12 ways to kill your it services business

14
12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business You don’t want to do these!

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Page 1: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

You don’t want to do these!

Page 2: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

1. Overcharging

Don’t overcharge your hard-won clients.Keep proving you deserve their loyalty.If they feel cheated they will be gone.Loyalty only goes so far so don’t abuse it.

Page 3: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

2. Undercharging

Unrealistically low fees are counterproductive.Compete on the quality, not the price.Serious customers willing to pay a fair price.Use loss-leaders in moderation.Crunch the numbers to ensure profitability.

Page 4: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

3. No Rebills

Recurring income is gift that keeps on giving.You must also keep on providing the service.One-time jobs means always fighting for new. No rebills means no stability to count on.Recurring income means less stress!

Page 5: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

4. Bad Customer Service

You don’t have the luxury to ignore this.Always aim to provide great service.Go the extra mile to ensure happy clients.Good service boosts word of mouth referrals.Word of mouth will kill the biz if service is bad.

Page 6: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

5. No Backups

Everyone knows that backups are important.Ensure backups safe, current and restorable.You are responsible for customer backups.Mess this up and you will be Mr Unpopular.Word of mouth can ruin you if you fail here.

Page 7: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

6. Bad Subcontractors

Very common to rely on subcontractors.Subcontractors help grow your business.Bad subcontractor can destroy your reputation.Ensure they represent your biz how you want.

Page 8: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

7. Hiring the Wrong Person

Hiring is never an easy process.Many pitfalls shared with subcontractors.Wrong employee can sink your biz then leave.Always do appropriate due-diligence.Check references and qualifications.Ensure they can actually do the job itself.

Page 9: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

8. Not Keeping Up With the Times

Tech advances particularly affect IT business.Need to always stay on top of your game.Customers won’t ignore new tech so you can’t.Fail to keep up and quickly become obsolete.Acquiring new customers will become harder.

Page 10: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

9. Out of the Loop

Your customers need to know what’s going on.Proactively provide them with work reports.They need to know what you do for them.Make sure they know why their system works.Don’t allow them to think they don’t get value.Give them documented reasons for confidence in your ability to help keep them in business.

Page 11: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

10. No Business Analytics

Lots of data you should log and analyze.Hours worked by employee per account, tickets opened/completed, parts bought, deployed, repaired, scrapped and much more.Without data you don’t know what’s going on.Failure to log/crunch data means flying blind.

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11. Benefiting the Wrong Party

Don’t offer services your clients don’t want.Don’t be seen as out of touch with the industry.Pitch them things which benefit them, not you.Be ethical, build trust and your customers will be happy to pay you for your quality services.

Page 13: 12 Ways to Kill Your IT Services Business

12. Bad Accounting

Always keep track of your business finances.Need to know if you’re making a profit or loss.Need to know if finances are improving or not.Must know client acquisition costs and value.Make sure to pay your taxes on time or face the wrath of the dreaded taxman!