Man up! You should be selling wireless applications.

So you’re thinking about selling wireless applications.  There are a few steps to make before dealing with customer needs.

Find a distributor. Look for someone who knows their product.  Make sure there is are different ways to get documentation and support.

Examine the product, try it out. Hopefully it’s “feature rich” and “competitively priced”.

Understand the product features. Get a list of features and the different ways to deploy the product.

Great!  Now you have a product line.  Build a list of questions to ask when you look at bidding for a wireless project.  Here are some things to consider…

What’s the wireless for? This isn’t the obvious question that it seems.  I recently ran into a customer who has a product that requires a connection to more than one wireless access point.  Understand the customer’s need before you continue.  Ask about bandwidth needs check to see if streaming audio, video or even VoIP applications will be used on the wireless.  The customer may need more than one SSID (service set identifier) for different groups of end users.

Where’s it going to be?

• Wireless applications are ubiquitous these days.  This means your install might be competing with “rogue” devices that use the same frequency as your equipment.  Imagine installing wireless in a hospital, only to find that their baby monitors are jamming your access points!  You should do a survey and also understand your product.
• Take note of thick walls, fluorescent lighting and other physical objects that might degrade wireless performance.  (e.g. clinics and hospitals often have lead in the walls).
• Check the infrastructure.  Make sure there’s decent cabling, switches and bandwidth on the wired network.
• Make sure there are places to mount the access points.

Is it secret?  Is it safe? Pardon me for stealing a line from Gandalf!  Ask the customer if they want their SSIDs hidden.  Ask them what their requirements are for security.  Make sure the customer’s standards are high enough.  Understand governing regulations that may apply (HIPAA, etc.).

Management and Monitoring: How does the customer want to manage their wireless?  How will they be notified if there’s a problem? Do they have an application in place already (e.g. the dude).

One good reason not to post. or Courage!

There’s only one good reason not to blog.  Don’t post anything if you don’t have anything to say!

I haven’t had anything to say for months now.

Luckily for me, the reasons have all been good!

Business is good, and that’s saying something in these times.  I’m hoping that I can remember the lessons of this economy.  They’ll work in a good economy too!

1.  Partner with trustworthy customers. Some would say this is obvious.  I would ask how your accounts receivable is.  Any late or non-payers?  Bad checks.  Hmmm.

2.  Buy local unless you absolutely can’t.  Don’t be cheap either.  There could be a referral around the corner!

3.  Pay on time or even early! There could be a referral from your supplier.

4.  Know your market. It’s not the time to be a newspaper.  Or a TV station.  Or a roller rink or bowling alley.

5.  Don’t experiment on customers. Test your product before foisting on those who give you your income!

6.  Look for ways to serve a customer more than once. It’s called recurring revenue.

7.  Market well.  I’m still learning this one.

Yesterday, one of my vendors pointed out a $900,000 opportunity I didn’t know about.  A week ago, I received a referral from a customer.  A month ago, I was given an opportunity from a networking group.  I would guess that at only 3 out of 10 opportunities come from my direct marketing efforts.  The referrals come from following the above rules.

So, the economy isn’t great.  I say “Courage!”.  Let’s succeed now, to prosper even more later!

The best wishes of the new year to you and yours!

Public Service Announcements, Spamming and Emotional Investment

I can’t decide what this post is about.  There are some points about email perils.  There are also some things to say about character.  Let the words flow!

Word to the wise.  Don’t believe every email you receive.  Make sure of your facts before you forward.

Yesterday I received an email from a customer.  Actually, I should say that the customer sent an email to 84 email addresses, including mine.  The email was a warning about a well-known brand posing a risk of fire.  The email is familiar, I saw one very similar to it about a year ago.

It’s a hoax.

I replied (to everyone) and explained that it was a hoax, including a pertinent link to a reputable website explaining the hoax.  I also explained that spamming mail costs companies money and that HTML emails (like this one) with pictures can harbor trojans for the unwary clicker.  Today, you don’t even have to click, in some cases, mouse hover will bring trouble.  Not to mention the brand that has been libeled.

I got an emotional response back.  There was no surfing the web for more information.  I got a “take your chances” email from the customer.  I guess they know better than Snopes and Trend-micro.

I dropped it.  I wasn’t going to change their behavior.  They were reacting emotionally and there’s no room for other viewpoints when that happens.

It’s okay to take a second look and change one’s opinion.  Isn’t it?

Things Qwest should do

I admit it. I’m angry. Qwest has given Acme terrible service and they’ve treated some of our customers poorly. I write this blog having cancelled one of our Qwest accounts today. I plan on killing the other account we have with Qwest within the next 30 days. We’ll recommend other service providers whenever possible from now on.

I’m not going to list my complaints. I’m just going to throw out some observations as I look back via my rear view mirror.

Qwest,

Go back to paying outside agents or show you are going to take care of the customer.

Back in the day, a subagent would get a kicker and residual from Qwest for taking care of customer needs. The subagent was local, so the customer would have a local number to call for help. The customer also benefitted because the subagent was always looking for the best Qwest deals. Now Qwest doesn’t pay the subagents if they improve the customer’s package. Qwest only contacts the customer to sell them more services by mail.

Make notes for installs/changes and make sure they are followed.

A business customer needs to move. They have a static IP that needs to move with them, plus the building they’re moving to has other Qwest customers, so the customer needs their stuff tagged so they can tell what’s theirs. All of this should be noted when explained to the Qwest rep at customer service. The rep schedules the move. The move happens ON TIME and a tech comes out. The customer can’t wait two or three days (soonest a Qwest tech can come out) so they pay someone to figure out what DSL line is theirs. The Qwest rep should also note static IPs and make sure they move with the customer. This is not hard.

Find out what will happen when you turn off services.

Of all my gripes, this one may be the least fair. What I do know is that Qwest came out looking pretty bad when they allegedly turned off Iptimize’s T1s. The story as I have heard it was that Iptimize didn’t pay their bill to Qwest. They were reselling Qwest T1s. So Qwest pulled the plug and a number of businesses went down. It seems like there could have been a better way to handle this. I think Qwest should have sent mail to all the locations first. They run the T1s, so they had to have the physical addresses.

Make it possible for a customer to break a contract if they upgrade other services.

Let’s say I have two DSL contracts because I have two locations. I need to consolidate to one location but I need more bandwidth and more services. Qwest won’t let me out of my contract with them, even though I’m going to increase services. I can’t even bond the DSLs together for more upload speed, because Qwest chooses not to offer it. Notice I said it’s a choice. You can bond DSLs with other providers. Why should Qwest treat contracted customers so poorly?

Don’t create a new 3 year contract out of the blue–talk to the customer!

Aahhh. I feel better. Buh-bye, Qwest!

Customer service is more than skin deep

I had a couple great customer experiences yesterday on a business trip. I blogged about one of them at http://jeremeyweeks.blogspot.com/2009/08/brush-with-excellence.html.

I’ve decided to post the second one here because it’s about an organization inculcating customer care into their employees.

I’m talking about McCall Memorial Hospital.*

My presentation was scheduled to take place at the hospital. I was glad to come because I had worked there a few years before. I’ll talk about my experience there in a bit. First I want to share my wife’s experience at the hospital.

My wife came with me on the trip and did some shopping while I was in the meeting. She came in the hospital to pick me up. When we got in the car, she mentioned that there must be someone in town that looks like her. She said several people had stopped and said, “Hi, how are you?” in the hall. I smiled and said that the hospital is that way with everyone.

My experience with McCall Memorial began with two interviews. The first was with the IT director, Guy Rivers. It was a typical IT interview. The second interview was with all of the department heads, who came in pairs and interviewed me. It was a grueling experience that lasted for hours, but it was necessary. The hospital expects employees to work well with each other. What surprised me was the intensity considering I was there for a network position with no management responsibilities.

I got the job. Guy began teaching me the hospital philosophy by telling me this…

“I don’t care if it takes you half an hour to get back to the office when you go get coffee. Stop and talk to people.”

I learned not just to say, “hi” but to look at people and smile genuinely, investing some of my time in them. The interesting part of this was that these people all had different personality types. Doctors and nurses were friendly and not patronizing or coldly clinical. No-one was better than anyone else and departments were expected to get along. Patients were number one.

I think my wife encountered a little bit of McCall Memorial’s attitude of service.

I don’t believe that the hospital was perfect when I was there. There were agendas and perhaps business direction was lacking. But I believe that they had the most important thing down:

They’re in the business of relationships.

McCall Memorial Hospital, thanks for a great lesson, one that I’m still learning!

*You may wonder if McCall Memorial is a customer of mine. They aren’t. I was employed by McCall Memorial about five years ago and that’s the extent of our relationship.

The Bare Minimum to start a Tech Consultancy: Part 6

Welcome to the 6th installment in the series of posts about starting your own tech business!

Here are the previous posts… Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

You have all the pieces now! Oh, you may need to buy some tools for your trade, but you are ready to go! There are but a few more things to cover, but they can make all the difference.

So let’s start out right.

Get the right attitude. This is especially important if you have never had your own business. Sign up for some freepodcasts about business and marketing. (you don’t need an Ipod, figure it out!) It doesn’t matter if the podcast isn’t related to a tech business. You need to absorb the attitude, understand the challenges and gain the enthusiasm.

You can listen to those podcasts on your PC or laptop. Personally, I redeem the time I spend driving by listening topodcasts. You can’t get a college education that will teach you what you need to know for this bold new venture. The right podcasts will give you a wealth of information that you can apply. They’re gold!

Dress appropriately… all of the time. I’ll never forget the time when I was grocery shopping and ran into an old friend. He works in finance and has contacts with a lot of businesses. I can’t imagine that I made a positive impression in my torn up jeans and my worn “Rock On!” T-shirt! Ask for advice from those you respect if you have an inkling you aren’t dressing appropriately.

Join! I’m talking about the local chamber of commerce, local networking events and community projects. Don’t just spout about your business and hand out cards. Get to know people and help them out.

Pursue business relationships. Find businesses that can find value with your services. Be willing to subcontract or take a lower rate initially. Give local companies your business.

Be open. Always watch for ways to make your business more profitable. This may mean dropping a service that you thought would be a money maker. You might end up finding a niche that isn’t being filled.

Look for marketing avenues. Never stop doing this. Unless, of course, you have too much business.

A final note. I can’t tell you how much local exposure Twitter has given my company. Jump on Twitter, learn the etiquette of tweeting and join the community!

We hope you’ve found this series valuable. Please let us know your story, either here or at www.acmetechworks.com!

The Bare Minimum to start a Tech Consultancy: Part 5

We’re Part Five of “The Bare Minimum to start a Tech Consultancy”. How exciting!

Here are the previous posts just in case you missed one. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

The most important part of a successful business is cash flow. Cash flow is a chain that’s made of several links. The links we’re going to look at today are related to communications. How are your customers and vendors going to contact you? Where will they send their checks? Do you need a fax number?

You need a business address, a phone number and perhaps a fax number.

I’m going to assume you’ll be working out of your home (though we’ll address leases soon). You’re going to work out of your home until you know your business plan is working well. You may find that the plan is good, but that all of your customers are 50 miles away. It would be bad to lock into a lease and then find out you have no customer base!

This is the 21st century. Faxes are of the 20th century. Remember the dark ages we refer to as “The 80′s”? That’s when faxes were big. Still, some customers and vendors need to be able to trade faxes with you. If this is the case for you, I suggest finding a service that will catch faxes to you and email them. You should also be able to send faxes by hitting the print button and selecting the fax printer. If you have paper (*shudder*) that you need to fax, head down to a copy store and fork out your dough.

DO NOT BUY A FAX MACHINE

I’m not sure you heard me, so I’m going to say it again. Don’t buy a fax machine! I don’t care that it can print and copy and scan too. The drivers and software that come with cheapie faxes are going to bog down your PC. The good fax machines are going to cost you over $1,000. You can’t justify that at the beginning of your venture. I don’t care if you’re offered a great lease or financing or a loan. Just. Say. No.

You need a phone number. It needs to be local and have voicemail.

NO ANSWERING MACHINES. Remember the dark ages…

There are several ways to get a phone number.

You can pay for a voicemail service in your area. The customer calls, they hear a ring and then they’re in your voicemail. They leave a message (or just hang up) and that is that.

Call up the local phone company and pay for a telephone line and voicemail. This costs more than voicemail but at least you can answer the phone when you’re in. Also, you’ll make calls and your customers will see the caller ID. You’ll need to buy a phone. Go cheap.

Hosted VoIP. What was that? No, I didn’t sneeze and if you’re a techie, you’ve heard of Voice over IP. This is a great choice if the price is right. The chances are that you’ll have DSL or some kind of Internet access. Hosted VoIP will use your Internet connection instead of a phone line. This is good when the VoIP monthly cost is cheaper than the telephone line. There is a downside. If your Internet is down, so is your phone. If your Internet connection/network is slow, your phone quality goes down. There are many positives though. You can run software on your PC that turns it into a phone (it’s called a softphone). Where ever you have Internet, you can get phone calls and make them. You may want to buy a “hard” phone. They’ll start around $99. If you go this way, try to find a company that will introduce you to other businesses at networking functions.

Buy a phone system. There are digital phone systems and VoIP systems. Don’t buy either until you’re established in business. You don’t need to invest money here…yet.

Go back to your local business owners and ask them what they use. We can also help you out.

Time to get an address so those fat checks can roll in! I recommend a P.O. box or a box at a shipping store. The P.O. box is good for billing and all the other stuff that the bookkeeper is going to need. The shipping store can be good because you can receive parcels from any delivery there.

Let’s talk about business cards. Plan what you want on the card. I recommend a colorful logo that’s recognizable as yours, even from 10 feet away. Put your phone number and email on it. For now let’s not add twitter or other accounts. Have the front of it be shiny and the back blank and not shiny, so you and others can write on it.

I recommend that you order cards from someone local. This is more important than saving $20 or $30 on the Internet. You can engage different people who can do this for you. They should be listed at your local chamber of commerce as marketers (which they aren’t). Find one that you think will help you meet other businesses and give them your business. Order a minimum amount. If they do a good job, recommend them to other people. Ask them to introduce you to others at networking functions. It may be that they can’t help you network. At this point, order cards from someone else and try again. You’ll probably want to change the look of your cards at this point anyway.

We’re in the home stretch–just a few more posts to finish this series. As always, please contact us if you have any questions! www.acmetechworks.com. We look forward to your comments and questions!

The Bare Minimum to start a Tech Consultancy: Part 4

Thanks for driving by to read Part Four of “The Bare Minimum to start a Tech Consultancy”. Here are the previous posts just in case you missed one. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

I hope you read all of the steps in this series before you dive into your own business. Remember that you can do several tasks at the same time. Feel free to get your phone number (next post!) while your website is being developed.

It’s time to talk about your website and logo. How are you going to get them out to the Internet. How good will they look? We need to mention email as well.

There are several choices available to you, depending on your tech skills, creativity and budget.

1) Host your own, design your own. This is the cheapest up front. You only need a static IP address for your server (and hopefully a firewall, would you like to resell them? Contact us!). The IP address will come from your Internet provider, usually for $5 a month. You can download a Linux distro (I like Ubuntu) and install it on a 5 year old computer and it will do your hosting and email. A Linux install isn’t impossible, even if you are a windows pogue technician. There is plenty of documentation online.

Hopefully you are also creative. Customers may turn away after seeing your website if it’s not attractive. In some cases, a website is built only for customers to know your legitimate. If you have no expectation of using it as a marketing tool, then by all means, build away! Consider Drupal or Joomla.

You need pictures on your website. Look around for free stock photos for what you don’t have.

A final note, Jay Berkowitz of www.tengoldenrules.com says that people decide if they like a website within 4 seconds. If the customer doesn’t like it, they’ll move on.

2) Pay for hosting, design your own. Hosting your website costs around $10 a month and email services will add more to it. I don’t recommend using free email account from a provider like Yahoo or Hotmail. It tells your potential customers that you aren’t legitimate.

3) Pay for hosting and design. You don’t have the time, someone can do it better and you have the money to pay them. You lucky dog!

4) My favorite, Host it yourself and pay for design. Why is it my favorite? The web server just sits there, quietly serving up your website. Back it up every time you make a change and you don’t have to anything else. A linux web server is the geranium of the tech world. It takes very little care to keep happy. Why should you pay a hosting fee for that? Plus, you can have more whangdoodles and thingamabobs (spell check didn’t like whangdoodles but thingamabobs was just fine) on your website, because you’ll make sure PHP, Perl, etc are all running if you need them.

I don’t mind paying for web design because it’s an efficient use of my time and money. It would take me too long to do a nice website. Actually, I don’t have the creative skills to do the website anyway. When your business gets rolling or if you’re marketing online, pay somebody to to a nice content management system. The Boise Online Mall is my recommendation. Oh and get some good pictures on your site. The Imagery Lab can’t be beat if you’re in Idaho. In fact, both the Boise Online Mall and The Imagery Lab had a part in marketing this website which has been a world-wide success.

Still not sure which way to go? As of today, there’s a place holder website at www.acmetechworks.com. In a couple weeks, a Content Management system (CMS) will be installed and running on our web server. It will be pretty. It will have been done by professionals. Let me give you a before and after picture of the logo work that’s done already.

Before: (what I did)

after: (what they did)

And you want a good logo. It’s going to go on your business cards, on your brochures, on your quotes and on the side of a vehicle eventually.

If you aren’t going to host your own website and you want both web and email service, go with Network Solutions. They’ve taken good care of me and of my customers. You can get your domain name there as well.

You can add a blog, videos and podcasts when you’re ready. Make a note to put them on the “to do list”.

Next time we’ll discuss phone numbers, faxes, addresses and business cards.

As always, please feel free to drop us a note. You can make a comment here or contact us at www.acmetechworks.com!

Creating Customer Demand (not just awareness)

I heard some wisdom while listening to Marketing over Coffee’s podcast the other day. I’m going to paraphrase it. Hopefully the intent of the message won’t be lost.

What I heard was that it can take a long time to market goods or services through new media if you are only selling your brand. You need to show that there is a need for what you’re selling.

This idea struck me because I sell some great products at amazing prices but I don’t see how consumers will find out about them. I understand that I need my brand to showcase my competence, that I’m a professional. But it seems like the long way of doing things.

I admit that I don’t know how to measure the effect of my blogs and tweets at the national level. Locally, I do see relevance. I’m hearing from locals. It amazes me that Twitter brings me face to face with people that are close by. It’s a classic “who’da thunk?”.

My products are for IT people. I still consider myself in that group and I wonder about the ways that new media will help me reach these people. I haven’t come up with many good answers. (thank goodness that Tricycle is helping me!)

I did get a glimmer of hope today while driving to a customer. I’ve been listening to 10 Golden Rules’ podcast since June 20th. Today, I listened to episode 31, where Jay Berkowitz (@jayBerkowitz) interviews David Meerman Scott (@dmscott).

David referenced a fresh pasta company in Boston that used different methods of reaching their audience. (expect more about this in another post) When David first mentioned them, he talked about the need for fresh organic pasta. Now I’m a cook, but I wrote it off. It’s easy to make pasta and if I wanted organic fresh pasta, I’d make it.

But thing that got me was that this company gave free recipe books in pdf format and made YouTube videos about Alfredo sauce etc. They created a demand for their product. Let me say that again… They created demand for their product. Furthermore, by providing recipes and training, they improved the product’s chances of success. I’d buy their stuff if I still lived in Mass.

The path from brand awareness to the bottom line is shorter and straighter than I thought.

What do you think? Leave us a post or bug us at www.acmetechworks.com (please forgive the website construction, we’ll have something really cool in a few weeks!)

The Bare Minimum to start a Tech Consultancy: Part 3

Last week we began a series of blogs describing how to start your own tech support business. Here are the links to Part 1 and Part 2.

Let us continue!

You have a business plan that you are sure is going to work. You’re sure because you’ve done research. You’ve found vendors that will help you. You’ve found business resources that will support you.

This would be a good point for you to figure out what your monthly expenses are. Try to guess how much gasoline you’re going to burn, driving to customers, joining the chamber. Call up an insurance agent and ask how much liability insurance is. I’m not talking about insurance to protect you if someone trips on the sidewalk in front of your business. I’m talking about the policy that will protect you when you accidentally burn down a company’s server. (I’m sure it won’t be your fault!)

Don’t forget money for all those meetings at coffee shops and restaurants!

Or, skip all that depressing stuff. Either this bird is going to fly or it won’t. Let’s get to the fun stuff!

It’s time to pick out a name for your business.

Don’t do it lightly. This is the first step in building your brand. Try to come up with a name that won’t cause your future customers to doubt your competence. You know who you want for customers because you’ve done your research. Do you think a law firm is going to want to hire a tech company called “Monkey Business”? (another disclaimer, I don’t know of any tech business named Monkey Business, this is just an example)

Some things to consider:

1) Names starting with “A” tend to be in the front of the phone book. Not a big deal, but something to remember.
2) You’re going to need to get a domain name that matches your business name. Is it available? Go to Network Solutions or some other registry and do some searches.
3) I don’t recommend too long of a name or use words that are hard to spell. The best brands tend to have no more than three words.

Got your name figured out? Sweet! It’s time to register your business with the state. Check with your secretary of state’s office to see if your business name is taken.

Read some books, talk to business acquaintances, accountants or tax preparers and get a consensus about the best way to set up your business. Your choices are sole proprietor (your business is you and runs on your social security number) or LLC (limited liability corporation). There are a couple of other ways to incorporate but they’ll end up being more expensive. Do your research and make your choice.

Go to the secretary of state and register your business. Give them your home address and phone number for now. Plop down some money (usually around $100) and take a deep breath. Do you know what just happened? A business has been born. Amazing!

Now you need to get an EIN number. It’s the Employer Identification Number that you’ll get from the IRS. Here’s the link to the online application.

Pick a bank or a credit union and open up a checking account. You’ll need your EIN and paperwork from the state when you go in. You’ll also need money, probably about $150 to open the checking and attached savings accounts.

Here are a few things to think about when you are shopping for a financial institution:

1) Credit unions are a great place to get your basic business banking done. My experience is that credit unions tend to educate the new business a little better than bigger institutions.
2) Credit Unions have more rules. This isn’t usually a big deal, but it can be a pain.
3) Not all banks are alike. Ask your business acquaintances who they recommend.
4) There are banks geared for small and medium business needs. These are great but you have to know what your needs are before jumping into one of them.
5) Whatever choice you make, you can always move. There are too many good choices out there to stick with something that isn’t working for you.
6) Location matters. If you find several good institutions, pick one that has a branch near you. You don’t want to drive 10 miles out of your way just to make a $69 deposit.

Now go home and start thinking about a website layout!

Please contact us with your questions–by commenting here or contacting us at www.acmetechworks.com!