Good! You’re on the right track, kind of, sort of.

Why only a half-hearted pat on the back?

Because becoming a reseller shouldn’t be thought of in a vacuum. The days of being able to grow a successful business, purely on the basis of reselling PC hardware and software, has seen its better days.

Why? Because the profit margins on most PC hardware and software reselling run somewhere between anemic and non-existent.

Today, to become a reseller of computer hardware and software, you need to be thinking of additional related revenue streams such as installation, customization, training, and ongoing service.

That’s not to say that if you’re figuring out how to become a reseller that you absolutely must follow a prescribed business-salvation plan. But you need to be honest enough with yourself to recognize that reselling is a brutal business, it has been a brutal business since at least the mid-1990’s, and that the only way for most resellers of computer hardware and software to survive and thrive is by getting involved in selling value-added services to their customers.

What kinds of value-added services? It largely depends on whether you try to sell to “everyone”, or whether you’re smart enough to focus primarily on B2B (business to business), where there’s a lot more at stake with IT and the potential for loads of recurring revenue.

So if you want to become a reseller that focuses on the B2B segment, primarily local small businesses, consider offering the following 4 services.

1. Technology Assessment Services. Before you can make sound hardware and software product recommendations, you really need to spend some time getting to know your customers’ true IT needs, what they already own, where their businesses are headed in the next 2-4 years, and what IT problems they currently face. As this is more of a consulting service rather than a traditional reseller role, you should most certainly charge a nominal fee for your Technology Assessment Services.
2. Systems Installation Services. While there’s little value-added in just un-boxing equipment and plugging it in, there’s tremendous value-add in the software patching, data migration, integration work, and customization. Again, as this is more of a consulting service, you should be charging extra for Systems Installation Services and strongly recommending them for any of your customers who don’t have in-house IT support.
3. Training. While Fortune 1000 companies usually have formal plans for employee software training, small businesses rarely have this luxury. As a result, the only training employees often receive is from their reseller. Even if your customers can only afford to pay your company for an hour or two of ad-hoc one-on-one training with each employee, this training can make an enormous difference to your customers getting better utilization from their newly purchased systems. Again, add this to the list of easy incremental sales for most customers.
4. Help Desk. When your customers have how-to or troubleshooting questions, customers rarely have the expertise or patience to deal with multiple vendors each pointing the finger at each other. Solve this problem for your customers, with a single point of contact help desk. Once again, this is a relatively easy, high-margin incremental revenue source that’s very conducive to selling on a subscription basis.

Most entrepreneurs, when thinking about how to become a reseller of computer hardware and software, just focus on what reseller programs to join. While you certainly do need to have your favored product lines, the harsh financial realities of becoming a reseller in this day and age demand that you diversify into higher margin value-added consulting services.

In this short article, we’ve introduced you to some simple strategies to take the brutally competitive, low-margin prospect of becoming a reseller and turn that into a much more lucrative value-added IT consulting business. To learn more about how to become a reseller of computer hardware and software the profitable way, be sure to sign-up for the free additional tips and business strategies now at http://www.HowToBecomeAResellerTips.com

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The truth is, if you base your business around just cabling jobs or quick fixes, you will attract customers that aren’t really looking for long-term relationships. And you’re going to need a ton of these little one-shot-deal projects to bring in the kind of money that will keep your business afloat. While Fortune 1000 giants might be able to handle these high-volume logistically-complicated operations, a small business using just one, two or three technicians to provide services will never be able to serve the number of clients per year necessary to keep the company afloat on just one-shot-deal customers.

The solution is usually to combine traditional cabling jobs with more complete Virtual IT solutions, so you can attract steady, high-paying clients that will help bring you sustainable service revenue.  Plus you and your staff will get the satisfaction that comes from working on complex business problems with the same businesses on a regular basis.

Granted, some cabling firms eventually add-on router configuration, DSL installations, wireless networking, and Voice-over-IP phone systems.  However those cabling firms with the greatest long-term vision grasp that small business owners want and need… even crave… end-to-end, soup-to-nuts outsourced Virtual IT solutions from a single point of contact.

Consider these 4 reasons why you and your small business clients need to work closely together on more than just plain-old cabling jobs.

1. Small Businesses Want to Enjoy the Same Benefits as Fortune 1000 Companies. In a Fortune 1000 organization, the CIO or IT director is usually responsible for being the IT visionary. This person will spot trends and keep projects on track. This means that if you are providing merely cabling jobs to your small business clients, you need to rethink your strategy. In the small business world, clients rely on their trusted technology provider to act as an IT visionary in the same way as an IT director, but on a much smaller budget. This means you have to be a Virtual CIO providing all the oversight and maintenance services of a larger IT department but on an outsource basis. What’s at stake if you don’t choose this path? Your small business clients will find that single point of contact solution that inevitably already has a cabling firm partner.
2. Small Businesses Crave a Single Point of Contact for Technology Support. Most small business owners won’t want to call multiple people to take care of their technology needs. They don’t have the time or the budget. Instead of someone to just do cabling jobs for them, another to purchase and provide hardware and software, and yet another to provide on-going maintenance for their networks and systems, they need a single point of contact for all their IT support. This is why there is so much opportunity for you in the small business space if you choose to provide complete business solutions and not just quick installations. Your clients want you to be the hardware provider, software reseller, network integrator, application developer, Web site designer and IT manager. Your firm becomes the Virtual IT department for companies too small to hire their own full-time IT staff.  So what are you waiting for?  Start finding local specialists in your community with which to partner.
3. Small Business Clients Are Non-Technical and Thus Naturally Inclined to Think of Price First. Most small business owners will think of technology as buying a bunch of PC’s and software at the lowest possible price. Even the best clients might start out thinking this way, which is why you can’t be just a commodity broker providing cabling jobs to succeed in this space. One of your basic responsibilities as a Virtual IT organization is educating clients on the real benefits of different solutions … in business terms. Help them overcome price objections by showing them the value of planning, consistency, standardization, testing, training, on-going maintenance and regular re-evaluation of their needs.
4. Make Your Clients See the Big Picture. Many small business owners will be inclined to make small impulse purchases for computer hardware, software and peripherals. This piecemeal approach is usually very short-sighted. Planning should be a normal part of their technology acquisition and implementation process. Without proper planning, small business owners almost always make haphazard purchases that rarely work well together.

In this brief article, we looked at why simply providing cabling to small businesses isn’t enough to satisfy clients’ cravings for complete IT solutions.  Learn more about how you combine basic cabling jobs with high-margin outsourced small business Virtual IT services, so you can get great steady, high-paying clients now at http://www.CablingJobsAdvice.com

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Then you really need to think about how you can fill in the gaps of your IT trainer services as your client roster expands and your clients’ insatiable thirst for more help from you grows exponentially. The best way to do this usually is through partnering with local, non-competing IT professionals.

There are a lot of different ways to investigate potential business partnerships, but the very best are the most personal ones. The more direct contact you have with a potential partner, the more likely you will be to have them on your side to help provide services to your clients.

And just to make sure that we’re on the same page, when we’re talking about partnering with other local, non-competing IT professionals, we’re talking about informal arrangements and relationships that allow you to tap into their skills-base to supplement your own skills gaps. And the flip side? Your partners will often bring you into their clients to supplement their own skills gaps. So partnering in this sense has nothing to do with bringing on equity partners or financial shareholders in your business.

Now with that out of the way, you can find potential business partners to help you deliver comprehensive IT consulting services to your clients in a variety of ways. The following 7 IT trainer tips present some methods for locating potential partners.

1. Find Partners through Common Accounts. The absolute best way to locate a business partner for your IT trainer business is through a common client account. You might start working with a new small business that is already working with a deeply-niched technology consultant. By working together, you form a camaraderie similar to that you would have working together in an internal IT department. The partnering idea will flourish naturally from this type of personal, working relationship. Because you are already working together, you have ample opportunity to talk and will become friendly.  “Hey, do you want to grab a cup of coffee?”
2. Tap into Your Word-of-Mouth Referrals. Next on the list of ways to locate potential partners is tapping into your word-of-mouth-referrals to find business partnership ideas. If you have a business partner that does basic run-of-the-mill database development, but you need someone that is an expert in hugely-scalable SQL server database architecture, letting your current partner know what you need will usually net you a few solid leads.
3. Network Directly through Organizations. You can also network directly through organizations like the Chamber of Commerce or other business networking events. When you talk to people at organizational meetings and tell them about your business, and listen carefully as they tell you what they do for a living, you can often meet some great people that could become potential partners…. even outside the IT industry.
4. Attend Reseller Channel Events. Another great idea for identifying prospective partnerships for your IT trainer business is to go to reseller channel events for the platforms or products you support. Also look into attending reseller channel events for products you don’t support, particularly if you are looking for someone to cater to a specific need many of your clients have that you can’t fulfill with your current level of expertise.
5. Take Technical Training Classes. This is another great source of potential partners.  You never know who you’ll end up sitting next to, or chatting with as you enjoy a cup of complimentary coffee from the training center. Of course, use this strategy sparingly, as often it can cost you money and take valuable time away from your other business duties.
6. Look to Niche and Industry Trade Groups. You can also find potential IT trainer business partners through niche and industry trade groups, trade associations and industry-specific conferences. User groups and related consultant reseller groups are also great places to meet niche technology providers. And make sure to stay on the mailing list of their newsletters, blogs and magazines, as local subject matter experts writing articles are also great sources of potential partners.
   
7. Peruse Vendor Web Sites. Another good way to find prospective partners is through vendor Web sites, including those of independent software vendors and independent hardware vendors. These sources can give you some great, very qualified referrals to their local feet-on-the-street partners. You can take this strategy to the next level by contacting your local field reps and getting personal referrals from people that work with a specific software or hardware vendor.

In this article, we talked about 7 tips for locating potential partners to help you provide more comprehensive IT consulting services to your clients.  Learn more IT trainer tips that get you steady, high-paying clients now at http://www.ITTrainerTips.com

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Many small business computer consultants find great opportunities in the B2B (Business-to-Business) space, and specifically within Sweet Spot Clients(tm). Sweet Spot Clients are defined as small businesses with anywhere from 10 to 75 computers. This computer business opportunity can help consultants find steady, long-term clients that are willing and able to pay for ongoing services.

The following 3 tips introduce you to the B2B small business space and help you seize your best computer business opportunity to help build your company.

1. Don’t Focus on Micro- and Home-Based Small Businesses. Many consultants moving from home users into the small business space make the mistake of thinking that they can just run out and get some small business clients. They don’t stop to think about where the true computer business opportunity is, and that it’s not in very small clients. If you focus on home-based businesses and micro small businesses, you will run into many of the same problems as in the home users market. You will not be able to retain long-term clients or sell a lot of services, even when focusing on micro small businesses that are technically considered small businesses.  Why? Because it’s very difficult in most cases to sell ongoing services agreements and profitably service those companies with fewer than 10 computers.

2. Know the Main Reasons Micro and Home-Based Small Business Clients Are Not Profitable. As you are looking for the best computer business opportunity, you need to know exactly why working with micro- and home-based small businesses is not profitable. First of all, you will find a lot of consumer-grade PC’s and pirated software. Also, you will find that micro- and home-based small businesses will be reluctant to pay for services, because they are used to getting computer support for free from a friend, family member or other types of volunteers. And how can you possibly compete with free? Because IT is usually not as important to very small businesses, micro small businesses will also not usually need great response time and won’t be willing to pay for it. Most importantly, very small businesses will be too small to afford a real dedicated server or a real network, leaving you very little computer business opportunity to build complex solutions and grow long-term relationships.

3. Focus on Sweet Spot Clients. Again, Sweet Spot Clients are defined as small businesses with anywhere from 10 to 75 computers. At this stage, you will find prospects, customers, and clients willing to get serious about putting in a real client/server network, a reliable back-up solution, a dependable UPS, and a truly secure firewall. Small business decision makers in this space understand that the systems need to be designed by a very sophisticated IT services or network integrator firm, which is where your computer business opportunity will be strongest. As a small business starts growing, the stakes go up. These owners recognize the need to use IT more strategically. Among Sweet Spot Clients, small businesses have made the decision that IT is important to the company and that they can’t afford a lot of downtime. They need someone to coordinate everything related to computers and take ownership of the whole problem for many years into the future.
In this short article, we discussed 3 tips that can help you find the best computer business opportunity for you as you start looking into the small business market. Learn more about how you can get great, steady, high-paying clients and your own best computer business opportunity now at the attached link.

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