Small Business Quizzes Online & Trivia

4+-word-of-mouth marketing is not really marketing. rather, word-of-mouth is a bonus or dividend you get for doing everything else correctly with your it marketing, sales, project management, and customer service. in other words, you cant expect word-of-mouth it marketing to be effective completely on its own. in addition, when it comes to it marketing, you definitely dont want to put all your eggs in one basket. as a result, make sure your marketing plan includes at least four ways to get the word out about your firm and its value proposition.

More than 8 hours per week-unless your firm is large enough to have dedicated it marketing, sales, and business development staff, most owners of small business technology providers are severely under-invested in the amount of time thats realistically required to grow and maintain a healthy client list. sorry, the tooth fairy wont put the client list under your pillow either. so, you need to have a solid it marketing plan and you need to execute. after youve taken care of your existing paying clients as if your companys survival depended on it (because it does), your 2 goal must be all about acquiring new clients wholl be your companys future.

1%-49%-at the risk of being repetitious to drive home an extremely important point, dont put your firm in a situation where your three biggest clients are responsible for more than 50% of your firms monthly service revenue. if any of these clients are aware of this control they have over your monthly numbers, it gives these clients too much leverage...especially for jerks who choose to abuse this power. but even when that information is successfully kept under wraps, its just too risky for your firm to be in situations where the loss of one or two of your biggest clients could potentially put your company out of business.

Everyone who knows youWhile all of the above responses are correct, the best answer is everyone who knows you. Your Sphere of Influence may indeed include your past clients and current prospects AND your friends and family AND everyone you know... but unless all of these people know YOU, they are not likely to be sources of business for you.

It shows where money in the business comes from It is a snap shot at a point in time It shows where the money in a business is invested

10+-its very difficult to build a profitable technology provider business around the needs and whims of one-shot-deal customers. to grow a sustainable, forecastable, and scalable business, build your client list with small businesses that need outsourced it services at least, at the absolute minimum, once a month. however, thats only half of the challenge. for very small technology providers, revenue is often highly concentrated among the firms two or three biggest clients. this intense revenue concentration exposes the business to big risk if, for example, the loss of the firms two biggest clients equates to an overnight loss of 80% of the firms monthly revenue. while its nice to have small business clients that generate a lot of recurring service revenue, its even better when your recurring service revenue is diversified enough to minimize risk. even if your firm is just starting out with it service contracts, try to ensure that your biggest clients arent causing you to put all of your eggs in one basket. in much the same way that many build their retirement accounts or kids college accounts with diversified holdings in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and cash, strive for at least 10 distinctly different clients that you see at least once a month, even if some of these clients are relatively small.

>$1,000 (or the local currency equivalent)-small business technology providers can have a very hard time profitably acquiring new clients if (a) their target prospects are too small or (b) their target prospects dont believe in investing properly in it. as a result, when the lifetime value of clients is too low, your firm really cant afford to invest much time or money on marketing and lead generation. so make sure, when you define your firms target marketplace and ideal client profile, that your small business clients on your firms it service contract program are large enough and it-intensive enough to justify investing at least $1,000 per month (or the local currency equivalent) on outsourced it services. perhaps for your smallest clients, with just a handful or two of workstations, it might make sense to offer an it service contract level with a $500 per month minimum (or the local currency equivalent) on outsourced it services. however at any amount less than that, youll generally have a very hard time building a profitable and scalable business.

Sell exclusively to new customers who ve already experienced our firm s value proposition first hand-most owners of computer consulting businesses, vars, network integrators, it solution providers, msps, system builders, and computer repair businesses make their sales cycle unnecessarily long because they only try to close sales on large ticket purchase commitments. if youve ever heard marketing professionals refer to a front-end sale vs. a back-end sale, where you have a small initial purchase that opens the door to a much more substantial purchase, youre on the right track. if not, just understand that its much easier to get a small business owner to commit to a small, initial proving ground project than it is to get the same small business owner to commit to a $12,000 per year it service contract (or the local currency equivalent). however once your firm has done a great job on the initial proving ground project, youll find a much more receptive decision maker open to discussing your big question of, gee, have you given much thought to how youd like all this supported on an ongoing basis?