IT consulting for micro businesses is a good starting point for many IT professionals. In addition to the general hardware and software, and peer-to peer networking, you’ll need to be familiar with some additional items. In this article, you’ll learn what other skills you need for micro business IT consulting.When providing IT consulting to micro small businesses, you will occasionally get requests for support of the big competitors of the basic Windows software for their competiton. Some of these include Goldmine and other kinds of tech management or Peachtree - another accounting package.Virus protection is also real important, so make sure you are comfortable with McAfee and Norton. Make sure you are comfortable with personal firewalls like Zone Alarm, and Norton personal firewall as well as remote control packages like PC anywhere.Micro Small Business Networking NeedsYou need to be comfortable with working and setting up basic peer to peer LANs to share a drive, to share a CD-ROM, to share a printer, to share internet access, and share ICS kind of stuff. You should be pretty comfortable with the inexpensive routers that share a broadband connection among a whole office and have the little built in 10/100 switch and you can scale it up there.With IT consulting, you should also have some familiarity with some Y-5 products, the wireless products that allow you to do some limited amounts of wireless access, especially the entry level ones you find in a lot of office supply superstores and warehouse clubs.The Bottom Line about IT ConsultingDo you need to know all of these to provide IT consulting micro small businesses? Preferably you should know half or more. So in other words there are like 13-14 things on the list, so if you know 4 or 5 of them you are kind of ok, you should ideally know half of them or more.Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved.
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Mention ?team building? in almost any office or company and you will likely get long faces, groans, and maybe even some good old-fashioned heckling. People avoid voluntary team building seminars and classes like voting. You practically have to bribe them and close down the bars and liquor stores in order to get them to attend?much like voting! But, team building is an important tool that will help any organization remain competitive in this fiercely global marketplace.One of the main forces driving the increasing need for team building exercises is the changing nature of the workforce itself. At an ever increasing rate, company resources are being allocated with scarce margin for error. Companies simply are not hiring or they are doing so only after the need is so acute that it can no longer be ignored. Even then, it can take weeks, even months, before the Human Resources department can add additional personnel and get them through the process.The need for team building has become so severe because resources are so very scarce. Businesses had the luxury in years past to completely dedicate personnel to projects which arose throughout the year. In these razor thin times, the only option to contend with projects such as accounting changes, new product line launch, software upgrades and training?any issue that is out of the norm but significantly demands time and resources?is to create teams out of existing resources.Team building is now a critical factor in Corporate America. Specialists from an assortment of departments from within the company are asked to dedicate a portion of their time to complete various projects throughout the year. The people chosen to form these teams depends upon the nature of the project itself. Different projects will demand different skills and personnel. People must constantly immerse themselves in these teams and bring their particular skill set and experience to the table and help solve the ?big picture? issue.Team building training is a crucial aspect in having the quality personnel in place when special projects arise throughout the year. It is impossible to just throw together various people with different skills and expect them to cooperate and come up with a solution to a problem. People have always required addition training to acquire additional skills. Team building training gives employees the tools they need to better work together in high stress, demanding projects and complete them in the time frames allotted.Team building training needs to be continuous and updated and practiced regularly in order to keep people effective during projects. A training specialist or human resources professional should conduct all team building training as they have the skills and experience necessary to improve group productivity.
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A big fear computer consultants have when developing partnerships and relationships with subcontractors is ?How do I keep the subcontractors from stealing my clients??Contracts Are Only Part of The EquationShould you implement a non-compete form from the onset of the relationship? Absolutely. But never put a piece of paper ahead of your gut feelings.This type of business is not as cut and dry as just having clients sign your service agreement and subcontractors signing your independent contractor agreement.What Are the Subcontractors’ Intentions?Some people sign things in bad faith. Some people sign things in good faith. A lot of it is sizing up the relationship and being a good judge of character.You should definitely have your service contract reviewed by your attorney to make sure it?s legally binding and enforceable, but no amount of clauses, no amount of sign-offs is going to protect you from someone determined to make your life miserable.Don’t Allow Subcontractors Steal Your Clients and Vice VersaAnother interesting idea that?s worked is to put something in the clients’ service agreement that your clients are not allowed to steal your employees and your subcontractors.All these things are just deterrents. If someone is really determined to get around your contracts, they?re going to figure out a way to do it.Make Sure Your Clients Know Who You AreKnow your clients. Look to have some kind of balance between people that are on your staff and payroll so that there is a certain amount of continuity to the existing client relationships.Those should be the people that your clients get to know best. If your subcontractors are known the best, then who really owns the relationship?Don’t Be a Stranger To Your ClientMake sure that if you take on a client where they?re starting to see your subcontractors a lot, that you?re supplementing those visits. Accompany your subcontractors on a project management level, do a lot of follow-ups between visits, or have your junior techs tag along and do some work so they get a little bit of cross-training as you go along.Copyright MMI-MMVI, Small Business Computer Consulting .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved.
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