Profits and client base of small computer consulting companies who are providing services in a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) set up can be dramatically increased by looking for another computer business opportunity - Business-to-Business (B2B) space.
Computer business consultants discover that business opportunities in the B2B space are greater, especially if the operation will be within the Sweet Spot Clients, which refers to small businesses that uses from 10 to 75 computers. This computer business operation will help consultants have a long-term and steady client base that will guarantee their stable income.
However, doing business in the B2B market is little bit tricky in the sense that the size of the businesses you will dealing with can make or unmake your business success.
Many computer consulting firms make the mistake of focusing on micro-businesses and home-based small businesses. While B2B market refers to small businesses, the opportunity for growth does not lie on businesses that are almost like home users market. Micro-businesses do not promise a long term consulting contract as their needs will be fewer and they will most likely rely on some part-time computer service providers. You will not be able to sell to them an extensive array of services as they do not have the need for such.
Micro-business and home-based business clients do not offer computer consulting services steady income and profit. This type of business usually rely on consumer-grade computers and most often pirated software. Technical support for consumer-grade computers are normally provided by the manufacturer and if the problem gets a little bit complicated, there will always be some relatives or friends, and volunteers who will offer free services. There is no way for a computer consulting service to compete with free services. Small businesses are also not big enough to require a dedicated server, not even a real network, so the complex solutions that a computer consulting service normally offers will not be needed.
It is therefore necessary to focus on a bigger market but also classified as small business- the Sweet Spot Clients who have from 10 to 75 computers. In this kind of business, there will be the need for a serious client/server network. They will need to back up their work so a dependable back-up solution will be necessary as well as a genuinely secure firewall. This is something that is missing in home-based small businesses.
Decision makers in small business outfits will recognize the need for a sophisticated IT set up which your computer consulting service can easily set up and provide. As this small business starts growing, your opportunity will be growing as well. There will be the realization that IT is genuinely important part of their business operations and that they will be willing to pay the price to see to it that their operation will not be suffering from a lot of downtime.