Starting a new IT Business

My father are I are in the process of setting up our new PC Repair/IT Consulting business within the next few months and have some questions for the lot of you who run and opperate your own.

What have been the best ways to get clients? As it stands, we have one main client, a mortgage company, who never really had an IT staff. We would like to cater to more companies like this and become their main IT solution for upgrades, repairs, etc.

Has anyone used direct marketing tactics via the postal service with fliers that go with the "junk mail" that we all get on a daily basis? From what I understand, it's a fairly cheap method of getting the word about your business out locally, and the response rate is roughly 1%.

How has adwords worked for those who have used it? Conversion ratio?

 

First, I'd optimize for "comptuer repair city name" and branch from there.

When I first started, I was a computer repair business. We did direct mail to limited effect (too much junkmail for yours to stand out). Yellow pages has good results for such things.

Advertising online almost seems silly right? If they can get online, they dont really have computer problems (thats my thinking anyways).

I'd try to get flyers in local stores that sell software and get business that way. Kind of a cooperative advertising. You advertise their software to your customers, he advertisers your repairs (or installations) to his customers.

 

Yeah, I was doing some research on "Computer Repair Livermore" since that's where we primarily live (northern CA). But then got to thinking since we live in the bay area, may want to do research on "Computer Repair Bay Area" and use surrounding cities as well as our main keywords.

The adwords campaign may seem silly at first, but when you think about it, some businesses may not have an IT staff in place, or may be looking to cut costs and hire businesses by searching for them via google or something along those lines. May have to target very specifically.

I like the fliers idea. I have friends who work for a local Best Buy who may be able to pass around business cards for work that can't be done in their stores. That might be a bit of a stretch, so I think I may start looking around other locations.

Thanks for the tips thus far.

 

I ran Adwords for 3 months when my business was first set up. I got a handful of clients, and since the CPC was so low it was very profitable.

During month 3 I landed my companies best client (who found me through Adwords). In about a year, they've spent in excess of $50,000 with my company. They first contacted me about doing in work in their home. The liked the service & rates and it turns out that they own a very successful small business that need IT support.

Do a great job for every customer you come in contact with. During your first couple years, word of mouth from your satisfied clients will bring you more business, at a lower price, than anything else.

 

Thanks, GFC (ForumJunkie)

Yeah, word of mouth in this kind of business seems like it's the best way to go.

 

I don't have exact numbers in front of me, but I bet word of mouth from satisfied clients is responsible for more than 80% of my business. People tend to remember great service, especially in the IT field. Great service isn't exactly something most of the independent IT field is know for.

One other piece of advice, that I wish someone would have given me, is to get a lawyer before you do anything else and have them draft a waiver/release form for you. It won't cost that much and can potentially save you from expensive lawsuits from sue happy clients. Before you ever even touch a customer's computer make sure they sign a waiver that frees you responsibility for damage/lost data.

In my early days I had a client threaten to sue me for lost data, claimed they I had deleted "thousands of files". It was almost laughable, all I did was install anti virus software and a firewall (hardware). They went so far as to get a lawyer and have him send me a threatening letter demanding over $5,000 in damages. Thankfully, a large % of my first clients were in the legal field and were more than happy to step up to the plate for me. I got lucky - it could have cost me a lot just in legal fees if I didn't have legal resources at my disposal.

Good luck with you business.

 

LOL, sounds like you deleted his temporary internet files. Makes me wonder if he did a total file count of his machine before you got there, then did another count after you left and compared the two numbers.

Sometimes you get people like that.

 

Hi Infiniterb,

before we start talking about getting clients, what would be your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for your business?

 

We receive about 90% of our clients through word of mouth.

 

I don't know that that's all that important in the field we're discussing. Computer repair is kind of like auto repair, we just make things work that the client can't. For the most part we're providing a service people need, not a service that they want or that would be considered a luxery.

 

In a way true, but if your computer breaks down and you need help, which company (out of hundred available) would you approach and why? Same for IT consulting. What can you offer me that others can't?

 

Our area doesn't have "hundreds" of IT shops. But we do have a local best buy that likely does a good amount of business for walkin customers.

For now, we're running out of our house until we have some capital to purchase a shop. For the most part we will deal with business work and general IT maintenance and repair. We will also be looking at upgrading OSes, virus protection, spyware removal and prevention, and work with customers to determine deployment solutions for software (using SMS, RIS, etc). We will also provide training of Microsoft Applications as we are working on getting MCT certs.

 

hmmm...then what would be your strengths compared to the local best buy? What do you have that they don't and what do they have that you don't?