How to start IT (Information & Technology) Networking Business
It is a discuss-able matter that business strategy plays an important role to make any business into a successful organization. Before launching a new set-up of any business we should consider deeply that how to compile our business strategy and what is a potential of that business in the market where we intend to invest.
For the compilation of a good business strategy, we need to acquire reality-based information and no one can provide such information except an infield professional and expertise of that business because they’ve a grounding practical experience as a customer, supplier, service provider as well as a professional. Always give a weight to opinions, suggestions and advises of expertise.
Same happened with me when I was working as a Manager of Information & Technology in an organization in Saudi Arabia, one of my respected acquaintance visits and expressed his intention to me that he is planning to open IT Networking business and he wants to have a useful tips and guidance about the functionalities of networking business those will help to make a better business structure.
Even though, I was working as an IT Manager, but my skills associated with a profession of networking, I thought a moment and started to think like a customer that what measures we consider when we hire a service of any network service provider for our company and what do we expect more from them. In the light of that, my practical experience I have given him some tips and suggestions those I am going to share with you because I have a strong faith that “information always grow when it shares”.
What is IT networking?
A network consists of a collection of computers, printers and other equipment that is connected together so that they can communicate with each other. It is a process that consists of two or more computing devices that are connected in order to share the components of your network (its resources) and the information you store there. The most basic computer network (which consists of just two connected computers) can expand and become more usable when additional computers join and add their resources to those being shared.
What is the Scope of I.T Networking Business?
Like all business owners, we also should see that what a scope of networking business in future and how my business will survive with a presence of huge number of service providers have already been operating in a market. Nowadays, hundreds of new different businesses open on daily basis and almost in every business has a setup of multiple computers which need to communicate each other either locally or across the globe. While seeing a market trend, it has been observed that a business of IT networking is quietly profitable compare to other IT businesses.
How to make a Team of Professionals
In a computer networking business, we require a different skilled expertise. Instead of hiring salaried-professionals in newly setup of business I recommend to hire contract-based services of freelancers, professional tours are widely available because in starting it will not effect on your expenses as well as you will be able to gather a team of different skilled professionals under one umbrella i.e.
- Cabling Technicians
- Network Engineers
- Windows Server Administrators
- VPN Specialists
- Cisco Routers Professionals, etc.
What could be the estimated startup cost along with the equipment cost?
IT projects often suffer massive cost over-runs and fail to deliver the expected cost savings because of insufficient planning. Budgetary controls can help identify potential failings early in the process and allow management to take positive action. As IT networking is a specialized area, therefore you have to carefully make an estimation for the startup cost of the project. Renting or acquiring a location for proper networking setup, equipment installation, equipment maintenance cost should be taken into account. You should also consider support costs, future upgrade costs and the need for hardware upgrades to use your networking to full effect.
What marketing tools can we use?
Marketing is an important factor of our business strategy and it can be compiled with utilization of different marketing tools and techniques. For conducting of our targeted business share and to compete with our competitors we need to adopt strong marketing techniques. We should keep an eye on our competitor’s activities either what types of services they offer to their customers; it does help to learn about them and will educate us to make our own marketing strategy. We can use different following methods for the promotion of our company.
- Social Media Marketing
- SEO – Search Engine Optimization
- E-mail Marketing
- Digital banners & Ads on websites
- B2B – Business to Business selling model
- Personal References
How can we add value to services provided?
It is an extra-ordinary technique that converts your first time customer into your permanent client. After completion of job with new customer, provide them some short-term complementary services like;
- Remotely support
- Max 3 on-site support
- Free service after sales (short-term or long-term depends on the job)
- Virus alert information
- Advises & Suggestions
It makes your customer happy and will help to establish a trust between you and your customer and not only that he will hire your service for future requirements even he can sign a maintenance contract with you.
How Customer satisfaction can be achieved?
As far as possible to be ensured that what are the requirements of our customer and what exactly they need and how we can make it more functional. According to my field experience, a customer always gives priority that all of its relevant requirements being fulfilled by one service provider rather than this he go to hire different vendors for different jobs. Being a service provider, we shouldn’t only focus on the job for what we have been hired in fact we should identify for them that what are the lacking in their existing setup and how it can be more better. Always give your professional suggestions and show your contribution that you are taking a keen interest in making of a successful networking setup for their business. It should be our main objective to obtain a good level of customer’s satisfaction and once a customer satisfied then he will not feel any hesitation to hire your services for a long-term period in fact he will share his experience with others and it is a main resource to bring new clients for you.
How can we expand business network?
“Sea is yours, Swim as far as you can” while following on it, don’t let your business be in your area or city only. There is no confined boundary for a work or business. Expand your circle of services across the country either to make partners or to hire a third party services with a proper working agreement because many of clients have a big branches network in all over the country and being a service provider it should always be our effort that do not leave a single opportunity for our customer to hire any other service provider for other cities.
