Starting a computer support business is something that with some experience and training almost anyone can do. As a person owning an independent computer support business as well as a website to help others that support home users I thought it would be nice to point out the steps needed to start a business helping home computer users as well as some of the skills needed to get started.
There are four steps to getting the business started.
Business license
Every area is different but the legal aspect is always important and lends credibility to your business. Get your business license and also get insurance in case something goes terribly wrong, like lost business data that gets pinned on you.
Business cards
Of course you need some kind of a calling card. I know a small businessman who years back worked out that his business increased $1 per month for every business card he gave out. Go to Staples or Office depot as they have low prices for 500 or 1000 cards with some customization.
Flyers
The bulk of your business will come from flyers that you post up in various places. Put up flyers wherever possible. I have gone to supermarkets, bulletin boards at large businesses as well as small and Real Estate and mortgage offices. Your best success will come in offices where a lot of independent people work with their main computer being at home not supported at their work.
Computer software
There is no way around this. Over time you will find great software for diagnosing problems as well as for fixing problems. Two of my favorite CDs for support are the Ultimate Boot Disk as well as the Windows Ultimate Boot Disk. Both of these are free CDs to download and include a great many pieces of freeware that will help you out. These two Cds are self booting which is nice but you may also create a disk over time that has software you can run right out of Windows.
Website
A website is critical. You do not need something really slick but you do need a site for marketing as well as so that people can contact you or direct others to contact you. The basic info on the site should be your email, phone number, services you offer and maybe a menu of services that you offer. You will find that you do not have to prove how much better you are than everyone else because word of mouth can move very quickly.
There are also some skills that are very important to have to get your business started:
Strong windows skills
This can not be overstated. The person that has a strong knowledge of how the various parts of Windows work is the one that can diagnose and fix the problem fastest. Although you want to have a lot of billable hours you want to be sure that you are not fiddling around looking for a fix as your clients will lose confidence in your ability and you will feel bad about taking so long to fix a problem. Keep up with great message boards like the ones at http://www.neowin.net, as well as others that have a lot of fixes. Also it is important to know the Windows boot process and how the local group policy works. I hate to say it but I have learned more from supporting my mom’s computer over the years for free than I have learned from my own machines because she is not nearly as careful as I am in operating a computer. Remember that most users are not going to have any idea how their computer broke so your own probing questions are often better than just diving straight in and troubleshooting. Lastly know what each of the processes does on a running PC and have a good feel for what to make of errors in the error logs of the machine, these are always invaluable. You can get diagnosis of errors from the logs at http://www.eventid.net .
Virus knowledge
Keep up with the latest viruses and how they are affecting computers. A very small number of viruses account for a great percentage of the infections out there and once you isolate how a virus has wreaked havoc the faster you can get rid of it and get the machine up and running properly again. I use http://www.sarc.com as well as the Internet Storm Center for this kind of information. When you get a customer set up with anti virus pick a favorite like Norton or McAfee instead of a free virus scanner so that the user does not have you to blame if they get reinfected by viruses. Use good quality control by setting up a realistic upgrade and weekly scan schedule based on the user’s computer habits.
Spyware knowledge
This is a really tough one. I keep up with spyware just by searching on the net and trying to find the resources that people are using to get rid of spyware. Also as you use products, especially free ones for fixing PCs like adaware or Spybot you will get a good chance to see what people are getting infected with regularly. I used to see Bonzi buddy a lot but now it is more aggressive spyware that forces you to fix in safe mode as you lose your regedit. Whenever you are getting a customer up and running though it is a best practice to have them use Spyware Nuker or one of the other pay products instead as then you do not have to worry about being the only point of failure if a computer gets reinfected.
Registry knowledge
No one expects you to know the registry inside and out but be sure that you are very proficient with the current user and local machine hives of the registry as that is the most customizable portion of the registry. Also take note of keys that are being affected by various spyware and viruses. Quite often I will find unasked for extras in the filesystem that stop me from using the regedit command but I have had luck using regedt32 or going into the registry from safe mode. Again the better you know the registry the better off you will be when fixing problems.
Hardware knowledge
I have an A+ certification from years back and I am sure that this gave me a great grounding as hardware has changed over the years. You have to be able to at minimum be able to build a PC from scratch as this will give you knowledge of each component of the computer, teach you about BIOS upgrades and drivers and where to find them. There are so many sites on the internet which specialize in each component of a PC that Google will be your best bet for finding information. Another great resource is Maximum PC as they always have up to the minute news on cutting edge hardware as well as software. A couple of good sites that I frequent are http://www.tomshardware.com and http://www.lockergnome.com
Staying up to date with the latest news
This one should go without saying. One of the best ways to start a day in my eyes is to use my Maxthon browser add-on (I know I should have converted to Firefox already but no I haven’t!) and open up http://www.neowin.net http://www.activewin.com http://www.pcmag.com http://www.wired.com http://www.cnet.com http://www.incidents.org http://www.internettrafficreport.com
Marketing
One thing that I have only touched on so far is marketing. After you have the skills down the most important thing you can do is market your business. There are a few things besides flyers. You can do sneaky things like leave a couple of cards at the local bookstore in the computer section, send support type articles to the local newspaper and hope to get them published, and finally strike up computer conversations in the line at the local grocery store. In the more mainstream marketing methods you should join the local chamber of commerce, volunteer to do computer work with local charities, put ads in any local newspapers especially the free ones, and be sure to get together with other people in the industry
By: Bill Nadraszky
Posts Tagged ‘Home Users’
How To Start A Computer Support Business
March 26th, 2010How a Personal Firewall Helps to Protect Your Home Computer From Hackers
January 17th, 2010There are two types of firewall available to the home computer user. A hardware firewall is a device which sits between your computer and the internet. At home for example it could reside on a broadband router which is used to share your internet connection with a number of computers. One of the advantages of a hardware firewall is that it can be used to protect more than one computer at a time. For this reason hardware firewalls are deployed in corporate networks. For home users who own just one computer a personal firewall is more commonly used and more cost effective.
A personal firewall is a software application that monitors and can block the flow of data between the internet and your computer. The firewall is a key part of your computer security set up. It prevents hackers from gaining access to your computer using an internet connection.
Hackers gain access to your computer through open ports that are used by your computer to communicate with the internet. The most basic firewall programs, like Windows XP’s firewall, monitor and can block “inbound” traffic by closing these ports. If theses ports are closed a hacker cannot access your computer directly via the internet.
More advanced firewall programs like products from ZoneLabs or Symantec also monitor and can block “outbound” traffic. This extra level of security is important and is worth investing in. For example, if malicious software like a Trojan Virus or spyware were installed on your computer without your knowledge the firewall would alert the user when it tried to connect to the internet and prevent it communicating with its host.
A firewall usually works at two basic levels. Firstly, packets of data are analysed based upon IP address and content to see whether they comply with a set of rules which a user can input to. The second level the data is analysed is at the application level. The firewall determines whether an application can send and/or receive data and the port which it should be communicating through.
The firewall “learns” through continuous interaction with the user. It seeks user approval from programs when they first come in to contact with the firewall. Most firewalls also allow the user to allow or block applications through a stored list of program which can be accessed through the firewall’s user interface.
There are a number of sites which will help test your firewall’s effectiveness. A number of these sites are run by security software vendors so it is recommended you test using an independently run site to double-check any results. One of the best independent test sites is run by The Gibson Research Corporation. They offer a free test called “Shield Up!” which can be found at their website – http://www.grc.com. The test checks a number of well-know and vulnerable ports on your computer and then provides some useful additional information to help improve your security while online.
It is important to remember that the firewall is only part of your computer security and does not negate the need for a good anti virus solution, a spyware removal tool and a degree of caution / common on sense on the type of websites a user visits. For example, the firewall will not scan for viruses or remove them from your computer.
By: Richard Rogers
Common Problems in Home Computing
January 2nd, 2010Home Computing is a completely different type of computing, where a PC is used extensively by all kind of users including geeks, experts, and novice users. In such cases the problems caused in home computing are also typical example of technical problems. Troubleshooting of such problems is not as easy as people think.
Home Users
In case of home computing there are three types of users having different choices and reasons of using computer. A Home PC has to bear work load of earning person at home, who take help of computers in their daily work or business, and they need Internet and some office packages for normal day to day work. Second segment of home pc users are kids, they use PC’s to play several online and offline games, for them PC is not an electronic device to be handled carefully. They treat Home PC as another set of toys. Third segment of home pc users are housewives who use computers for browsing for new recipes or new ways of decorating homes as well as for being in touch with friends and family in leisure time. Most of these Home PC users are either novice or having less knowledge of computers, Internet and its functioning.
Common Problems: Common problems in home computing are:
1. Problem with Internet Connection – Sometimes due to some reasons Internet Connection can stop working. It can be due to weak strength of internet connection or some cable fault or simply due to a problem with your network interface card.
2. Problem with Sound – Due to incorrect sound setting or bad placement of speakers the output quality of sound may reduce, to modify those settings is not that much tough, you can learn through a little effort
3. Normal working problems – Home users also face normal working problems at the time of work that is due to lack of knowledge in computing.
4. Computer Problems due to mishandling – Mishandling of PC’s can cause hardware related issues, and which can affect overall PC functioning.
Among all the above said problems the worst thing is problems caused by mishandling, because that results expensive solutions otherwise rest category of problems are very simple and less time and money consuming. To avoid all these problems caused in Home Computing, you should consult an IT troubleshooting service provider for regular checkup of your computer, just like your regular health checkups. That’ll ensure smooth functioning of your PC.
By: Omar Mahmood
