How small is too small for IT help?

Hi Mindy, I'm with you on this one. I'm sure there must be a Biznik out there to help you.

I know one way that that has saved me time on some tech issues is forums, if you can find the right one. They have been a lot more helpful than the product tech support and often quicker - by either searching for your problem or asking a question.

And my other great tech suggestion -- power off, power on. Amazing how often that solves the problem.

Good luck and hey, IT people, reach out to Mindy!

~bob

Mindy-

This may sound odd, but your best bet might be craigslist. You would be surprised how many small agencies troll craigslist for work. And normally you get pretty quick responses (1-2 hours). The other option is to hit some of the smaller, mom and pop computer shops. A lot of times they help with that kind of stuff as most of their clients are small businesses or individuals.

Hope this helps.

Scott

I've found that being small means that you often find out that you are too small to mess with. That's fine because you end up being more clear, usually, about what you want and when you do find a match it's usually a good one.

It's all relative; in the end you are just the right demographic for someone. Biznik is the best place to find those that are looking for you.

DD

Mindy,

You are my exact customer. What I specialize in is providing top-notch support to the small companies. I deal with companies as small as one or two computers up to about 50 computers. I can go larger, but at this point, they usually have someone in-house that they have procurred.

The benefit to my clients is that I have worked for the big companies so I have a lot of experience with many varieties of systems. I have worked with a number of different technologies and have been in the position of both implementor as well as coordinating support. I have worked everything from help desk and dealing with end user support to server solutions installing and supporting network servers, networks, etc.

What my clients receive is services from a Level 5 technicial worth 100,000 + a year in compensation for a fraction of the cost. I enjoy helping small businesses and individual users and have found this more rewarding to me. Having worked with the technologies that I have, I most often can resolve the issue faster and more efficiently than others, thus reducing your cost. I offer competive rates that further help to reduce your overall IT costs. A good example is one client. He paid someone $50 an hour to fix his issue. After 4 hours, the issue was still not resolved. He then came to me and I was able to resolve the issue in 2 hours. My hourly rate for the service that he needed was $75.00 an hour. So had he come to me first he would have saved $50.00 because I would have solved the issue faster thus allowing him the ability to finishing his work gaining productivity.

So not only do I save money I also save productivity!

Mindy,

Tim is a great go to guy for this type of work. There is always something to be said for personal service by a local qualified technician.

That being said, I have a tip for the sole proprietors being neglected by IT.

Crossloop Marketplace (http://www.crossloop.com/)

A marketplace full of qualified technicians await your needs. They simply remote into your PC and begin their magic.

Couple of caveats: - Your computer must turn on - Your computer must connect to the Internet - Hardware issues will require a local tech

The techs are judged by their past work and you can review their ratings before selecting.

I generally use the Crossloop tool to remote into my relatives PC's to repair them.

Sorry I am not on the marketplace and I have not personally used it for repairs.

I would be interested to hear if this has helped people around Biznik?

What Eric says is very relevant. I use a service called logmeinrescue.com which is same idea as Crossloop but I use it merely an added value for people I already know. Being able to connect to a computer desktop remotely saves so much time not to mention gas and travel expense.

I often assist small companies or individuals because their PC guru got a new job or became too busy to care about doing small jobs anymore. In all those cases these clients were people I met face to face and built a trust with them first.

Tim's advantage, beyond his expertise, is that he is in your area Mindy.

Continue to post your business questions here on Biznik Mindy and I am confident you will get relevant timely feedback and guidance from fellow members.

Brad Archibald HOSS SOlutions www.hoss-solutions.com