In starting an IT consulting business, make sure you avoid extended "freebie mooching sessions" disguised as sales calls. Make sure youre not there for endless hours of brain-picking thats leading nowhere.

You need to know exactly which kinds of prospects to focus on at all times. This will drive your qualification process toward the larger sweet spot small business clients.

Who to Talk to

For your IT consulting business, you need to know what kind of prospects you should be talking to at networking events. You should be sizing up people within the first 30 or 60 seconds of the conversation.

Find out what they do, what their company is like, do they have and use computers, and how many computers they have. These are three or four key questions that will determine, very quickly, whether youre talking to someone whos got a future or whether youre completely wasting your time.

Get an Accountant

Do not try to become an expert on tax code. Get a good accountant early on. That can also be a really great referral source, not only for their business, but for your IT consulting business.

The Client Acquisition Business

Remember that, when forming a new IT consulting business, you are not in the technology business; at least not for the early stages of your business. You are in the client acquisition business.

As your IT consulting business grows, your focus is going to be more on providing technology services to those clients, but in the early stages, dont worry about keeping up with the latest and greatest IT stuff.

The Bottom Line about IT Consulting

The most important thing for your start-up IT consulting business is finding good, solid, long-term, high-paying, steady small business clients in that sweet spot.

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