You want to buy an alarm but not monitor it?

Ok, so you own a business and you probably own it because you want to pay for your biggest asset, your home.  I assume you have a nice home and you would like to protect it.  So what do you do? You buy an alarm.  But why are you wiring your house and buying an alarm and you don't want to monitor it?  Does not make sense.

Many businesses nowadays make that mistake with their technology.  They want to buy the self-heling tools, the managed anti-virus but not have anyone overlook it.  On a previous blog, I wrote about getting an oil change for you car for maintenance and don't wait for something to break before doing something about it.  This goes hand in hand. http://it-hostage.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-little-bit-of-maintenance-goes-long.html

Part of making the maintenance procedure for your consultant is having things monitored.  Being a consultant and keeping the overhead low means a lower price for the customers.  If a consultant has a constant idea of what is going on with your technology, then things will be easier to fix, IF THEY BREAK.   What I have seen recently is a drop in support calls and downtime because the network is constantly monitored.  Less support calls = less downtime = less catastrophy.

If your company is not monitored and you have not had a consultant in there for a while, a big problem can turn into a bigger problem, more than you think.  http://it-hostage.blogspot.com/2013/03/dig-yourself-out-of-that-hole.html

Having your company on a monthly plan and monitored will cost you less than a full time employee or having someone come and "just fix" the issues.  Remember, downtime costs you money!

Up next:  Why use the cloud?

How much do you spend on your consultant?

This is a great question and I will try to be as unbiased as possible.

The real question is, how much is your company and data worth?

To start, you have to have someone you trust or someone highly recommended.  Don't be afraid to check references before using someone.  Pricing may vary per project or if it is hourly.

If you are an under 15 people company, you can probably get away with the "one man show" consultant.  He/She will still have plenty of time to focus on your work.  If you are over 15, you may want to look into a company that offers support and maintenance.  If you are over 25, you definitely will need someone part time or have a full-time support/monitoring company.

A good starting point is $125 per hour.  Some may be lower some may be higher, it really depends what you need.

Home:  Probably more around $100 per hour is fair.  Remember, the consultant will have to travel to your location.  Some will charge a trip charge and a 1 hour minimum.  At the end of the day, this turns out to be $50 per hour.  More than fair for someone that can help you figure out what you cannot figure out.

Office: $125 per hour plus a trip charge.  Just as mentioned, this guy or girl may have to travel to your location.  They also have to pay additional liability insurance per month.  There are a lot of great consultants out there for a reasonable price.

Always remember, how much is your data worth? Remember, with maintenance comes less support and that equals less down time.

Coming up next:  You want to pay for an alarm but not the monitoring?

Are you the representation of your storefront?

Here I am posting from my favorite cafe.  A cafe that has helped me get to where I am now.  I've closed a lot of deals in this cafe.  I have written a lot of proposals from this cafe.  This cafe is important to me because it represents me on how I do some of my business.  This cafe is a reflection of me and my personality.  People buy because of the product I represent not necessarily because I am a good sales person.

What does your storefront look like?  Does it look like a highschool student did it for a project on version 1 of Frontpage?  If you answered yes for all these questions then your site probably needs a complete overhaul.   An average person will take almost 8 seconds to decide wether they will continue to browse your site or leave.  Location Location Location!  You are on the Internet, your location is visible to the whole world so give the world your best!

Remember, your storefront represents you.  If you are a 1 million dollar a year company, why don't you have better representation?  With a better site, you can probably be double that because then others look at your site more closely.  Remember, an average person will take almost 8 seconds to decide wether they will continue to browse your site or leave.

The first question is always how much will it be?  Is it going to be expensive?  The answer is no.  It does not have to be.  The least amount it would cost is about $250 and you will have to do the majority of the work.  You can always hire someone and pay anywhere from $1000 to $1000000 depending on what work you want done.

How do you get a professional site for $250?  Hire a webguy and pick out a template with him, preferably Wordpress.  The consultant will load the template to your current space/domain and it will be up to you to add the pictures and copy.

If you did not want to do the work yourself, you can still pick a template and have the consultant do the work for you.  You can typically get a good quality 4 - 5 page website for $1000.  Note that this will be very basic but professional.

If you are a $250,000 company, are you only going to invest $1000 for a website?  No, you want to attract new business, use this as a marketing platform too!  Look at me, look how awesome I am!  Remember, an average person will take almost 8 seconds to decide wether they will continue to browse your site or leave.

Next up:  How much do you depend on your consultant?