If You Are Starting Your Own IT Consulting Business, You Need To Be Generating Demand, Getting Good Leads And Prospects, Qualifying Them, Going Out On Sales Appointments And Following Up On Those.Do Not Get Seduced By An Aggressive Sales Person Twisting Your Arm To Join A Channel Program. Dont Get Seduced By Tech Gadgets That Dont Fill An Immediate Need With Your Paying Clients. Avoid Channel ProgramsIn Starting An IT Consulting Business, You Need To Be Very Careful That You Dont Get Sucked Into Joining Channel Programs That Arent Leading Anywhere. You Need To Focus On Finding Paying Clients First. Determine How You Will Be PaidWith New IT Consulting Clients, You Need To Always Insist On Either Getting Payment As You Do The Work Or Get Credit Card Authorization, Especially When You Sell Products. Thats Especially If Youre Going To Be Selling Hardware, Software And Peripherals. Of Course, To Be Able To Take Credit Cards, In Most Cases, You Need To Get A Merchant Account. Do Not Give Credit, And Then Even Beyond That, Do Not Give Credit Unless Youre Going To Do A Regular Credit Application And Credit Check. Require DepositsAlways, Always, Always Get A Deposit Check - A Substantial Amount Of The Purchase - Especially If Its A Product Purchase. Even On A Big IT Consulting Project Where Youre Doing Services, Installation, Design Work, Troubleshooting Or Upgrades, You Should Require A Deposit. At The Absolute Minimum, Your Deposits Should Be Something In The Neighborhood Of 10 To 25. Usually It Should Be Somewhere More In The 25 To 35 Range. The Bottom Line About IT ConsultingIn Starting Your IT Consulting Business, Be Sure You Dont End Up Feeling Pinched. It Is A Good Idea To Bill Weekly And Always Include A Due Date On Your Invoices. Dont Just Put "Due In X Number Of Days." Include A Concrete Due Date To Show Your Clients You Are Serious About Your Business. Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101 Blog. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. Attention Publishers: Live Hyperlink In Author Resource Box Required For Copyright Compliance
