionalism is everything – you need professional looking work orders, invoices, internet site, business cards and circulars that make customers take you seriously.
5.Have a powerful trade name – Now it’s time for the logo! Have a uniform brandmark that names you, sticks in people’s heads and separates from the competitor.
6.Get associated – who can help you build up and evolve your computer repair commercial enterprise? Where are the better suppliers, can you outsource and project manage the functions you don’t provide yourself? Can you speedily refer people to non competing complimentary businesses to fulfill their needs and charge referral or finders fees?
7.Plan for growth – do this from the start. A business plan is a must and you need to be trained to deal with having to get help when there’s too much work and budgeting to handle low periods of time. Drawing a growth and investment scheme is what will take your business to the next plane and see you never have to take orders from anyone else ever again.
Home users and small businesses are in desperate need of friendly and sure-footed computer pros to see to their IT requirements. To really get the most out of all the potential business you need to put on your entrepreneur cap and think in terms of opportunity - at every opportunity.
When you’re in someone’s household or business office attending to their computer bothers you’re more than just a fix it person. They’re going to enquire of you for advice on their IT strategy and will look to you to have resolutions. Even if they don’t ask, you are assured to discover catastrophes ready and waiting to happen and possible improvements - so think like a advisor and don’t be afraid to prepare recommendations.
The success of your endeavour will hinge largely on people’s perception of you and how you guide your operation. Word of mouth advertising and testimonial is your bread and butter. Go out of your way to overdeliver and fulfill their wants (including the ones they don’t know about) with a well thought out professional service.
To do that you need a programme and a roadmap - commit the time early to establish a solidly set up home computer repair business and you’ll never have to work for anyone else again.
Peter Webber specialises in assisting IT entrepreneurs plan and build their home computer mending business through his internet site which covers some facets of working in the IT industry. He is himself a independent IT contractor and consultant.
Do you Really Want To Work From Home?
October 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
If you are to seriously work from home, you must be a person who is able to motivate yourself constantly. In an office workplace, there is really nothing to do other than work. Yes, you can talk to co-workers and maybe dream about taking a nap, but only the “talking to co-workers” is a real option. When you are at home working, the nap also becomes a very doable option and things other than naps become temptations as well. Extra breaks, TV breaks, surfing the Internet, talking on the phone and all sorts of other things start to come in to play when you don’t have a structured work environment.
There are really three types of people when it comes to making money on the Internet and finding home jobs. The first kind of person is someone who has heard you can make money online and just wants to find out how to work at home and make a quick buck. This type of beginner is usually someone young or youngish and they have heard that you can make money blogging, filling out free paid surveys, or maybe even by Internet marketing. They might not have too many technical skills but they have heard that the Internet is a cash machine and they want their part of it. They might have even heard the terms “turnkey websites” and that sounds great to them. They are looking for ways to make money and preferably very easy ways to make money online.
Unfortunately for them, there is really nothing that is terribly easy and lucrative that is going to take them to the promised land as they hope. After buying some ebooks and trying some of the methods described in them, they usually end up quitting as they get frustrated with their failures. There are many legitimate ways to make money online but none of them will make you a truckload of cash without some serious effort.
The second type of person looking for ways to make money is someone trying to find legitimate work at home jobs or opportunity that is part time. This person might be a student, a mom or dad at home with the kids, or just anyone who needs and wants to make some money on the side. It might be someone who really needs more money to make ends meet or just someone who has some extra time and wants to have some savings. Being able to find work at home jobs will allow this type of person to perhaps make that extra money they want without having to commit to a real part time job arrangement. Jobs in this category include home assembly jobs, home healthcare jobs, work at home customer service jobs, data entry jobs at home, work from home typing jobs, and call center home jobs.
Being able to work from home during the hours you choose gives anybody an extra paycheck while not compromising their dignity. If times are tough and extra money is needed to make ends meet, a part time home job is much preferable to going out and flipping burgers at a restaurant. In fact, people who have “at home jobs” have no travel expenses and might be happy making less than minimum wage because of the convenience of it. I sort of fall into this category as I am trying to make extra money on the side but I do hope it will turn into something legitimate that I can count on in the future. Finding ways I can make money and work from home is preferable for me to being in the workplace if I can do it.
The third type of persons are those looking for full time legitimate work at home jobs that pay a full time wage. A full time wage means different things to different people of course. Some are happy with and can get by with perhaps $24,000 to $36,000 per year while many might need much more than that. The higher the wage required I would think the harder it will be for someone to find a job that pays well and allows them to work at home. Also, someone living in New York would have to make a lot more to get by than someone living in Arkansas.
Self employed people and entrepreneurs have the best shot at being able to run a business out of their homes. They can be involved in a countless number of businesses that might allow them the luxury of working at home and not have to go into a formal workplace every day. They are able to run their businesses from home much more easily now with the full blown emergence of the Internet and all the things like virtual meetings that go along with it.
It’s Not About the Cones
October 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I had a customer service moment yesterday that I want to share with you. There is a very real business lesson inside. Check it out.
It’s not about the cones…Do people or protocols manage your business?
I work out a gym and my gym has a basketball court. I play a lot of basketball and do certain drills to work on my game. A common drill for basketball players is to dribble around cones. I felt like working on by ball handling so I went looking for the cones.
In the gym there is a big grey bin where a lot of publicly available workout stuff is kept. There are mats, ropes, weights, and other stuff inside. This is where the cones usually are. But on this day I went looking and I didn’t see any cones. I went to the membership desk for help.
The attendant sat right outside the basketball gym. I asked her to borrow the cones. She was very hesitant and said that those cones were reserved for a specific workout class. I was confused because I had used the cones before. I explained my confusion and she said that she didn’t know where the cones were and the only person who could approve the use of the cones was her supervisor. And of course, her supervisor was out to lunch.
I asked if I could just borrow the cones for a few minutes. She said “No”. I asked if there were cones anyplace else I could use. She said “No”. Then she gave me the killer line…she said
“I’m not allowed to give the cones out and I don’t know what the protocol is for giving the cones out”.
Really? Protocol? For some silly cones?
I think you get my point. The real issue here is that she did not know what to do. She didn’t know what the “rule” was. She didn’t have a “protocol” to follow. All she knew to do is ask her supervisor. But what happens when your supervisor is gone? Do you magically lose all of your problem solving abilities? I guess you do.
Protocols don’t manage your business. People do. And if you business going to have a healthy leg to stand on, your people need to have more tools than the words “No” and “Let me ask my supervisor”.
Think about it and let me know if you agree.
Time Management - The Way To Accomplish Multiple Tasks
October 1, 2008 | 1 Comment
These days many people are now required to perform a variety of tasks at the same time There are many who are able to perform these multi-tasking activities quite easily, however there are also many that are unable to and easily get overwhelmed with the volume of tasks that they need to complete in a short time frame If you are one of those people who are stumped when it comes to time management, it would be a good idea for you to start studying means and methods of effectively managing your time. Note that time management is something that can be easily learned and mastered with the right types of tools so do not be discouraged if you can’t seem to get things done at the moment. As soon as you are able to begin developing your time management skills, you will have less problems going through the variety of tasks you need to do, and will be able to accomplish multi-tasking quite effortlessly
How To Get Started
The first thing that you need to learn about time management is setting priorities and goal management. Before you even start with each task you need to complete, you should first create a to-do list and then rank the items on this list based on priorities The to-do list is a very important step, as this list will be your guide when you start the tasks that you need to do, and this list will also keep track of your progress as you tick of each item that has been completed. Furthermore, your to do list will help you see what needs to be done for the day and help you set your priorities.
The Importance Of Prioritizing
Being able to set your priorities for each given day is very important. You need to know which things must be done first and which ones can be left towards the end of the day. To set your priorities, you need to develop criteria. The time element and relevance of a certain task towards the other set of tasks should be included in your criteria for setting priorities. For instance, if you are working on more than one project at the same time, you need to determine which ones are urgent and which ones are not. Also if you happen to be doing a series of tasks, you need to determine which tasks need to be finished first that is most urgent before proceeding to the next set of tasks.
Learn To Schedule
The ability to be able to schedule your tasks is very important when it comes to time management. You need to learn to divide your day so that you can accomplish more. Every minute counts when it comes to time management, and in order to be able to accomplish more, you should give yourself hourly deadlines. For example, you assign yourself one hour to work on a specific task and when the hour is over, move on to the next task on the list.
Simple Five Step Business Joint Venture
September 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
At the end of this short document are the five steps you need to go down to start you on the road to joint venture success. You may be tempted to jump to the bottom of this post read the five steps but I would encourage you to understand what is happening at a slightly deeper level.
Imagine that you have a product to sell that retails at $97on how to stay increase your business profits and live the life of your dreams.
You contact your nearest list broker and buy or rent a list of 10,000 names. You then craft a sales letter that explains your product and why people should buy it from you. You send out this letter to all the people in your database.
You find that you convert 2% of people into buying your product using this letter and approach. Two percent multiplied by 10,000 names equals 200 orders. This gives us 200 Orders which retail at $97 or a gross profit of $19,400
Do you think that a 2% response is a bit on the small side? It is in fact pretty good as far as it goes but could it be a lot better? Think about this for a second, the people don’t know you, they know nothing about your business, they probably don’t know anything about your product.
In short, they are concerned with being ripped off - Is there a better way?
Sending out a cold mailing like this is not normally going to work very well because they don’t trust you. Here is a way to improve it.
Just supposing you found an owner of a similar list who often contacts his subscribers and has a good relationship wit them. Imagine what would happen if this person wrote a to his subscribers and mentioned how great your product is and what a great person you are.
What do you think would happen to the conversion rate?
There is every likelihood that this type of endorsed letter is going to get a far better response rate than a cold list. The reason is simply that these subscribers trust the person who is endorsing you so the trust is transferred to you.
If your Joint Venture endorsement has been properly thought through there is a very good chance that you will get wa more than a 2% response rate. Think of your bottom line, even if it only increased from 2% to 6% that’s a 3 fold increase. Think of your bottom line, even if it only increased from 2% to 6% that’s a 3 fold increase. So instead of $19,400 you are now getting 6% of 10,000, multiplied by $97, equals $58,200 gross profit.
If you doubt these results then consider this. Here is what you could do; Test 1000 names from your cold (list broker bought) list and then analyse the difference when a joint venture partner endorses you.
Step 1 - Identify what type pf customers you are targeting
Step 2 - Find a Joint Venture partner who already has a relationship with these types of customers.
Step 3 - Agree a % split of the profits
Step 4 - Do a small test endorsed mailing
Step 5 - Do a small test to a cold list (same No’s and customer profile)
Compare the two results. There is a very good chance that the joint venture endorsed mailing did far better and brought in more profit.
Now work out which one generated the most profit, repeat it and smile, as you make more profits in less time and at a lower cost.
Happy Joint Venturing
Strategic Alliances and Where to Find Them
September 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I read a book called Acres of Diamonds many years ago? The most obvious place to start looking is your own back yard. This story is very well explained in Acres of Diamonds.
So the first place I would look for joint venture partners is in my own back yard. Think of your own customer database or mailing list. Your existing customers are a great place to start looking for joint venture opportunities, after all, they already trust you. Your strong relationship is virtual money in the bank, by giving people great service you can open up lots of opportunities.
Magazine Publishers
A lot depends on who the magazine publisher is, some of the very largest might be hard to reach but certainly the smaller or niche magazines are a good place to explore. It’s the same with people who distribute newsletters on line or printed material off line. They are a fabulous resource, often with very large databases and hungry customers.
Library
Your library is a virtual goldmine of good quality research material. There are reference books available that show you the numbers of members. In the USA and Canada you can review http://www.mediafinder.com/. They have around 75,000 newsletter for you to explore. There is a cost involved with this service so do your sums first before subscribing.
Another great USA based service is Standard Rates and Data Services http://www.srds.com. In the UK you can go to a list broker like Marketing File http://marketingfile.com/ Buying a large list is not our first port of call because there is a good chance that a business somewhere will already have a large list with a strong customer relationship and that is where I would go first.
Your library is going to have some great resources for research. You could always buy these directories your self. They are normally quite expensive so you could always see if they are available on eBay. Even the older ones still have gems.
Yellow Pages
This publication is now showing it’s age a bit because so much is researched on-line. But, the people who already advertise in yellow pages are a useful point of contact for joint ventures.
Seminars
Seminars can be a great place to meet potential joint venture partners. Be choosy about which ones you attend but generally they can be a rich pool of motivated people. Paid for seminars will have some of the better joint venture opportunities because you won’t get so many tyre kickers.
Search Engines
Go to Google and type in the keywords that you are looking for. You will be surprised what pops up.
Discussion Boards
Are a great place to find passionate people. These forums give you a chance to form relationships and build up trust before suggesting a joint venture deal.
Newspaper Ads
Newspaper ads can provide some good opportunities, they are after all advertising for business. Why not call them and see if they might be interested in starting a dialogue with you.
Your Website
If you have your own website, think of ways you might be able to use it to search out for joint venture opportunities. Why not mention that you are open to joint ventures and explain what you are looking for.
Ezine Directories
Competitors
I know this might sound a bit odd to start with, but your competitors could offer you useful partnership opportunities. Some of the fiercest competitors can become the strongest joint venture partners.
And the mailing will also be very targeted. Why not capitalize on this and make a handsome profit?
Referrals
Ask for joint venture referrals from existing customers. Just pick up the phone and ask them who they might know.
Other Places to Find Partners;
- Business events
- Newsgroups
- Business Directories
- On-Line classifieds
- Magazines / trade magazines
- Trade Fairs
There are hundreds of places to look, have fun.
7 Easy Tips On How To Relieve Stress Today
September 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
There are plenty of resources which teach you how to relieve stress and it is no suprise. The world is a very stressful place these days. We are so busy being busy we have little time for anything else.
Our lives are a result of the crazy world we live in. Think about it. We run around like crazy all day just so we don’t have enough time. Money, success, careers and family are what drives us to keep going day in and day out and as a result we have become ’stressed out’; ticking time bombs ready to blow at any minute.
The symptoms of stress can be fatal leading to disease, chronic illness, hypertension and even heart attack. Many people don’t realize the stress they put themselves under on a daily basis. Your body has an amazing ability to help you deal with a sudden stressful situation when you may need to protect yourself. We were not however supposed deal with stress all the time.
So how does one go about relieving the effects of stress on your body? Before we get to the 5 points on effective stress relief there are two things you should think about doing for yourself on a daily basis to avoid stress.
The first thing is to get off adrenaline. One of the best tips on how to relieve stress is to plan better. Life happens and there are always going to be surprises you can’t avoid but it doesn’t have to be like this all of the time. A little planning can be the best thing you can do to keep your stress levels down. Your health and life could be at stake.
The second thing is to drink less caffeine and if you are a smoker to cut back, or better yet, quit smoking. Caffeine and Nicotine put a lot of stress on your body. Where possible try to avoid them.
Ok so let’s take a look at 5 things you can do to help your body and mind better deal with stress.
1. Get regular exercise
It’s not really important what exercise means to you. It could be going for a run or even just a long walk or perhaps a good workout at the gym. What is critical is that you exercise on a regular basis and that you are relaxing when doing so. If you are not enjoying the exercise you are doing then there is really no point.
2. Relaxation and meditation
I know it sounds easy to say just relax or chill out but most people don’t know how to. It is not necessary to meditate like a Zen master, although this can be very relaxing, but you should take a time out where you are free from disruptions and noise and you can have a little alone time.
3. Go out and spoil yourself
Ladies this does not mean go on a shopping spree. It does mean doing something for yourself. You could take some time to be alone without any distractions and just enjoy the pleasure of your own company.
4. Video and board games
Board games can be a perfect stress reliever. You may want to choose careful the people you play the game with so as to avoid tension because of competitiveness. There are some great free software games you can download off the internet that are great to help relieve stress
5. Make sure you sleep well
Make sure you get enough rest. Disruptions to your sleeping patterns can cause tremendous stress on your body. If you are constantly thinking you are not resting. The simplest way to control your constant thinking is to not react to negative thoughts as this can cause you to stress.
The best thing to do is to get started on just one of these ideas and then move on to the next when you feel you are ready. Remember that whatever you choose to do should help you to relax. There is no reason to wait any longer.
The New and Improved Hoax
September 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Have you ever read a headline like one of these?
- With this new tactic you can double your customers…
- I made $54,3923 in one day with this amazing tactic…
- This one tactic can revolutionize your business…
These are all examples of what I call the “New and Improved Hoax”. Many times, businesses try to sell you something simply by slapping a “new and improved” sticker on the front. They make it sound so neat, so cool, and so interesting. By the time you finish listening to the sales message you swear that this new tactic is just the diamond in the rough you are looking for. When in reality, it doesn’t do a doggone thing for you or your business.
Why? Because no TACTIC can save your business. What you need is a healthy business STRATEGY.
Here is what I mean. A tactic is just one step in a series of steps. It is just one link in an entire chain. In order for the tactic to work you must have understand the entire series of steps. You have to understand the entire chain. In other words, before you try a new tactic be sure you know how it affects your business.
- Does the tactic feel too good to be true?
- Do you know why the tactic works?
- Do you have all of the support systems to make sure the tactic works best?
There are a LOT of good tactics out there, but if you don’t understand them you could have very unpredictable results. Make sure the tactic weaves well into the operations of your business. Use this logic below to help.
- What does your business offer?
- Do people actually want your product? How do you know?
- How do you deliver your product?
- How will this new tactic help your customers enjoy your product more?
Good luck building your business.
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