The Owen Lea Foundation…. Let’s Make A Difference! Association of Computer Repair Business Owners…Now over 4,000 members! ACRBO MAG WHAT’S INSIDE Computers, Networking, Websites, Advertising, Marketing & Sales ISSUE 015 | Apr 2013 “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” Maya Angelou
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The Owen Lea Foundation….
Let’s Make A Difference!
Association of Computer Repair Business Owners…Now over
If so feel free to contribute to the magazine. Credit
is given to all writers in the form of links to your
website or any other way you would like.
Share your experiences!
Welcome to the latest edition of the
Association Magazine. I'd like to welcome
our new contributors this month.
We look forward to bringing you more articles this coming year that can help you grow your business. Lastly I’d like to congratulate you for investing your time to educate yourself by reading this magazine. We are proud to be able to help all our readers, and look forward to serving you for many years to come.
Dan ACRBO Keep your valuable feedback coming. I try to reply to every email, I appreciate your input as it helps to make the ACRBO magazine possible. Write to me at: [email protected]
Contribute articles: If you would like to be a contributing author for the magazine then send an email to [email protected] and let us know what you would like to write about. Copyright 2012 ACRBO. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated or converted into machine-readable form or language without the written consent of the publisher. Articles express the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the publisher
Advertise Specials How often should I have specials and advertise them? Sometimes less is better. If you are going to be doing specials on a daily basis then are they really “special”? I try to do them maybe weekly and make them enticing enough that they actually come across as a true special, otherwise people will tend to ignore them. Dan ACRBO
Hourly Wages Read the article this month that covers hourly wages. Dan ACRBO
This month’s winner will receive the eBook “MSPorFail”. We will randomly choose a winner and e-mail the winner. Just send an email to [email protected] and in the Subject line put: WinBook Last Month’s winner is Black-Cat-Computers
Making your small business venture successful is a difficult but achievable task. You need to look for ways to improve your bottom line profitability, and to market your business in innovative and inexpensive ways to take your small business to new heights. Before spending the first cent on starting a small
business, the first thing to do is conduct market
research. Why? Read on.
Identifies consumer needs: Small businesses tend to have small starting capital and usually a limited geographic consumer focus. A small business usually starts with an idea that grows until a person feels the need to perform this activity as a source of income.
The computer industry is no different. You need to check things in your area. Are there already quite a few computer repair businesses? Are they store fronts or just mobile businesses? What is going to set you apart from them in order to get a customer base?
If you live in the area drive around and see what is there. Or look in the phone books and see who is advertising there. You can even go online and do some searches and see who is coming up in your area you are interested in.
The key is to do your research so you know exactly what you are going to market to.
3. Set Up a Winning Referral Program
Successful marketers develop the ability to turn their customers into advocates. Often, they don't even have to directly ask customers to refer them to others. Their willingness to go the extra wins customer loyalty and support. Naturally, satisfied customers refer their friends and family to the place that will take good care of them.
Quality service and is the first step toward referrals, but you can easily take it one step further. Studies show that every satisfied customer tells three people about you. What would happen with a little incentive added to the picture? Yeah, a lot more. Give customers who refer friends a thank you - whether it's a discount, special gift item, or a simple thank you card - and watch the referrals spiral!
You can get two birds with one stone by implimenting customer surveys. A few quick questions about what the customer does and
3. Set Up a Winning Referral Program
Successful marketers develop the ability to turn their customers into advocates. Often, they don't even have to directly ask customers to refer them to others. Their willingness to go the extra wins customer loyalty and support. Naturally, satisfied customers refer their friends and family to the place that will take good care of them.
Quality service and is the first step toward referrals, but you can easily take it one step further. Studies show that every satisfied customer tells three people about you. What would happen with a little incentive added to the picture? Yeah, a lot more. Give customers who refer friends a thank you - whether it's a discount, special gift item, or a simple thank you card - and watch the referrals spiral!
3. Set Up a Winning Referral Program
Successful marketers develop the ability to turn their customers into advocates. Often, they don't even have to directly ask customers to refer them to others. Their willingness to go the extra wins customer loyalty and support. Naturally, satisfied customers refer their friends and family to the place that will take good care of them.
Quality service and is the first step toward referrals, but you can easily take it one step further. Studies show that every satisfied customer tells three people about you. What would happen with a little incentive
3. Set Up a Winning Referral Program
Successful marketers develop the ability to turn their customers into advocates. Often, they don't even have to directly ask customers to refer them to others. Their willingness to go the extra wins customer loyalty and support. Naturally, satisfied customers refer their friends and family to the place that will take good care of them.
Quality service and is the first step toward referrals, but you can easily take it one step further. Studies show that every satisfied customer tells three people about you. What would happen with a little incentive added to the picture? Yeah, a lot more. Give customers who refer friends a thank you - whether
Narrows the Focus:
Analyzing demographic market analysis helps narrow the customer focus and the business focus. Products sold to universal markets are not usually successful, and conducting market data research will show a small business owner how often people will purchase similar items, people from which demographics purchase those items, how much money they spend and very specific spending habit information. Performing market needs analysis allows a small business owner to concentrate on his available piece of the pie and not spread out too thin trying to meet unnecessary needs of an unfocused market.
To ensure the small
business idea is valid and
worthy of pursuing
financially, do some
market research to find
out if anyone else is
offering the same business
or services.
To ensure the small
business idea is valid and
worthy of pursuing
financially, do some
market research to find
out if anyone else is
offering the same business
or services.
To ensure the small
business idea is valid and
worthy of pursuing
financially, do some
market research to find
out if anyone else is
offering the same business
or services.
To ensure the small
business idea is valid and
worthy of pursuing
financially, do some
market research to find
out if anyone else is
offering the same business
or services.
SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING:
BENEFITS OF MARKET RESEARCH
ACRBO 10
Consumers should constantly know about your company moves. You will
not have to tell individuals about every little product or component you're
transforming, yet if you're making any kind of big changes, your consumers
need to understand. The very same is true with any type of intentions. Allow
your consumers to know where you stand and just what's to come in the
future.
Mobile marketing is a recurring process that's actually tough to regulate
unless you're consistently remaining on top of your game. This suggests that
you must work to supervise your successes and failures with your campaign.
Consistently keep a close eye on what you're doing in advertising.
If you desire to come across as a professional business to clients, you have
to deliver decent prices. You do this by supervising the market. You desire
to deliver prices that are within the market variety, leaving adequate space
to offer up various bargains to convince your customers to purchase from
you.
Consumers should constantly know about your company moves. You will
not have to tell individuals about every little product or component you're
transforming, yet if you're making any kind of big changes, your consumers
need to understand. The very same is true with any type of intentions. Allow
your consumers to know where you stand and just what's to come in the
future.
Mobile marketing is a recurring process that's actually tough to regulate
unless you're consistently remaining on top of your game. This suggests that
you must work to supervise your successes and failures with your campaign.
Consistently keep a close eye on what you're doing in advertising.
If you desire to come across as a professional business to clients, you have
to deliver decent prices. You do this by supervising the market. You desire
to deliver prices that are within the market variety, leaving adequate space
to offer up various bargains to convince your customers to purchase from
In business time is one commodity that you do not ever have enough of. There will always be enough projects, meetings, loose ends, appointments and more, but never enough time. How to make time for things that you never found time for before.
How to not stress out at the end of each day because you did not finish what you started.
Start Today “Time Is Precious”…www.TimeIsPrecious.info
Marketing is crucial when it comes to gaining the attention of prospective consumers and clients, developing products or service demand and turning those prospective consumers into customers. Marketing has an effect on your sales, pricing, promotions and your advertising strategies. When understand the importance of marketing you can use it to promote the ongoing transition of your services and products to the consumer; this can create success in your small business.
Necessity of a marketing plan:
A marketing plan serves as a roadmap when it comes to your marketing initiatives. It details the success route that you will need to follow to get your small business noticed by potential customers. A detailed marketing plan will show you what to do and help you understand why you are doing it. It will also help you navigate away from the marketing and business mistakes that will cost you money, time and future growth potential. As a small business owner equipped with a marketing plan, you will feel more organized, have more confidence and a clear vision when it comes to your marketing goals. Put in simple terms a marketing plan increases your chance to achieve the business success that you desire.
Strategise wisely:
Marketing a service is different than marketing a product.
There are certain things you need to consider and
different steps you need to take in order to help the
consumer feel comfortable. Learn what you what you
need to do differently in order to market your service
effectively.
Persevere:
It often happens that a small business owner does not
persevere with their marketing plan. This happens for
various reasons and small business owners often give up
too soon. Learn how to persevere with a set marketing
plan and chosen marketing strategies, until it pays off in
the end.
ACRBO marketplace
PC Dice Contact: [email protected] A great gift for that tech you know. Or even better take them on site with you and amaze your customers.
Linux For The Rest Of Us
- Do you want to stay ahead of the computer curve so that you don't feel left in the dust?
- Do you want to expand your knowledge so that YOU are that technician who people go to for advice?
- Do you want to learn an operating system so powerful and fun you'll wonder how you lived without it?
Most computer users today have never seen, or had occasion to use, the Command Prompt. Originally known as the MS-DOS Prompt, this was our only way to communicate with the Operating System and the Directory and File structure before Microsoft Windows® converted us all to the Graphical User Interface.
Most IT Support technicians are at least aware of this arcane, text-based interface and use it on rare occasions. But to effectively deal with today's sophisticated malware, the savvy tech must be intimately familiar with at least a dozen of these commands.
If the GUI of Windows is working properly and you are not restricted in your ability to open a Command window, you will normally do so by entering "cmd" from the Run command or the Search box provided by the Operating System on the infected computer.
In cases of more persistent malware infections, you may need to boot into Safe Mode Command Prompt only. This approach will usually allow most of the basic functionality that may be blocked when the GUI is loaded.
In either case, here is the short list of commands you need to be prepared to use, along with the purpose of each:
Attrib - Used to view and/or change the attributes of a directory or file
Cd or Chdir - Used to navigate through the directory structure
Copy - Copy files and/or folders (directories) from one location to another
Del or Erase - Delete or erase files
Dir - View the contents of a directory
Find - Search for a file or folder by name or partial name
Md or Mkdir - Create a new directory in the current location
More - Allow viewing of on-screen output one page at a time
Rd or Rmdir - Remove a directory
Ren or Rename - Rename a file or folder Set - Displays, sets, or removes DOS
environment variables. Tree - View the structure of a directory Xcopy - Copy files and/or folders from one
location to another; gives you additional options beyond those offered by the Copy command
.
To see a complete list and a brief description of all available commands, you may enter "help" from a Command Prompt. For more detailed information on the options and parameters associated with each command, enter "[command] /?" and they will all be listed.
If you haven't studied the syntax of these commands in a while (or ever), you may want to invest some time in becoming familiar with them before you need them. If you deal with cleaning up malware on a regular basis, it's a safe bet you'll be using these commands frequently.
Bonus research: What's the difference between entering "cmd" or "command" from the Run command or the search box? And why do you need to know? Send your response to [email protected].
Copyright 2013 by Ken Dwight, “The Virus Doctor™,” Houston, Texas. All rights reserved. Ken is a Computer Consultant, Speaker, and Trainer, and creator of the Virus Remediation Training workshop for computer support technicians. For reprint rights, information about upcoming workshops, or to inquire about booking Ken for your next Conference, Convention, or Company Meeting, contact us at www.thevirusdoc.com or phone (281) 537-0252.