Focus Shift Can Help Small IT Businesses

Small IT businesses are more successful when they focus on generating demand and nurturing leagues rather than focusing on managing demand. That was one of the messages delivered today during a meeting of the CompTIA Small Business Owners Community.

The group, which focuses on the development of best practices, business fundamental education and resources for emerging IT businesses with fewer than 20 employees, met this week at the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting.

“We go out there and fix immediate pain points,” said Frank Picarello, chief operating officer, CMIT Solutions, and chairman of the Small Business Owners Community. “What we’re doing is managing demand. If you have an immediate pain point, call me.

“You still have to service those opportunities, but the real opportunities for our industry are the things that are less than immediate, things that the customer may not know he needs but can benefit from.”

Picarello said eight of 10 small businesses are self-service when it comes to technology; that is, they handle their technology purchase and management themselves. But 90 percent of them would like an alternative to doing it themselves.

“What you have to do is convince them that they shouldn’t be self-service,” he said “As an industry, we need to find a way to create healthy anxiety. They may not realize that they have problems or needs that technology can solve.”

Marketing tools as simple as a website and an email newsletter are good first steps any small IT business can use to promote its qualifications to handle customers’ technology needs.

Meeting attendees also were told that business plans, mission statements, benchmarking standards and other staples of large businesses should be common practices for even the smallest of small business.

No business is too small – even a one-person shop – to benefit from these exercises. They can help a business identify what it’s doing well and what areas need improvement. Business owners who are unsure of how to proceed were directed to the resources of organizations such as CompTIA or other peer groups for assistance.