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Small business consultancy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lawrenceconsultinguk
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Lawrenceconsultinguk

I am an IT consultant with 15 years experience of IT management in both the Private and Public sector mainly with Small Businesses. I became dissatisfied with the amount of firms who offer support services but only seem to want to replace machines or sell their expensive software rather than looking to improve what is available.

Because of this and other issues I decided to set up a business that offers cost effective IT services to small businesses. As we all know Small Businesses do not have large budgets for maintaining and improving their IT and have to get the most out of what they already have.

My philosophy is that systems do not neccessarily need replacement better security and system set up along with training staff in the software available to them can greatly improve productivity. Obviously there are sometimes cases for replacement but not as a matter of course.

I operate in the Essex and London areas any ideas on marketing would be greatly appreciated as cold calling is not my forte
 
Hi Mark, Welcome :)

I'm sure your concept is going to be very popular!

Theres bags of people willing and able to help around the forums, if you've got any specific questions that can't be answered with the search button post them - hopefully someone will have experience in the area of your need :)

Rob
 
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Welcome to the Forum! Its a great place to find all the advice you need.

Good luck with the new business.

RSL
 
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Hi Bud

Having just read through this thread i'm not sure if your name is Lawrence or Mark?

Anyway, welcome on board and nice to see someone else from my neck of the woods! (I'm in Chelmsford).

Be lucky with the new venture!

Russ
 
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Welcome to the forums and the best of luck with your new venture.

One thing, I don't think your web site is selling you, the look and feel is wrong and lets the business proposition down.

What do others think?
 
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Thanks

I agree about the website I am working on a new one that one was thrown together quickly to get a presence on the web.

The new one will look more professional

Mark
 
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Hi there,

I wish you all the best.

And I will keep you in mind for any IT stuff we might need.


Anna
 
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Lawrence

Good luck with the new venture. I work for a medium sized SME and have often thought about leaving to set up consultancy for the 'tail end' of the market supporting smaller SOHO businesses.

Having spoken to several colleagues who are in your market sector, the probem they all seem to have is that SOHOs don't appreciate the need for security or how it leads to increased productivity. Most are locked into the 'Wintel' arena and are fed up chasing the update lifecycle or have simply opted out and accept the risk of running vendor unsupported software (something I would never reccomend as that menas no critical security updates and vulnerabilities to virus, worms, trojans and other Malware). Add to that the plethora of 'geeks'and 'anoraks' offering bad advice and building proprietory systems at silly prices and you have a recipe for disaster. I have heard of SOHOs running mission critical apps on desktops running Win Server 2000 with single IDE drives! No one has any build documentation or any idea of the update lifecycle and when it all goes wrong the geeks are away at a trekkie convention.

Anyway, I could rant all day as this is my pet subject. Welcome to team up on any security issues. I am ISEB certified (IT Security Management Principles) and know ITIL inside out.

Good luck!
Graham
 
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SmallBizSoftware said:
No one has any build documentation or any idea of the update lifecycle and when it all goes wrong the geeks are away at a trekkie convention.
Click to expand...

harsh ...

:shock:

** Drops J2EE Enterprise solutions and Internet Evangelist for Dummies books in shock **
 
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OK perhaps a little harsh ... but the point I am trying to make is that you get what you pay for. I am sure that you would not pay a mechanics student to service the 4x4 but it seems ok for SOHOs to pay an IT student to support mission critical kit!
 
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Hi Mark,

Welcome to the forums. What a great business idea! I think it is so needed. Wishing you every success with it.

Call me a cynic, but I swear PC and Mobile phone manufacturers build a timed self-destruct component into their products, forcing you to upgrade or replace every 12 months. D'OH! That's me done for slander. No names mentioned though.

Have sent you a PM.

Best of luck here.

Regards...
Essence.
 
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Essence said:
Call me a cynic, but I swear PC and Mobile phone manufacturers build a timed self-destruct component into their products, forcing you to upgrade or replace every 12 months. D'OH! That's me done for slander. No names mentioned though.
Click to expand...

I had the same suspicions of one large PC company doing exactly that - my sister and I both bought PC's from them and both went wrong just outside the 12 month warranty. I put 2 and 2 together and came to my own conclusions - suffice to say they lost my future business.
 
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Essence said:
Call me a cynic, but I swear PC and Mobile phone manufacturers build a timed self-destruct component into their products, forcing you to upgrade or replace every 12 months. D'OH! That's me done for slander. No names mentioned though.
.
Click to expand...

LOL and you really think that they could be that clever?
 
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Hello,

I'm new too to the forum. This site is brilliant! I've found loads out in less than a week and tried to help others the best I can. I am really enjoying it and find it hard to switch off, not good if you are up at 4.30am. The people are lovely on here, makes a nice change!

Bye for now

Jayne
 
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