Sharing your IT expertise could pave the way to a profitable IT consultancy. However, to compete with larger companies, you will have to progress past the constraints of a start-up in its first year. There are a few methods of doing this that will help you to build up your IT company and attract more potential clients.
Running a business can be challenge especially during the first year. Here is how to survive the first year of starting and growing your IT consultancy.
Decide your client niche
Knowing your client niche will ensure that you can understand the competition and target your marketing towards your target audience. To do this, you should decide whether your niche is a specialist or location based and how you are intending to target these. Not only will this enable you to provide a tailored service that will enable your business to grow by standing out from competitors, but it will also help you improve your campaigns and help you to acknowledge the areas of your business in which you need to improve.
Create a business plan
By creating a business plan, you can work towards your goals more accurately by planning what you need to improve. You should start by deciding on what you want to achieve and setting monthly or yearly time limits for these goals. By doing so, you will give your business deadlines to work towards, ensuring that you are consistently making progress towards these goals. You should also split these goals into manageable steps that you can follow, such as creating more attractive marketing campaigns or attending events. These will help you divide your energies and resources into actions that will help you to achieve these.
Network with potential clients
Whether this is through internet applications such as LinkedIn or industry events, networking with other businesses and clients will help you to make your brand more recognisable and work alongside your marketing strategy. This will also give you the chance to sell yourself, especially since many local groups hold individual presentations at each meeting which you can sign up for.
Additionally, by speaking to other businesses, you may be able to discover ways in which you could help them or that they may need your services, in exchange for a recommendation or referral.
Maintain client trust
Gaining and maintaining client trust is vital to growing your business in your local area. Your reputation will be spread through many communication methods such as social media and word-of-mouth, and so it is important that all reviews concerning your business are positive ones. One way to ensure that you are able to build a two-way trust with clients is by taking out the right insurance as this will enable you to interact with clients without fear of reprisals. If interactions go wrong, SME specialists such as Hiscox provide a tailored IT contractor insurance policy, covering you in the event of a mistake or accident during your work. By ensuring that both you and your client are insured against claims damage, you will be able to grow your business under the assurance that you are protected against every eventuality.
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