IT consulting services are offered at different levels and types in almost all the virtual IT businesses you encounter. Deciding which IT consulting services you should offer is a key consideration when starting your business.
The IT consulting services you choose to offer should be driven by three main factors:
What your prospects want
What’s out there in the marketplace
What your competitors are offering
IT Consulting Services Your Prospects Want
Who better than the people who will use your services to tell you what IT consulting services they want? Start talking to people that you identify as fitting your sweet spot profile. Ask them questions about their current computer situation:
What do they use their computers for?
What’s working well?
What’s not working?
What could they use some help with?
That’s how you're going to figure out what they really need and what types of IT consulting services you should be offering.
IT Consulting Services in the Marketplace
Another way to figure out what kind of products and IT consulting services to offer is to read two key trade publications for small business computer consultants:
Computer Reseller News (CRN)
VAR Business
These two publications will keep you up to date with just about everything that you need to know about what’s hot in terms of products and services. Let these publications be your filtering device. Because their focus is on the business of IT, they will identify the products that are cool and that also have great potential for you to build value-added IT consulting services into your virtual IT business.
IT Consulting Services Competitors are Offering
The final way to figure out what products and IT consulting services to offer is to conduct competitive intelligence. Basically, you spy on your local market.
Visit web sites
Look at your Chamber of Commerce Web sites
Visit links for anyone providing similar kinds of services
Google any type of IT consulting services for your city, county, province, state, zip code, postal code, area code, etc...
Once you know the IT consulting services that competitors are offering, analyze those services to decide the types of IT consulting services you want to offer, ones you don't want to offer, and ways to improve upon what is currently offered.
Bottom Line on IT Consulting Services
Figuring out which IT consulting services to offer can be daunting. Looking at what competitors offer and what is available in the marketplace should lead you in the right direction. The best way to decide which IT consulting services to offer though, is to ask your prospects directly. This way you know you have a market for whatever you decide to offer.
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Joshua Feinberg helps computer consultant business owners get steady, high-paying clients. Sign-up now for Joshua's free audio training that shows you how to use field-tested, proven Small Biz Tech Talk tools at www.SmallBizTechTalk.com/blog
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